The Armour Archive

James Arlen Gillaspie

The BIG problem with that test, near as I can tell from the equipment, is that it does not replicate the MOMENTUM of a lancestrike, just the kinetic energy. I also wonder if they are replicating a strike on a STATIONARY target or are they simulating the combined velocities of two mounted combatants....

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Regulus, thanks for keeping them looking good!

"Some years ago", yes, it was a few, alright!

Something I thought I'd better correct, though; I made the cuffs out of 16 gauge. I didn't want them to dent too easily!

James Arlen Gillaspie

And here is one more.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mac has instigated me to post (no pun intended) some pic's of cullet securing systems.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Here's that cullet sketch. Also, your middle portrait is indeed reversed; the lance rest is a dead giveaway.

James Arlen Gillaspie

The harness looks very late Greenwich to me, with similar arm harness to the attached pics. It's also a bit similar to a French example. The cullet (skirt to protect the posterior) is very deep, of a form seen often on cuirassier armours of the 17th c.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Once hinges came to be manufactured in a modern industrial sense, they became far less valuable. What I have seen are the results of the activities of dealers, buying up whatever hinges they could scrounge and often putting thumbs on the wrong gauntlets. Easy to happen, since, without the hinges, th...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hinges were valuable hardware, and gauntlets were often stripped. I don't know how many gauntlets I've seen that had replaced (real, handmade, but scrounged) hinges.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Kel, The fact that many armors in Segovia are typically for 5' tall men is a give away as well. Alvar Yes, Winkelmayer tended to work small. The 'de Souzy' suit that hit the news a decade or so back claiming to be Joan of Arc's only got traction in some quarters because metallurgical examination of...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Winkelmayer, Winkelmayer, Winkelmayer!!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Thanks, Kerry! GOMPlayer worked. All I could get with RealPlayer was a black screen.

James Arlen Gillaspie

OK... So what sort of program do I need to see Wade's video? RealPlayer choked...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mr. Radford, in particular, is a very shy boy. I've never met him, and I've at least shaken hands with most.

James Arlen Gillaspie

The suit in question (note I don't call it a 'harness'; I tend to reserve that term for the working models) is obviously trying to be the attached harness, http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/files/9.17.09_013_179.jpg which is the way certain elements of KMW A79 were displayed some decades ago. T...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Go to flickr.com and enter
chateau de grandson
in the search engine. You'll see that along with the real stuff there's some 'Schmitt' in the mix!

Not that I think this particular suit is 'Schmitt'; I think it's much more recent!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Check and see if your university library has a copy of The Knight and the Blast Furnace by Dr. Alan Williams. It's the big book of the metallurgy of European plate armour.

James Arlen Gillaspie

The Royal Armouries had only one name on their short list for 'Master Armourer' at the Craft Court, and that name was Billy Radford. He wouldn't move to Leeds, though, so they had to settle for someone else. David Edge (author of AAOTMK) owns a number of his early pieces (probably can't afford him n...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Good heavens, does no one know the name of Billy Radford?

James Arlen Gillaspie

My halberd, my favorite war weapon, is 7 1/2 feet long. For single combat, I'm going with something two feet shorter.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Yes, it is far easier and FAR cheaper to send the molds, since they are very light if they are the plaster bandage variety. They should be packed VERY carefully though, as they can be quite fragile, depending on how many layers were used. For greaves, I'd say make 'em thick!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Doggone it! I KNOW I took more pictures of those pieces than just this one...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have handled many, many real pieces from many different styles and periods (not a 14th c. arm harness, alas! At least, not yet), and cannot remember a cannon that did not have the 'door' underlapping on both sides.

James Arlen Gillaspie

This is the boy. He's later than I thought; his armour is pretty 'gothicy', very retrograde. The effigy is dated somewhere from 1499 to 1505. Problem is, you can only see the top of his helm in this picture.

James Arlen Gillaspie

A true 'grand bacinet' is fastened to the backplate and breastplate, and does not move with the head. There is a Spanish effigy of the second half of the 15th c. (I'm thinking late 15th) in the Victoria and Albert that does have such a visored 'barbute'. I'm not sure I took photos, though, and my sc...

James Arlen Gillaspie

If quality is crucial, your price point is too low - unless you're looking for UNFLUTED stuff, like this fellow.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I second the Tap Magic!

James Arlen Gillaspie

After thinking about it, yes, I agree with that 14th c. attribution. The shallowness of the cop, the really excessive form of the 'outside' of the lower cannon (vambrace) as compared to later 15th c. pieces... yep. The small internal hinges seemed to put it a bit late, to me, as the Churburg S18's (...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Chuck, do you think this piece is solid 14th c., or do you think it might be very early 15th c.?

James Arlen Gillaspie

The hole diameters (and hence the shank diameters of the rivets) are, if unaltered, smaller than you'd think. I wouldn't be surprised if the hole diameters were no more than 1/8", though on average they'd be a smidge bigger. Often, though, particularly on gauntlets, I have seen how pieces have ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Sigh. IT IS PERFECT. Ergonomically, I'll bet that articulation is close to flawless. It is the modern eye that is #$(*Q!^!! up! Look at it carefully and LEARN.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Meanwhile, here are some length excerpts to get people started;

http://www.archive.org/stream/blaisedemonluc00montiala/blaisedemonluc00montiala_djvu.txt

James Arlen Gillaspie

There are not a lot of closeups of this harness, as it has always been in private hands. You can see more pictures here;

http://www.armsandarmourforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=747

But you might have to register as a member first!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Guys, I'm just going to point out that 'globose' is an adjective- "...breastplate of globose form." If it reminds you of a globe, it's globose. And plenty of mid 15th c. breastplates are 'globose'. Then there are 'Maximilian' breastplates, especially the unfluted ones.

James Arlen Gillaspie

That statue is Vic'y at the earliest.

James Arlen Gillaspie

One should be very careful about taking the Nurnberg 'gothic' as a serious historical example. It has been heavily messed with. The pauldons look like they were of standard mid 15th century Italian construction and then modified, probably in the 19th century.