The Armour Archive

wcallen

I took down a few breastplates and took some measurements. These include height/width and (as much as possible) detailed thickness measurements at different points in each breastplate. m It would be possible to build more precise charts of the variation of thickness but it would be best performed by...

wcallen

For various reasons, I shot some more pictures of a couple of peascod breastplates.

http://www.allenantiques.com/A-113.html
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-114b.html

Includes a profile and some inside shots.

In case anyone cares...

Wade

wcallen

There is always this:

http://www.mallet-argent.com/hotraised.html

As long as you have some heat, the idea is pretty simple. At least it seems that way a few years into armouring.

Wade

wcallen

This is the breastplate Cet was talking about: m There was probably about a 35 year span between the time the breast was originally made and the time it was updated. This was forever in terms of style. It started out as a very early Maximilian and ended up trying to look like a mid-century breast wi...

wcallen

Just personal opinions now... They did make enclosed thumbs right about this time, but depending on how you make everything work, there is no need for it. This is a case of people liking to hold weapons differently. Personally, I liked to have my thumb sort of rolled over the end of the first finger...

wcallen

OK, more pictures are available now here: m Details to know if you do think about copying: This gauntlet has been cleaned and patched a little bit. The finger and metacarpal plates should likely move just a bit farther. The cuff is attached using the wrong set of holes. Someone used the holes that s...

wcallen

The gauntlets in your first link are a very nice modern pair and the description admits that they took liberties with the way they designed the pieces. They didn't actually copy the illustration they based their work on, they 'put classic mittens' on them. The style they chose is a period style. It ...

wcallen

It looks like I haven't been very good about shooting that kind of detail on my pieces. this one is about as close as it gets: m These are some more gauntlets to stare at: m The basic important details are: The plates aren't flat in any way. They are curved over their entire surface. The pivot holes...

wcallen

I thought Claude Blair's call on it was that the funky staple on the front was to be used to attach a visor-like thing. It would never have had a pivoting visor like we are all used to, but there could have been something covering more of the face some of the time. The thing on the bottom of the chi...

wcallen

We had to work with a group like this years ago. Basically we 'encouraged' them to move up and into armour. They were wearing knitted mail and little else. When we were done with them, they had a couple of full 16th c. stainless harnesses. Along the way, we got them to take steel arms and legs. They...

wcallen

I would say that (if anything) they are semi-similar to the pauldrons on this armour:

http://www.allenantiques.com/images/GeoffArmour2007.jpg

But the differences show how a-historical I would claim they are.

Basically, what Chef said with another pointer.

Wade

wcallen

It works.... It will take a pretty big compressor. It won't do much more that really smooth plannishing. It will result in a smooth surface. It isn't really any faster than doing it by hand. It can't be adapted for anything else like fluting or such with the round tooling and shanks and the amount o...

wcallen

To add to the confusion, authentic armour seems to pretty much just do anything they wanted in the shoulder area, even at the same period in time. Munions (almain collars) always overlap downwards - like a roof). Pauldrons either work like this: m where the center plate overlaps the ones above and b...

wcallen

Someday maybe I will get one of those. At the moment, all I have is pieces. These are the shoulder plates from a relatively cheap almain collar: m These are from a really cheap one: m This is just the bottom plates from one: m And this one was from a nice version of the same concept: m And a really ...

wcallen

Unless you are re-creating a specific piece, I don't think I would worry about whether the strap on a partial greave is on the inside or outside of the plate. I am also reasonably certain that these straps and the rivets they are attached to are modern, so I can't say which way they were done origin...

wcallen

First? Really, really hard to tell. This one is mid-16th c. (assuming I can trust Ian Eaves, which I tend to, certainly when he writes that something is authentic). There are several jousting harnesses, esp. from the mid-2nd half of the 16th century that have similar greaves which have a small back ...

wcallen

And pauldrons, and vambraces, and gauntlets and tassets That elbow is a very nice version of itself. The raised white areas aren't just bands. the borders are nicely roped, not just cheap chisel cuts and then (very rare) the surface of the white areas are etched with veins and the recessed borders a...

wcallen

The most practical locations are exactly as described - above the bump of the calf and at the narrow spot above the ankle. If you make the pieces fit correctly and of an appropriate weight, the leg will be held up by the strap at the back of the knee, so you can get away with a lot. This is an authe...

