The Armour Archive

Norman

I find that for Russian and Jewish names using SCA sources makes for some realy odd results. If you can in any way do so, do some backup checking for the Ottoman name. And if you can -- ask a Turkish friend if the name doesn't sound ...off And as a thorough assumption, I would guess that late period...

Norman

I think this is an actual solid example of the phenomenon, as opposed to the Niccole idea of everything in the way of armour technology in the West comes from the East in general. But of course it all comes from the Caucas. Why should there be any doubt. (actualy, I came across a mention (from a le...

Norman

Sorry Halbrust, that was the best I could find online. I first saw a nice photo of it in a book. When you asked your question I went for a quick google on the assumption that it must be online somewhere. Try searches on "Cataphract" "Parthian" "Sassanid" "Iranian c...

Norman

Lower half of relief shows Iranian Cataphract with full face mail drape (circa 7th century) m The use of this type of face defense was probably uninterupted through the time of the late medieval helmets shown by losthelm A search for "Turban helmet" should yield you lots of those late ones...

Norman

I potentialy want everything and have much of it. Most likely am thinking of several "work centers" (different benches and stands) But as a baseline - I would like the normal Workbench - all purpose working table I would like to see what others have done with all of these things. Plans wou...

Norman

I've used bar stock of about 1/8"x1/2" (Arms) to 1/8"-3/16"x3/4" (Legs) ... Why so thick? Are you using these for weightlifting? Most folks tend to use 16 guage some even 18 guage "mild steel" (or low carbon steel) Add a center crease and/or overlap them to preven...

Norman

Yes, I did some googling and a search of this site before asking. Googling brings up alot of woodworking benches but I wonder if our different needs yield a different sort of bench a search of this site brought so many irrelevant results that I found it impossible to wade through. SO I moved and am ...

Norman

Looking for some power tools I noticed that Ryobi at Home Depot are not much more (and sometimes the same) as the Harbor Freight tools. I have heard all the criticisms of HF but what do you think of Ryobi? If the Ryobi drill press is 30 bucks more than HF is it worth it -- or is it the same thing dr...

Norman

Yeah see - that's what I meant about careful - if you go with Avar - the early Russians saw them as enemies The Primary Chronicle says that to save horses the Avars hooked Slavic peasants to plows Anyhow - the look is generaly Turkic (and, for the period you are asking about also Hun) (and I don't t...

Norman

Mail was incessently recycled, cut down to fashionable lengths, and turned into other objects made of mail. A lot of it ended its days as pot scrubbers. Just to lend a bit of support on this -- Many Khazarian period graves have yielded what some have characterised as a maile girdle -- a strip of ma...

Norman

That should probably be proto-Russian or early Slav. The belt fittings are commonly considered not to be Slavic but Turkic in origin. On the whole, Russian is a combination of three or four original ethnicities Slav, Scandinavian, Turkic, Finno-Ugric. For later political reasons Turks and Finns tend...

Norman

This is off-topic - and I apologise. If there will be enough interest to grow a thread - then I ask the next poster to start that new thread "Seems like they managed fine" Not necessarily! We are often confronted with people doing things that are not a good idea, often in terms of conspicu...

Norman

I know nothing about the beads, but as an interesting side note to the cheating angle. Theres a Biblical prohibition in the Old Testament against mixing fabrics. Now thats generally used as a joke on odd Old Testament laws, however in seminary we had a professor who explained the reference was to s...

Norman

I use a center punch as well

hit a clean dimple, then ease the punch into the dimple and punch.

Norman

Without looking specificaly at South or Central American, I remember seeing Native American armour that was wood -- one-piece wood helmets and a wood "lamellar" - slats tied with cord reminding me of the way the painted chinese screens are put together. (Smithsonian Museum of the American ...

Norman

buzubans and ... "Bazubands" (persian name) or Naruch in Russian - ie: one piece forearm defenses with elbows started in use in the Caucas mountains and spread to Russia first and later into Persia. They did not get to Western Europe until the late medieval "Bridle Gauntlet" - a...

Norman

I had a vaguely similar thought -- There is an Altaic tradition of putting up Babas or Bulbuls (from Turkic word for father) - small hero or ancestor statues (like early Japanese Haniwa) In Europe (well, eastern Europe - Ukraine), the Scythians were putting them up, then there was a space of a good ...

Norman

Firstly - dimensions are very much needed. I think most of the various possibilities were all addressed at the link you sent. My thoughts: 1) mace / flail / morning star - ie: hold the end without the rock, swing the rock to hit oponent 2) bolo - throw the thing under the horse's hooves to get it ta...

