The Armour Archive

Adriano

While you're concentrating on the complex and obscure, the simple and obvious will bite you on the ass. Happens to everybody.

Adriano

Very nice; a weapon I'd be proud to be smacked with. Illegal here in Meridies.

I'd like to see more maces on the field, especially if they look that good. I've found there's something very satisfying about bashing a guy on the head with a mace.

Adriano

the sword tip was placed against the helm and pushed. first, thats never going to be good (realistically or by the rules). Seriously, that's the standard in Atlantia? I know I would consider that to be good, whether I was giving it or receiving. (If the tip was in contact with the face area of the ...

Adriano

the sword tip was placed against the helm and pushed. first, thats never going to be good (realistically or by the rules). Seriously, that's the standard in Atlantia? I know I would consider that to be good, whether I was giving it or receiving. (If the tip was in contact with the face area of the ...

Adriano

Uh, where have you been, Adriano? Meridies is the only kingdom in the Knowne World that not only uses Active Marshalling, but openly revels in this fact. Heck, it was unveiled during one of our Crown Tourney's, for Christ's sake. One of the primary reasons why I dislike the fight here so often... I...

Adriano

I don't know what the written rules are in Atlantia. I know that here in Meridies, if two authorized fighters have a bout in a tourney, whether they're newbies or Dukes, nobody else gets to call their shots for them. If both fighters are satisfied a shot was good, it's not up to the marshall, the au...

Adriano

Sure, getting the victory is fun. When I win the Silver Hammer tourney with a greatsword, fulfilling my pledge, it'll be a great day for me. But there are few things more fun (talking about SCA) than a protracted fight against a well-matched opponent. The fights I remember most fondly are not necess...

Adriano

If those are what I think they are(Nail plates for construction use) they are not going to help much...The bend pretty easy.. Not necessarily true; my coat of plates is made out of those, and offers good protection. The plates just need to be overlapped. You can use ordinary 6d nails for rivets. So...

Adriano

On a related subject -- is there documentation for medieval use of double rings ("D-rings" or otherwise) where a strap is fed through both rings, then back over one and through the other, for a quick-release adjustable cinch? (I have it on good authority that the recipe for honey butter wa...

Adriano

Freiman, you keep things interesting. However, the way I feel about the two relevant fields of endeavor -- feats of arms and feats of amor -- is such that, having attained my desire in either arena, I could never claim a bounty; it would, for me, tarnish the achievement and diminish its worth and my...

Adriano

I could see it being read as peer bashing. I am trying to express the point that the SCA does not acknowledge "conventional education" as being part of the accepted path of knowledge to peerage. Any of it. Zip..NADA..ZERO..Null... (This is pointing out a "What's wrong with the SCA&qu...

Adriano

Winning feels good; I hope to win a few tourneys before I quit. But my overall goal is to strive for excellence. (How close I come to that is another matter.)

Unless one is truly the baddest mofo to ever grace the SCA fighting field, one is going to lose occasionally.

Adriano

Excellent! Glad she's having fun (and staying hydrated). Using a two-handed sword is especially good if you want plenty of exercise (in my experience).

Adriano

I guess the Laurels and Pelicans would be an example of something that makes sense as part of the culture of the social club called the SCA, but is pretty ahistorical. (I imagine there have always been skilled courtiers and administrators to run royal and noble households, but not as a specific &quo...

Adriano

I used two layers of canvas, galvanized nail plates, 6d nails for rivets, and pennies with 1/8" holes for washers. The COP has held up real well for a year; very basic St. Maurice design, but turned around so I can buckle it in front. I should have overlapped the plates a little more, though; t...

Adriano

Duke John the Mad Celt. Why? Because I'm impatient. I can defend myself against him, but cannot get past his coffin shield-based defense without sustained, patient effort. He won't be drawn out, and doesn't do anything stupid.

Adriano

Nice! Unfortunately, those things are still banned here in Meridies; I've never been given a clear explanation of why.

Adriano

I can't find a clip of it, but (seriously) the scene at the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail sticks with me -- where Arthur's suddenly-appeared army prepares for battle. For a very silly comedy on a miniscule budget, that movie looks better than a lot of serious movies.

