The Armour Archive

Gaston de Clermont

When you start getting much thinner than 18ga greaves start to get trickier. They'll crinkle like tin foil under all the blows you need to get them shaped to match all the curves of your calf. That said, I tend to make mine out of 22 or 24ga spring.

Gaston de Clermont

Conal- what kind of wood is "closet rod" typically?

Gaston de Clermont

Gather pictures. We'll discuss. Ideally I like copying an original piece as accurately as possible. The more you mess with that approach the less true to an original the piece is. That said, I'm also a practical guy and honestly there are compromises in every project mankind has embarked on due to i...

Gaston de Clermont

As most Gastons agree, angle grinders are very useful. I have three of them on my work bench right now. I don't like the cutting wheels so much though. It's too easy to put catastrophic lateral stress on them, causing the wheel to disintegrate. I prefer to grind through with a regular abrasive wheel...

Gaston de Clermont

losthelm wrote:No don't do it.
Baldo will win. and not improve the Kit.

At some point is a marshal going to bounce him for not making an effort at wearing medieval armour?

Gaston de Clermont

The elbows which wrap around and attach to the inside of the cop? They could function OK with the rest of the suit. Most of the ones I've seen are later and either German or English, but we might find something appropriate in a more contemporary suit with though digging.

Gaston de Clermont

We should dial this in tighter with more specific pictures of both the civilian wear of the time and the martial underclothes which we get some glimpses of in a few sources. Wasn't this suit captured at the battle of Nancy in 1477? If so, the civilian Burgundian fashions aren't quite as far along as...

Gaston de Clermont

We use hydrofluoric acid in my business to etch back metals in integrated circuits. In the lab folks take some serious precautions, there's special training to just get near it. I don't even want that stuff in my neighborhood. I've had some success with ferric chloride on certain stainless grades. Y...

Gaston de Clermont

It's a good idea. I find I do a lot of my fitting closer to my stakes, so I'll have to figure out a way to attach the cap to a stake plate so I can reach it. Am I the only one here who prefers the fine tip sharpies? The fat ones don't fit into the holes half the time, or they make a less accurate sm...

Gaston de Clermont

I'd ask around in your local groups. I bet there are some folks who would be interested in building siege weapons too, and some of them might have the space, tools and understanding you need. Really if the construction is beefy enough a trebuchet should be pretty straight forward to build. Making it...

Gaston de Clermont

I don't know how accurate the knee shape is on Vitzen's tomb. I haven't seen such an exaggerated shape on any effigies (3D). I generally agree that the point of the knee cop is likely to be a bit exaggerated. I see a similar angularity in the knees in Du Guesclin's effigy here: m The dauphin's cop ...

Gaston de Clermont

How did you get the elbow that deep with no obvious signs of heat (forge scale, discoloration) being used? I like the shape.

Gaston de Clermont

Leikr, You might want to track down a copy of Thordeman's book on Wisby. He has a number of pictures of 14th century Scandanavian armour which he used to justify many of his conclusions about the Wisby find which will give you a more specific context for your portrayal. Of course Dr. Strong's effigy...

Gaston de Clermont

If you bolt the whole assembly together and whack it with a rubber mallet the lames and the cuisse will get closer together. This of course assumes you punched your articulation holes in about the right spot. If it's far off fill the hole and try again or make a new lame. It's far faster than reshap...

Gaston de Clermont

Snaebjorn, what's holding you back?

Gaston de Clermont

Graham, what can you tell us about the greave you posted? My own take on this- if we use the same tools that were used to make the original, getting results like the original is generally more straight forward. I'd approach it with a very rounded chisel from the inside, with lots of little taps and ...

Gaston de Clermont

One of my favorite hammers is a rock hammer. I rounded the sharp cross pein-ish (I wouldn't say that out loud) end. I left mine a bit sharper that what Pitbull describes, though both shapes are useful. The other face of mine was a sharp square, which I softened considerably. I use the hammer for ver...

Gaston de Clermont

Gorgeous! How many hours went into those pieces?

Gaston de Clermont

BTW, Gaston, I love your blogspot! Excellent work! Thanks! Cannons became a prestigious facet of the armies the house of Valois fielded, and as my persona is connected with that line it would please me greatly to become a patron of such a crew. I'm not saying like a patron saint, but someone who su...

Gaston de Clermont

Vettor- I don't see that your statements have to be an either/or thing. One person might focus their thoughts on the prowess of the combatant, and one on a number. It's like calling a woman "skinny" vs. 100lbs. Having a modern measure of it may make a less elegant turn of phrase easier, bu...

Gaston de Clermont

Any chance such a company might be enticed to help my kingdom take some castle walls at Gulf War?

Gaston de Clermont

Do take some care with thinning. If you feel part of your piece getting springy or thin you may want to anneal it. If you crack it or punch a hole in it you'll need more than your oxy-acetylene rig to fix the damage.

Gaston de Clermont

I prefer counted blows. Regular fighting is fun too though.

Gaston de Clermont

Guillaume Beauvin wrote:I haven't tried bacon pie, but apple-barley-bacon cake is surprisingly good!
-Guillaume

Ooh! Do you have a recipe for that?

Gaston de Clermont

Feel free to poke around my blog for forge ideas. This link will give you a high level overview of how I wrangle spring stainless, and what went into building the forge:
http://burgundianhours.blogspot.com/200 ... chive.html

Gaston de Clermont

I don't have a historical precedent, but I just make my forearm strap extra long. So it's buckled tight to my arm when I'm fighting, and I let it out an extra foot or so and sling it over my shoulder for the trek back to camp. It means there aren't any extra bolts or buckles to weigh the shield down.

Gaston de Clermont

A few weeks ago at practice I hit a guy so hard that the lights went out in the whole park. It was really just a fluke of timing, but it took about a minute to convince him he wasn't blind. I've only seen a couple solid knock outs. One was a guy at Southern Region War Camp in the East. A shieldman w...

Gaston de Clermont

What's the story with the little scroll stitched to it? What does it say?

The seams are stitched in a way I haven't seen before. How are those done?

Gaston de Clermont

I'll get there Sunday this night with my squire Aedinius, my wife and daughter. I'll bring a keg of cider or beer to the AA gathering Wednesday night.

Gaston de Clermont

I've used ferro-chloric acid on maile to get rid of that Buck Rogers look, and been happy with the results. You can get it at Radio Shack- it's used to etch the copper out of printed circuit boards. It's fairly cheap, not as toxic as things like muriatic acid, and not very aggressive on steel so you...

Gaston de Clermont

I don't think about sharpening stuff very often. Sean's post made me do so last night, and I sharpened the blade on my plane and replace an old grinding wheel. SO glad I did. Thanks.

Gaston de Clermont

Koops- you might be able to widen the cop and the bottom of the cuisse enough to accomodate your bent leg muscle. If you have a ball stake with a diameter larger than your knee and a rubber mallet just toss the whole thing on and start whacking. It may require disassembly to planish those irregulari...

Gaston de Clermont

Here's my take on the bascinet liner with some pictures:
http://burgundianhours.blogspot.com/search?q=helm+liner

Gaston de Clermont

It feels like Pittbull's getting a lot of jabs from folks despite a good honest effort. I'm heartened to see anyone embark on making sabatons. They take a lot of time to get right, and they're not always appreciated by the sporty crowd. They really complete a look even if they're not perfect, and he...

Gaston de Clermont

I suspect they're designed to go over modern foot wear, no? It's more challenging to make a sabaton follow any medieval lines while accommodating the oddities of modern shoes- it's like trying to make an Impala look like a wagon. I recommend working with a lower profile turn shoe like Historic Enter...