The Armour Archive

Mad Matt

Ya know you could use 17 gauge. Basically what gauge you use depends on the design of the plates. And there's nothing wrong with switching gauges throughout the thing. Generally if you've got big plates that just have a big curve in them they'll dent fairly easy. If you've got curved or dished small...

Mad Matt

No idea what you're talking about. I've found people around here are too reluctant to give criticism. I've practically gotta beg to get constructive criticism on stuff I post. So I guess if you were in your second year of school you didn't know more then the guys in their first year? You don't have ...

Mad Matt

Samuel: I'm a wuss and cover up as much as possible with metal. The gamboised cuisses work well with floating knees and cuisses. Basically the cuisses pad the metal or cuirboulle knees and cuisses and those pieces point directly to the cuisses so they stay in place and are nice and comfy. Sounds lik...

Mad Matt

Compare the after pennsic armor market to the prices of things during boxing week. Basically people are lookin for stuff that's dirt cheap as far as I know. If you can hold off to close to Christmas like late November to mid December you'll get a better price. People do tend to buy stuff for christm...

Mad Matt

They were in use long before the 14th c.

And were in use in the 14th.

Not sure when they went out of fashion.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

It should be noted that they're not available yet.

My wife's gonna want to make a few pairs before she's comfortable selling them.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

I'd say the blueing adds to the coolness factor. One thing that might help is to let people know who the individual pieces were made by. BTW your sabatons list for $205 USD Feel free to put a link on your auction that leads directly to the page with your sabatons on it on my site to prove the value....

Mad Matt

I'd say the leather armour definition should mean either hardened leather or fantasy pure leather stuff. Ie. The fact that I make CoPs with leather shell doesn't qualify me as a leather armory. For the plastic thing. Just go right out and say it. PL for plastic armor. If someone wants to hide the fa...

Mad Matt

Generally by laces that attach to the pourpont. Alternatly if you're lacking a pourpont you could lace them to your braies. Or if you don't have those nifty (and extremly comfy medieval boxers) you could tie them up to a belt. ------------------ The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy. ...

Mad Matt

Ok well I was actually planning to offer them along with a pair of 14th century "soupcan" style knee cops as a $30 option (mild steel of course). Her sewing machine doesn't work very well and she seems pretty happy to do the quilting by hand. (maybe she'll change her mind when she tries it though.) ...

Mad Matt

Well my wife's finally going to attempt to make me a pair. The kind that come to just below the knee. Once she figures out she can do a good job of it she's gonna make em with good material. What weight of linen would you recommend? Also she's planning to sell them. What would be a reasonable price ...

Mad Matt

If you implement the letter codes now in the how to sign up page then you'll have them to begin with. No need to put em in order or anything yet but it's there. It's easier to make changes when things are small then when they're big. BTW I sent mine in already. And the description is descriptive of ...

Mad Matt

Letter codes would be a great idea.

Ordering them by the letter codes would make it even easier to find what you want.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Would you consider making the online armourers list a little more user friendly by breaking things into some different categories? There are lots of different ways it could be broken down. The simplest is to have seperate maille and plate lists. It could even be all on the same page. A divider just ...

Mad Matt

I'd kind of figured they'd close at the back since I've only got reference material that shows from the front and there's no seam in any of them. If you see the illumination again could you just let me know if the split where the skirt closes goes straight down or on a diagonal. Of course now that y...

Mad Matt

Thanks Tuomas for the nice review. The boss is actually 2 inches deep and the dished area is 6" diameter. Don't know where the 3-4 inch dish means. It should also be noted that it took me a really long time to get Tuomas his boss. Much longer then it should have. Although there wasn't a set date it ...

Mad Matt

Well you never know what'll happen in a year. When you're in Ontario for your training come for a visit and we'll talk armor. I'm not too far away from WCJA. By that time I might be up to such a 15th c harness and have a beverly for cutting 14gauge steel. ------------------ The budding mid 14th cent...

Mad Matt

Hmm. Silly me I never thought of cutting some of the scales in half. Good idea. I do know that the diagonal method was done I just don't know about europe. I put great faith in Norman's research and his drawings on his silk road research site show closures in eastern scale armours done with the diag...

