The Armour Archive

James Arlen Gillaspie

Heads up, everyone east of Arizona - it airs January 22! Even in Charlotte, NC. In some places, it airs twice a week.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Thanks, Corey! It could have been better if we had had more than two shooting days.

James Arlen Gillaspie

DO NOT FORGET THE CITY MUSEUM!!! It has a fantastic collection, including the earliest complete European plate horse armour. Oh, and don't forget Schloss Ambras! When you write, be detailed, be technical, and ask questions about it that they probably don't know which would require examination of the...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Write ahead if there is anything in particular you are interested, and stress your scholarly interest and credentials, if any (do you teach?). They might just set up something for you. Oh, and no flash (check and see if you can get an exception if you think you need to), and no tripods or monopods o...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I stumbled across these on Flickr, and wanted to share the joy.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/107612254 ... 1005711184

James Arlen Gillaspie

They look like a cross between Greenwich pauldrons and the standard European pauldron, with the small lames on the upper cannon overlapping top over bottom.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Wade, good to see the pauldrons right way round!

James Arlen Gillaspie

The etching is German, and is very reminiscent of some of the Augsburg etchers, but not too much like that on most of the Helmschmids' stuff. A possibility that has not been mentioned is after-market etching, like this chanfron at the Met that proudly advertises itself as '1539', but which was made ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Their rivets were modern round heads (on many obvious pieces) and the holes had just been bored out to make them work. :x :x :x :cry: I wouldn't blame the current staff for that; a century or so ago, the soldiers in charge were scrubbing off the gilding with brick dust and motor oil, and, as so oft...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Better to go with 4130, which is much more forgiving, yields just as strong a product, and visually looks no different.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Here are a couple of bits to show some of the etching.

: Madrid E 88 98i 001.crp.jpg (47.55 KiB) Viewed 464 times

: E 88 56t 001.crp.jpg (48.29 KiB) Viewed 464 times

James Arlen Gillaspie

Your photos are ok but they must have been cropped to fit the ridiculously small image size that this forum accepts, I was hoping that you might have a larger size of the same images. Nothing useful was lost in those two images, I assure you. The rest was blurry. As soon as I get home, I'll have to...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Treasures of the World; the Kings of Spain by Grunfeld has the best photo you will find of one of the pair. Mine were taken with film in a VERY dark place, so what you see is as good as it gets!

James Arlen Gillaspie

The photos most recently posted are of the E 88-89 pair in Madrid, once owned by Charles V, but seeing as they are man-sized, I suspect strongly they once belonged to a full harness by an unknown maker that belonged either to his father or grandfather, Maximilian I. I don't think they are by Lorenz ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

You don't need to make a form like that. It would restrict you to a single size of knuckle. You just have to figure out what smaller forms will create that total effect. I guarantee you that Ugo wouldn't need to make such a form, and neither did I when I made a big fat roped up roll for a c. 1520's ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Does anyone know what the two hook-shaped tools in the upper right corner are?

James Arlen Gillaspie

Derian, do you have any pictures of engravers that were pulled instead of pushed? Years ago, I was talking to a jeweler who had studied the history of engraving and he told me these were an old form of the tool. I have never come across such a thing, however.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Latest news; if you live around Los Angeles, my episode will air the 19th and 20th of this month. If you live in New York or New Jersey (at least where I've looked), it'll be awhile.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Well preserved Maximilian armour often has some pretty wide lines on the larger surfaces. Gauntlets, not so much.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mac, I'm curious as to the piece that allowed you to have a good look at the bottoms of the grooves. How did that come about? Also; these cuisses at the RA in Leeds do not have sliders in the knees. They rely on a combination of varying the rotational axes of the lames (off parallel to a large degre...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mac, I'm sorry I never got back to you about the attempt to take photos of the bottoms of the incised lines on the real stuff, but there were a couple of difficult to resolve issues. Most of the time the bottoms of the lines have a fine thick layer of centuries old black oxide in them, so the tool m...

James Arlen Gillaspie

It may be that this is not an either/or. This comes from a very distant culture, but if I remember properly, I was surprised to find that the famous 'silk' laces used to hold Japanese armour together were actually hemp wrapped in silk. I think it quite possible for civilian wear that pure silk would...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I've got your solution right here. 8) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Propane-Torch-w-3-Nozzles-Lawn-Landscape-Weed-Burner-Ice-Snow-Melter-/261650785454?hash=item3ceb9a24ae:g:jOIAAOSwgQ9V55I~ This is my workhorse for most heating tasks. I need to get bigger tanks for my oxy-acetylene rig for quick ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

It seems that Dave, Wade and I are equally cool - no big surprise.

I think there's somebody out there who will surpass us, however.

James Arlen Gillaspie

It must be 'most cool last'.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I didn't see the visor when I was there. The photos at the top of this post look more recent than 1993.

James Arlen Gillaspie

All I can say is that I'm episode #9 in the second season, and my local station is repeating the first season (which means I can get caught up!), so it'll be awhile, at least around Albany.

James Arlen Gillaspie

One thing you have to admit, though... It's only up because of popular demand. People just can't let it go. You can't argue with the fact, however, that they've done their best to make sure that people know what it really is! The problem is due to such things as old books being what most people firs...

James Arlen Gillaspie

The passing of pieces through dealer's hands can complicate things. I don't like the angle at which the visor joins the pivots, to add to Mac's objections (number of barrels in the hinge, etc). One would like to see six barrels in the hinge. However, the arms would have to be as long as they are to ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I took those photos of the visorless barbute back in the last century - 1993.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I was going to ask if anyone else was still waiting. No need to panic yet, it seems.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I just had a dumb idea... It occurred to me that perhaps in some places the makers of latten links supplied them to the iron mailsmiths who assembled them however they needed, and just used the rivets they had on hand, which, of course, were iron. Apparently latten rivets were not necessary to get t...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I had 1/4" thick round plate lying about, so that's what I used, but I'd go with 3/8" next time.

James Arlen Gillaspie

In my copy of Metalsmithing (for the Artist Craftsman) by Richard Thomas, copyright 1960, he writes (p.30), "Pressing (also called 'stretching' is probably the oldest method of raising metals because it may be started from a thick slug of metal roughly poured from the crucible. In contemporary pract...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm still waiting for my copy. :sad: Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to isolate these things from each other, due to the tendency of armourers throughout history to cross-polinate and bring elements of things back into fashion after long absence. That, and it indicates a common concern across...

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Coppergate (York) Helm photos

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Re: German 'gothic' gauntlet of extreme form

Re: German 'gothic' gauntlet of extreme form

Re: German 'gothic' gauntlet of extreme form

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Re: engraved / chiseled lines sidewise flutings

Re: engraved / chiseled lines sidewise flutings

Re: TV show- 'A Craftsman's Legacy' -armour

Re: engraved / chiseled lines sidewise flutings

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Re: Armour of the English Knight 1400-50: PRE-ORDER IS OPEN!

Re: Visored barbute at Museé de l'Armeé

Re: TV show- 'A Craftsman's Legacy' -armour

Re: Visored barbute at Museé de l'Armeé

Re: Visored barbute at Museé de l'Armeé

Re: Visored barbute at Museé de l'Armeé

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Re: Helmet Formed by Squashing Technique Video

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