The Armour Archive

Klaus the Red

Brilliant. I have one of the Erhardt und Söhne copies (the original being no. 11 in your gallery) made in reduced size as an oil lamp, and it didn't occur to me that the little one in Madrid was a copy also and that mine was too small to be practical for washing, although your breakdown of size cons...

Klaus the Red

I've found that about 2/3 of the slot length needs to fall at the top of the buckle, and 1/3 below, so the tongue has maximum extension backwards. Holds true for leather as well.

Klaus the Red

Supplemental info bump: the wrap plates are stainless and the buckles are hand-made, also stainless IIRC. I still have the very short (5-6") matching leather fauld if the buyer is interested in re-attaching it.

K

Klaus the Red

A bit of advice- I've done a hundred or more of these in the past couple of years- find a pair of small pliers or something to convert to a crimping tool, and crimp down the base of those aglets so they're flush with the cord. Otherwise, they're probably going to get stripped right off when the poin...

Klaus the Red

Yep. I'm working on a shirt also, but I already have enough scraps and loose rings to finish it, and the black wouldn't quite match.

Klaus the Red

I thought hard about it, but what I really need at the moment is another aventail. The labor it would take for me to build one from this piece outweighs the cost.

Klaus the Red

Details, finished and dyed.

Klaus the Red

The Neiman Marcus harness can be seen at the bottom of his 'for sale' page: http://www.wassonartistry.com/show.php?id=forsale

Klaus the Red

I got 2 copies of this mirror case a few weeks ago, too- one for me, one for my lady.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/se ... Bone&pos=5

Klaus the Red

And he's honest to a fault, too.

Klaus the Red

Here it is before dying.

Klaus the Red

Kids, get Jeff's armor while it's hot. I own a set of arm and leg harness by him in heat-treated 1050, and I swear, part of me wants to pack the 50 lbs I lost recently back on so they'll fit me again.

K

Klaus the Red

I don't generally volunteer reviews of individual sellers or craftspeople. I praise them with more commissions or quiet recommendations to friends, but don't feel the need to post an eBay-style rating for everyone who sells me something. In this case, though, I was so impressed that I'll make an exc...

Klaus the Red

Sigh. It's times like this I wish I was still an Easterner.

Klaus the Red

There seem to be a thousand posts of the Met copy floating around the ether, but none of the original. The general consensus seems to be that it's Byzantine.

Klaus the Red

Klaus can opine on which finish he would like on his leg harnesses, but I'm going to see how the "blackened" finish polishes up.

I like shiny.

Klaus the Red

And yet they offer no information on the original piece other than "10th-11th century," nor is the smaller plaque listed. I did e-mail the shop yesterday, waiting to hear back.

Klaus the Red

Well, I'll be damned- I kinda missed that listing.

Thanks!

Klaus the Red

Given that the larger piece is dated 1982, and thus predates the common use of the internets, it's quite possible that the original was put back into storage before the current collection went online. I may need to go digging into--gasp!--printed catalogs. I will consult my dad the art dealer and ca...

Klaus the Red

I agree, not "Gothic," properly speaking- hence my dating estimate. The angel on the right strikes me as Carolingian or Ottonian.

Klaus the Red

I just picked these up on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/130801582082?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 They are supposedly cast from pieces in the collection of the Met or the Cloisters, but I can't find the originals online in their posted catalog, nor in my library. Can anyone ide...

Klaus the Red

Yep, Jeff is still in business and does some damn pretty stuff. I've been partnering with him to do the soft kit side of his most recent custom work. The greaves alone are almost worth the price of admission here. For the overall package, it's a steal.

K

Klaus the Red

My package should have gotten here yesterday, but online tracking shows it as stranded in San Bruno and "missent," whatever the hell that means.

A pox on the postal service, say I.

Klaus the Red

I have my doubts about the dulling-the-shot thing, but there's only one way to know for sure: make a stuffed fabric mockup, stick it on your bascinet and go fight. If you use some sort of breakaway mounting, a good rising snap might even take it right off- nothing says "good!" like a piece of your k...

Klaus the Red

Doug, I will always remember us passing around that arm from Oakeshott's collection like a joint in the hotel room at the ARS conference.

You called it 14th century exactly on that basis.

Klaus the Red

Skip the grommets! They are the visible panty lines of medieval costuming.

Klaus the Red

I usually don't go so fay as to countersink, but rather instead trim the rivet so that a couple of taps will leave it just barely proud of the surface.

It's a bad habit I picked up from Jeff Wasson.

Klaus the Red

Scott, I'm still leaning towards mounting my buckle plates on the inside and having them come through slots in the 14th century style- in which case I'll countersink my rivets and peen them flush from the outside, so decorative heads will be moot.

Klaus the Red

Understood in both particulars. I had these legs made for me several years ago in kit form, i.e., all the plates have been shaped but I wanted to do all the polishing, strapping and riveting myself. The armorer's pattern seems to have been a compromise between both 14th and 15th century forms and SC...

Klaus the Red

My lady is a couple of inches taller, but I am the same height as your erstwhile Saxon. Done and done. Sending PM...

Klaus the Red

Ok, now a question of application. I'm marking my cuisses for the large triangular strap, and I'm finding that the edge of the wrap plate ends up much higher than the inside cuisse edge, due to the asymmetrical construction. Have you done the triangular strap as more of a right triangle than an isos...

Klaus the Red

Mac, I am seeing that cuisse strapping the same way: a wide leather piece riveted along the length of the inner cuisse edge (hence the multiple nail heads), necking down to one or more strap tongues. That line of nail heads shows up in other images as well- the legs on the Dijon St. George sculpture...

Klaus the Red

I am finishing up a set of reasonably generic legs circa 1375-1400, and I'm trying to find evidence of how the buckles were mounted, particularly on the cuisses. 15th century and later legs tended to have them mounted directly to the cuisse using a pivoting metal plate, rather than a short leather s...

Klaus the Red

Very logical, but I don't feel the need to pay top dollar for a perfectly matching set. The legs aren't his work and the buckle style is reasonably generic, so I'd be happy with something from a third party that doesn't clash.

Klaus the Red

I think 8 buckles at 3/4" with plates will be fine, with whatever simple decoration strikes you. I don't need anything fancy. These legs are going to be clean and unadorned, what I would call medieval munitions grade (as opposed to SCA munitions), ie, correct in form but styled for someone of middle...

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