The Armour Archive

Maelgwyn

In modern culture, fighting with hands and feet and muscle and skill is not something commonly done by educated and financially successful people. Physical combat for adults seems relegated to sporting contests and redneck bars. In medieval culture, prowess at physical combat is a prized virtue of t...

Maelgwyn

Looks interesting! Table of contents for The Hundred Years War : a wider focus / edited by L.J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kagay. List of Illustrations ............................................. ix List of Maps .............................................. xi List of Contributors ...............

Maelgwyn

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Altarpiec ... 38854_.htm

Maelgwyn

There have been experiments with 3-d scans of museum objects to create models with high-resolution images mapped onto those models, so that the remote user can turn the item over, zoom in and out, look inside, etc.. Until something like that becomes the norm we will rely on imaged museum collections...

Maelgwyn

Did anyone else notice that these Siberian and Eskimo lamellar sections are laced differently from what we see elsewhere? The edges are lined up holes to edge rather than holes to holes, leaving less overlap and providing more flexibility. I'll have to try that with a sample piece and see how it wor...

Maelgwyn

...You need to curve this long "T" shape to the profile of the helm, as you curve it the "T" wants to curve back on its self making an arrow head shape, you just need to work it back into place over multiple passes... Do you perform this step working the ridge over the helm itself, working over som...

Maelgwyn

Look at it this way...does he want to camp for a week in the woods with thousands of other people and be the only one NOT wearing a costume?

Maelgwyn

I would use solid copper rivets for this purpose.

Maelgwyn

I have one similar to that and I like it for light dishing, up to about 18g. mild. For anything tougher than that I want my 2 lb. mini-sledge.

Maelgwyn

Why not make it "kit" of the month and include the armour, weapons and clothing worn on the field?

Maelgwyn

Yesterday I made it to practice for the second week in a row. I plan to celebrate by missing the next two weeks. (daughter's choir concert, wife's birthday)

Maelgwyn

That's a handy workbench. I have one very similar to it. I don't suggest you hit metal on it though, it isn't designed for the strain. With no stump, I would suggest getting a stump. A big massive piece of wood is great for dishing and for holding other tools while you hit them. Failing that, you ca...

Maelgwyn

It seems to me that a leg strike is either telling or it isn't. If the strike is telling then as I see it the fight should be over, whether that means one count out of several or the whole match. If you are portraying honorable tournament combat it is time to yield. If you are portraying a fight to ...

Maelgwyn

I already do an hour three or four times a week, I was wondering if there would be any benefit to breaking it into smaller chunks. I was doing an hour and a half, but it was killing my knees. Rather than increasing duration or breaking it into smaller chunks, you might try increasing speed, alterna...

Maelgwyn

Hmm, what's better? A 30 minute run six times a week, or a 60 minute run three times a week? Better for what? For aerobic conditioning you get about 150 aerobic minutes with the first plan and about 165 aerobic minutes with the second. Assuming you can run at a good pace for the full 60 minutes. Fo...

Maelgwyn

Thank you all for your replies. Seems like I'd have the best luck finding a hyeavier ball pien. What is your opinion on that? I find that any ball-pein is too small, resulting in lots of little dents to planish out. A bigger hammer with a larger striking surface will move the metal without requirin...

Maelgwyn

2 lb mini-sledge, ground round.

Maelgwyn

This was a good effort and the result looks better than 95% of the youth helms on the field. You should be proud of it! Not that you shouldn't keep working on how to do better on the next one, but lighten up and enjoy your success on this one.

Maelgwyn

I curve, then cut. Both pieces are plywood so there is grain in both directions. If I bought a full sheet I'd be tempted to cut it so that each peice has the outer layer grain going in an opposite direction, but when buying 2'x4' pieces I don't get that choice.

