The Armour Archive

Marshal

I Have been attempting to counter this quote by Saint-Sever: "Manuscript illuminations, particularly those from the Age of Maille, repeatedly show helms and hauberks being defeated by the primary hand weapon of the period-- the knightly sword." OK. I was confused by the fact that you cited a quote ...

Marshal

Do they come with a Book of Armaments?

Marshal

Ooh, you worked with Maringer! Any chance you could give us a precis on how to do chapes and lockets for scabbards?

Marshal

Your question about why we accept the modern scientific data over iconographic data that is contrary is easy to answer. When there appears to be a conflict between iconography and scientific data we accept the latter except in extraordinary circumstances. In other words, it would be extraordinary i...

Marshal

Explain the existence of hauberts de joute - mail specifically worn at tournaments because it was considered proof against the sharpened mounted lance. Why would Bertrand de Born say "no-one will be counted worthy until they have given and taken many blows"? If swords can cut through mail one would...

Marshal

They slip over the ends of the grip before it is mounted onto the tang. You can also do wire wrappings without them, simply by securing the ends in a small slot or groove cut into the wood at the end of the grip. This way the wire is held in place by compression between the end of the grip and the c...

Marshal

Thanks for the explanation; it makes sense. My experience is with mail only, with hidden rigid defenses beneath to meet the armour requirements. The hauberk does indeed shift around a good deal.

Marshal

Lorenzo's interpretation is supported by modern scientifically controlled experiments as well as the vast majority of contemporary eye-witness accounts. OK...so which ones? I'd love to be able to put my remaining doubts to rest. BTW, how does a modern experiment tell us whether medievals intended t...

Marshal

Is this for a real sword or an SCA one?

Marshal

Egfroth---Do you know, did the artist of the shrine mean to depict some of the helms dented, or has the piece itself been damaged at some point?

Marshal

What this means, is you use ties or laces to directly attach the arm harness to the padded shirt you wear underneath your maille. This will require you to wear your arm harness underneath your maille. Can you explain the why of this last? I mean, there are a lot of spaces in most mail---spaces thro...

Marshal

My understanding from my study of art is that symbolism and fantasy are consistantly displayed in almost every image. With respect...please present specific evidence that your understanding is the correct one. See, I just don`t know on what basis anyone legitimately decides that the correct interpr...

Marshal

Here is a wooden spokeshave:

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merc ... _Code=TPSP

They are handy little tools. You can get them in metal frames as well as wood ( often cheaper ) and with curved blades, the better to shape a rounded surface like a spear shaft or axe helve.

Marshal

Yes, if you have that kind of free time. Hydrogen peroxide will also work, as will Coca Cola. You can burn it off, too. In any event, do it outdoors and don`t breathe the fumes---they are toxic and can make you quite sick. Once the zinc plating is off you are going to have to worry about rust. Make ...

Marshal

That was Joinville, but if I remember correctly he doesn't specifically attribute those wounds to arrows. He scarcely mentions them at all, in fact. He does talk about Saracen lancers, so for all we know those are who inflicted the wounds.

Marshal

So the other question is, when was the last use of the lance in a European war engagement? I've seen photos of British lancers in France during WWI. But I don't know that that qualifies as "use". Cavalry of any sort wasn't much good in trench warfare. Some Polish Lancers apparently fought German in...

Marshal

If you're going to be doing several jobs it may pay to get an ash plank and rip it into lengths of just over the right diameter. I do this for spear shafts---a 2x6 plank gets me 3 shafts to be roughed down with a drawknife and finished with a spokeshave, and then sanded. I have a bearded axe for whi...

Marshal

Frederick---Are you flattening the entire ring with the piston-through-the-plate? Or just the overlapping ends? IOW, is flattening one step or two? I can't quite make out what you're doing in the first photo of #3 ( pre-pound ), it's too dark on my screen...

Marshal

The vast majority of a host during this time wasn't "cap a pie" in mail. There were plenty of unarmoured targets to smack around with swords. Absolutely. Still, not all targets are equally open at any one instant in a melee. One would take the shot that was open, IMO, rather than wait for a better....

Marshal

I have comparatively little experience of ironwood, but I would think it would be too hard and brittle for a helve. Traditional woods like ash and hickory are more limber and yielding---it's the old poetical convention, the oak snaps off in the storm while the willow bends and survives...

Marshal

Jeff J wrote:Very few of us have bodies rigid enough replicate an anvil under our armor

Heh, clearly you are unfamiliar with my skull...

Marshal

Occam's Razor: If the swords were doing their job, becs de corbines , haches and poll axes would not have been necessary. Jehan, squire of Sir Vitus And before the advent of nearly full plate, ie during the period when most of these armour-cleaving illustrations occur, they weren't widely used... (...

Marshal

Elvish is dead.

Marshal

One of the more gruesome details in Joinville's account of a battle during the Crusade of St. Louis was his mention of a fellow knight whose nose had been all but cut off, so that it hung over his lips by a scrap of skin. Alas, Joinville doesn't tell us whether this knight's helm had a nasal, or ind...

Marshal

Half swording afaik is not exclusive to the 15th century. I believe that the first we hear of it is in manuals like Fiore and Talhoffer; these are both 15th century. Albeit Fiore was published in the first quarter of the centuury and was probably teaching much earlier....so let us say 14th century ...

Marshal

Yes, Julian is my hero for the day. Sensible AND can admit it with grace when he makes a mistake...

Marshal

I thought pillage was what horned-helm Vikings got on their polyester tunics...

Marshal

The Dane axe type of course survived at least into the 12th century; Saxon huscarles were to be found in the Varangian guard after Hastings, and the long axe was its standard weapon until it was disbanded in 1204. Orderic Vitalis writes of Stephen of Blois fighting with "a Norse axe" at the battle o...

Marshal

Half-swording was devised to cope with full plate of the 15th and 16th centuries; the armour of this period was quite advanced metallurgically. The "plate" ( often only helms ) seen being cleft in sources like the Maciejowski Bible is earlier, 13th century stuff, much of which I believe was not stee...

Marshal

Double-bitted axes like that seem to have been quite rare in Europe in the medieval period. I am dubious that it's a historical piece, unless it's a woodaxe from the 18th or 19th century...

Where's Egroth, with his comprehensive list of medieval images of 2-headed axes?

Marshal

That ship has sailed---it's long since dried and hardened ( it was boiled linseed oil, BTW ). I didn't notice that I'd done it at the time. It's left an uneven amber coating over a large part of the cup.

No salvaging it, then?

Marshal

"Brother Maynard! Bring forth the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!"

Marshal

And if you don't mind brass, you can find and adapt ( cheap ) candle-holders from places like Pier 1.

Marshal

I had a fellow tell me that swords had to have edges like razors to be effectual. Because he'd "worked as a butcher" and "it's the slice not the chop that does all the damage". I finally had to bring him a scrap of mail, wrap it around my arm, and saw at it awhile with his self-sharpened "razor" kni...

Marshal

The boiled linseed oil you find in most hardware stores almost always has added driers/evaporators to speed the drying process, these also add to the flammability. Plain ol' linseed oil takes along time to dry, boiling it makes it dry faster, but it still takes awhile. Is there a way to get the stu...