The Armour Archive

wcallen

Authentic:

<img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/burgonet-lining-1.jpg">

Really not hard to do. Tracy did one up as a quickie and I have done a few similar ones by hand. Really not a lot to them. A couple of layers of linen, some random fiber and some easy stitches.

Wade

wcallen

For me the only reason to authorize would be to actually fight at an SCA event. The only real reason to do that is to try to win a tournament or play in a war. Both would likely (my shield work is terrible) require me to crawl around on my knees. So, avoid the problem. I was authorized for years man...

wcallen

Yea, I see those on Ebay too. They don't count. Anyone can print one of those. I assumed the intent was to mean a real, official piece of paper with a 3rd party authentication and a pile of receipts back to when it came out of the armoury.

Just doesn't happen. Well, almost never.

Wade

wcallen

All of the 'first' pictures are of the outside (prettier that way). Several pieces include details. Click on the image to see the other images. Also: m is a page I put together just for random odd shots. Taking inside shots of everything would take forever. Pick something and ask. I will try to shoo...

wcallen

http://www.allenantiques.com/A-156.html
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-107.html
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-26.html
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-45.html

Wander the site, I have a few bits. There are many nicer in real collections.

We took the first one apart and played with it at my study session.

Hmm. Oregon, eh? kind of far to wander by and play with the stuff. If you want to, ping me.

Wade

wcallen

Examples I have dealt with. I now own a dagger that was published in Laking. It also shows up in the Cripps-Day catalog. When I bought it, it had no provenance at all. If the person selling it had done some homework, it would likely have been worth some more. I have had different sources tell me it ...

wcallen

For guns, that stuff does happen. The price goes up to insane land.

Armour doesn't tend to be that well documented.

There was royal french piece that went nuts...

Wade

wcallen

Honestly, this stuff turns up all the time. I hate doing anything without seeing the item in person. So any guesses are just that. My guess from the little pictures is that it is a pretty normal breastplate from the early 17th c. He is likely off a few years on the date, but there is every chance th...

wcallen

Come on, you don't want a fighting practice, you want MTA:

http://www.historyisfun.org/military-th ... e-ages.htm

You are basically in the right place at the right time.

Take the real armour and play.

Not that I have ever been there (conflicts with Baltimore Arms Fair), but it sure looked like fun.

Wade

wcallen

A better solution. Don't go down on your knees. These legs are probably more correct than almost every one out there. If you could go down on your knees they would look like all of the other pudgy kneed SCA stuff. Wear them for practice and work on things other than fighting like a frog. Or non-SCA ...

wcallen

I look forward to seeing any and all who want to come by. If you don't want/need to pay the $10 to get in, dinner and the evenings are free. I generally find enough to stare at to make it worth the entrance fee (actually, I pay a lot more to be there and have a table). Your mileage will vary. Yup, s...

wcallen

I am sure that depends on how much you fight in a year. It would last for me... I can't block with anything but my head. And I don't fight much anymore anyway. I was actually curious about the glue build up method, not the base shield. That could be used on shields with lots of kinds of edges. Now b...

wcallen

It is very cool. I am mainly curious how it will hold up, so go out and fight and tell us how it holds up in 6 months and a year. I think the SCA needs more of these cool shields. Edging just doesn't look the same... I know, my shield (which is almost never on the field) sure is ugly because of the ...

wcallen

I treat 1050 as if it were just normal steel. Heat it, work it. Work it cold. Whatever. I don't weld it much, but I do weld it when I decide to put a weld in it. Nothing really odd. I have heard that if you want to harden and temper the result, you do want to be careful about the weld. It can cause ...

wcallen

I have played in a thin all cotton gambeson, my current CdB all cotton one and a little bit in a moving blanket one. Moving blanket seems fine for a primitive one where you aren't going to wear a lot of armour with it. Cheap, easy and falls apart pretty quickly. Unless you cover it with something el...

wcallen

In reverse order.. Normally the wife comes along and the son has been coming the last couple of years. This year Kim has DVT, so no driving and sitting for an entire weekend. Instead Tom is wandering along. Come by and say hi (all the way from way up north). I cover my table in random stuff. Mostly ...

wcallen

In case anyone wants to wander by during the fair or talk afterwards, I will be at the Baltimore Arms Fair this year (as usual). m I am at table J-29. This year Tom Justus will be there too (2 armourers for the price of one). Honestly, there isn't a lot of armour there. But there is always some and ...

wcallen

Yes, definitely.

He was an expert in several things and nice enough to talk to a young college student who stopped by his office at Christie's (after he left the V&A) in 1982.

