The Armour Archive

Norman

one this note, Mythbusters tested the theory about a mounted archer getting greater penitration due to his speed and at full speed they only saw about a 20% increase in penitration depth. Not what I would call conciderable. The difference in performance for period mounted archers was not entirely d...

Norman

My humble suggestions: Hidden plastic = cloth / skin Coat of Plates w/ Plastic plates = Coat of Plates Complications - a good sword thrust or even cut to plate can certainly penetrate. But takes much more effort than against cloth. How to reflect? Cloth padded armour certainly has substantialy more ...

Norman

Bubkis is yiddish. Glaukos was having a bit of fun with words. The word is not Greek in origin. Didn't you know, Like many early entertainers, Homer had to change his name to get gigs. His real name was Hershl. In its early drafts, the Iliad was the epic tale of the war rabbi Menelavsky of Berdiche...

Norman

Moog wrote:I mean more shiny. Like real plate armor except without the compound curves.

A Coat of Plates with plates on the outside
(essentialy a Scale armour with large rectangular plates)
East European style

Norman

It does rather resemble the basic shape of 14thC gauntlets, and Nicole has shown a 6thC? gauntlet in one of his books, which came from Iran, I think... He shows the same line drawing in a number of books. Labeled as "northern Iran" (which is often code for Caucas) Took me something like 1...

Norman

my company firewalls flickr

so I see nothing of your probably quite lovely helmets

Norman

If'n you squint real hard ...from a little ways off... it looks like a Close helm so, maybe if you add a wrapper / bevor (you need neck protection anyhow - so this can be an alt to a gorget ) add one of them closehelm disks at the back, a feather plume I think it could be pulled off (of course, it a...

Norman

William Wallace was 7 foot tall, was able to draw a two-handed claymore from over his shoulder... Ah! Skirt wearing Western wimps! Ilya Murometz would draw his 8-foot Kladenetz from out of his arse! 4)Ninjas wore armor. When I was a lad in High School I subscribed to a martial arts magazine. along ...

Norman

now this isnt historical, but every hannukah when the ultra-orthodox light their oil lamps they use cotton fluff twisted by hand (this gives it a nice and easy draw on the oil) and then put through a little piece of cork or card. Also, very important, if the lamp is to be unattended put a minimum o...

Norman

hello beauty idea Norman ...and You must to do it in the stone ...absolutly ...in other material "baba" will lose its soul Well, interesting thought there I was reading up a little and I see that there (in eastern Europe - I'm not looking at Mongolia) are Babas from Sarmatian period (or e...

Norman

Norman, These guys are in Manhattan. If they don't have what you want, I'm sure they know where to get it. m Mac DANG! With limestone at "only" 99 cents per pound I'm paying $600 just for the rock Let's go with wood ideas then -- If you were set on wood, teak would work for outdoors. Ston...

Norman

Thanks for the replies. Would not mind more input. I can offer some advice here, having done a bit of low relief stone carving: m m Tools here: m Looks real nice. Are there "Stonecarving for dummies" type tutorials out online? And where to get the tools? Sandstone is probably your best bet...

Norman

What's that wooden thing he's shooting through?

What are the rules for that game?

Norman

why do we not do this? this looks like GREAT fun! Because in ex-Soviet reenactment broken arms, scars ... are normal at a combat event. ...same basic reason you don't see too many Messerfecht events I want to move to Republic of Belarus. Ah yes, the last totalitarian republic in the Eastern block. ...

Norman

The story is a bit of a parody of some real science. I believe the two most widely spread lineages are Ghenghis Khan at number one, closely followed by Charlemagne (Charles the Mangy). But again, those are of identifiable individuals. And of course if you could find a marker for a well-bedded trave...

Norman

The project - to make a "Baba" - a statue of the kind that dot the steppes from Ukraine to Mongolia The existing ones are all stone http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki/files/50/200px-Baba_0084.JPG (lots more picture links at the bottom) This thing will go in my yard in central NJ My wife ...

Norman

Halvgrimr wrote:No shit, there we were, standing atop Senlac awaiting our 'fate' on Saturday, October 14, 2006.
...
And that is how I died at the bottom of Senlac on Saturday, October 14th, 2006

That was F'n inspirin'

Norman

The big difference is having events in countries without the bullshit litigation that runs the US. My impression is that the SCA establishment substantialy overemphasises the spectre of the "scaaaary lawsuit" Americans play baseball, football, soccer, hockey, rugby, cricket, basketball......

