The Armour Archive

James Arlen Gillaspie

Why does no one mention silvered armour? Surviving examples are rare (I suspect because of a particularly virulent form of bimetallic corrosion), but are mentioned frequently enough in records. Why on earth would anyone silver their armour instead of just putting a mirror polish on it, you ask? Beca...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Third dibs!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Wade! Nice to hear from you. You'd think no one who didn't have it didn't know what it is.

Boy, I'd love to come down... don't know if I can, though.

What's your address? Would bookrate be alright, or Priority? Is Paypal OK?

James Arlen Gillaspie

Time to part with a copy of the big (12 1/4" X 10") old classic by Dufty. The dust jacket is a bit worn, but now covered in thick plastic, and there are a few light water spots on the actual cover. I'm asking $50 + post.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Yes, that was a good time. The auction was my first arms and armour auction, and very interesting and informative (well, Wade's running commentary with comparisons to the big U.K. auction houses was a big part of that!). My deepest thanks to Anubis for doing ALL the driving!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Bertus, I copied that down from the museum tag. Interesting that there is more to it than that.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Wade,

It looks as though I will be there.

I also would like to put in a request for A 98 and A213; I am always looking to enlarge my data base of the style. Even if nobody ever asks me to make it.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Oh, there was something else that I felt when that baseball bat - style great sword strike hit the side of my head, a very novel sensation indeed. It felt like the helm was trying to crawl off my head! We-ird!

Does anyone else keep getting double emoticons?

James Arlen Gillaspie

Something no one has mentioned is the suspension system of the helm. I have found that a properly made liner in the fashion actually used is MUCH superior to the crap used by the typical SCAdian, for instance (especially the utterly pernicious blue foam! :x :x ). In my younger days, I wore a grandfa...

James Arlen Gillaspie

And P.S.; if you are so poor that you are low-bidding your helm, BotN is clearly not for you. Just stay home.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Regarding the pic's of helm failures; these are exactly the sorts of failures that I have been worried about for years, that could easily put an end to the use of tempered steel helms in SCA combat. There are too many SCAdian armour makers who have just evolved opposable thumbs going into tempered s...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Wade, I wish I could remember the spacing of the rivets. My photos, taken with film, just don't get the job done. I wish I had my Canon PowershotS95 (king of the low light point and shoot cameras, last I knew) back in those days. It seems my recolection of the wire (or bar) as 'triangular' wa...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have intimate experience with the Vienna breast and back (not a set) and would have to say it was absolutely the most SCAdian looking piece of real armour I have ever seen. :roll: The cullet, in particular, had the most dead-flat looking lames I can recall. Yup, they may have worked out the 'refle...

James Arlen Gillaspie

If we are talking about something with 0.75% carbon, I would say no. Anything much over 0.40% just leads to greater potential hardness, which means BRITTLENESS, with no increase in toughness. The only way I would use it would be to give it a fine pearlite microstructure, which might be pretty impact...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Only if the iron is poorly refined. My own experience of munition armour is that there is no linear, wood-like grain, which one is so used to seeing in so much wrought. Delamination patterns are very random in armour of any grade, though I would not be surprised if some plates in cloth types of armo...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Oskar, I am liking your bottom breaths for the optical reasons you gave. I would say, though, that a sufficiently dense pattern of 5mm holes can do a lot for your visual field and breathing. Here are a couple of pics, one of a favorite FOOT combat helm (considerations can be different for mounted co...

James Arlen Gillaspie

It's actually part of a retable (framed altarpiece) at the Louvre. It's French, dated to 1411. Here's so more of it.

James Arlen Gillaspie

The only significant departures on my helm, very closely based on the A 79 KMW helm, are the widened occularium, the breathes in the visor, and a MAJOR shift in proportions to suit my client, who was built like a defensive tackle.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Yes, the bottom edge of the helm is flanged inward, and the top lame of the gorget has a recessed groove.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Nothing. So says the famous tract, 'How a man shall be armed at his ease'. Such was the practice of Jeanne d'Arc, as well. However, I think I have run across a reference to someone who did wear a shirt.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Alas, the PC kicked my scanner off years ago. Yes, your drawing looks very close.

James Arlen Gillaspie

IF you happen to have a copy of Boccia's 'Mantova' book at hand, have a look at B 4. There is a straight overhead shot of the helm, which clearly shows the visor pivots to be slightly in front of the widest part of the skull, I estimate between 1/4" and 1/2", and it can also be seen that the visor m...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have handled and measured a fair number of real helms and helmets, and my experience is that the visor pivots are almost never on the 'sweet spot', though some are closer than others. An extreme example would be the schaller (sallet) on the famous 'Sigismund gothic' in Vienna, which barely cleared...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Filip, is this mail the 9mm or the 6mm stuff?

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, AL,

I don't quite understand what you are referring to. I was talking to beastlybabe.

I was thinking she might make a good student.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I see you're right up the road in Schenectady. I'm in Albany. I could teach you how to forge the visor. I think you'd pick it up quick!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Thanks, Wade!

James Arlen Gillaspie

Thanks!

James Arlen Gillaspie

No, it's not for me, it's for an armour c. 1560 that the client wants to have a red, or maybe burgundy, velvet codpiece. That means 'average size' will be fine - no need to worry about how it fits!

James Arlen Gillaspie

My patent on that face plate ran out years ago.

And yes, I did get the idea from the 1520 Henry VIII foot-combat harness. Nice to see you're still working, Mike! Me, I just work on the old stuff now... I don't really do much with the SCA anymore.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Have a look at this photostream. It is of pieces at the Army Museum in Toledo. Lots of interesting stuff!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrea_car ... otostream/

James Arlen Gillaspie

Ice, make sure you get at least a grand and a half for them! I wouldn't so much as think about making a pair like them now for less.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I am still in shock. I have known him for close to twenty years, and have stayed in his house while the Sands Point Medieval Faire was going on. I had been meaning to give him a call, but didn't get around to it before it was too late. Make sure you get top dollar for those stainless 'gothic' finger...

James Arlen Gillaspie

My first helm had a skull made from an old GI pot, which makes it about 18 gauge or so (I made all the cool hats for other people, but never had the time to make myself a nice helm). I wore it about ten years in Atenveldt, a place of extreme brutality, and my favorite weapons were great weapons, wit...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, William, I sprang at the pauldrons because I have made a few pairs and know I can do them quickly (by my standards, anyway!). A cuirass, on the other hand, is always a long and winding road, not least because of all the %*&#$@ hinges, all the strapping that they need, and lots of parts. God d...

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