The Armour Archive

wcallen

It really doesn't mean anything in and of itself. Other than the material is iron with no really significant alloying metals other than carbon (10xx) and that the carbon is approximately .5% (50). It may be annealed. It may be normalized. It may be work hardened. I have made a reasonably large amoun...

wcallen

I can't tell enough off the top of my head from the images posted to be sure what it is. It is old mail. But a lot of things happen to old mail along the way. Maybe I am greedy, but I would want to get a real "sleeve" - something that was made to be a sleeve, and which has all of the nice fitting at...

wcallen

Tom stopped by today and we talked over his current project - black and white breast, back, munions and morion based on items in my collection. They should turn out nicely. I started to add additional images of some of the new items. So far, I have more posted of: http://www.allenantiques.com/A-261....

wcallen

I think these uploaded OK. I took some large images of the A-9 standard in the Wallace while I was there playing with the bucklers or John. http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-9-a.jpg http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-9-b.jpg http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-9-c.jpg http://www.allenantiqu...

wcallen

And I can take this one apart:
http://www.allenantiques.com/A-47.html

And that piece in motion:

http://www.allenantiques.com/movies/Gau ... vement.mp4

Wade

wcallen

Images showing sliding rivets from A-62: http://www.allenantiques.com/A-62.html http://www.allenantiques.com/images/small-A-62-slider-top-outside.jpg http://www.allenantiques.com/images/small-a-62-slider-top-inside.jpg http://www.allenantiques.com/images/small-a-62-slider-top-inside-compressed.jpg h...

wcallen

http://www.allenantiques.com/Trinkets-Collection.html Most specifically: http://www.allenantiques.com/L-x9.html http://www.allenantiques.com/L-x10.html and various bits in the other cases. Doug, Tom&Tracy and Gaukler should have a bunch more. Tom has copied many of his and some of mine by just pushi...

wcallen

Usually is such a strong word. I would say that the holes are often not very clean rectangles, and that odd things happen. Sometimes they may be as James showed, or they may be like this one: http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-241-gusset.jpg Or they may be pretty clean. This image showed the top ...

wcallen

I think that pretty much every modern person who cares at all about safety would say "don't try fire gilding". If you think that airborne mercury vapor is a good thing, then you might disagree. All of the people I have seen who have applied gold to armour or parts of armour have done it different wa...

wcallen

I have been delaying things for very little good reason than annoyance with shipping which resulted in a trip to London (with the side effect of playing with some fencing bucklers for John at the Wallace and seeing a few proof pages for Toby's book). Then there seem to be various things going on aro...

wcallen

Something we say a lot in the computer industry.... Works for me. I clicked on the links in your quote and they worked. They do reference www.allenantiques.com, so I didn't paste links to the copy of the site on my system... Maybe they work now? Anyone else having problems? Yes, the ends are general...

wcallen

Seeing some real ones might help. Two tassets showing the sliding rivets on the "outside" of the leg: http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-62-inside.jpg http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-250-inside.jpg And a couple on a breastplate to allow gusset movement (they really should have washers too) ...

wcallen

These are really old pictures.. he crams more stuff in there now... But you can see how it is possible to use every inch of space if you really want to. He uses the rafters as well as all wall space and a lot of the floor space.

http://home.sprynet.com/~tjustus/ShopPhotos/Tour.html

Wade

wcallen

Hanging up partially completed projects (or piling them on shelves that are appropriately shaped gives a nice look to the place too. Aaron got very bored at one point and used our scrap heap to build what we called "inferior decoration". It looked like armour, even if it didn't really work like armo...

wcallen

I haven't handled that helmet (or any in the series) but I have handled a few similar ones. 1 - this is a little odd. the more normal thing you get here is a string. It pulls out which pulls on a lever that pulls #2 in 2 - the pin that keeps the visor connected to the ventail, connected to #1. 3 - t...

wcallen

I enjoyed getting inside the case and looking over the pieces after having played with yours. It allowed me to zoom in on details. I did skip over the lining pretty quickly. It really did seem to be a replacement. The leather is a little more problematic. It doesn't leap out as real, but it has a li...

wcallen

Seat the butt of a musket?

It may be a a role for something similar, but not on this armour.

This was one of a series of 12 matched armours made for the foot combat tournament.

I don't know of any tournament where they used muskets.

Wade

wcallen

The holes in this were drilled after the piece was formed: https://plus.google.com/photos/101138924987420528379/albums/5494120254273016769/5494126127996287746?pid=5494126127996287746&oid=101138924987420528379 More pictures of the project here: https://plus.google.com/photos/101138924987420528379/alb...

wcallen

I expect that the real question is "how much?" Very mild dishing shouldn't be any problem. But past that, holes are the bane or metal movement. They are the start of cracks. Also, no matter how careful you are you will be changing the final size of the holes and the spacing somewhat as you move the ...

wcallen

I am home. I have my new toys in hand. Toby and I had some fun playing with both of these things in the Wallace. We pulled both of them out of the case and I got to stare at them and to take pictures with tapes to provide scale. This also allowed me to get some angles that aren't included in the dig...

wcallen

I don't type well on my phone. Details when I get home.
I have new pictures and measurements thanks to Toby.
There are some surprises coming.

