The Armour Archive

freiman the minstrel

Good Gentles, The Sponsors' reminder letters went out for the Fight for Kids this past Tuesday. If you were a sponsor, and you did not get a letter, please let me know either here, with a PM, or a e-mail to my personal e-mail account at lordfreiman at yahoo.com If you are a sponsor, and you DID get ...

freiman the minstrel

Everybody hates my swords but me. I use a rasp to shape the grip, and then sandpaper to smoothe it. It comes out in a sort of S shape, and everybody thinks it feels wierd. To me, it just feels like a natural extention of my hand. In addition, I use safety orange tape for the edge. It is offensive to...

freiman the minstrel

I don't know about work gloves.

But for fighting I use Saranak batting gloves. I buy a new pair every baseball season. I now have several extra pairs, though they are all worn. Any one of them will work in a pinch, however.

The one time I bought Rawlings gloves, I regretted it.

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freiman the minstrel

Sebastian, Thanks for the reply. I don't think he has any particular interest in things medieval, but he does have what seems to be a slight academic interest in things that have to do with metalworking. In addition, there is a fairly healthy RitterSpeiler group here in Vilseck, and I am sure that h...

freiman the minstrel

folks, I have a great guy that I go to for light armor repairs. You know, like spot welding and stuff. He runs a fully equipped blacksmith/general machining shop in our local village, catering mostly to the local building and agricultural community. His name is Thomas (pronounced "toe-moss") and he ...

freiman the minstrel

Animal Weretiger wrote:I'm in. I got a buck and a stick. And I LOVES me some lap dances

Yeah, you say that.

But you never showed up...

I figured that you just got confused or something.

And me in my dancing clothes and everything...

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freiman the minstrel

Be careful of those seahorses. They bite.

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freiman the minstrel

You can do cuisses in one piece. That speeds things up a lot. But you're new, so you will get hit on the outside edge of the leading leg a lot more than I do. Is there an advantage to using splints? I don't know about armoring, but for fighting... No. But you might think about a single hinge (a pian...

freiman the minstrel

I can tell you what little I know about plastic cuisses. It shouldn;t take long. I don't know much. First, Picklebarrel doesn't really work out for pieces as large as cuisses. It tends to not be rigid enough, and it tends to break after the first month of so. If you decide to go with plastic, use ba...

freiman the minstrel

I think that these answers might be said to be wrong in one manner. Don't get me wrong, they all seem like good advice. But I think (and it's just my opinion) that the correct answer might be... Excellent job, Kevin! Great work on your first attempt at armor. (because it is a very good first effort)...

freiman the minstrel

Yes, it would be excellent to provide the documentation, and it looks like that wont be too hard at least on a superficial level. Good documentation isn't that tough, it appears, but it begins to get a little more expensive. I missed a flea market this weekend, and that annoys me. I have seen the s...

freiman the minstrel

I'm just trying to wrap my brain around the concept of a titanium sheild. wow. I am also trying to wrap my brain around the concept of a four hundred dollar sheild blank. wow. You know, the sad thing is I will probably end up ordering one. Until recently, I had no concept of high end armor. Now I am...

freiman the minstrel

You know, it is way too late for me to be suggesting tweaks, and I am not really in the same league with anybody else who has made a suggestion or comment on this thread, but I do have two things. I have a helm similar to this one, without the occular (and with cheekplates). It was made by Sue at Sk...

freiman the minstrel

Ok, at the risk of being strung up I am going to ask this question to those that HAVE experience in the area. What is a sturdy paint to use on an exterior of a SCA PRACTICE helmet made of mild steel? Has anyone ever used spray in truck bed lining on a helmet? Inside/outside of the helmet? I agree t...

freiman the minstrel

Freiman, Is your maille welded, riveted, or butted? This detail may help folk out in answering your questions. Andrew Thanks for the great info. It really is nice to have a group of people that are more knowlegeable than about 99.999% of the worlds population of whom you can ask questions. I am rea...

freiman the minstrel

Guys, I overspent at war buying armor this summer. Among the things I bought was a suit of used maille. I got what I feel was a pretty good deal, but like I said, it's used. It has a few small wear spots. I want to fight in this, at least on special occasions. I already had a wonderful rig that was ...

freiman the minstrel

Ive been knocked out twice. Once in an amatuer "fight night" for charity, and once when my brother in law dropped a refrigerator on me. Don't ask. Never on the fighting field. Concussions are coming easier and easier as I get older, You know, wanting to fall asleep with blue spots driving home from ...

freiman the minstrel

Would it help if I took the train up some weekend?

