The Armour Archive

Brian W. Rainey

It just almost puts me in a state of shock that Andre would be publicly berated in this forum... I have never heard him say he is a "master armorer", and on several occasions I have heard him refer to a custom armorer as a "master", and that he wished he could achieve that level. As do I... Where d...

Brian W. Rainey

I really resisted posting to this message, but it bothered my sleep last night that my rep was getting trashed. I am not an artist, but a simple craftsman. We have been making armor for 16 years now. If you think our armor looks bad now, you should have seen it 10 years ago.... We try to improve ou...

Brian W. Rainey

Wow! Nice bench. I think I will encorporate features of that design when I build my next one.

Brian W. Rainey

One thing that I have always heard from Icefalcon is if you EVER have ANY problems with his armor, contact him immediately, as EVERYTHING he sells is GUARANTEED for LIFE and he will fix or replace it. I feel that alone warrants a higher pricetag. Well, you just similarly described the policy for mo...

Brian W. Rainey

Wade Avery, et al: I was going to compare the IF prices/workmanship with other instock armourers. However, I will stick to the topic of my earlier post and only ffer my opinion of IF armour that I had to alter to make it useable/sellable. The pictures are of resold IF armour that were sent to me thi...

Brian W. Rainey

Craig,

Here are a few more that I recommend:

Il Museo Stibbert - 7 Volume Set ("Complete and in perfect state.")

Armi Bianche Italiane

All of these can be hard to get. If anyone has the moeny.. i suggest snagging them.

Someone got to Mantova FAST!

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Brian W. Rainey

Icefalcon has smartly realized that there is plenty of money to be made by not even trying to compete with the bottom feeders. Who, pray tell are the bottom feeders? I know SCA armourers and... I have yet to identify more than two classes: Off the shelf (Ice Falcon, Red Falcon, etc, etc) Custom (WM...

Brian W. Rainey

Now that the auction is over, I believe: My opinions are that they are shiny. They seem to hold up in SCA combat. From what I have heard the customer service is good, as you pointed out this is a VERY good thing especially in the world of SCA armour. More people should follow the same practices. I r...

Brian W. Rainey

Richard de Scolay wrote:
Wulfe wrote:P.S. - Hey Brian.... Watch out - thats hot.

Hehe, that's still alive...

Not after tonight!

Brian W. Rainey

Why do people continually argue over the validity of mail? It was a valid and succesful defense, period. That is all the general public and average reenactor need to know. I have discussed this topic with sme of the most knowledgable people in the country in the area of arms and armour. >>snip>> An...

Brian W. Rainey

Well, using 20g 1050 for the cuff plates is also real possibility and I already have that steel in my workshop. Perhaps I'll move that above the leather on the list of things to try. The 1050 is nearly as light as the leather would be, but for all the exposed plates on the hands and fingers I'm goi...

Brian W. Rainey

Why do people continually argue over the validity of mail? It was a valid and succesful defense, period. That is all the general public and average reenactor need to know. I have discussed this topic with some of the most knowledgable people in the country in the area of arms and armour. The only wa...

Brian W. Rainey

Richard - I was of the same thought when I first started my own kit delving. I damaged a nerve in my neck a few years back and there is a lingerign pain that pops up everyone once in a while, so my concern for weight has a similar measure. Have you ever thought that the lingering pain in your neck ...

Brian W. Rainey

Aaron, I give you oodles of credit for EFFORT and DILLIGENCE, no doubt! That is the important part. Most do not try. You have an uphill battle and your environment is against you. The SCA is not a bastion of historically accurate truth and learning. It is a LARP game, plain and simple with some rese...

Brian W. Rainey

Yup, it was a request to advertise in this "special all armor issue." I haven't seen the new issue but the sample one they sent me screamed Renn Fair enthusiast rather than authenticity minded. Not that I am any great scholar or anything. Chris Yep, it was purely renfair content. A method of partin...

Brian W. Rainey

Josh, Thank you. After two years of seaching (and quite a bit of money), it just bummed me out that NOBODY could make the reference to within 100 years or 1,000 miles. That just SCREAMS "Bad Execution" on the armour...that I love. The compliments were wonderful, even if I had to drag them out of yo...