Norman

Theoreticaly, any SCA gathering is a special occassion - a market faire, a high noble court feast... and therefore it is appropriate to use a fancy tunic rather than an everyday version. But those would probably be used in the absense of a tightly closed coat. But ...IMO, with the prices and shippin...

Norman

The purpose of the shield is to add an extra layer of protection to my fingers. I don't believe hoplites used any type of gauntlet at all.... on the principle of "what would they have done if faced with SCA regulations?" - there is that Greek Sabaton with "bifurcated" toes. Perh...

Norman

And silver tarnishes; bronze doesn't. Provided you avoid the "fake American stuff" (as my mom calls Sterling), the black is not tarnish it is decoration. And unlike aluminum and lead, the silver that winds up in your system is actualy somewhat good for you - acts as a antiseptic. Bronze i...

Norman

Overall, the style of Russian folkware that is present today is a stylized version of peasant clothing of the Revolutionary period as filtered through late-pre Soviet (late 19th cent) and Soviet (through WWII) folk-collecting and reimagining the Russian experience. The big things that jump out that ...

Norman

Why reinvent the wheel?

Silver

Norman

I know nothing about the trustworthiness of the merchant Writing to comment on suitability for medieval representation -- These are all objects of "living folk ware" - ie: they are folk style with not even a pretence to any historical pedigree (notice the Red Star decorated Valenki). The s...

Norman

The spaceing is measured on center. The perf plate can be called offset or staggered depending on the supplier. And if you have to, you can get the same measurement even more easily by measuring "leading edge to leading edge", making precision easier should there be any doubts. That is, f...

Norman

But there is another set of "sins" - I want to involve my family in the game but my wife does this solely at the level of humoring me, while my kids (at 7 and 9) are growing by the hour and haven't quite made up their minds about being interested anyhow -- and my daughter's idea of "...

Norman

Glasses - sorry, tried contacts before, would prefer them in real life as well. But can't. Physicaly impossible. The other option is not wearing anything, which would make me fairly blind. Which would realy ruin my fun. May as well stay home then. Smoking - well, this is substantaily a post-period v...

Norman

Reading the SCA East Kingdom rapier regs and there are two fairly important questions I am left with: 1) For perforated sheet - does 3/16 offset mean that I measure 3/16 from center of one hole to center of the next (which will leave 1/16 of material between holes) or does it mean between edges of h...

Norman

Maybe im not digging deep enough but i thought i would put this question out there. I have seen "viking" tunic that have one piece, Two piece, three piece trim. I have seen many stlyle "viking" collars and trim. Do the number of staggered trim, colar type, colors, mean anything ...

Norman

Josh K wrote:There is also the site Reocities.com which made an attempt to preserve all of Geocities just a week before it went down.

http://www.reocities.com/jewishwarriors/ works but http://www.reocities.com/normlaw/ doesn't.

Thanks for letting me know about reocities
Yeah "normlaw" doesn't exist because Yahoo killed it a few months before the rest of geocities

Norman

"Historical Research" section sticky on Viking Armour m "Historical Research" section - 10 century burials in Ukraine m Period eye-witness description of "Vikings" in Ukraine by Ibn Fadlan (clothing, religious rituals, horrible hygene ...) (and after you read that page ...

Norman

Wasn't the chernaya mogila within the "hungarian district" in Chernigov? Not that this makes a huge difference, as those guys were tied directly into the power structure, but I'm trying real hard to remember... I have seen nothing like this. Articles which discussed the "ethnicity&qu...

Norman

Firstly, just a note that the helmet Cian put pictures up of is a fantasy take on the general Spangenhelm style. Most criticaly (and not a big deal to fix when you're ordering yours) - where full face helmets come up (there is not much but there is some possibility - all a question of what your tole...

Norman

Johann Lederer wrote:I have this one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=91510
with the bench mount. It is a very sloppy punch. The other one is a whitney, which is much better.

What do you mean by sloppy?
It is not clear from the photos how it mounts.
Is there a reason it can't just be bolted down without the mount?

Norman

With sales or coupons What are these coupons you speak of? I used to just wait round for HF to have a sale. When I was armouring steadily, I bought two of the smaller Harbour Freight punches (the Jr knock-off) - have one set with a 1/8, the other with 3/16 and they suffice for most of my armouring ...

Workbench and stand plans?

Ryobi or Chicago ?

Need to Clarify "SCA Rapier" Armour Reqs