Read his book - "European Armour" if you haven't read it yet.

Wade

wcallen

Sorry, For some reason I just can't get Graz spelled correctly. You are right, I am wrong. No matter how you spell it, it is a cool place. And that is my living room in the other picture. That was where we ate lunch during my little study session. I keep my 'normal' fighting armour in a chest. Not n...

wcallen

The description you provided is almost exactly this: <img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-Geoffrey-1340-overall.jpg"> More details of that harness here: m That is mid 14th century. Going a little earlier would make the vambrace an open gutter (or eliminate it and the upper) and lengthe...

wcallen

As they said. At home, an armoury. There are several surviving castles/houses with armouries. Personally I think most of them have been converted over the years to be more of a display area and less of a practical armoury. Gratz is a surviving armoury/arsenal that probably gives us the best idea of ...

wcallen

I don't know how many pictures we are talking about and how widely we want them shared. I am up for anything. All of the images I have are already on my website. They include some detailed pictures. m Just click on each picture to see any additional pictures. I printed that page out for everyone and...

wcallen

My kid's stuff is basically just partial suits. But each has some form of correct clothing to go with it. If we count each different outfit as one - he has 9 'suits'. All on this page: m I only have somewhere between 3 and 4 of my own (partial) armours and some other bits. Do I get to count half and...

wcallen

Frames? could be. More obviously likely is that they (almost) always line up with a rivet on the next plate that ends up being used for a leather. Before they are used for the leather they allow you to stabilize the plates during the construction process. Temporary bolts or rivets certainly make my ...

wcallen

Schreiber crashed at my place. Much safer at 2 am. Everyone does seem to have gotten home safely. Yes, assembly rivets. Gotta have them. Esp. 16th and 17th c. Can't live without them. What is a few spare holes in the end? Just toss some blank rivet heads over them and forget about them. For those wh...

wcallen

Well, I did have 2 pieces of mail on the list just for you. So we stared at them, put the sleeve on Niall (it is too big for me), discussed the shapes of the overlaps, the difference in densities in different parts of the pieces, the sizes of the rings, the brass borders (half solid and half riveted...

wcallen

I will let people speak for themselves. From my point of view it was fun. We set up tables and chairs and brought out groups of pieces (all of the burgonets, then all of the morions, all of the arms, all of the elbows, etc.) and let everyone inspect, compare and discuss until we seemed to have enoug...

wcallen

Anyone is free to do anything they want with any of our patterns. If you want to publish them, provide a reference to the author. If you want to make armour - have fun. Adapt or don't. Change them to make something else. Make them better. make them actually look like something real And yes, that is ...

wcallen

Yea, that is it. Pattern for a simple, reasonable looking, quasi-15th c. German arm of splint form. Cut 2 of the narrow plates to connect the cop to the upper vambrace plate. Form all of the parts just right Lace the pieces to the undergarments or even to each other in the middle. Actually a pretty ...

wcallen

Disclaimer: I don't actually do museum quality restorations, or much restoration at all. Mostly I leave the stuff I get alone. From what I have seen most of the real 'restorations' done for or by museums was done a while ago with pretty low standards. Ripping all of the rivets out, grinding the plat...

wcallen

Sure. I don't have a problem sharing patterns. Even when I did this for a living, we shared patterns. It almost never cut into business. Just in case - post it so I can see what I is being blamed on me. Assuming it is the right one, it was a product of Wade and Aaron, not just my work. Wade

wcallen

Clang, when you wander over we can play with some authentic capped rivets I rudely removed from a piece a few years ago. The piece was a mess anyway, and I do still have them so I might be able to put them back on. Not much harm and I haven't done anything like it recently. I think Mac is right on t...

wcallen

Before I get around to pictures, our elbows were very similar to the one in the video. Except.... The 'Y' shape is more open, yielding a more pointed result. We flared a lot more of the material so we got a narrower cop part and a wider flare part. I can't tell when he creased the center (I was movi...

wcallen

The rear seam is riveted - at least the way we did it.

No heat involved at all when we were doing them. Well, sometimes to tweak the point if there was a little cracking.

I have a pattern for the elbows... would have to find it and shoot a picture.

Wade

wcallen

yea, proper ones aren't all that hard... and more fun. Still one piece with a seam in the back. But the rest is dished, creased, flaired and fluted (if desired). I probably have a picture of them around somewhere.... This is really lousy - m Maybe more pictures over the weekend. I have this mini-pai...

Baltimore Arms Fair - 3/20-3/21