The Armour Archive

Maelgwyn

... Here's the plan as it stands - let me know what all I've got wrong 1) Soak in room temperature water for 12 hours+. 2) Shape 3) Dye 4) Bake 5) Apply sheen/finish And now the questions: 1) Where does rabbit hide glue fit into the hardening process? I've searched around, but I haven't seen it wri...

Maelgwyn

Like any Osprey titles, these are more valuable for collecting evidence into one place than for the conclusions they reach based on that evidence. Treat the color illustrations with a healthy degree of scepticism. That being said, you can get a lot of use and enjoyment out of these. I have the first...

Maelgwyn

Very nice! What does the finished pair weigh?

Why apply the acrylic paint after the wax? I would think the paint would bond better to the glue-treated surface, but I havent actually tried painting after waxing.

Maelgwyn

So from these images we can conclude that fairly large shields with diagonal grips are used for club-combat (as for practice or tourney) but much smaller buckler-like shields are used when fighting dragons?

Maelgwyn

Duke Gavin has made hardened leather with acrylic polish. I'm sure he could advise you. I don't understand why it is that you want to do this thing, but it looks to me like it would work. Why a leather shield, and why hardened with acrylic?

Maelgwyn

Last week: 3 bouts at Tuesday practice, nothing else of any worth.
This week: I will strive to do better.

Maelgwyn

Looking forward to seeing you at practice. I can show you the hardened leather thumb I added to my half-gauntlet for this same reason.

Maelgwyn

I'm not aware of any evidence for pterges in the western empire this late. You would be likely to find better information on imperial Roman practice at:
http://www.romanarmy.com/rat

Maelgwyn

SirBrand wrote:I am currently working on a full face and am debating what style of helm to put it in. Leaning towards a corinthian or a viking, but anything is possible. Any input?

Full faces belong on Roman cavalry helms. Not that I can afford one...

Maelgwyn

An aerobic workout that 2nd day will feel like hell...but you'll feel better afterwards. The muscle pain is worst when you are getting into shape...much less of a problem once you have gotten into basic condition for your activity. Be careful about stretching cold muscles...better to warm up first, ...

Maelgwyn

Could we see a close-up picture of one of your scales next to a ruler? How thick are your stainless scales? Just for one reference point, aluminum lamellar scales have been sold recently for $ .50 each. As for lacing patterns, I find that my lamellar sheds thrusts very effectively in the directions ...

Maelgwyn

1325-1350 Welsh in England or France. I had a notion to paint a hound chasing a hart chasing a hound chasing a hart in a circle around the buckler but couldn't remember seeing anything like that , so I thought I would investigate a bit first. Looks like solid colors or simple geometric designs predo...

Maelgwyn

I had a spare shield boss and I wanted a buckler, so I am making one out of 1/2" birch plywood cut in a 16" circle with an 8" steel boss. The plywood has linen glued to the front and back and a rawhide edge is being sewn on. I will then apply a layer of gesso to the front before I attach the steel b...

Maelgwyn

Halberds wrote:
Drachus wrote:I might have miss this part somewhere else, but, why a leather helmet?

Just for the fun of it.

For a boffer helm, reduced weight is also a plus.

Maelgwyn

Armor Rules Materials The emprise is a high end emersion contest of skill; as such armor should be made to replicate actual armor of the second half of the 14th century 1350-1399. All armor must be made of leather iron, mild steel, stainless steel, or spring steel and the materials must be appropri...

Maelgwyn

I've done one of these for boffer combat...wish I had gotten some pictures. I may catch the kid at fighter practice and take some. Try laying a piece of clean plastic over your dishing form to be sure the damp leather doesn't cause rust/get rust stains. A yellow plastic round-faced hammer is ideal f...

Maelgwyn

I agree with Jurgen. I have seen SCA fighters wear 12 gauge mild steel cuises just to reduce denting, and other fighters regect plate armour entirely because 12 gauge is too heavy! If historically accurate weight combined with durability and low maintenance is your goal then carbon steel becomes ver...

Maelgwyn

Indeed it should, but it should be nothing like any party most of us are accustomed to. Period food, drink, and setting would be the easier part, what we need is a period or period sounding band to come. ...and really big bouncers all named Guido wearing impecable Italian 14th cent clothing to back...