wcallen

There are now 2 date ranges requested. Late 16th and late 15th c. I think that the basic request is for late 16th. As chef says, the most normal thing would be for no arms at all, if there are arms they would often be shoulders like just a pair of pauldrons or munions. Often also with gauntlets. If ...

wcallen

Things like this: m m m As usual, it is hard to prove for sure exactly how things are supposed to be attached, but it seems most reasonable that these are attached to a leather strip that is connected to the upper and lower cannon. I have a couple of vambraces which have what may be the original riv...

wcallen

Yes. But. Most of the cold rolled I ran across was 'cold rolled annealed', which reverses the comparison. I have seen annealed colld-rolled in mild and it is the normal state of the spring I buy. This means that it is significantly softer than raw hot rolled. You have to know what you really have. W...

wcallen

Any theories on why the shapes change are really just that, theories. But... There is a common aspect to the shape. No matter what happens, the form is full enough to allow the body to fit and move inside the shape. This means that there is a lot of commonality to the basic shape. The bottom third i...

wcallen

different period backplates have subtly different shapes, but the idea is the same since they all have to fit a back. These shots may help: m Even though it doesn't look like it in most pictures, there is a lot of shape in the upper half. Some periods the shape over the shoulder blades is really agg...

wcallen

The late breastplates I have vary a lot in thickness. Some seem to be just sword proof, others are certainly shot proof given the proof marks on them. I haven't checked the thickness in a while. If I remember correctly there was one spot on this breastplate: m That was about 3/8" thick. Not muc...

wcallen

Wheels always shed. It is just the nature of the beast. Some will shed a lot less (full glued cotton wheel), some will shed more (sisal wheel). If you haven't started with a 10" wheel and thrown it away when it got down to 4", you haven't buffed enough or you like spending money on wheels....

wcallen

The last picture posted by Wolf is a good example of what you should be aiming for. There are a lot people making a lot of wing shapes in modern armour, but often without a real feeling for what the real goal is. A wing isn't just a decorative extension to the cop. It is designed to add protection f...

wcallen

Shotproof is easy (at least pistol proof). Just follow the pattern of 17th c. armour and start really thick. Decades ago I was in a goofy mood and made a mid-17th c. half suit. Both the helmet bowl and breast should be pistol proof since they were made from 10g. We never tested the helmet, but we di...

wcallen

I did this one years ago. A very plain, simple peascod.

http://www.allenantiques.com/images/R-25.jpg

More shape in there than you would expect. I sort of loosely copied it from one in my collection.

Wade

wcallen

2 things. 1. like everyone else has said. Read it. learn it. It isn't perfect, but it is better than anything else out there. Way better. 2. I was talking to Toby. He does plan to do an update. Not really with Claude (a great man, I was fortunate enough to meet him once many years ago), Claude just ...

wcallen

I didn't mean to say that the RA greaves are 16th c. I meant to say that there are a number of surviving 16th c. examples of partial greaves. They are ones I am more familiar with. I did see the greaves at the RA. Reasonably enough, they didn't let me take the suit apart to look at the pieces (I did...

wcallen

oh, come on. Kill? that is stretching it. You generally just get zinc chills and feel really terrible. Still, don't do hot work on galvanized. The yellow smoke is nasty and bad for you. Paint works. It tends to chip/flake/wear at some point, but it helps a lot. Oil/wax on the outside works reasonabl...

wcallen

Full greaves are probably the way to go. They are the most fun and they don't have an open edge hanging out to cut into your leathers. That said, there are several different styles of partial greaves that can be found in the 16th c. Many are a lot like a normal front plate with a small outside back ...

wcallen

I don't know what period you are aiming for either, but some details of a real one from the late 16th c. may help. Playing with it close up shows some amazing details of how the parts really need to fit together to work correctly. I shot a bunch of pics of this one. m Page on down and click on each ...

wcallen

Those semi-flattened rings really are nicer than the flat stuff I see out of india directly. Now they just need some smaller rings and someone to do them without the user having to do his own flattening. Here are some detail shots of some real bits: m m m m m m m Several have a scale in inches on th...

wcallen

1050.

Works nicely. Makes reasonable armour tempered or untempered. Pretty close to the best guess for about what was a middle ground in what they used.

Some real stuff gets up to the 1070 range. It works reasonably too. As you go up in carbon you get less forgiving.

Wade

Examination of a selection of period breastplates