The Armour Archive

Fearghus Macildubh

Cochlarium
or
Non in Vultus

Depending on my mood.

Fearghus Macildubh

I know from personal experience that the soft cheeses from La vache qui rit (The laughing cow) m will keep in a backpack for about a week. In the summer, in the south of France. The babybell semi-soft cheese kept for longer, I know some stayed in my pack for about 3 weeks. Sharp Gouda will dry out a...

Fearghus Macildubh

Duke Uther, I couldn't find any pictures of the bas-relief in the Bargello museum website either. But in David Nicolle's Arms and Armour of The Crusading Era-Western Europe, there's a line drawing of the carving in the Italian chapter. I'd scan it, except I'm in Korea and scannerless. I find this bo...

Fearghus Macildubh

Tha's why I keyed in on the weapons and not the armour. For the Manesse Codex time period, they are in fairly up to date armour. Did the German towns hire out thier soldiers the way the Italians did?

Fearghus Macildubh

First quarter of the 14th century, 1330, tops. There is a Florentine bas-relief in the Bargello museum from the 1320s that shows a knight in gear similar to yours.

Fearghus Macildubh

Given that they are crossbowmen, yes, they are lower class. Meaning they are commoners. They could be burghers from one of the Imperial cities and fairly wealthy, esp. with all that armour. I'm not sure what scene the Codex is illustrating in the image, so I can't comment further.

Fearghus Macildubh

IMO the suspension liner is easier to make You basically make it to fit your head and then stitch it into the helmet, as opposed to hacking up foam and piece it together to sorta fit your head. Plus i've found that the suspension tranfers way less sting from the head shots than foam against the hea...

Fearghus Macildubh

Some Viking fiction I've read and liked was The Year of the Warrior by Lars Walker (who does Viking era reenactment in Minnesota) m And The Deepest Sea by Charles Barnitz m I second the votes for Poul Anderson and The Long Ships. I also can't stand the Bernard Cornwell books. If it ain't Sharpe, I d...

Fearghus Macildubh

It's stories like those that made me tape my cup. The idea of a cup splitting and closing on the boys is unpleasant to say the least.

Fearghus Macildubh

Tristan, If your thrusting tip makes the sword tip heavy and you don't like it that way, you need a pommel weight of some sort. Depending on where you place you hands, something as simple as another thrusting tip on the pommel (you aren't going to use it, unless your kingdom allows it, but it counte...

Fearghus Macildubh

I love the designs embossed on those shields pictured on the weapons rack. Are they leather shields? Several of the restruants near where my house when I lived in Germany would serve what they called herald's steak. It came out with a hot stone gridle and you cooked it at your rable. Supposedly a me...

Fearghus Macildubh

I have a copy of Eduard Wagner's book on Medieval armour http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Costume- ... 0486412407 IIRC there is a line drawing of a similar bascinet based off a Czech example ina museum. I'm in Korea, the books in Texas, otherwise I'd look it up for you. The helmet is late 14th early 15th century though, Bohemian I think.

Fearghus Macildubh

This is me at a demo in Mendersham, artfully dodging back from Chiang. The long term plan for my armour is to look like the line drawing. To do that, I'll need a riveted mail hauberk, a roundish early basinet with camail, polyens and greaves. I plan on removing the dags from my scale to make it more...

Fearghus Macildubh

Schweet, I've seen some bechter armours that look similar, so i'd say it's a plausible design. With an Eastern European or Islamic helm, that would be super bad ass. Are you planning to put mail sleaves on it as well?

Fearghus Macildubh

Given the relative cost of good woolen cloth, I can see why the average medieval person only had a few sets of clothing. Plus the reason why there was some much clothing bequethed to friends, family and servants. 7 grand for a top tier univeristy education is a bargain, though edited because I obvio...

Fearghus Macildubh

Definately has a late Roman/Migration era feel to it. I like it!

Fearghus Macildubh

Dang, that's spiff!

