The Armour Archive

Adriano

Today at South Downs fighter practice, Duke Orlando showed up with some spears. They made me do a double-take because they looked like the shafts were made of some hardwood. In fact, they were fiberglass with wood-pattern contact paper. Nice, verisimilitudinous touch.

Adriano

It's just getting into the hellish five-month summer here in Atlanta. Humidity really is the problem, more than temperature. I pour water down my cotton gambeson and hope for evaporative cooling. Don't miss an opportunity to take your helmet off in the shade; cooling your head will help cool your wh...

Adriano

Here's some info from the AA pattern archive: Greave . I'd get some posterboard to experiment with, so you can fine-tune the pattern without wasting leather. If you want to glue some padding inside the greave, take that into account as far as sizing goes (I know that sounds obvious, but it's easy to...

Adriano

As it happens, I just replaced the leather gloves in my steel gauntlets. After five years of use, the leather was wearing out. Although the original gloves had been welding gloves, I replaced them with split cowhide work gloves, which feel less bulky and give my more feeling from the sword grip. Als...

Adriano

CA can be a fun element of the SCA, and I've got no argument with the archers who regularly shoot me (one of the hazards of not using a shield). But I honestly don't understand why projectile weapons aren't subject to the same regs as every other weapon on the field (1 1/4" diameter). I know archers...

Adriano

A CBS 2 investigation has uncovered some of the deadliest weapons imaginable on sale for anyone to buy inside a home in a local neighborhood. I love the melodramatic tone; I can imagine that as a voiceover full of grave concern. "Some of the deadliest weapons imaginable"; have these people ever hea...

Adriano

I've never deliberately blown off a good arrow strike (although for all I know, I may have been unaware of one). But I can understand the temptation: you're all fired up for a battle, you're in a line of men facing the enemy, ready to take on swordsmen, spearmen, whatever. But then, before you can e...

Adriano

Let me second Sir Kytte. When she first joined the Barony of the South Downs, she showed great enthusiasm for learning to fight, and practiced assiduously (the way I always intend to, but seldom do). She soon surpassed many of us big, hairy men, and became Meridies' first femal knight. (Also the onl...

Adriano

Everybody makes mistakes. It takes character to admit it and apologize.

Adriano

Just my two cents -- sounds like the marshall was either overzealous or misinterpreted the situation.

Hope to see you at South Downs practice some time.

Adriano

Nice bruise! I've only very recently, after a couple of decades of SCA fighting, put thrusting tips on my swords, and they do seem to come in handy. What's the Jomsvikings training video, and why do they say you shouldn't thrust to a limb?

Adriano

Well, the best I've personally encountered was a gentleman simply called "Dog" (but not, I think, Tuchux). Haven't seen him in years.

Adriano

Not to blow my own horn, but when I'm in practice, I'd say I rank solidly in the top, oh, 500, here in Meridies.

(Well, I'm probably one of the senior Meridian unbelteds, after 23 years...)

Adriano

Those are some pretty bazubands. Mine are butt-ugly, but they stay in place by having a strap from a lame above the elbow, which strap goes through a loop sewn onto my gambeson, above the inside elbow.

Adriano

I've been fighting in the SCA, on and off, for about 23 years. When I'm in practice, my skills are fine, but I've been held back by a mental malfunction -- when I'm fighting in a tourney, I start to identify with my opponent and don't want him to have the pain of losing. So I sabotage my own fightin...

Adriano

Wowzer! That's almost too pretty to hit!

Adriano

It might be fun to calculate how much that "scrap" would have been worth in, say 1350 England.

Adriano

I wear padded cotton cuisses; my steel knee coppes are sewn onto separate oval-shaped pads of thick felt covered with fabric, which I lace to the cuisse. Works well.

Adriano

Well, after 23 years I'm still in the SCA, so I must love it. Maybe it's a love/hate thing. We have a co-dependant relationship. I know that the first time I put on a helmet and tried to hit a guy with a stick, I was hooked for life. And the ladies, the ladies... ah, well, as I was saying. Yep, love...

Adriano

The movie The Iron Mistress is about Jim Bowie; it has a scene in which a smith makes him the World's Best Knife from a meteorite. Thusly armed, Bowie went on to forge a bunch of land grants and then flee to escape prosecution.

Adriano

I was at the first Gulf War (SCA, that is) in 1992. The Persian Gulf War -- Desert Storm -- was still fresh in people's minds, and I always assumed the name for the SCA war was a play on that. (As Broinnfinn noted, the first one was in June; it was close to 100 degrees F., and about 100% humdity.)

Adriano

My current thrusting tips are simply cylinders cut from one of those foam "noodles" sold as swimming pool toys.

Adriano

I'd suggest experiment a bit with your materials (fabric, plates and rivets) before cutting out the whole garment and going to work. I ended up using heavy-duty nautical vinyl, and using 6d galvanized nails (snipped short) for rivets; they exactly fit the existing holes in the nail plates Thomas men...

Adriano

Sorry this is so off-topic, but such unnecessary provocation is hard to ignore. Shakespeare was a sniveling putz who should've been drowned as an infant. Edward, please don't say that in my presence (unless you're George B. Shaw). Patton was a great field commander, but like a lot of great men had a...

Adriano

Johannes and Jehan, I kid you not, that account made the hair rise on my arms. Thanks for reminding me of why I wanted to join the SCA some quarter century ago.

Adriano

Here's some more inspiration from Shakespeare: Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is that word honour? air. On the other hand, you've gotta die of something. Check out my sig for a...

Adriano

Have fun, guys! Word of advice -- take a shovel to dig a trench around your tent, and if possible camp on high ground. Last year my camping spot turned into a small lake.

Adriano

When I started fighting in Meridies (in 1980) we didn't have any written authorization, let alone a rule requiring you to own a list-legal set of armour. I'd like to see a compromise -- perhaps allowing a one-year authorization with loaner gear, and requiring your own kit for a long-term authorizati...

Adriano

Funny how the memory plays tricks on you. I fought Kane in the first Crown Tourney he won, in 1986. I think it was the longest tourney fight I've ever had -- something like a quarter of an hour. Here's the tricky part -- if you'd asked me about it yesterday, I would have told you with confidence tha...

Adriano

T-Bob, you look like the image that comes up in my mind when I hear "medieval knight." Man, when I've got some money, I'm gettin' some rivetted.

Adriano

I got a similar response. I sent: Before selling this item, don't you think you should publish your findings, or perhaps consult with the British Museum? Nobody else has ever found proof of BUTTED mail being used in warfare, let alone butted mail made from what looks like modern drawn wire. You'll b...

Adriano

How can you possibly question the authenticity of this amazing, unique item? After all, it was found near the "Danubian River".

Adriano

Also, depending on your kingdom, you might have to put a PVC cap on the end of the fiberglass tube before putting on the thrusting tip.

Adriano

My second attempt to post this... Good job, Artemis, and nice pictures. Remind me not to get downrange of you. But my experience with butted mail (14 gauge, 3/8", galvanized) is that it doesn't take archery to do a number on it. I had to make repairs after every melee. Just the action of fighting wo...

Adriano

I've seen two other approaches to this problem. 1) Have the gambeson (or aketon, or whatever -- the padded garment worn underneath) and the mail shirt (or hauberk, or haubergeon) joined together with lacing, so that you put them on like one garment. Then you can have the points for the leather (or p...

Nice look for SCA spears