The Armour Archive

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mac, don't feel so bad. Check out this guy's work. Most of the old smiths did a pretty crappy job of it (yours would look far better than most with some grinding). Not everyone belonged to Lorenz Helmschmid's shop, and there's a reason he came up with those outside rolls that have a little flange at...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Mac,

I thought of something even craftier, which could be concealed by the flutes/ripples; they could be even less tapered by pushing out the bottom front of the cannon sections a little, just past the point where they bump into the cannon section above when they are bent.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I was taking a lot of my inspiration from the brasses, such as the Swynborne brass above, as the effigies typically have too much magnificent crap all over them to get any idea what is going on, other than the bevor bit having some convexity to it. Thinking about what we could tell about Swyborne ty...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I messed with the tapered cones idea, to refine the look some. Pardon some extraneous lines. Perhaps I have only proved that it won't look good with arms above a certain proportion, as they need to be a bit bigger than the width of the upper arm, though not, if you measure them, all that bad (about ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mac, I think your reassessment of the pauldron geometry will help with the possibility of making the bug-arms. The geometry of the pauldrons as on the statue are pretty wonky, and I don't think it's all due to a model with narrower shoulders than the borrowed armour. Whoever made the armour the stat...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Not wanting to steal any of Mac's thunder ('Dusting off the cobwebs'), I thought I would start a new thread. I am working on a restoration project, and have to replace some missing fauld lames. I had a good sized chunk of the 'Real Wrought Iron' stuff out of the U.K., but not near enough to pattern ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

To continue; The gorget really lacks the lovely lines of many of the effigies. Keep the top view in mind; I have a top view of the 'Black Prince' effigy's helm somewhere.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Here are some pic's of my helm and gorget. I think the flair at the bottom of the chin might work better as a moving lame.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Edges rolled the 'wrong' way occasionally occur on 16th c. armour, particularly the closer to the year 1500 you get, with the deciding factor seeming (to me, at least) sometimes which is easier to do on a particular spot. I dunno, maybe you just have an old journeyman who is used to doing it that wa...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Yay Fluid Film! The best product most people on the Archive have never heard of. But the WD-40 result is truly a shocker!

James Arlen Gillaspie

JamesGArmor088sm.jpg Back in 1997-8, I was working on a film about Jeanne d’Arc, and did a ton of research rounding up as much information as I could find on relevant armour. My conclusion was that both great bacinets and bacinets with separate collars were in use among the English, but the separat...

James Arlen Gillaspie

There is no form of art more dependent on its frame than armour.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I saw the painting at the Kunsthistorishes Museum in Wien in the old palace most people go to (the armour is in the Neue Burg). I had forgotten that the peculiar strapping on the back of the greaves is like that on the statue. I don't quite know what to think about the other harness shown in the pai...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm believing the sculptor because it creates a fine 'gothic' line with a minimum of forging. All you have to do is forge a small flange into the top of that first cullet lame. This one from the RA takes it the other way round, in a more common direction, but the overall effect is very similar. One ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

xtracted already posted a pic.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I've had acetylene flames appear where they shouldn't and that was pretty scary, but once I understood what an oxygen fire was like, I feared them MUCH more. Acetylene you can smell, and the odds of it going back through the line into the tanks, particularly if you have flash-back arrestors on the t...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Keegan - we need data on that child's armour. Where is it at? Any idea who made it? It reminds me of some stuff at the Met, but I'm caught between two computers till later in the month. Maybe later I'll get on the other one and find out. I've had some hands - on with the Vienna example, but unfortun...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Why can't that plackart edge be a latten appliqué? That's what it so often is in this period. It reminds me of the border of the triangular gusset at the top of the 'Sigismund gothic' backplate.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I sure hope you find someone else; my dance card is pretty full right now.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Best of luck with the shot! The problem with being a modern armour maker is that our clients don't really want it just like the real thing; they are not that familiar with real stuff, anyway, so they want it better! This does not help my perfectionist tendencies in the least, nor the bottom line. Sy...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Symmetry?!! We don't need no stinking symmetry! Who do you think you are, Lorenz Helsmschmid?

Seriously, the real thing is usually too cockeyed for moderns to stomach.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have had better results with brine, but after a bad experience I shifted to oil quench for 1050 and it has worked well. As has been commented, however, oil can be a hassle. If you must water quench, I'd go with 4130.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Tom, the catalog says that A 26's sabs are restored, and seems to say that for A 24 as well, though the wording is a bit ambiguous (just the toes, or the whole sabatons?).

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Mac, no, I have never seen real sabatons of any sort that did not have a leather strip down the middle. The motion may be at the knee, but the deviation relative to the rotational plane of the knee has to be accounted for somehow. That's why I told people to do the motion with their leg bentW...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Tom, it would be news to me if there were greave/sabaton combinations that did not have sliders. I have never seen such a thing. In understanding how real pieces work, ORIGINAL rivet shank diameter is critical! Putting a bigger shank diameter in the same holes will drastically affect performance in ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Tom, short answer; in neither case were the sabatons originally attached to the greaves.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I just have to butt in here. The first helm I ever made for myself for SCAdian combat included an old GI helmet liner with the webbing suspension. It worked so well that when I loaned it out, I told the wearer to count really, really light for blows coming from above. The first time I ever wore it, ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I do not ever remember seeing a sharp flute (or ripple) on any real piece of 'German gothic' armour I have ever seen (though some parts, such as knuckle lames, come close), and I have seen quite a bit of the better stuff in museums and some in private hands. Beats me why so many people seem to think...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have a strong suspicion that on the Royal Armouries example, that the diamond shaped riveted on plate covers a large hole.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm going to put in a word for 'Fluid Film' as well, though for collectors displaying pieces, I use good old fashioned Simoniz car wax. Olive oil turns into a yellow plasticy (emphasize 'icky') film, and at the very least would need to be mixed with other substances to yield something acceptable. Oh...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Oh, so he's illiterate, too?

James Arlen Gillaspie

Mac, what is your model number, manufacturer and battery life? Inhumanly good, so I can only assume you're a robot. And I want one. :) Blasphemy! Like the Book of Kells, it is clearly the work of angels! Maybe they were on the outs for awhile, and Mac has worked his way back into their good graces....

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm sure that I’m overthinking this, but seeing this (http://www.allenantiques.com/images/Geo ... urSide.jpg) picture made me wonder if there is any benefit of having more airspace between the body and the armor. Does it help any with spreading a blow over the body, or is it mostly just to mimic th...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Those rondels are, indeed, the cat's pajamas. I lay my own handwriting woes on having done caligraphy; ever since, things go to hell with my handwriting unless I concentrate and go VERRRY slowly... like caligraphy.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Jan, that's the harness traditionally ascribed to Schott Von Hellingen, and is now owned by Ronald Lauder. A year or two ago it was displayed at the Neue Gallery, which Mr. Lauder founded. I was fortunate enough to spend a good amount of time studying it, but alas, photography was not permitted. The...

Re: Dusting off the cobwebs

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Straight-cut lames

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