Fearghus Macildubh

Les-Baux-de-Provence, it's a bit of a tourist trap, but it is a ruin on a tall bluff with a village nearby. m On the other side of the river from Avignon is Villenueve-les-Avignon, which has Fort St. Andre, castle fortress, then there is a convent with medieval gardens. m Arles has an awesome Roman ...

Fearghus Macildubh

If Crispin is going to use a madu, he needs to ditch whatever is making him hold it so tight. He needs to be able to pop people in the grill with the bottom spike. Plus recover fast enough from a miss or blocked shot so he can block the counter shot to the hip or ribs. Like many have posted, he's us...

Fearghus Macildubh

Hastings. The battle of Hastings gave the Normans a resource to tap into for money and land, so they could continue to expand. Also, Hastings led to the eventual fusion of Norman and Saxon law systems and traditions, creating English culture as we know it. That culture spread to North America, Canad...

Fearghus Macildubh

The style of armour your are talking about is a chahar-ai-ne, or four mirrors breastplate. It's found throughout the Islamic world, along with regions in close contact with Islam, like Russia. It's actually a later period armour, most examples are from the 16th cent, IIRC. I really like Eastern and ...

Fearghus Macildubh

I remember a mention of it in an Palladium's Armour book. The Tlingit (sp) northwest coastal tribes made armour out of wood and leather, maybe it's one of theirs?

Fearghus Macildubh

Thrift stores often have them as well. That's where I snagged one for a friend.

Fearghus Macildubh

I'm 6'3" and use a small round, center griped or strapped depending on my mood. With the center grip, try to meet the attack as far from your body as possible, increasing what my teacher called the cone of defense. I'm not a big fan of the hanging guard used all the time, having a crappy rotato...

Fearghus Macildubh

Since I've been fighting with single handed weapon gauntlets, I've used a trigger for my middle and ring fingers. I'm expiramenting with a strap like Murdock uses. My baskets have para cord loops on them as lanyards. I fight mainly spear and polearm in melee, so the thought of getting tangled up whe...

Fearghus Macildubh

Hal,
You find the coolest stuff!

Fearghus Macildubh

Thanks for the pics. I see how that design would work to allow lots of movement.

Fearghus Macildubh

Good stuff. You describe a lot of very effective techniques in simple clear terms, making your page a good teaching tool.
What arm protection to you wear? I find my gauntlets and vambraces prevent me from using a really good hanging guard.

Fearghus Macildubh

I recall reading that the Spanish also recruited colonists from the Canary Islands, after the initial conquests. Something about the Canarians being more apt to prosper in the colonies as opposed to someone from the mainland. In Lousianna, their descendants are called Islenos and in Latin America, C...

Fearghus Macildubh

have you tried the yahoo group !2th century garb? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/12thcentu ... uid=392218 A freindly and helpful bunch.

Fearghus Macildubh

There are some images in a Spanish manuscript that show similar armour. IIRC, they are not depicting the distant past and were drwan in the early 14th century. Nicolle posits that this is from Byzantine influence on the Catalan Great Compnay, a mercenary outfit all caught up in the Latin Empire/Byan...

Fearghus Macildubh

I'm a decent fighter because my genetic roll of the dice came up with size and strength. I'm a good fighter because I practice, fight different people and utterly without fear in armour. I know my armour will keep me from injury, no matter who I fight, no matter what weapon form. Oh, I also think th...

Fearghus Macildubh

Bum shoulder from poor wrap technique when I was younger. As long as I use proper form, it just aches here and there. Tweaked my knee during squadron sports day playing flag football on astroturf. Bad back due to being injured in a bomb blast. Pilates and yoga. My physical therapist gave me a whole ...

Fearghus Macildubh

I don't know if you've been there before, but for WW2 it's heard to beat the Caen Memorial. It's a huge museum just outside of Caen with uniforms and interactive displays. The Paratroopers museum in St Maire Eglise was great too.

Fearghus Macildubh

Read a [url=http://www.revival.us/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=302] SWORD IN TWO HANDS: A Full Color Training Guide for the Medieval Longsword Based on Fiore dei Liberi's Fior di Battaglia by Brian R. Price [/url] One slight caveat here, Brian's book is for the Italian longsword, which ...