The Armour Archive

wcallen

I have been a little distracted with the "shipping" problem for the latest stuff. I am waiting for my passport to get back so I can book the ticket to London. Not knowing when that will happen is getting in the way of finalizing much of anything. I definitely don't want to set a date and then end up...

wcallen

Well, then yes, by all means remove some material where you indicate it. I expect that you may end up taking even a little more away at the seam depending on exactly how the one you are copying fits (the ones in the RA on the famous composed German gothic on foot actually have no back at all) and th...

wcallen

Is there material there for SCA rules? Well.... We built them for SCA. They certainly wrap around more than many real ones. Whether your marshal will think it is ok.... I haven't actually checked that in about 30 years, so no guarantees. I personally found (back when I cared) that if you have shiny ...

wcallen

Quoting from 2 posts is to much trouble. Will more curve hurt? The line was defined to result in a straight line down the back of the cop. Since the back of the cop is actually supposed to be pretty straight, not as curved as a normal articulated cop, your new line will either cause you to have a cu...

wcallen

Yes, I remember....

That is probably well worth going to. Danny tried to get me there, but the logistics didn't work out well. It would have been a lot of fun.

If Cad will have his whole shop there, maybe he will have some books???

It is Labor day weekend.

Wade

wcallen

How do you get one? You buy it. This is the most direct, but probably not the cheapest way: http://www.wallacecollection.org/shop/books/collection-catalogues/european-arms-and-armour-complete-digital-catalogue The book is sold either with or without the USB stick. With, costs a lot more money. But y...

wcallen

Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight is a good book. It can be obtained (relatively) cheaply and it has good pictures of real pieces. It will really help more if you know what you are looking at - that is where Blair's book comes in. It is the only (to my knowledge anyway) book that actually provi...

wcallen

You are in the Twin Cities. Any chance you could find a way to get in contact with Cadwallen (Chuck Davis)? I don't know how active he is, but last I heard he lives there. And he has built armour. And he has a library of books. These things can always help. If you find him, say Hi from Wade. There i...

wcallen

Mine does the same thing. I don't know if it is part of the security or not.

I just say no and run the application. It works fine.

Wade

wcallen

Looking at the "spare" rivets on the bottom lame of a tasset or (normally) the central lame of a pauldron lets you see where the leathers are. There won't be any under the sliding rivet line, but they will be there where there is a leather. A-62 is fine example of that. The "extra" leather along the...

wcallen

I can't offer helpful technical comments. I tend to let other people make the mail.

But, thanks for the effort. Those rings have the right look and feel for "real" mail. Most of the riveted stuff really doesn't have the same feel.

Keep up the work.

Wade

wcallen

There are smaller pauldrons. But those (for late 15th c German) are pretty un-frilly actually. Often a lot more frilly is the norm. Also, they aren't as big as some Italian ones were at the same time. At some point you get to start trying to get things that go together. Here is a nice thread with a ...

wcallen

SCA leg armour is often built to allow you to comfortably sit your butt on your ankles. When you do this, you have to make armour that really doesn't fit the leg in any other position. The knee area has to be (relatively) HUGE. This has all sorts of nasty side effects that cause many of the problems...

wcallen

Feel free to do pauldrons instead of the spaulders. Here are some simple pauldrons of the right period that would work pretty well: http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/Bwaze/German%20Gothic%20Armour/Leeds---Royal-Armouries-gallery_361_1266057m-Doug-Strong.jpghttp://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k26/B...

wcallen

This pair of pauldrons shows the same idea.
I seem to have been lazy and not shot pictures of the inside of the tassets, They work the same way. Interior leathers like the one I showed, and another leather along the edge like you see on the pauldrons.

http://www.allenantiques.com/A-108.html

Wade

wcallen

This is what the inside of a simple tasset looks like: http://www.allenantiques.com/images/A-62-inside.jpg A more complicated one adds a leather strip around the edge. That is what the other line of rivets is for. This may just be an extra anti-clack strip, it may also keep edges from catching on cl...

wcallen

Normally a breastplate should come before pauldrons.. but these aren't pauldrons. There is a lot more flexibility with these simple spaulders. And no matter how you make the cop, you can play with the spaulders/pauldrons later. The cops aren't a bad project. They require some relatively simple dishi...

wcallen

Having been involved in the second or third generation of armourers in the SCA, and knowing several of the earlier ones... 3/16 rivets have a head that is to tall, but otherwise appears to be much like the shape of heads we see on authentic armour. The armours at the Tower were easy to see because t...

wcallen

Wade, is there an approximate average shank diameter for articulation/pivot rivets? Or are you specifically talking about visor pivots, here? I have mostly pulled apart or played with 16th c. pieces and a few 15th c. pieces. Some have original rivets. Some have original holes with modern rivets. So...