We do think the lining is later.
Same for the leathers.
And I have images of A 319 too.

Wade

wcallen

Sean Powell wrote:Is there a weekend selected yet?

I need to head down to to North Carolina around that time anyway. I might be able to pull double-duty and attend.

Thanks,
Sean

No date yet. Feel free to vote. It would be great to see you down here.

Wade

wcallen

I used to try to punch everything. But as has been mentioned, things get round and then the punch doesn't reach very well, even with a deeper throat. And I rarely want to punch the holes before the piece is formed. I now drill a lot more than I used to. Stainless makes it a bear, but cobalt bits hel...

wcallen

I will have to guess because the most important picture would show the line from the point down toward the middle of the bend of the elbow. Which is the part of the elbow that is sitting in the cloth, so I can't see it. My guess is that you want more dish down that line, and then around at least to ...

wcallen

Unless something really terrible happens, I will have access to the new pieces bu next Sunday, Aug. 23. Then all of the annoyance of getting the stuff will be over and we can go back to setting up dates. I expect things have changed some since I started this. Labor day is pretty much out for a few p...

wcallen

Cool.

So how many other absurd things are in the marginalia of that manuscript?

Romance of Alexander includes rabbits hunting people with crossbows. Fun, but not likely to have occurred for most people of the time.

Wade

wcallen

The real question is which can work, the question is which will work best given the way you plan to fight. I am assuming SCA here. Many SCA fighters use a lot more wrist movement than I think they did. This means that the hourglass cuff is almost ideal. If you want to get the same movement from a lo...

wcallen

Nissan is very vocally opposed to knee fighting. The arm statement is because in many places, it is considered unchivalrous to arm hunt. In some of those it has morphed into any arm shot being looked down upon. My only experience with Midrealm fighting goes way back. Into the dark ages. We didn't t...

wcallen

Very nice. I have been able to watch the progress a little more closely as the project has moved along. John has done a lot to really get the feel of the original and try to mimic as closely as possible. I guess this one will stay "soft". Taking the lining and leather off would be a real bother. So,...

wcallen

Annoyingly, effigies and brasses usually expose the face, so they don't tend to show visors of any kind (there are rare exceptions). So you likely want to find a combination of a painting/miniature and a brass/effigy (or a really detailed painting) that you like and then clarifications can be made f...

wcallen

It looks like effigies and brasses is back up and running. http://effigiesandbrasses.com/ http://manuscriptminiatures.com/ The first thing to do is not to build a list of parts, it is to find something that you like so that you have an overall image to work from. Finding an effigy, or a brass, or a ...

wcallen

Here are some of the closeup images of rings that Ernst was talking about: http://www.allenantiques.com/M-2.html http://www.allenantiques.com/M-4.html http://www.allenantiques.com/M-15.html http://www.allenantiques.com/M-16.html Not as close, but interesting: http://www.allenantiques.com/M-9.html ht...

wcallen

I can't tell how dished it is without a shot from the side. We dish the part that doesn't get flaired. This starts the flair off a little bit before you roll things up. Dishing the edge just makes more work for you later. In general, most of the dishing happens in the center where the crease will go...

wcallen

The last big stakes I forged a couple years ago. I like them a lot, but still had times on my last helmet when I wished I made the arms longer. http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=160920&hilit=stake Last week I needed to move a 6' piece of heavy RR track to make room for my n...

wcallen

I don't know what will actually interest people. I have the pieces available whenever I want them. I don't know if we want to try to put together some form of "theme" or just have a bunch of random pieces that interest people. Looking over the new items, I think that some definitely have something t...

Re: 1050 Untempered

Re: Mail sleeve on e-Bay...

Re: Study Session 2015

Re: Discussion of extant mail standards

Re: Real sliding rivets

Re: Real sliding rivets

Re: XIVth century bronze artifacts

Re: Sliding Rivets

Re: Helmet- Prince-Elector Chistian

Re: Study Session 2015

Re: Sliding Rivets

Re: Sliding Rivets

Re: Couple of space saving ideas

Re: Couple of space saving ideas

Re: Helmet- Prince-Elector Chistian

Re: Wallace Buckler A318 Wallace visit shots and thoughts 8/

Re: jousting garniture.

Re: dishing/raising preforated steel

Re: dishing/raising preforated steel

Re: Wallace Buckler A318 New studio shots 8/20/15

Re: Wallace Buckler A318 New studio shots 8/20/15

Re: Study Session 2015

Re: Heinrich punch

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Study Session 2015

Re: Kettle Hat

Re: Hardened leather demi gauntlets: Hourglass or Wisby cuff

Re: Fighting culture in the Middle Kingdom

Re: Wallace Buckler A318 Progress UPDATE 8/12/15

Re: New player in the Armour world - need some help

Re: New player in the Armour world - need some help

Re: Introduction and High Medieval mail project

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Study Session 2015

Re: Study Session 2015