The Armour Archive

Klaus the Red

I got my orientation mixed up because of the three crosses- that's someone totally different. Thanks for pointing him out- I'm now seeing two figures and a possible third: 1) Lower left corner, brown maybe-sallet with gold trim. 2) Far right side, past the right-hand crucified thief, black/brown str...

Klaus the Red

Except for the side pivots, the shape of the visor on Edmund's helmet appears to be similar to the later German klappvisier forms with the rounded snout and little curly "beard" at the bottom. I also found an interesting Italian example in a 1320 crucifixion fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti- check out th...

Klaus the Red

Yes, of course those are greaves, sorry- my brain kind of overlooked them because what I was thinking of was enclosed steel greaves that are fully shaped to the calf and don't ride down at all onto the instep, to which the last lame of the poleyn articulation is attached by a pin.

K

Klaus the Red

If strapped properly, armor should "hang" very little, and your setup seems to be working toward that goal. The weight will be distributed around the torso and limbs by the straps, and the attaching points to the coat simply serve to anchor the ends of the armor pieces in place. This is especially i...

Klaus the Red

My lady's involvement in the SCA took off like gangbusters when we moved from the West Kingdom to the East and ended up in a much more involved and multi-layered group (the Barony of Carolingia). My old shire was really small, and she had more or less been my fashion accessory to fight for at tourna...

Klaus the Red

Really well done. It's always nice to see everything working together as a system (coat, legs, arms and spaulders) as intended. Let us know how it fights!

Klaus

Klaus the Red

Brian, did you use any kind of whip stitch to gather up the edges of the wool layers of the dags (for lack of a better word) before closing the shell and liner around them? I'm trying to do a new handsewn liner similar to yours right now using cotton batting layers instead of wool, and I'm having th...

Klaus the Red

You look like a giant armored lipstick.

Seriously, though... very nice.

Klaus

Klaus the Red

Karl, it looks as though I might have missed you before leaving- if you check this thread and can get back to me before next Friday, I'm still interested. If you return later than that, I may have found another source. You can e-mail me at redbarbarian(at)comcast.net.

Klaus

Klaus the Red

A few days ago I received this mail in the mail.

Was it a chain letter?

I think the smaller stuff is also appropriate for 15th-16th century standards, gussets, voiders and the like.

Klaus

Klaus the Red

But is it period grass, or some unacceptable modern astroturf? I'm all for a certain amount of flexibility myself, and this first event should be considered a learning process anyway. I think we should, ideally, be setting a goal for ourselves of "perfect" appearances two or three years down the lin...

Klaus the Red

I can understand both pro and con positions. On the one hand, it is an awful lot of work to hand quilt an arming coat, and most folks who would be in need of one probably don't posess the specific skill set needed to make an authentic one for themselves. If you were lucky enough to find a craftsman ...

Klaus the Red

Having looked at "Knight, Death and the Devil," and Carpaccio's "Knight in a Landscape" (1520)...mmmaybe. I rescind my earlier assertion that simple spaulders (with lames) are unknown in the late 15th, but I'm still not convinced that these are right. They look like they want to be a pair of Maximil...

Klaus the Red

What the hell- I gotta spend my Christmas bonus on something. I'll take one of the 50" shirts. I like a close fit, but odds are I'll end up cutting it up for a skirt and voiders anyway to supplement my new corazina since I don't want to fight in that much weight. When are you going out of town? I ha...

Klaus the Red

My gut tells me every helmet during the medieval period was lined, until I see a surviving helmet without liner holes that proves otherwise. Though lined doesn't necessarily mean padded. It's easy enough to drop a helmet with a simple drawstring liner over either a quilted or mail coif, or a wool ho...

Klaus the Red

I'm 5'7"- would the short sleeves be above or below my elbows, do you think?

Klaus the Red

My gut tells me these are an "internal anachronism." Simple spaulders of the 14th century would never have been fluted like this, and conversely, a fluted "gothic" harness of the late 15th century would have full-size articulated pauldrons, not simple spaulders. Pretty, but no sale here.

Klaus

Klaus the Red

I would even say common for the first quarter of the 15th century- I just paid a visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and spent some time sketching a crucifixion retable dated to 1425, in which Roman soldiers are wearing backpoint bascinets with side-pivoting pigface visors. You can extend i...

Klaus the Red

What actual chest size does the 50" mail size correspond to? In other words, if I am normally a 42" chest and 44-46" in my arming coat, is 50" going to be too tight to get on? Oh, and what's the weight?

Klaus

Klaus the Red

If you have any left after the above sales, I'm interested as well. A corrazina uses less than two 60" yards.

Klaus

Klaus the Red

You know those spreads in the Osprey Warrior series showing every item of a man's personal gear as though laid out on a big tabletop? Or the "firepower porn" shots of a fighter jet on the tarmac surrounded by artfully arranged windrows of its every missile and round of ammo? I'm inclined to do somet...

Klaus the Red

I expect it could have gone a little tighter. I generally find the forearm and the elbow joint are the most critical parts of the arm to fit closely, to avoid having the fabric bunch up under the vambrace and in the bend of the arm. (This can get especially uncomfortable if the couter is strapped ac...

Klaus the Red

Detail shots.

Klaus the Red

Jen's coat-in-progress. It still needs lacing for the sleeves (pinned closed for this pic), points for leg and arm harness, and darts taken in at the shoulders to bring the neck opening down to the proper size. I drafted the pattern but all the production labor has been hers.

Klaus

Klaus the Red

This is what we in the armor trade refer to as a PUN.

Klaus the Red

Actually, that's Salletor, He-Man's arch enemy...

Klaus the Red

My experience is that gabardine run through the laundry gets fuzzy and shrinks up a bit, but doesn't really full properly the way a woolen would- ie, to the point where you can cut dags into it without fear of unravelling. I launder my gab/twill wools anyway just to pre-shrink and pre-bleed them, an...

Klaus the Red

He just won for 57 Euros and change.

Klaus the Red

I was briefly tempted to bid, but I'm happy to let Doug bravely lead the charge with his own funds and bring glory to himself and enlightenment to us all if they prove authentic. (Or be ignominiously poorer if not.)

Klaus the Red

Apparently, Talbot does...

Klaus the Red

I have a suggestion for the organizers. Since the standards for personal and camp kit will be so high, it might be a good idea to offer a sort of visual pre-registration process whereby folks who would like to attend but are not yet 100% confident that they are up to LH level (like myself) can submi...

Klaus the Red

Thanks, Doug, but I'm probably all set- I have an off-board offer from an archive member who has a shoe business. My backup plan is to make an inquiry to the US Vibram outlet in Mass. in my capacity as a garb business, with a low-level fib that I'm interested in buying samples to test on turnshoes.

Klaus the Red

I had actually been to the vibram.us site before, but found it entirely promotional with no way to purchase anything... however, having downloaded the catalog, I now discover that their headquarters is in fact in Massachusetts an hour or so from where I live, so perhaps there's luck after all.

K

Klaus the Red

On the Macpherson site, the "rubber products" link doesn't work, and the Vibram site is for the Italian arm of the company. It has only European sizes and doesn't list prices unless one registers, and seems to only want to register repair outifts or distributors- and even so, I suspect it would be c...

Klaus the Red

I have been unable to find a retailer anywhere, online or otherwise, of Vibram or any other commercial brand of rubber boot soles. I suspect these are only available wholesale to shoemaking and repair businesses, not the general public. Having the skills, I'd much rather buy the soles and try to re-...

ISO Vibram or similar outsoles