The Armour Archive

Gaston de Clermont

JP- are you guys using the bench mounted 3M wheels there? The hole in the middle looks really big. How does that attach to the bench grinder?

Gaston de Clermont

Your birds are block printed? I wouldn't have guessed that. It's so simple, and they look so good!

BA- can you track down Greenshield for this? His kit's the bee's knees.

Gaston de Clermont

Nice work! What did you guys use to polish them?

Gaston de Clermont

The clip IS a washer. Unless your rivet is substantially smaller than the hole in the clip there's little advantage of adding a washer.

Gaston de Clermont

I've thought of playing with softening the metal a bit around stress points like where the fan meets the cop. After getting the piece to about the right temper in an oven/kiln the heat gun could give you some control.

Gaston de Clermont

I'm glad you've returned safely. I think you'll like the West and you're not overly far from CAID. Artemesia and An Tir are totally worth the long drives to visit. Really there are great folks in all of those kingdoms. It's definitely a hike for you during the week, but make a point of attending a C...

Gaston de Clermont

I think some of the issue the original poster is having is a struggle with the culture of Aethelmarc. Exposed plastic is more common there than any place I've been to. Sneakers are pretty common there too. You can probably get a simple rule passed to require ankle protection. It worked in the West a...

Gaston de Clermont

I strongly recommend practicing in a close helm before fighting in it, particularly when there are ransoms on the line. Your body gets used to having a bit less air and you develop Jedi-like powers to sense where people are based on very little information, but it takes a lot of time in the hat. Pop...

Gaston de Clermont

I'm simply your local representative of the Gaston collective. I might have to make more sabatons for the sake of the gene pool.

Gaston de Clermont

I don't have the original image handy. Does he have sabatons on?
The weapon length limit is 7ft for The Deed, right? As much as I hate min/maxing things, a shorter pole may be a bit of disadvantage. You've got a nice head on that poleax though.

Gaston de Clermont

Gaston de Vieuxchamps wrote:I finally found the pics you mentioned, Gaston.
Wanna sell those?
G

They're pretty labor intensive, and I made them to fit my little size 9 feet in a turn shoe. I'd have to ask about $500. The Chartres sabatons I'd sell for much less and they'd fit a wider range of foot sizes.

Gaston de Clermont

Your kit is something to be proud of! The greaves would be a bit better if they tapered more toward the ankle. In effigies and illuminations you don't normally see the braies exposed under a tunic, even a jupon. So either the jupon should be a bit longer or you need to change your chauses and braies...

Gaston de Clermont

Your kit looks good as it is, but since you're striving for more I'd like to give you a quest: find images of an Austrian or Italian knight. Base your kit on those. I think you'll find that even at this early date Germanic armour in particular has a few features showing up more commonly than other c...

Gaston de Clermont

I had to read that a couple times, Brent. You're saying you think the form is moronic, not my king, right? The forms used on Saturday were the ones found here, which are a little different: m The forms have to cover a very wide range of entries, so they don't cover everything perfectly. I've found f...

Gaston de Clermont

Joaquin wrote:I ran into this issue once. Someone tried to tell me that I was required to wear a kidney belt even under my steel plate cuirass, which amply defends that area of my torso.

If that happened to me it would be hard to restrain my Sabaton of Darwinian Gene Pool Cleaning Justice.

Gaston de Clermont

Krag- are you finding 1050 as easy to heat treat as 4130? I'd heard some mention of warping in thinner pieces and a bit more difficulty drawing the exact temper desired.

Gaston de Clermont

The sabatons were mine, and you can see some pictures of them if you dig through my blog, or search for sabatons in it. You could make a strong argument for armour from this era being made from steel resembling 1020 or 1030- maybe even up to 1040. I tried to talk about that in my documentation speci...

Gaston de Clermont

You'll have to get it red hot and quench it quickly. Then you can temper it in a home oven for about 45 minutes on around 450F. Higher temp will make it a bit softer but harder to crack.

Gaston de Clermont

Andrew, Are you making a gas forge or electric? Gas expands a lot and needs a fairly large vent hole to keep the back pressure from messing with the flame, so it's not critical that the door seals well. As for door size, look at the dimesions of the largest piece you'll want to heat treat. It's prob...

Gaston de Clermont

Lets see... for 2009 New arms, will be going with hidden arms because I cant find any documentation on 4th AD Roman wore on his arms and Manica is to far stretching. Simple splinted arms with elbow cop edge lined with leather made of spring steel as well as the splints. I like your goals. I need to...

Gaston de Clermont

This picture is my goal. I have the sabatons done, and one of the greaves is shaped. The rest of the legs should be easier, and I can get away with the body armour and helm I presently have. There's definitely room for improvement in both, but they're OK.

Gaston de Clermont

Jovian- I watched you fight last night and your gait is hampered by your greaves being too heavy. I think that's effecting your balance a fair bit. Your movement in general, shot selection, and body placement were looking better and clearly were things you learned from last week facing Phelan. Bear ...

Gaston de Clermont

There is a coincidental inflection point in armour from mostly mail to mail and plate at mid century with the impact of the worst waves of the black death. It's difficult to prove that coincidence is causal- ie. that the population drop caused the change in armour production, particularly since the ...

Gaston de Clermont

RoaK wrote:Screw the armor... check out at that shield...

Looks like you could jam yourself in the balls with it...

I'm still laughing about this....

Gaston de Clermont

There may be some truth in what you're saying, Bantha, but have you seen the raging 'stash on the Black Prince's effigy? Such a work of hair takes some serious dedication, and probably some kind of fancy conditioning products.

Gaston de Clermont

I'd wager more than half of the 14th century sabatons you'll find don't have a center crease. The Chartres ones do and they're studied a lot which can skew our perceptions of what's common, but most effigies have a smooth look like Matt's doing. I found I got better articulation by deepening the arc...

Gaston de Clermont

I had a great time. The fighting was pretty intense but friendly. Thanks for coming over to play!

Gaston de Clermont

The images I've collected are later than you're looking for, and they're also depicting St. George himself, but they may give you ideas about how his emblem might be displayed: m george.html Check out the gold St. George in the sidebar on the right. Look very closely and you'll see white rondels wit...

Gaston de Clermont

I use roofing nails a lot. You have to practice a bit to get them to work for you. Key things to do: 1. Cut them as short as you can with end nippers. 2. A ball pein hammer will work, but a cross pein with an acute curve works better. 3. Particularly on articulations use a very light hammer so you d...

Gaston de Clermont

Mark does really good work. I wear one of his buckles on my belt.

Gaston de Clermont

I used to use Satin Sheen all the time. It's easy to apply, and pretty cost effective. It has a chemically smell and an artificial looking finish about it though. Neither is really dramatic, and it's better for what we do than Super Sheen. I've been using carnuba wax for a couple years now and prefe...

Gaston de Clermont

I use steel wool to clean out any loose scale before painting; pretty much what Kenwrec does, just with a different tool.

Gaston de Clermont

They are pretty. It looks like the knuckle of the index finger can slide past the metacarpal plate. It's easy to get hit there very hard, and an extra strap could prevent that. For the venue they're going to, perhaps it doesn't matter.

Gaston de Clermont

I'm not a fan of splinted arms. It's easy to drive a rivet into the bone, and between the weight of the leather, the splint and the rivet it ends up weighing more than a steel vambrace would, at least if it was done in spring steel. I'd love to see what yo'uve made to replace that, Louis. The thinne...

Gaston de Clermont

Simple spaulder cops are relatively easy to do, and would help you put together the tools you need. They're not as deep as most elbows and knees, and don't require any real understanding of articulation.