I'm not a great fighter, nor a great trainer, but I am a different person to hit.

freiman

freiman the minstrel

Kind of a late addition, but I just finished uploading about 500 Pennsic 34 photos to the website: m Hope to eventually add some video as well. As usual, feel free to vote and comment, especially if you can identify someone in the pic. Thanks Judith, Please don't neglect to let us know when you pos...

freiman the minstrel

For my part, I swear by Howard Feed -n- Wax. I really like Hope's Tung Oil Varnish (if you can get it) for my instruments. It applies easily, and forms a really tough finish. If you put it on thick enough (enough coats) it looks like a modern nitrocellulous finish, without either the cold, plastic ...

freiman the minstrel

the answer to your question is essentially that you have to put your own game aside to be a prop for everybody elses.

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freiman the minstrel

(big snip by freiman) But all the aforementioned weird stuff has lead to an abject HATRED of getting inspected by anyone i don't know, and why i try to be as little of a pain in the ass when i'm inspecting people as possible. nuff said (freiman's snip) I hate this too. I once spent an entire winter...

freiman the minstrel

well lets see i have 2 great swords that are at least 5 yrs old an doing well .. and I do know how to hit .. have a pole arm thats about 9 yrs old an have been useing it as an unpadded for quite some time .. still in good shape but i know from friends that i do not hit lightly .. one handers not su...

freiman the minstrel

William, We had this happen in Turmstadt about two years ago. While many of the new women will drift off (a lot of newbies do) some of them will stick. Of our crop of ladies, Anna Lena was one (she arrived a little before the largest wave of the flood), and Coco was another. Both are still fighting,...

freiman the minstrel

Not to rain on your parade, but I think it'd be a good idea to check with this guy where he got the information from. It's a lot of work to be undertaking just on somebody's word, no matter how much you might respect him. And it'd be nice to be able to provide documentation when you make them. Yes,...

freiman the minstrel

Wafer irons are known in colonial America in New York and Pennsylvania. Sometimes for religious purposes, sometimes for holidays, sometimes with patterns, sometimes not. So, Freiman; you need a wafer iron to perform your duties? Yes, Captain, I do. Do you know somebody who has one suitable for the ...

freiman the minstrel

Cool!

If I had one of those squishers, I could make them in camp! One of the recipes on the florengrim calls for a charcoal fire.

experimentation is called for.

IF anybody has any more info, I would love to get it. but in the meantime, I need to get me one of them squshers.

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freiman the minstrel

There's also a book from some years back, entitled " Constructing Medieval Furniture " , which has detailed plans for the Glastonbury Thorne chair. Nonetheless, line drawings are no substitute for having detailed photographs of the actual article at one's disposal. Thanks for providing these, Mike!...

freiman the minstrel

It looks like it's held together with either metal rods or wooden dowels with cotter pins. Is that wood or metal? It's even conceivable that the piece might be held together with just the pressure of the pins pushing the pieces together. If that were the case, I expect that it would not have lasted ...

freiman the minstrel

What e-mails? C'mon, give us pics of the side view at least! How is it jointed? What kind of wood is it made from? When was it made? Who was it made for?

thanks for the tease, but at some point, I sure do wish you would put out!

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freiman the minstrel

folks, No too terribly long ago, I had a marvelous conversation with a fellow I greatly respect. He told me (among other things) that a minstrel would be expected to make "wafers". This was kind of expected as a minstrel's contribution to the function of a house when he was not actually performing. ...

freiman the minstrel

Oh, C'mon, Valconnan, Show us the combat Gherkins!

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freiman the minstrel

I have thought it would be a lot of fun to have a "silly weapons" battle some time during land grab week, but I am unsure of how to sponsor a battle. I figured that I could get the guys together the week before and make a half a dozen foam rubber fishes, a foam guitar or two and maybe a couple of se...

freiman the minstrel

What mediaeval, rennaissance or even dark age or classical sword was ever equipped with a trigger? Best regards, Robert (Slightly pissed (UK English) and punchy) (But still capable of self editing) None. It doesn't matter though since no one in the SCA fights with one of those. I applaud Robert's d...

freiman the minstrel

{freiman's snip} Could this be a semantics issue? Odo Yes. It is a problem with language. I may get this wrong. My german is sketchy at best. What you are talking about has a word in german, but not in english. I became aware of this in December of last year. I walked out onto the field with a figh...

Reminder letters went out last Tuesday

looking for a book to give a german Blacksmith for xmas

Re: at the risk of being strung up....

Re: details...

Anybody ever "Hemmed" their maille?

"Wafers"?