The Armour Archive

lorenzo2

Everyone has that problem to some extent. Look very carefully at Eric Dube's video, he has small ones. The answers are 1. leave extra on the pattern so you can trim away the cracks, 2. trim the cracks as soon as they happen when they are small, 3. never bend the fan out of the way cold, do like eric...

lorenzo2

I think I have seen a 16th century armoured prosthetic. I will see if I can dig a pic up.

lorenzo2

For every instance where there has been a serious injury from zinc fumes such as the one reported there have been many minor ones as wcallen describes. In toxicology there is a phrase "the dose makes the poison" For zinc it a lot is needed for it to be deadly. For example, the dose that is...

lorenzo2

One also should not forget that the shield stayed in fashion for foot soldiers long after it did for mounted knights. If a shield is used as a primary defense a secondary plate groin defense may not have been needed, just mail as was previously mentioned.

lorenzo2

There is a kind of round weight that used to be found on cables for small cranes. Sometimes you can find them at junk yards with the cable removed. These make fine giant ball stakes after you grind out the dings in them. Call your local junk yards and scrap metal dealers. I have seen a couple over t...

lorenzo2

The text does mention attachment of rods. Perhaps we are seeing leather lacing over those? Some decorative spanish lacing on saddles has patterns that remind me of the ones shown in the illustration.

lorenzo2

Thanks, I was just wondering if there was some effigy that made it obvious what the mysterious rivets were holding.

lorenzo2

I have read that some soles have several layers of clumps and that sometimes the innermost layer shows no obvious sign of wear. This may indicate that clumps were sometimes put on in anticipation of wear, not after it occured. In any case several layers of clumps will make for a very sturdy sole.

lorenzo2

The MOL book on textiles shows many of pieces of cloth and clothing scraps made from woven wool and dated pre 1400s. In the appendix the exact weave is recorded. No doubt that woven wool was common in clothing for the whole medieval period in England.

lorenzo2

Thaks Talbot those are some interesting images. You will note the brig has clusters of three rivets and a countercurved waist lame. From my research this appears to make it more likely 15th century. As to the PDF, I believe there is scanner software that can "read" text, maybe that could h...

lorenzo2

The Chalcis find certainly seems to fit that model, old but servicible arms kept for use if needed. The find included a few more up to date pieces, some renovated pieces, and a large stock of arrow heads and caltrops. But, most of the armour would have been decades out of date when the castle was ta...

lorenzo2

Hopefully the squires were working overtime drying and shining up those wonderful suites afterwards

Looks like a good time was had by all.

lorenzo2

Mac, while this effigy is up for examination I wonder if you could give your opinion on what the knee defenses consist of. The rivets around the knee and the oddly shaped panels above and below have got me stumped. Some kind of covered armor or a floating defense perhaps?

lorenzo2

I wear gloves with a vibration damping gel pad in the palm. Seems to help quite a bit.

lorenzo2

Nice, how do the horses respond to them?

lorenzo2

You might also want to take a look at the patterns in this

http://www.brighthelm.org/armour/Basic-Armouring.pdf

lorenzo2

If you are working in mild you could probably do it in three pieces, two sides and a top rim. Getting the side pieces even and fitting properly is going to tough though. If I were you I would do something like as shown on age of armour and normalize/anneal between passes. If you don't care about the...

lorenzo2

How about getting some pattens to extend the life of teh sole?

lorenzo2

Not to derail the thread but how is that helmet coming Nissan? The visor has such weird yet strangely cool and appealing design.

lorenzo2

That italian brig has an unusually long skirt, do we know what the date on it is? Also it has a breast plate config that I have not seen before

lorenzo2

Another way that looks right from a distance is to take the brass cones they sell for beading (solid brass sheet, not plated) and roll them to a smaller diameter on an awl. Takes a few minutes but you end up with a nice tight cone that works fairly well as a point tip. You attach them as previously ...

lorenzo2

I have used Dharma's procyion dyes on some canvas weight linen. Do exactly what they say and the colors come out very well. Take special care to really agitate well so the dye contacts all areas of the fabric evenly. Otherwise you will get some light spots. The Procyion has proved pretty color fast ...

lorenzo2

Here is one example. m This is late 15th century I believe. James has pointed out something I did not consider in my initial comments. It seems that all the pics I have of the sleeveless style are all too late for the original question, IE mid 15th century. I withdraw my original contention that Ped...

lorenzo2

I usually do what Sean says about making tools as needed. However, since you have the stakes made up already I think you should consider making a slot in the round one like is shown on the age of armour site. Read throught the tutorial and see if you might want to do something similar m I also have ...

lorenzo2

Peder is mistaken on the cowbow shirt and sleeveless doublet look. There are illuminations that show that look for laborers engaged in labor quite clearly. However, unless that is what you are portraying the look would not be appropriate.

lorenzo2

The pics lienhart posted are from one the versions of the romance of the rose. The entire work is highly allegorical and the pics should be taken in that context.

lorenzo2

Thanks, that is just what I was wondering.

lorenzo2

Those came out very nice. Were you thinking about attaching clump soles to them?

lorenzo2

There was a trade in petroleum products in the ancient world derived from several areas where petroluem occured at or near the surface in areas controled by Byzantium. This circumstantial evidence may be what they are basing their claim that petroleim products were a constituent in Greek fire.

lorenzo2

In the latter periods they certainly wore quilted garments under mail. For example here is a 14th cent. illumination of the samnites surrendering their mail to the romans.

http://home.armourarchive.org/members/l ... armies.bmp

In the earlier periods however I am not aware of much hard evidence for what was worn.

lorenzo2

Thanks Black Swan that makes sense.

lorenzo2

Black Swan, is there not a point at which you knot the free ends of the drawstring that have passed throught he bead?

lorenzo2

For a 15th century cop I think the part that fits over the point of the elbow should be deeper. As you achieve that depth you will find that the sides of the cop that do not contain the pivot rivets will change thier angle so they become closer to perpendicular to the surface of the arm. This in tur...

lorenzo2

I do not believe that those cops are dished deeply enough for the movement that you desire. by going deeper you should be able to make the angle of the edges where the lames go much closer to perpendicular to the surface of the unflexed arm.

lorenzo2

Amazing work