Maelgwyn

Lowes Item # 12268 is a 4x8' sheet of 1/4" birch. for 18.99. See m They usually stock smaller pieces as well. You need 2 layers of this material, each the size of your shield. I usually buy two 2x4' sheets and carefully examine them for cracks or filled areas in the outer layers. Also buy a bottle o...

Maelgwyn

So far as I can tell...no. While there has long been brigandage in Italy and in Sicily, the family/patronage/godfather organized crime tradition begins in the 19th century. See "Mafia, Antimafia, and the Plural Cultures of Sicily" in Current Anthropology, Oct 2005, Vol. 46 Issue 4 by Jane Schneider ...

Maelgwyn

Well, one guy on this board was plasma-cutting face plates, which I thought would be sensible. So, much as in the "Hand Jive" song from Grease , how low can you go with an item like this? -Ken The cutting is the easy part with a plasma cutter or a HF shear. It's the dishing and getting the pieces t...

Maelgwyn

The cost of metal is trivial in a mild-steel helm. While 18g. is easier to work in some ways, it is also easier to dent with a wooden or aluminum waster. I would expect active WMA practitioners to need no less than 16g. stainless or 14g. mild steel or 18g. hardened spring steel to hold up under the ...

Maelgwyn

I could get tempted by your 14th cent. poleyns in stainless.

Maelgwyn

I am 6' tall and I like a 24"x36" curved oval with a vertical center grip.

Maelgwyn

Hardened steel gauntlets of 4130 steel can provide unbeatable protection at a weight equal or less than plastic. Mine used about 15$ worth of steel and a great deal of time to assemble.

Note: Signature is on-topic for this post.

Maelgwyn

SyrRhys wrote:I want to see ... this "squatting on your heels like a toad" nonsense simply go away along with lime green polyester leisure suits.

Quoted for eminent quotability. And because I agree.

Maelgwyn

What is the difference between the Wisby lamellar and a brigandine? A brigandine uses small plates made for a brigandine attached to a coat, while the Wisby example may have used old lamellar plates attached to a coat. A subtle distinction. Amhlaidgh, I know of a good bit more evidence in late Roma...

Maelgwyn

helm - A linen liner isn't all that hard if you sew it to a leather strip and glue the strip to your helm. Other options that look decent aren't much easier. In a hurry you could glue in some ugly foam to use until you can finish a nice liner. knee and elbow cops, gorget, bracers and greaves - I use...

Maelgwyn

...With out moving eastwards I am not sure if I can really have lamellar with out it looking a bit strange with the resy of my kit (mostly 1330's English and German stuff) It is a bit of a quandry for me, I dont want a CoP which would be much easier to make, I have a breast plate, but as good as it...

Maelgwyn

I would suggest bonding the canvas directly to the wood with carpenter's glue or cheese glue, adding the cut-outs as Mordreth describes, adding gesso to them for additional thickness and smoother edges, then adding another layer of canvas with a thin coat of gesso to fill in the texture of the fabri...

Maelgwyn

M. Eversberg II wrote:As a side question what is the ball on a ball pean for anyways? I've never seen it used...

It's for peening rivets.

Maelgwyn

Congratulations for sticking it out and completing this armour. That's a lot of cutting and punching and glueing and baking. Good job!

Do you have a plan for the rest of the kit to turn this excellent piece into a complete impression?

Maelgwyn

Hmmm. So brig. nails are clinched rather than peened? That would certainly go faster. When I needed hobnails for Roman boots I used cut-steel tacks like these: m or these m Assembly was very fast as the nails easily pierced the leather and clinched themselves against the steel backing plate that I u...

Maelgwyn

Title: Indian arms and armour Author: G.N. Pant ; foreword, M.N. Deshpande. Publisher: Army Educational Stores, New Delhi : 1978-<1983> OCLC: ocm4626361 Title: Oriental armour Journal: Arms and armour series Author: Robinson, H. Russell. Publisher: Walker New York, [1967] OCLC: ocm1803295 Show these...

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