The Armour Archive

Fearghus Macildubh

Man that is just like a truck load of cool! I read the pangolin armour post as well. I applaud the amount of research you're doing.

Fearghus Macildubh

Murdock,
How big are the big knives?

Fearghus Macildubh

My period is early Roman - which the round shield doesn't even go with - but when I have tried out other shield styles, the round is what worked best for me. I have a beautiful oval shield but it's super heavy (made of metal) and I just tire to easily with it. How early is early Roman? Now your sta...

Fearghus Macildubh

Nice clothes! When you say open sleeve, do mean sort of like a garde-corps, where the armpit/upper arm is open so you can slide your arms through?

Nice dog, too.

Fearghus Macildubh

The Bayeux Tapestry? Well, I completely forgot about that! Thanks.

Fearghus Macildubh

Actually, the church in Scotland was one of, if not THE, primary movers in the "independence" movement during Wallace's and Bruce's lifetime. This fact tends to get buried because it's much less glamorous than battles and kings. Wasn't it that the Scottish bishops did not want to have the...

Fearghus Macildubh

Having done both WMA and SCA, I think that the manuals have applicability to the SCA in that they are a systemic approach on how to use weapons against an unwilling opponent. Some weapons, like longsword and poleaxe, translate well to SCA combat, provided you make allowances for our ruleset and use ...

Fearghus Macildubh

What's the verdict on cross gartering hosen like seen in some modern depictions of the "Dark Ages"? Is it a Victorian and Romantic art convention that carried over into historical illustrations? I read some web articles saying cross gartered hosen were reserved for nobility, which seems......

Fearghus Macildubh

Had to use the wayback machine, apparently Matthew Amt's sites are down

Anyhow, here you go http://web.archive.org/web/200607040243 ... rests.html

Fearghus Macildubh

This is a multistep process: 1. Redesign my leather scale hauberk. Right now, too much of the weight is on my shoulders. I want to change the "lines" of it as well, to have it evoke a "classical" or Byzantine feel like some of the statuary of Goliath in Rheims cathedral 2. Byzant...

Fearghus Macildubh

El Posto Duble

Fearghus Macildubh

If you are looking for "gription" as my dad would say, maybe Goop from Sodhopper? m It's barge cement and shredded tires. Some guys swear by it. Your other option, if you are looking for a harder sole and gription is to find a shoe repair place and have them sew on a modern sole. If you wa...

Fearghus Macildubh

Spanish light cavalry kept using the adarga right up into the 1700s in the colonies. The San Antonio Mission national park has a small museum about the missions in Texas. There is an adarga, jack, sword and carbine used by Spanish soldiers on display dated from late 1700s. Apparently that sort of ge...

Fearghus Macildubh

Umm, since it's a translation, probably meant to read "thousands of Roman legionaires".

Fearghus Macildubh

I have both books. Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship was published first and is a translation of Sigmund Ringeck's comments on Liechtenauer's techniques. He has pictures recreating illustrations from specific passages in the various Ringeck manuscripts. He includes his take on how to do the t...

Fearghus Macildubh

Hmmmm, I'm not really a historian, more of a dilletante, so I picked up: The Saga of the Volsungs The Tain The Song of Roland I picked translations that reviews said captured the feel and flow of the original language best. and for fun The Children of Hurin Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both by T...

Fearghus Macildubh

Coins are ridiculously complex. God help me, I love 'em so... How about coins associated with the Danegeld in the pre-Norman invasion era? John Jehan de Pelham, ecuyer and servant of Sir Vitus www.mron.org John, The title eludes me right now, but there is a book that studies the coins issued by Can...

Fearghus Macildubh

Great! Thanks, I'll let ya'll know what I end up snagging from bamm.

Fearghus Macildubh

Hi all, My mom, knowing that books are the perfect present for a history geek like me, sent me a booksamillion gift certificate for Christmas. Who wants to help me spend my Christmas money? At least 50 dollars of it anyway. My area of interest is the British Isles and Northern Europe. Late Roman Emp...

Fearghus Macildubh

Osprey's Late Roman Cavalryman has an illustration of troopers on parade with manica on the legs. Now, it being Osprey and an artist's interpretation, YMMV. I will say that heavily armoured troops in the Late Roman military are most likely to be cavalry. Late roman authors consistently bemoan the fa...

Fearghus Macildubh

It depends on the boss. If it is built like a sword basket you wear normal demi gauntlets. If it is a more historical style boss then it probably leaves your hand a wee bit exposed. To be legal your demi gauntlet may have to incorporate a little more thumb protection, similar to a gauntlet's. I did ...

Fearghus Macildubh

Hmmm, no one mentioned corners yet? Heaters, flat topped kites and squares/scutums have corners and are essential to some schools of SCA combat. Like Frieman, I'm not a hot stick, but an old guy who thinks about fighting. Big strapped shields wit corners are easier to learn with, newbies feel safe a...

Fearghus Macildubh

When I visited Jamestowne last fall they had cotton jacks with bases (fabric flaps that covered the thighs) on display in the armoury. According the interpreter that I spoke too, the cotton jacks were based off a Spanish design and found to work well against Native American weapons. Wealthier coloni...

Fearghus Macildubh

any body tried chucking one of these things with an atlatl? seems it would negate a lot of the gauntlet probs. lock load and toss.... Holy Crap! That's just ASKING for trouble! Those things were made to deliver enough force to take down Mammoths. Even if you had a padded 'dart', I for one, would NO...

Fearghus Macildubh

http://www.randomhouse.com/broadway/thelastduel/

It's a good book, well written, I didn't find any glaring errors or misconceptions from the arms and armour perspective IIRC.

Fearghus Macildubh

Those look teh awesome!

Fearghus Macildubh

Found this on youtube. m Combines archeology, metalurgy, geology and crowd dynamics. m I found this segment and the final segment particularly interesting. It was not the weight of the armour, but the suction effect of Agincourt's mud on its smooth surfces that hindered the French foot. Fabric is mu...

Fearghus Macildubh

Eastern Europe during the Hussite Wars. At least on the cover of the osprey book.
You can see a kettle hat like that in the German manuscript Bellafortis, which is dated around 1400-1410.

Edited to add: well not quite like that, but it is on the Osprey book.

Fearghus Macildubh

Bumpitty bump

Fearghus Macildubh

You can have my armour when you pry it off my cold dead body.

I'll stop when it becomes impossible to wear the harness without serious pain or strike a telling blow. Then I'll concentrate on rapier.

Fearghus Macildubh

James Arlen Gillaspie wrote:If you can only do one, Schloss Ambras.

+1 Armour and Art, and a nice restruant.

Fearghus Macildubh

Hmm, they are approx 4 1/2 wide. I say approx because I'm measuring up by the widest part inside the shoe, and it's a PITA.

Shipping would be 9.80 for a flat rate box, which looks to be the cheapest.

Fearghus Macildubh

Fearghus Macildubh

Effingham wrote:Actually, I think the last bit would be pronounced, as I look at it. But LL is Y in French.

Ser vey yehr* (*with that aspirated R that no one who's never studied French can pronounce).

DOH! You're right, Eff.

Fearghus Macildubh

See the problem is you are using terms that medieval swordsmen may or may not have used. In most accounts, if you are talking about the upeer echelon fighter's weapon, it's simply called a sword. Longswords are generaly meant to be the two handed type like used in Fiore or Lichtenauer. Broadsword is...

Is cross gartering like this period? Now with art!

Help Fill Fearghus' pre 1066 Booklist

Might be the one Froissart mentions

The Dark Secrets of Agincourt