Adriano

Murdock wrote:I like this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDyRdhSIqlo

can ya dig it

Damn right. Makes me want to tell the Man to kiss my black ass.

Adriano

I'll just be happy to be there; no idea how Meridies is allied. (It'll be a big change from Pennsic, where we typically have a pretty small presence.)

I just wish they'd get the 2008 schedule up on the website. Only a couple of months away now.

Adriano

Fearghus Macildubh wrote:That is one of my favourite old fashioned sword movies. I think that the armour is Pre-Raphaelite inspired, as are the women's costumes.

Now that I think of it, that makes sense. A lot of the scenes do call to mind a Waterhouse painting.

Adriano

I prefer the fight when Lancelot and Arthur first meet. :) Oh, yeah, that's a great scene. They both seem to show a joy of combat and, of course, chivalrous conduct; and both characters are surprised to meet their equal. The armour's kind of an odd mixture: hauberks without cuirasses in combination...

Adriano

Oh, well. Hope it shows up on BBC-America or PBS sometime.

Adriano

I just got a DVD of the 1953 movie Knights of the Round Table . Toward the end, Lancelot (Robert Taylor) has a big climactic fight with Modred (Stanley Baker). (Note: in this version, Modred is the husband of Morgan le Fay, Arthur's half-sister, rather than the son of an incestuous union between Art...

Adriano

JT, you're doin' a heckuva job!

Seriously, we wouldn't have an Archive if it weren't for you, and to err is human. (So I hear. Never do it myself.)

And this gives us a chance to rehash all the arguments that were deleted! Yea!

Adriano

Aaron: Meridies. Meri-dies. Please accept my apologies for my poor spelling. Thank you, Aaron. And you raise a lot of interesting points. I was thinking about all this stuff today at fighter practice. In several bouts I stopped and discussed a blow (given or received) with my opponent. That's part ...

Adriano

Aaron, criticize my kingdom all you like (though it would be nice if your criticism were based on facts); just learn how to spell its name. Meridies. I've been fighting in Meridies a quarter century. Only once has a marshall stepped in and tried to call a blow for me; in a Crown List, when I was fig...

Adriano

I see your point, young Oswyn. Even though a newbie of either gender should expect to be losing a lot at first, maybe it's really galling for her to be losing to males. I wish we could get her together with Sir Kytte or Ionka.

Adriano

Sorry I couldn't make Owl's Nest practice last night; looks like I missed some drama. Almost all the female fighters I've known are definite about wanting to be treated the same as a male fighter; that should include standards of behavior. If she's a young newbie, maybe she's so excited about fighti...

Adriano

The cross-guard on my greatsword is simply a section of "pool noodle" (the long cylindrical closed-cell foam pool toys that sell for a couple bucks in Spring and Summer). Taped up tightly so that it's fairly stiff (though given my style, the cross-guard seldom does any actual guarding).

Adriano

Don't know if this has been mentioned: in Meridies, although we use sword and shield for authorization bouts, once you're authorized, you can pick up any (legal SCA) weapon you want and use it in a tourney or melee.

Adriano

I like the idea of a melee for 40 and over; don't know how many that would get on the field at once, but it would be entertaining.

As for size -- even when we have size divisions, we use them perversely by pitting Giants against Dwarves.

Adriano

I just wonder why somebody hasn't made a good, thoughtful picture about this subject. (Unless there's one I don't know about.) In fact, the only other picture about the Norse in Vinland I can think of is -- that's right, The Norseman, with Lee Majors.

Adriano

I don't know about stoner movies, but in this case you've got a really interesting bit of history (as with 300) that we'd like to see shown with at least a little regard for actual history, rather than as a comic book fantasy.

Nice sig line, Maeryk. Is that from Bierce?

Adriano

It does look pretty bad. Based on a comic book (oh, I'm sorry, "graphic novel"). What bugs me is that they apparently can't subtract C. 1000 from C. 1500; the ad says "Six hundred years before Columbus . . ." I know sometimes we enjoy a movie that's so bad it's funny -- problem i...

Surprising swordwork in an old movie