Mad Matt

That would be a brigandine. And the plates wouldn't be 16gauge likely around 18-20. The rivits do weigh a fair bit but basically the overlap of the plates means that the plates are almost completly doubled for the area. ie. 2 thick. I'm guessing you're talking about the 16gauge scales. With the over...

Mad Matt

Ok well for the SCA starter kits that I'm making I'm making a prototype for myself. So I'm making myself a full harness. Basically the deluxe version with the non-deluxe CoP. So in the 14th c often scale skirts were worn. My CoP will come to waist length or I might put my globosse cuirass with it. S...

Mad Matt

Aha I now see the alterior motive for your post on my starter kit thread. http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/tongue.gif Anyway here's one way to do it. I'll assume you're just puttin on the cops and that's it. First you'll want to put a strap made from a softish leather that goes around the back of th...

Mad Matt

Swadge: A metal forming tool usually made to be set into an anvil or swadge block. Swadge block: A big hunk o metal with different shaped and sized holes for stakes and swadges to be inserted as well as usually different curved, domed, angled and tapered depressions. ------------------ The budding m...

Mad Matt

Camail: See aventail just a different language. Demi-Bascinet: Typically a shorter version of the bascinet meant to be worn underneath of a great helm. Demi-Greave: Short plate that hangs from the bottom of either a single piece poleyn or the bottom articulation lame of a leg harness with an articul...

Mad Matt

Toweyb: You may have noticed from being around here on the archive that I'm a very helpfull fellow. That goes for people I sell stuff to also. Ie. anyone who buys anything from me will get answers to the best of my ability to all questions they have about what they bought. So basically yeah already ...

Mad Matt

Welding non-ferrous metals with a torch isn't easy either. You CAN'T weld stainless steel with a torch. Along with some other metals. Stick is cheap. With mig you can weld most metals easily. Learning to weld properly with a torch is quite a bit of learning. It's also generally slower then any of th...

Mad Matt

Try highschool night classes for learning welding. Be sure to take a class that covers in a basic sort of way many different types of welding. A lot of what kind of welder to get is personal preference. Now after you've taken the class you'll know what you like. Welding classes are hands on so you g...

Mad Matt

Just thought I'd post a bit of an update. Over the weekend I got the arms, legs, spaulders, and gorget built. I had the helmet basically finished already and have the CoP for the deluxe version. I've still gotta polish and assemble the arms, legs and spaulders though but will leave assembly untill t...

Mad Matt

Link no workie.

To get it on the archive members page e-mail the pic to Krag. He's the one who runs the page.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Ok guess I should fill in a bit of the blanks here. The upgraded set does have better torso protection. The upgrade gets you up to one of the CoPs like the one currently on my site. the one with the dag plates that cover the hips. The basic set would have a canvas covered version with less plates in...

Mad Matt

Knees, elbows, demi-gaunts, gorget, helmet, spaulders, full torso. I understand that some areas require vambraces. They're included in the more deluxe kit but simple one piece spaulders instead of multipiece could substitute for them. Pad and strap everything yourself. For the more deluxe add on nic...

Mad Matt

I've done some thinking and calculations and come up with some numbers. I could do a full get on the field starter kit that's steel and basically historically accurate for early to mid 14th century. I came up with a price range depending on different options. The bare minimum at $400 and the bit mor...

Mad Matt

Ok well I did a little figuring and some thinking and I've come up with some stuff. I can do a full starter kit with all the pieces suitable for early to mid 14th century (ie. fairly historically accurate and attractive looking) The bare minimum kit $400 (assuming you don't need vambraces in your ar...

Mad Matt

Well I'm not really expensive. And I'm fairly quick at the moment. I can currently do everything but gauntlets but that could be remedied fairly quickly. e-mail me and we'll talk I've got some ideas for a low cost harness. Feel free to go have a look at some of my past work on my site. Just note tha...

Mad Matt

Should have posted this earlier. They look great. If you did do the thumb I'd love to see pics of it.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Nope and nope.

But they were worn with overgrown bevors as well as cloth and maille coifs with ventails (including the type where a triangular piece comes up over the nose and attaches at the forehead)

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Gamboised cuisses question.

14th C european scale skirts question.

What's a good price range for SCA starter kits?