The Armour Archive

Signo

For the late XIV° century, richness is clearly shown in brass or latten borders, finely chiseled with words and ornaments, you will have these decoration on the bascinets, spaulders, elbows and knees, and obviously on the gauntlets. You maille could have brass or gold borders, and special care will ...

Signo

Your first full armour will be remembered as a great success. It's a pleasure see this kind of work born, grow and be completed by "one of us". IT help newbies like me to hope that someday something like that will pop out of our hand, like some sort of sorcery. Thank you for sharing your work, and g...

Signo

It appear related to the work hours, maybe it was to remember the time of some process. For example if I have several batches of thing to put in the oven, I can take note of when they have been put or, or when they must be retrieved.

Signo

"... simple one piece sallet..." I like your sense of humor.

Signo

Lurking for something different, I found this in Boccaccio's words: http://www.liberliber.it/mediateca/libri/b/boccaccio/filocolo/pdf/filoco_p.pdf "dandogli poi un bacinetto a camaglio bello e forte, sopra 'l quale un fortissimo elmo rilucente e leggiero, ornato di ricchissime pietre preziose, sopra...

Signo

Sean, ... II Imprimis gamberuoli et cosciali, musacchini e bracciali, gorgiera e maniche e gossetti de maglia, corazza, barbuta e guanti di ferro, spata, cultello, lancea e argia gamberuoli et cosciali, - Perhaps gamboissed cuisses and greaves. musacchini e bracciali, - I've been round and about on...

Signo

aHAHA I think it would fit nicely over a MK82 fuse, and then I would bomb the shop that made it. Just to be sure that we won't see it again.

Signo

I need to forge a spoon to poke out my eyes.

Signo

Ah this makes sense, so, coverta, is indeed a defensive "thing" in this case a piece of equipment (horse barding) while can even be an action in fencing. In our modern understanding of italian, "coperta" is a heavy blanket, put over the sheets in winter, so the "defensive" quality of the item is som...

Signo

In my limited understanding of ancient italian, I would translate it a bit differently: "Chi militava a cavallo doveva recar seco sella e coverta usbergo gambiere cappello d acciaio lancia e scudo o targa o tavolaccio all inglese il fante veniva armato di panciera o corazzina con maniche di ferro ca...

Signo

Well, sharps blades doesn't cut through maille.

Signo

I'm surely not experienced as yours in those kind of combat, but the first things that hinders a safe fight is the will to win. If the fighter think: "I'll do everything that is comfortably safe for me and my opponent to best him", then equipment standard maybe of secondary importance. But if the fi...

Signo

To get help, everyone will ask for pictures and a description of the problem.

Signo

Our group is trying to develop a foot tournament, more oriented to the audience than to assess who is the better fighter. While surely not strictly realistic, our idea is to make the audience decide who win each bout. They will choose with their canons, thus we expect that people will favour the fig...

Signo

From reading the accounts it is unclear on which basis they determined the winner. My personal opinion is that "who score more wins" is a modern concept, maybe they used the counted blows things just as a timer for the match, and gave victory to the fighter that performed better. We should not forge...

Signo

Now I don't have mi copy of Deeds of Arms at hand, I will look for which tournament was.

Signo

Well, it is documented of greathelms strapped to the back, and other istances have holes for chains. There are period accounts of an episode were the famous knight Boucicaut jousted with his helm unfastened, and at every strike the helm flew away but this prevented him to be unhorsed. Great fuss was...

Signo

I'm sure it will be awesome!

Signo

Thanks to this forum, the armourers community is becoming a sort of Borg. Someday we will gather together to build our cube.

... gothic cube of course...

Signo

Especially if you can make a waterdriven machine than draw the metal, spin it around a mandrel and cut it. Considering that clocks were already on town's squares, I can't see any difficulty in tinkering a machine that can make a madrel turn and a chisel fall on it every turn.

Signo

Yes, I would suggest to make mock lames with very thin metal so you can mess with them easily with sheet scissors, a centerpunch a pencil and your bare hands. Or thick paper, but as you have already metal parts modeled, paper is not heavy enough to keep them firm.