Maelgwyn

Search works fine for me now...

See http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... ake#804282

for how I harden leather with hide glue.

Maelgwyn

Try the hide glue marinade and the gesso topping. Paint to taste (or lack thereof). Yum!

Maelgwyn

For a helm for SCA use where you don't want to reduce the weight too much I think stainless is the way to go. No need to polish it to a high gloss if you don't like that look. For other metal bits the weight reduction of hardened carbon steel combined with the ease of shaping it while annealed and t...

Maelgwyn

Nice work! I'd be happy to fight in that. In fact, it is similar in some ways to the helm I fight in. The dished panels look very smooth and even and the bands are well-matched to the surface of the panels. It has several features suggestive of a late Roman ridge helm...was that your intent? If so, ...

Maelgwyn

Syr Finn wrote:Man I would get one, but I am leaving the 14th century for the 6th.

Do both! You too can suffer from Multiple Personna Disorder!

Maelgwyn (Adding 14th century, keeping 6th and 16th)

Maelgwyn

I just glue wool felt to the inside of the cops. Works great, no elastic, no foam.

But I would rather have padded war chauses as part of a 14th century kit.

Maelgwyn

I am interested but the need for specific sizing makes a group order difficult at best. I would want US size 10.5 if such an order were to come together. I would also want a more hobnails on the sole.

Maelgwyn

Apparently in this matter Jehan is "from Missouri" too. Jehan, have we managed to "show me" enough, or should I keep going? I'll warn you, I am a reference librarian by training! Google and Yahoo are great for popular topics and grassroots knowledge, but there are better tools for serious and/or obs...

Maelgwyn

So far as I can tell the late Roman shields were all center-grip ovals, so it seems likely the Romano-Brit shields would be as well. I have seen evidence for both horizontal and vertical grips. I use a vertical grip on my 24x36" shield. We need to hear more from Joust1, because his heavy cavalry kit...

Maelgwyn

For me, part of the attraction is that I can make hardened leather armour like that used in the 14th century for blunt-weapon tournaments and then go use it for that very purpose. The mail is/was not needed for blunt-weapon tournament and so it can/could be left aside, resulting in a panoply that is...

Maelgwyn

Hold on now...I got the distict feeling the original thread that this was based on (now deleted?) was talking about a horse tail, tanned in one piece, fastened to the top of a helmet like the simplification/bastardization of a Greek/Roman comb-type crest. I was lead to this supposition by the origi...

Maelgwyn

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=811601&highlight=horse+helmet#811601 (Wherein Halberds suggests, tongue in cheek, that one of Sir Gaston's helmets suggests a horse hair plume treatment.) I believe you misunderstood that exchange. Further down in the same thread the helm is sh...

Maelgwyn

Does it seem to anyone else that neither Animal or Jehan are having the same conversation? Yup. I was really puzzled by Jehan's uncharacteristicly harsh posts until I saw his message about his previous dealings with the questioner here. It seems that the combination of annoyances with the individua...

Maelgwyn

James, all of the gauntlets I have used in the SCA have been of excellent quality both as replicas and as protective gear. I finally retired my Northstar Armory gauntlets after about 18 years, not because they had failed in any way, but because I had learned how to make lighter ones from spring stee...

Maelgwyn

Title: An antidote to the English : Alternative title: the auld alliance, 1295-1560 / Author: Macdougall, Norman. Author: Norman Macdougall. Publisher: Tuckwell Press, East Linton, Scotland : 2001. Topical term: Buitenlandse politiek. -- gtt -- Bondgenootschappen. -- gtt Geographical name: Scotland ...

Maelgwyn

"Iranian" troops were also there, in the form of Sarmatian Auxiliaries. The "Cuneus Sarmatae" shows up in the Notitia Dignitatum as a separate unit, and other units of Sarmatian origin were attached to larger units listed in that document. Though their language was "proto-Iranian" I understand thes...

Maelgwyn

Brian W. Rainey wrote:
Maelgwyn wrote:In addition to this timeline, I think it would be great to build an armour wikipedia.

We were hoping to wait a few weeks to put anything out on this...

Replied in a new thread at http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... 919#812919

Re: Leather hardening/dying/finishing questions

Decoration on a buckler?

Re: On The Proper Use of Horse Tails for Helmet Adornment