The Armour Archive

wcallen

In backwards order... The 'dies' in a jenny are very simple. A jenny is basically a way to drive 2 wheels. One wheel sits under the metal one sits on top. Whatever the shape of the edge of the 2 wheels is the shape you are aiming to achieve from the tool. A normal roll set of tools will be a wheel o...

wcallen

Earlier rolls were invariably rolled to the outside. Later ones are normally rolled to the inside (there are some entertaining exceptions for very small rolls that seem to have sometimes still been done to the outside). When exactly 'later' divides from earlier is a bit fuzzy - 1510ish. It really is...

wcallen

Like that? I would say no.

Like this:

http://www.allenantiques.com/K-127.html

Yes. It is more boring, but perfectly legit.

Then there are a different kind - all metal, but made more like the normal wooden scaled ones -

http://www.allenantiques.com/K-131.html

Wade

wcallen

The bullet mark is almost certainly a 'proof' mark. It would have been done without anyone wearing the breastplate. It was a quality control thing. You would insist on having the breastplate shot under controlled circumstances to prove (thus proof mark) that it would do what the maker said it would ...

wcallen

I took a gauge to the heavy breastplate posted in the last post. I was not very precise, but at these thickness levels, it doesn't matter a lot. All numbers are +- .01 - which might be a lot if this were 18g. It doesn't matter much at this level. Thickest spots - about .390 in. Thinnest spot (waist ...

wcallen

Parts of the center of the breastplate on this half-suit are 3/8 in. thick. It does thin out a lot pretty quickly. The edge is pretty thin (from memory, and from work while it is at home, it probably thins out to 12g or something like that. It is hard to be at all precise while I am not near the pie...

wcallen

These are from my collection. They confirm the statements from other posters: m I measured in inches, not mm, but the conversion isn't that hard. The thickest spot on the thickest breastplate I have is app. 3/8 in. thick. That is just in one little area. It is still a heavy breastplate. Wade

wcallen

European Armour - Claude Blair. Yes, from memory that is the long title. It was put out by Batsford Press. If my bibliography is right, it originally came out in 1958. There were several printings. The first seems to be the best, the rest have the same text and pictures but some of the later version...

wcallen

European Armour by Claude Blair.

The best actual text describing the development of european armour out there. Maybe someday Toby will update it. Until then, read the existing book and then look to other books like AAOMK for pictures.

Wade

wcallen

I have done faulds with internal leathers as the only way the plates are secured (15th c. Italian), with sliding rivets on the sides and leather at the center (late 15th c. German) and in a covered breastplate where the covering is on the outside. For quick and easy, the sliding rivet method wins ha...

wcallen

First, a little background mid-late 15th c. Italian - secured by internal leathers at the center and sides. German - sliding rivets at the side and usually leather in the center. Then some questions: Which are you trying to do? Why can't you do sliding rivets? How far along is the project now? Wade

wcallen

Neither of these is a big, full bishop's mantle. Both would be better characterized as mail standards. One I made for the kid: m a 16th c. one I own: m The really nice ones I have seen have various styles of links in the collar, on the lower part, and in a bishop's mantle, even another style around ...

wcallen

I am glad to hear it. That was the original intent of the piece(s). Somewhere (Aaron?) there is a picture of my wife wearing it just before we shipped it off to the Higgins. They got a pretty decent burgonet with the half suit too. I think she was wearing the burgonet and not the close helmet. It wa...

wcallen

Explanation for Carlyle's comment - First shop was in a concrete block building behind the art gallery which became a tanning salon. We had access to 1 15 amp circuit of 110. So when someone turned on the second tool.... poof. Resetting the breaker required running out the front door, into the build...

wcallen

Similar period pictures (you asked for pictures of the gauntlets). Small in line, bigger (but not huge) at the link below. These are either the gauntlets from the suit, or the other pair (if we made another pair): <img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-Higgins16thcGauntlets.jpg"> m These...

wcallen

AoC - yes, they did sort of adopt some of the concept we thought would be fun for show combat. Wear enough armour that you could afford to semi-coreograph and trust that the armour would make up for mistakes. If they had only had a full time armourer to maintain the stuff, it might have worked bette...

wcallen

I can see a suit being separated into pieces, but I wonder why the elbows were separated from the rest of the arms. Seems very odd. We did a pretty good job with these too: <img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-Higgins.jpg"> m Not in stainless. Just a half-suit we did for the Higgins ar...