Brian W. Rainey

I would hate to mislead the public.

The term "sugar coat" is not in my vocabulary.

Brian W. Rainey

I'll be toning down the shine after the first couple of serious scratches....but I can't bring myself to ruin the shine until some fighter ruins it for me. Maybe in a month of fighting. Was shine non-period? I know that I've been able to get regular steel to shine that well. I own a Marine's formal...

Brian W. Rainey

Ouch...this was my best shot at authenticity, and easy-to-maintain SCA suit. That was my very best shot, and it isn't even close to good? Aaron, I believe that I can assist you in your goal towards authenticity... or at least give my $.02. 1. The most significant thing someone can do in attempting ...

Brian W. Rainey

India and many other parts of Asia are well known for a lack of oversight on workers salaries and conditions. The above statement makes me feel a bit better about it, but I am interested in more information than that. Do they have to give it? no That is there perogative. My perogative is to withold...

Brian W. Rainey

Sir Daniel wrote:
I do very much the same thing I'm asking the importers to do here.

Then you should not be surprised or have expected more information than you already new, correct?

Brian W. Rainey

Karl wrote:aaagh Epson the Gnome has outbid me, I'm down for the count.

Is he an underpants gnome... I don't like underpants gnomes. They are nasty little creatures. They keep driving their little underpants gnome cars around my sock and undies drawer and leaving skidmarks all over the place.

Brian W. Rainey

This is true hard numbers are not available. Not even soft ones really. My personal feelings? No one in the India armour import business on this forum knows for sure (or if they do know they doesn't want to tell us) whether or not the workers there are being paid a fair wage or what thier working c...

Brian W. Rainey

OK, maybe you guys can help me with this...

Why are IceFalcon's products such a wanted and coveted thing?

What makes them so desirable in the SCA?

I have handled a few pieces and have my opinions. I am just wondering what other people think.

Brian W. Rainey

luciusj wrote:the elbows do not match this kind of armour.
20000,- he must be crazy

Fools and their money are easily parted.

Brian W. Rainey

justmagnus, old_bear, Cad and Randall have a lot of experience with this style of gauntlet in the SCA, I believe. They could also speak to the padding issue. A 1/4" inch seems like it might be excessive. Perhaps you could e-mail one of them and get their opinion... if they do not weigh in on the iss...

Brian W. Rainey

People, please... use TinyURL for long URLs - m check this out: m See? Why use tiny URl? That is a useless service considering that the ability is inherent in HTML or BBCode to do the same thing without browsing to an external or third party provider: Neiman Marcus Suit of Armour Relying on a servi...

Brian W. Rainey

21st Century American SCA?

Brian W. Rainey

They have said nothing about how much the workers are paid and how many hours they are working. But the data they have provided so far has been informative. ~D Unless the importers have the data available to them (which is doubtful) and are willing to share them (I doubt they have the information t...

Brian W. Rainey

Doug, I distinctly remember Brian sitting at his laptop and typing. Of course he was surrounded by other disturbed individuals. One more thing, my m ail tools may not be for sale, but my m ale tools are a different story. They may not be cheap, but they can definately be had. Just ask a certain lad...

Brian W. Rainey

A reprint (1889) of both volumes can be had here for $45.00.

Brian W. Rainey

The book you are inquiring about is readily available. It appears that there are a few copies of both volumes available for under $100.00.

The Viking Age - Paul B. Du Chaillu

Brian W. Rainey

If you're seriously selling this stuff, I would like to know if the iron wire is included in the auction as well, or if it may be sold seperatley. If so, how much would you want for it? Cat Cat, wrought iron wire is next to impossible to get hold of. I do not know of a source, personally. I doubt E...

Brian W. Rainey

If you are talking about an onion-top bascinet it is easy to achieve. Take any basic bascinet pattern and add a little material to the top. Shape accordingly.

Brian W. Rainey

well you got to figure if they are charging like $200.00 to $250.00 for say a riveted chainmail hauberk that requires maybe 1000 man ours to contruct and maybe 5% of the cost is for materials,they cant possibly be making very much money per hour. People will work for this kind of wage if they dont ...