wcallen

Almost all authentic armour (pivot rivets, and jousting pieces are an exception) are app. 1/8" They seem to work fine. You can go bigger, but as time goes on, larger rivets will have more of a tendency to deform the base material. 1/8" will tend to be the thing that fails, and they are easily replac...

wcallen

Those were a "typical" sized person --- ish. I am 6' 170#, and they are about right. I wouldn't scale the elbow up a lot. One reason for this is that they made some small and some large elbows. This would just get a little more toward the small size. You could take it up.. 10%. The seam is riveted a...

wcallen

Somewhere there are threads with the patterns for the simple, mostly 15th c. German Gothic arm patterns Aaron and I made up way back in the day. Those elbows are deep and pointy, but require very little metal movement to get it because they (authentically) have a seam in the back. Here is a link to ...

wcallen

I said "as much of an issue"... not that something isn't good. Many SCA cuisses are really just dangling from the wearer's hips. Personally, I think that many real ones were much lighter (the ones I have are), they fit much better (not all that difficult given the fit of many SCA legs), they had a s...

wcallen

Thanks for all the info. I've always just dove into projects headlong and screwed up everything along the way and redid it until I got better. Failure really is the best teacher. So which of the following would I have the most success with for my 3rd project (already made some gauntlets and vambrac...

wcallen

The family tree of gorgets shows three general types. 1. The non-articulated gorget. An all-round one may hinge open and closed; that's it. A gorget that is only the front half will be held on, say with a strap around the back of the neck. http://www.allenantiques.com/images/mini-A-245-small.jpg 2....

wcallen

I was being nice. I guess I should have said that the items in that picture are armor, but they bear a passing resemblance to something made between 1400 and 1600. I think it was last year, I let people rip a piece Aaron and I made years ago apart (verbally). We could find something wrong with almos...

wcallen

A gorget is articullated for neck movement, as well as the top lame's edge roll doing double duty as a turner with the helmet if that is the style you are going after. They knew what they were doing back then, especially during the time frame of gorgets and bevors. If they didn't do it, theres prob...

wcallen

You can see some examples of things that apply to your query on my site: http://www.allenantiques.com/A-181.html http://www.allenantiques.com/A-169.html http://www.allenantiques.com/A-248.html http://www.allenantiques.com/A-62.html and some pieces in situ: http://www.allenantiques.com/A-1.html http:...

wcallen

I don't know anything specific about that Walter's armor, but most mail on most pieces that appear to be that composed are pretty mixed up. I wouldn't base anything specific on details of that mail (as a garment, the mail fabric might be OK, I can't tell).

Wade

wcallen

It is pretty much how you would build one of those helmets if you didn't want to work to actually make it correctly. Tere are lots of shapes, but there is (almost) always a good deal more shape in that visor plate. This is a pretty "typical" late 16th c. Italian form: http://www.allenantiques.com/im...

wcallen

Pauldron pattern. Unfortunately I have been at this long enough to know how differently patterns work for different people. Pauldrons aren't so bad, but I am sure I could come up with 3 patterns for the same piece that look pretty different. I know, not very useful. The first thing you need to decid...

wcallen

Sorry, but starting with a 10-12 gauge blank and squashing it into a 16 gauge helmet through raising is a LOT closer to their actual construction methods than welding two halves together using electricity. Too bad there are no surviving examples of riveted seam sallets cause I'd totally be up for t...

wcallen

It has the ability (without any hacking) to let you look at pictures and zoom them. It is set up to make it pretty annoying to get pictures out of it (print screen works just fine). They appear to have done at least the basic things to prevent easy copying (aka backing up) of the stuff. I haven't tr...

wcallen

Welding it would be the better solution. Outside of DIY, you could commission/subcontract out the weld. Call around for some welders and see what they would charge. Just an idea. I don't know what something like that would cost though. I believe Eric Dube has a video on making a barbuta from two ha...

wcallen

This example has measurements, and shows an actual gusset (if you want another example to work from)

http://www.allenantiques.com/M-4.html

Wade

Re: Study Session 2015

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

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

Re: Wallace USB

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

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

Re: Wallace USB

Re: Schloss Ambras Detail: Rivets on tassets of lames

Re: Introduction and High Medieval mail project

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Questions about late 16th century legs

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Schloss Ambras Detail: Rivets on tassets of lames

Re: Schloss Ambras Detail: Rivets on tassets of lames

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Domed rivets? Or flared? )SCA-specific)

Re: Domed rivets? Or flared? )SCA-specific)

Re: Domed rivets? Or flared? )SCA-specific)

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Questions about late 16th century legs

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Questions about late 16th century legs

Re: Chain mail Skirt?

Re: Close helm visor style question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Wallace USB

Re: Dishing / Raising Question

Re: Anyone using machine made micro mail for voiders?