Signo

Yes, I'm sure you can find it cheaper, have you ever heard of this? I know it's in italian, but pictures talk for themselves.
http://www.ibs.it/code/9788874390311/go ... rismo.html

Signo

Out me too, I'm at a reenaction.

Signo

Pictures are not perfect too, if they are not made well, one can be misled by perspective distortion, light, and surface pitting. You can easily skew proportions looking at a picture. Yes, the person making the drawings can be misled too, but people that know how to draw, have usually better judgeme...

Signo

There is another consideration to do: For a wealthy knight, that can have his equipment tailored and fitted, mail or plate or both, doesn't matter, it is possible to have the best protection avaiable with the less limitations to movement, the best protection from mail come from seamless coverage of ...

Signo

I agree with chef, in the middleages the battlefield was some sort of multidimensional universe, one of the few moments when the destiny of commoners and of nobility could crash. Commoners were just people, and they feared the lord above them or the lord trying to steal his cattle or burn the crops ...

Signo

The book blood of the roses has some interesting info about healed wounds. Wisby too, but smaller.

Signo

Well, a single occurrence doesn't make it a custom, maybe if the meaning is effectively of butted maille, it could have been made for a particular event, so, it may have been made just once in history, maybe more, maybe it was normal... we will see.

Signo

I'm on the same boat as Glen, just that I've never been there before!
I hope they will reconstruct the faces of other crew members, it's so fashinating.

Signo

It's interesting, maybe the tube theory could explain why some kind of solid rings appear D shaped.

Signo

Honestly Wade, the rings are welded construction to me, but obviously you can see them in 3D... but there are corrosion lines that run around the solid rings, and not across them, and some ring has a little boulge that is similar to welded ones. Maybe those signs that you see on some rings are the i...

Signo

Punched rings while superior to our modern understanding, may not have been considered superior back then. Why? The answer maybe is in the same proof that punched rings exists : slag stringers. We consider those slag lines just.. lines, but they are the weakest points of the metal ring. Drawing wire...

Signo

I make mail in rows, and I had 2 rivets at a time if I'm making a simple panel. I start with a chain that is 2-1-2-1-2-.. and below it I add 1-2 for start a new row and then 1-1 I keep the closed rivet in my fingers, so that the opened ring is kept firm even If I don't hold it, then I pass the ring ...

Signo

I'm no expert, but my limited trials had the same problem. My idea is this: If the mold is not hot enough, and the metal is just barely its melting point, then, as soon as the two makes contact, the first metal poured into the mold solidify. Vents are important to make the metal flow into the mold f...

Signo

I know it is of little help, but some years ago I took the chance to meet Carlo in his workshop in Milan, he is a very kind man, and not only opened his vault to show me some pieces that he was keeping there, he led me in a tour in Milan to show me some very good museums. I have just a vague idea of...

Re: Lordly armour

Re: Gothic Armour

Re: Okay- What is it?

Re: New video on raising a Sallet

Re: Great helm + bascinet question

Re: To wear a hauberk under plate or not, that is the questi

Re: Indian armourers have reached the next level of excellen

Re: Indian armourers have reached the next level of excellen

Re: To wear a hauberk under plate or not, that is the questi

Re: To wear a hauberk under plate or not, that is the questi

Re: Safety... meh

Re: Safety... meh

Re: Mating breastplate to backplate issues

Re: Keeping score in Deed's.

Re: Keeping score in Deed's.

Re: Great helm + bascinet question

Re: Great helm + bascinet question

Re: Study session in Italy

Re: Gothic Armour

Re: Disappearance of half-solid mail?

Re: Italian arms, construction progress

Re: $715 or FREE?? (Italian Renaissance Armour Book)

Re: Study session in Italy

Re: Free preview of my new book on surviving bascinets

Re: Tailoring a mail sleeve

Re: Medieval Knights May Have Had PTSD

Re: Medieval Knights May Have Had PTSD

Re: Butted Mail Historical for Tournament?

Re: New Mary Rose Article

Re: Disappearance of half-solid mail?

Re: Disappearance of half-solid mail?

Re: Disappearance of half-solid mail?

Re: Maximilian style hunting gauntlets

Re: Casting bronze into clay

Re: Study session in Italy