The Armour Archive

James Arlen Gillaspie

This discussion has been helpful to me as far as clarifying the problems with my long held idea that cased cuisses could be converted to the usual form, as the idea of riding long distances essentially standing up in the saddle the whole time did not sound appealing to me. The convertible cuisse see...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have to admit I am flat baffled. All those North Italian cased cuisses, with no straps shown at all! I'm not seeing straps on most of the lower cannons either, though there are a few with some dashed lines that must be straps. I admit there really isn't any reason I can think of why they just coul...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I think leather hinges are a SCAdianism, though you never can be sure what was done early on. I don't know how they would have been held on other than hinges with removeable pins, as per Mac's example (but then what would hold the cuisses on if our man decided to do without the 'wrap plates'? Pinned...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Quoting myself, I am thinking that the backs of the closed cuisses may have often been removeable. Are the Chartres cuisse holes just for straps, or for the attachment of a, for want of a better term, as the SCAdians say, a 'wrap plate'? If so, why not use hinges? I am not saying that the El Puig le...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Nothing that I ever noticed.

James Arlen Gillaspie

To continue to belabor the point, men-at-arms traveled with several horses and saddles, and usually didn't ride their warhorse till action was imminent. They seem to have worn their harness quite often on campaign even when they didn't think it was, perhaps because it is best to be ready for anythin...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I used to case harden my own stuff in my early days, before I found a source for medium carbon steel. I used a combination of two carburizing powders, Kasenit and Welco. Just be careful of warping, and draw back the temper a little after the quench. You don't have to go all the way to blue.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I think I personally would find them uncomfortable to ride in for a lengthy period of time, as was often done (helm/et and gauntlets doffed, of course). And they would only be useful on foot.

James Arlen Gillaspie

How about something more real? These might be textile covered, though; hard to tell. Check out the bigger pic in the leather armour thread. Note what appears to be tooled patterns.

: covered legs_smg.jpg (82.15 KiB) Viewed 2055 times

James Arlen Gillaspie

and then over this a bracer, four fingers thick and stuffed with cotton.

This quote from King Rene; could this be a term (French in the original, but the English might be close) that could be looked for in inventories, for the garment the mail is attached to?

James Arlen Gillaspie

More data on this pic please! Is it Italian, c. 1450 or so?

James Arlen Gillaspie

More data on this pic please! Is it Italian, c. 1450 or so?

James Arlen Gillaspie

To continue, the Helmschmids were a family, with Jorg Junior (Jorg was the name of Lorenz' and Jorg's father) being a force in his own right. Then there was the early work of Koloman, depending on when he set up his own shop, which would have been in the 'gothic' style. And what of the other Augsbur...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm not sure we will ever be able to make a sharp distinction between "great helm" and "sugarloaf helm". I suspect that if they were two "tribes", their relationship was a peaceful one, and they looked to one another for brides. :lol: :lol: Yes, I see the so-called 'sugarloaf' as being a variant fo...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Since no one has cross posted this yet... admittedly, it does not answer the question.

http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=30411

James Arlen Gillaspie

Can mounted men really wear such fully enclosed cuisses for any length of time? They seem to me to be best for combat on foot, but pointless on horseback. What say the mounted jousters? Walker? Walker?

James Arlen Gillaspie

I think the Madeln II is a member of the elusive 'sugarloaf' tribe. Am I out of my tree, or is anyone with me?

James Arlen Gillaspie

I don't believe that the famous Helmschmid borders were made in the Helmschmid shop. I think the stuff was the product of the famous Augsburg goldsmiths. As such, and considering the popularity of the fleur de lis, I wonder how proprietary the several patterns used by the Helmschmid shop really were...

James Arlen Gillaspie

If we were to start posting pictures of extant English armour from the first half of the 15th century, it would be a very short thread. Great helms and gauntlet pieces, mostly. No leg harness at all that I can think of.

James Arlen Gillaspie

and then over this a bracer, four fingers thick and stuffed with cotton.

What do y'all think this was?

James Arlen Gillaspie

Yes, boiled linseed oil is used by the KMW, and is hard to beat for display purposes. For collectors, I use three coats of good ol' Simoniz paste wax, since it leaves no visible residue and performs quite well, as it really sticks to steel and iron better than any other wax in my experience. I inten...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm thinking the best clues will be gleaned from inventories. Randall? Obviously our German friends could be of great service, too.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Don't forget the 4th c. A.D. Sassanids. According to Ammianus Marcellinus, they used a lot of it, and there's also the mid 3rd c. warriors painted on a wall of the synagogue in Dura Europos.

: Dura EuropusHleba-i-igara-i-rata-ili-hleb-naš-nasušni-freska-rat-Izraela-i-Filistinaca-730x453.jpg (84.26 KiB) Viewed 320 times

James Arlen Gillaspie

Make sure that whoever you go with has the right shapes in his head!

There are frikkin' blueprints of the thing around. There is no excuse for not getting the curves right! He can use a @$#@( contour gage if he has to!

James Arlen Gillaspie

I wear a simple hood underneath mine and fold it back over the top. It's basically the same kind of hood rapier fighters use, except a single layer of linen. Totally hides my gorget and i can pull it up over my head to keep the sun off when I'm not wearing my helm. +1! It's very likely what you wou...

James Arlen Gillaspie

If you happen to be a wood-elf fighting orcs in Laketown, Lars is right on track.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Cian, can you point to some period documentation for horsehair? I've only seen it in dated sources where the material of the example in question, tested later, turned out to be of vegetable origin.

James Arlen Gillaspie

One often sees all sorts of leather cord, thin leather, and cloth stuff attached to North African mail to make it hold its shape or work better in some way, and it seems that European mail often had similar things going on.

James Arlen Gillaspie

It does make me wonder if the old story about bullets and silk shirts might have some validity, for round nosed ammunition traveling slowly. Someone might have thought that it would have the same effect on arrows. Layered silk armour intended to resist bullets has appeared every now and again in the...

James Arlen Gillaspie

The whole thing is quite impressive, and I would love to have one. I would not use it for its original purpose, however.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Well, Mac, I haven't decided anything yet. I have long noted, however, that tournament equipment is always showing up in battlefield scenes. The most obvious is the 'frog mouth' jousting helm, and then there are the tonlet armours that appear in the famous 'Battle of Orsha' painting. Artists tend to...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I should have read the 'Jousting Life' articles first. That changes the way I see the Henry V saddle. Now I'm wondering if it is not some sort of tournament saddle.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Research Henry V's warsaddle that was part of his funerary achievement. There's a detailed write-up on it, which I think Mac used and Jeff Wasson definitely used. There's a thread about it.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Whoever you go with, don't accept flat shapeless pieces of sheetmetal in place of splints!

They should have some subtle form to them, straighter towards the knee with more curvature higher up, and slightly saddle shaped to the inside of the thigh.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I wonder if the black patch was actually supposed to help the lance tip stick to the breastplate in order to get a more consistent effect. The shape of the breastplate may change, but I see a consistent ergonomic function in most of them, up until heavy cavalry lances go out of favor, and that rathe...

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