The Armour Archive

Kilkenny

What guage steel should be used for a bevor in SCA combat - 16 or thicker? Or is 18 allowable. Can't seem to find this, but am assuming it has to be 16 or thicker. It would be advisable to go with the minimum gauge for a helm, as a minimum. There could be a bevor that really wasn't part of the head...

Kilkenny

No disprespect at all intended towards you Gavin, But I still think Bob Fox got robbed. No problem. The situation was a stinking mess and there's no way around it. At least now, after *mumble* years there's been another Crown where someone who had been eliminated from the tournament wound up winnin...

Kilkenny

Gavin who knows more about Knight Riders than most people. Please tell us more. Outstanding good movie if you haven't seen it. Knight riders is, obviously, a variant on the Arthurian legend.. It's also Romero's version of the first Crown Tournament I won. George was at the event. The "villain" in t...

Kilkenny

Nissan Maxima wrote:Zombie rock n roll knights on motorcycles.

Now there's a hobby.

chuckle.. George Romero hasn't made that film..yet. All the parts though...

Gavin
who knows more about Knight Riders than most people.

Kilkenny

As I've grown older, I've become less tolerant of heat conditions than I was in my younger days. I've tried a couple of things to help me get through Pennsic. The cpu fan attached to my face grill worked, but not particularly well What I have found worth doing is freezing my Camelback, and then wear...

Kilkenny

On the West Kingdom e-mail list Duke Fredrick (Flieg Hollander) asserted that he had done some research and found that a rattan sword was, in terms of weight, a good approximation of an SCA time period rapier. This didn't seem right to me so I went in search of numbers. I found Matt Galas's webpage...

Kilkenny

In the SCA, for all intents and purposes, grabbing the blade of a greatsword with one hand makes it an unpadded glaive. There is nothing you can do with a GS in that position that you can't do with a glaive -- and yet glaives are legal, and greatswords are not. This rule was based on incomplete inf...

Kilkenny

Overblocking generally happens because the fighter doesn't know where the blow is going. Because you don't know where it's going, you tend to reach out to intercept it - and reach, and reach, and reach. Now, there's not always a need to intercept the blow, so you don't need to keep reaching to try a...

Kilkenny

Who has taken a structured approach to improving the mental aspect of their fighting? What kind of approach did you find helpful? Were you into sports psychology or did you go into eastern martial arts theory, or something else? Right now, I am not in any other martial arts and I am looking for som...

Kilkenny

Yeah! I remember one time hearing a senior fighter telling that he gave his mace a little something extra by wrapping the head end of the stick with "a little" sheet lead. Then putting the foam over it to cover it and make it "Legal"! That was quite some time ago, I later read in a really old fight...

Kilkenny

I recently went thought a similar weapon issue with a local fighter. It was based on the idea that you cant use anything rigid in the striking surface, but if you add adequate padding, the rigid material isnt exactly in the striking surface , the padding is. The ruling was, if that would be the cas...

Kilkenny

Can anyone offer some advice on what weight of leather to use for the backing on a set of scale body armor? I am going to be using metal scale (approx 18g, 2x4) and am still new at this so any advice would be appreciated. I had also heard that buffalo hide is more durable than cow hide. Is that tru...

Kilkenny

You think that just saying "shit happens" is enough? How can you accept so easily that people get seriously injured? And if tomorrow someone die? What would happen then? What would happen then is that someone would be dead. Simple as that. People die worldwide every day doing silly stuff for fun. P...

Kilkenny

(practicality check) Why would people put dissimilar metals in mail, and why would they use the (generally) less malleable material for the rivet? For that nifty tingling sensation when their sweat turned the mail into a battery But that doesn't explain why the iron for the rivet.... Gavin

Kilkenny

I'm sure I've seen spun cones in the SCA in the past. Mild steel. Never had a source for them, though. Anyone else dredge up an old memory? Well, yeah... ancient history, back when we learned why not to use spun tops for helmets...nothing of any relevance to the present question though. Gavin

Kilkenny

I was wondering if an heralds out there could give me a hand with the blazon of my "new" device. Let me describe it. The chief is embattled with three maces in it. Maces are silver/metallic. and the chief is green. In the base, there is a wolf sejant head erect, base is blue. Lets see if my ascii i...

Kilkenny

i would personally guest Mrk know how to grind......and if he does not want the damn tool rest, thats fine Here's an example of why it's not such a good idea to dismiss safety advice. m Not that Mrks doesn't look like he's safety conscious and taking lots of good precautions. People who know very w...

Kilkenny

I'm going to disagree a bit with Sasha. If this sort of helm were done with a suspension liner rather than conventional padding, and if one wore an appropriate coif, it should be entirely possible to have it sit firmly on the head where it belongs and not go rocking about. It would also be possible ...

