The Armour Archive

Kilkenny

dheisey wrote:Nice work...I think the pattern would look good in relief also...But this is really nice.

It's a combination of stamped and incised work. Resolution limits on the camera prevent any of the texture from showing.

Gavin

Kilkenny

I like it! I would have been tempted to paint the background and the border, but I'm just guessing at the 14th century aesthetic. Why didn't they carve those stone effigies in color? And where are the exploded views ? Didn't those people know we were going to want to reproduce their stuff ? I'm sti...

Kilkenny

I think we are in close agreement, in fact I can see little we don't agree on. <snip> I My main theme, is that the depictions accompanying the Mac bible for example can't be relied on as gospel <snip> Personally, I think that is outside the realm of possibility, but if someone wants to dress up a p...

Kilkenny

I do agree with the notion that the person who took brush to paper didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t necessarily know what a real battle looked like, and maybe had never even seen a real knight. Maybe he was just copying a picture from another book. Gavin: This is one of those dangerous kinds of hypotheticals. At what...

Kilkenny

Tim has a good point concisely made "the best seek out the best to become better". You want habits of top fighters that make them top fighters ? They do physical conditioning besides practice, and it's a habit that they maintain and keep up consistently, not something they let fall when it's a bit i...

Kilkenny

It's a painting , done for decoration Ã¢â‚¬Å“That castle looks really small! It looks like they can just barely fit out the door! Ã¢â‚¬Å“ I think using this for any true idea of whether plate is proof against a spear thrust is a bit silly. The Mac bible has guys in chain getting cut in half with a ...

Kilkenny

Well. There is no overcoming "I'll see it when I believe it".

Gavin

Kilkenny

And further progress. Tooling painted.

Kilkenny

I thought that third one was interesting. Did you notice the two fellows being wounded by spears ? Looks to me rather like they're being struck right through their harness.

The little guys in the first one demonstrating authentic sword and shield technique I find very funny.

Gavin

Kilkenny

I spent way too much time last night on line going through images of illuminated manuscripts fo the 14th century trying to build my sense of their aesthetic and gain inspiration.

Here's the result so far.

Let me know what you think, please.

Gavin

Kilkenny

Here are a couple of things I've been working on, they're up to the strapping stage right now. Tooling, painting, dyeing and hardening all completed. The gorget goes with the black and gold arms and legs I posted before. The vambraces go with the hearts and flowers greaves, also posted previously.

Kilkenny

WMA bouting, in my understanding, tends to match up people of approximately equal experience and skill, and to require a significant level of experience and skill befor people are permitted to bout at all. Opponents will generally be fairly evenly matched. Gavin Actually, at least in my school, we ...

Kilkenny

PSI will tell you the amount of force used. But force isnt all there is. In fact, I would say impact force has about 30% or less to do with a blow. The rest? momentum and Energy. Kinetic energy to be precise. The old explanation goes: Momentum knocks you off the barstool, and Kinetic energy breaks ...

Kilkenny

"the death of Lord Warwick in 1471, the man was in full armor, well trained, and a war veteran. Two archers caught him without a weapon looking for a horse; they knocked him down and stabbed him in the face through his visor with daggers." Damn churls. John Jehan de Pelham, esquire and servant of S...

Kilkenny

Congratulations to teacher and student both.

Gavin

Kilkenny

I was browsing illuminations tonight, just looking for some inspiration and soaking in the aesthetic. Came across some particularly amusing, or perhaps perverse, little bits:

http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/ILLUMIN.ASP ... IllID=8661
http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/ILLUMIN.ASP ... IllID=2465
http://prodigi.bl.uk/illcat/ILLUMIN.ASP ... IllID=4954

Gavin

Kilkenny

I have recently come to a realization. I have a great onside leg shot, both at range and closing. The problem is I have trouble killing people once they are legged. I have tried a couple of different methods but nothing seems to be working right now. I fight with a giant door (24x44" heater), which...

Kilkenny

[quote="mike mercier Wasn't the "idea" of the SCA to fight in plate for safety reasons, but in theory play as if in maille only? If that is the case I would think the force used in the SCA is more than sufficient to break bones with a steel sword (provided the theory is correct with the fighter in m...

Kilkenny

chance to use those fundamental principles in a competitive situation. It doesn't matter if I know every single meisterhau and can cut a reed mat like slicing butter if I can't hit my opponent because he has a better sense of distance, position, and tempo than I do. That was nearly the exact point ...

Kilkenny

ah, i was talking about the durattan, which is solid plastic. one of the other posters talked about rattan molded into polymer, which i've heard of but never handled. probably much like the rattan sewn into rawhide....brutal. ahhh.. my impression was that durattan was a treated rattan. Thanks for t...

Kilkenny

Richard's advice is very good; I hope he'll excuse if I distill out the 3 main points that I feel to be key. - Practice often. There is no such thing as too often as long as your body agrees. - Practice seriously. This should still be fun, but it needs to be approached with a "what am I working on ...

Kilkenny

That would be called a siloflex sword, and they are already used by some in the SCA. takes a set curve after use As does rattan. Depends a very great deal on your rattan. None of my swords develop curves, from combat or otherwise. But then getting a 2 plus inch diameter piece of rattan to bend much...

Kilkenny

Aaron wrote:
*
I swing a pollaxeÃ¢â‚¬Â¦it's more natural for me to have two hands on my weapons.

Ok, at Pennsic remind me you wrote this, I have to hit you for it

Gavin

Kilkenny

In a serious vein, responding to the question - The closest I'm aware of was a study conducted by Count Sir Pieter Van Doorn (spelling? someone from the Middle please correct me). Pieter ran the semi-famous "bowling ball test", wherein people were given the opportunity to knock a 16 pound bowling ba...

Kilkenny

A heat gun is too sporadic and uneven, without a lot of patience and practice, in my experience. I would suggest two things for you to try in your next attempts. First, allow the leather to case overnight and set in its shape before bake drying. Either that, or allow it to case set overnight before...

Kilkenny

Even a wood waster will not teach you how to cut properly; you need a sharp sword and a target. Die, milk jug, DIE! Swinging an effective, targetted cut with a sharp one-handed sword is much more difficult than it seems. I agree that this is true, otoh, it is more difficult to maintain something ap...

Kilkenny

so, until i meet the guy that fights with metal swords and reads the fight books and hits with full forced blows i really dont want to hear shit about my silly rattan baton fighting being fake or silly. its no more silly than playing tag with real weapons. The one issue I see with this statement is...

Kilkenny

[ It sounds as if you are using too much heat, or perhaps a steel sheet to dry the pieces on. If you can tell me how you are attempting my method, I can attemtp to help you with suggestions on how to avoid the difficulties. I have enjoyed a fairly high success rate with consistency and hardness, so...

Kilkenny

Are the bazubands for SCA combat? I think the Bazubands have a good historical shape to them. The photos are kind of small so it is hard to see detail, but it looks like you did a pretty good job. Did you use Dan's Tutorial on water hardening and dishing to make them? Yes they're for SCA combat. So...

Kilkenny

I really can't imagine it being an effective technique to take off my pommel, and throw it at my opponent. This would be from the " Gladiatoria ", wherein the armored combatant is also advised to immediately rush in with longsword and spear after the throw. In close measure (where one would be liab...

Kilkenny

No feedback at all ?

Gavin

Kilkenny

I'm with Sean on the flat front nippers. You can go right through the leather that the rivet's holding and into the rivet shaft, cut it right off and if the head didn't drop you can pop it off with a nail set (or a nail) and a tap of a hammer. In addition to the horseshoe nippers you can do similar ...

Kilkenny

I'm making a set of finger gauntlets but haven't got to the fingers yet. My question is should I go with full wrap around lames or just top of the finger splints. I plan on using them for sword and sheild (cross hilt), greatsword, pole and pike. You folks out there who have finger gauntlets, what d...

Kilkenny

<snip> I didnt feel that my comments to critter were negative at all. I asked him to define a term I was not familiar with and offered my oppinion on what I interpreted his comments to be. Killkenny supplied a more clear idea of what critter meant and critter confirmed thats what he meant. Thats fi...

Kilkenny

I am pretty sure untreateated leather is defined as 7-8 oz leather. I have known several people to use saddle skirting (15 oz.) untreated, besides compressing through work hardening, and they have not had a problem with it at all. Something important to keep in mind about saddle skirting is that it...

Tooled leather cuisse in progress

new gorget, vambraces

some curious images

Re: Fighting Legged Opponents (SCA)

Re: finger gauntlets