Norman

For the most part, the lacing would seem to be in the standard pattern with the exception that it goes around the top. See attached conjectural illustration. The only strangeness being the central set of holes which are not addressed or explained anywhere. One possibility is that there were internal...

Norman

Some options for minimal dishing helmets from a bit different direction: Some Sarmatian helmets from Kuban (Ukraine). I think 2-4 cent The upper cone would be serious raising - but maybe you can figure out some ready-made substitute. http://www.badaew.narod.ru/sarmat/sarmat_files/sarm6.jpg Here is a...

Norman

I see quite a bit of similarity in the stone settings. I don't think it is merely that there are only so many ways to set stones, but I thought I'd see what others think. I think the generalised "glory" of the stone settings is also why the crown of Monomah often passed for Byzantine. How...

Norman

The integrated elbow arm defenses (maybe better to call Naruch - by the Russian name, rather than the Persian "Bazuband" since the Perisans seem to adopt them later) definitely appear aplenty in the 13th century. This is the most well known 13th century Naruch -- So I did some searching o...

Norman

Nieczar, Yep - its a Khazar period helmet of the frame type. I've seen a number of brief refences but not one picture except for this overall drawing (the archers). But even here, I suspect that the artist only worked from the verbal description. http://archaeology.kiev.ua/journal/020300/fig/ksb6.jp...

Norman

here's the raticle about this helmet : Ждановский А.М. Подкурганные катакомбы Сре&#...

Norman

My impression is that most common (after just padded armour) would have been a Kazagand (layered garment with mail inside), then open maile, with lamellar a distant third. Try doing searches for Andalus, Moorish, Berber Doing a google search with "andalus lamellar" first thing I got was a ...

Norman

I don't know if there is anything in English. Here is an article in Russian that includes those helmets m Nieczar, Is that your helmet? I was trying to figure out the chains from the descriptions but was not quite there. Do you have other pictures? A more detailed article on the particular helmet?

Norman

I have forwarded your mesage to a couple of SCA email groups I am part of

(SCA-Jewish; Setmore Swamp; BrokenBridge; Gryphonwald)

Norman

One thing you want to verify -- SCAdians may be used to Saturday events I belive that this camp will only be interested in a Sunday - make sure of that when judging SCAdian availability. and count me in if it is a Sunday event I do fencing, archery ..if I manage to get my house unpacked by then, I ...

Norman

So you don't need to look as far as Iran -- the same trading and colonizing connections that had Harald Hardrada serving in Novgorod (or was it Kiev?) could well have had Scandinavians communing with direct cultural descendants of the Scythians. Yes there is much I need to learn about 'Persian' Hal...

Norman

The tricky thing, I think, with saying "Persian" is to pinpoint what is meant by that -- especialy in the context of that period The Scythians living long before that time in the Ukraine were "Iranian" speakers (though in many cases enemies of Persia) Actualy, I was struck by the...

Norman

I suppose I could cut a 30" diameter blank and recreate the shields from 300. Wouldn't want to do those out of 18ga though, I wouldn't think. Anyone know off-hand about how thick those greeks (the real ones) made their shields? Or if they were bronze instead of wood? I've spent so much time st...

Norman

I dont beleive I ever said this was concrete evidence I said I had information that was one time being discussion about gloves being represented in pressblechs. I supply information which others can build on Rarely do I say 'This is how it was' Unlike others I dont feel the need to be that self imp...

Norman

Urm... Those are definite evidence of splint vambraces But gloves? I'm not so sure that the choice to read the embosed plate as showing a split between vambrace and ungloved hand versus dismissing such a split and reading the vambrace and hand as joined and therefore indicative of a glove ...how muc...

Norman

And I was thinking when I read the topic that they found either The Haggis, or The Fruitcake. They had a something like haggis as far back as the romans. One thing about haggis though is that it's "offal-ly good!" Har har! In the mid-atlantic US some of us eat something similar and at the...

Norman

So

Back to "herbal tea" in Persia and the South Eastern Roman Empire between first and sixth century ??

Carving Wood or Stone statuary - what and how (making a Baba