Kilkenny

Greetings, ok, so I have been asked by a couple of the newer fighters in our local group to work on defence with them. I have always considered a strong defence the basis for a good offence. (opinions may differ, but that is not the point of this post.) So as I was thinking about this for next prac...

Kilkenny

A friend of mine and I can't agree on something and I was hoping y'all could resolve it. At a Ren Faire that is coming up soon, the SCA will be there and another group that I am a member of will be there. Neither group is running the Ren Faire. Anyway, I am going to help the non-SCA group with thei...

Kilkenny

no no no.. you are thinking i'm going to focus mostly on that... that is not it... as i said.. it is purely research... it was just a thing i wondered about while thinking of fighting. And i know not to focus on too few things.. or get set in some standard way... i do know to read your opponents mo...

Kilkenny

I have an old propane tank from a BBQ. Would that be strong enough for making a helmet for SCA use? The shape looks like most of the job is done. What kind of saw should I use to cut it apart? Aside from all the other comments that have been made, the answer is almost certainly no. Many years ago w...

Kilkenny

it doesn't have to be the same with a right vs left fighter... one reason to do the offside is to get around his shield... if you do offside on a leftie you usually meets his shield.. that's why i wanted the right vs right... this is purely research, as i'm trying to define some fighting for right ...

Kilkenny

I am appalled that this is on the net, the disgraceful use of a stolen government safety sign. I guess it is ok, since the SCA Chivalry is condoning it. Why bother painting over this 'authentic' shield? This is a promotional video, it's message is 'hi, we are thieves of public property, come join u...

Kilkenny

I go through an enormous series of permutations, all basically trying to get my single best shot to work, a flat snap to the left side of my opponent's head. I'm also primarily a two sword fighter, haven't really used my shield in years. In the course of all the permutations trying to make an openin...

Kilkenny

But that doesn't mean you should use hardwood. Splinters...which could thoeretically pop through an eye slot plus the fact that hardwood would break easier means youd probably have to keep making yourself a new crossgaurd after every time you fought. And then what happens if it breaks during a mele...

Kilkenny

Cap'n Atli wrote:"Hello; we're portraying a group of 21st century reenactors. There are no anachronisms in our camp!"

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

gavin

Kilkenny

It's a cheap shot because there's an assumption that simply because I'm a member of the certain group (the SCA, which is very large), that my point of view, purpose, and reasoning is somehow inferior. Charlotte's words were a pithy, insensitive dismissal, and, yes, I am offended. Mord, Your post se...

Kilkenny

I am getting so many great tips!!! Thanks so much for all of the help and the kind comments! A viking boot is what I was going for, mainly based on a shoe I saw on Armlann's (sp?) site. Of course, I decided on that style AFTER I had already cut out the pieces. I am unfamiliar with the "types" of le...

Kilkenny

Konstatin, Thanks for that description! I guess I thought "live steel" and "rebated steel" were also part of the SCA, although I don't actually know what those terms mean. So SCA is mainly rattan? What about the fencing? Do they use the normal fencing swords or are they modified in some way? I just...

Kilkenny

Or better yet, could you put a painted/dyed cloth covering over a clamshell in order to make it somewhat resemble a mail mitten, since that is the theoretical standard? Why not just make plastic/leather/metal clamshell gaunts and cover them up with real mail? Covering stuff up seems to be what SCA ...

Kilkenny

I've finally gotten my workshop space into working order! Some things had to come first, like installing a toilet and getting the basement floor finished. It's still a little messy, but it's all the space I will need for my dive into .......... My armoring enthusiasm is now only limited by time. I ...

Kilkenny

just a suggestion. Id planed a 3" stick of rattan down to 1 1/4 on a power planer ( the old kind with a 6" plane not the new roller type) and while it looked like a king rene stick it was still a fish bat. I think I used it for a few events in drachenwald when I first started and it ended up as a p...

Kilkenny

Where do you get Arnica from and what is it? Thanks! (nice one!) Health food stores, including even chains like GNC, will generally have it. What I'm talking about is a homeopathic concoction made from Arnica Montana and taken orally. I've seen ointments with arnica, but can't speak for their effec...

Kilkenny

According to another thread, shrink tubing is most likely ok to cover SCA weapons. What about tool dip? This stuff has just become available in my neck of the woods and I was wondering if I could use it to keep my sword from looking like a duct-tape chew toy after every practice. would it work on a...

Re: Bevor guage (SCA)

Re: [SCA] Rattan Sword Weights vs Authentic

overblocking

Re: [SCA] The Mental Game

Re: What weight of leather?

Re: Blazon (SCA)

Re: defence drills

Re: Marshal question / argument resolution

Re: Propane tank helmet

Re: Workshop Ready, request encouragement!

Re: Tool dip (SCA)