wcallen

This stuff is kind of fun for me. Reliving the past. I don't know if it is really all that interesting for others. Anyway, I went fishing in my basement for some older stuff. Nothing like that first helm but still pretty old. These were all bits that I used to wear: <img src="http://www.allenantique...

wcallen

As I remember, we did not do the collars and peascods. Maybe Aaron did them while I was not around, but I don't even remember hearing about them. My guess would be they came from someone else. We did the earlier work that started the whole concept of actual armour at King Richard's Faire. When we fi...

wcallen

Museums do seem to be a bit finniky when it comes to publication of images. Libraries are actually the same way. What I know for sure is: When my father published a book he had to pay for each image from a manuscript from the Bibliotecque National in Paris. One day while sitting around with David Ed...

wcallen

To start, this example is from 200 years later, so it does not need to apply at all. It's only real relation is that it is armour and that it is closer to the time period than we are. On to the comment. We tend to think of helmets as being lined (which they were). If they are lined, it seems reasona...

wcallen

Back to Doug's comment about the form of the pairs of holes. If your interpretation is correct (I have no reason to doubt it at all), then the pairs of holes are similar in both form, location and in being pairs to many sets of holes on later pieces. My guess would be that originally the lining on t...

wcallen

Back to the real world.

Doug, did you take any before/after pictures of Fern's stuff? That should go here. I bet that would be a blast to see.

Wade

wcallen

My wife says, sure couch residents are allowed too. Wander east sometime and we can say hi again.

(inside jokes again. We need to be pulled back out of the weeds and to something normal people will understand).

Wade

wcallen

Yes, that is probably a fair assessment of how we all met. I think it was good for both of us that Fern got us together. Tom took off quickly and has done lots of good stuff since then. Back to WilValCo. stuff if it is out there. I bet there could be an entertaining separate thread on the apprentice...

wcallen

Assuming you are aiming for mid-late 16th c. gauntlets. No. No sliding rivets in any I have played with. The lames are usually small enough and the rivets large enough that they wouldn't go anywhere anyway. The gauntlet is usually formed with a longer side on the thumb side and shorter on the other ...

wcallen

Just make it to match this elbow, and you will be fine: <img src="http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-A-96.jpg" alt="German Black and White Elbow"> m There are other bits on my site too. If you want another month or two, I just bought a breast and back and a pair of munions and gauntlets. They ...

wcallen

Nice bits. Arms will help it fill out nicely. The armet and gauntlets are particularly cool. The cuffs on the gauntlets do seem a few years early (short), but they are still really cool. Nicely done. On the spaulders - assuming they are made with sliding rivets on one side, leathers in the middle an...

wcallen

back in the dim, dark past when we did a lot of these out of mild steel. The whole job was done with a heavy rawhide mallet. The dishing and the pointing. The result is a very smooth piece that can be ground/polished without any plannishing. Back when we were in shape, it was a about 15 min per half...

wcallen

Whack it over the horn of an anvil. Hit it harder. it works great, but you have to learn where to set the piece on the anvil to get the shape you want. We were some of the early practitioners of the 3 piece bascinet. We called it the 'pointing' stage. Oddly, it lets you reshape the piece a little an...

wcallen

yup. price break at 200 lbs (per thickness) last time I bought too. It makes a big difference to get past that one. I think the next one was at 500. Not as big a win and lots of steel in one gauge. I went in with Tom and got some .035, .050, and .060-ish. A nice assortment, but lots of money. I boug...

wcallen

Have fun playing. Vambraces? Those aren't nearly as necessary with smaller shields which (at least back in the 70's and 80's) normal in the Middle. Why work for an arm shot when the head and leg are right there? I bet there are a lot more nasty arm shots in places like around here (Atlantia) where p...

wcallen

FYI: new online source of medieval medical illustrations. See below for more info. Site: m Background: The origin of this unique collection has its own fascinating history. As Michael McVaugh, Professor Emeritus of History at UNC, writes, "In the 1930s, a young professor of medieval history at ...

wcallen

Way up top there is a reference to a burgonet liner Tasha is writing up. I won't interfere in that. I would like to see her article. But since there is a picture of the liner on the web, you might as well have access to the same picture everyone else in the world does: m Details I will leave to Tash...

wcallen

This should provide a little information on how the mittens work. The first thing to do is slightly dish the back of hand plates because they should bend down as well as up. Anyway - bad movies of some gauntlets moving: These are very low quality. I shot them with an old digital camera with a movie ...

MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations