The Armour Archive

Trevor

Unfortunately, His Highness does not plan to attend Pennsic due to a mundane trade conference. Hopefuly, Her Highness will attend with the Calon Host. For those not in the know, our own Angouleme came very close to becoming Princess herself. Her lord, Count Luther, availed himself most honorably on ...

Trevor

I think you could get $100 for the breastplate. Of course, putting it on ebay will show you what someone is willing to pay for it, which is a lot better way of finding out precisely what it is worth. I've noticed that museum-replica quality pieces seem to hold their value better, and sell quicker. A...

Trevor

It looks like the "shoes" are actually footed hose. One of the soldiers wears parti-color hose-one foot of which has a distinct shoe on it. I am certain these are plate and scale defenses for the throat-in most cases worn over mail. At this time, aventails had been in use for some time. Eventualy, t...

Trevor

Looking better and better...

Trevor

Of course, if you condition yourself through aerobic conditioning and weight training, you don't get tirec.

Trevor

It's nice craftsmanship, and I think you've got a lot of potential!

I am surprised that you didn't consult some books on period leather armor first, though. Someone with your talent could do some really interesting things with a little bit of reading.

Keep up the good work!

Trevor

"FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY"

Trevor

Osprey Elite series has a Normans book out. For leg armor-you're pretty limited. 12th c. has mail chausses over padded hose and that's about it. You have two choices, IMHO. 1) Cover up some minimal armor under some padded hose-especialy some patterned ones. That'd be pretty cool looking and few have...

Trevor

I've learned not to accept one piece of evidence as proof. However, I don't consider the above image a "mail standard". Given the amount of detail in the rest of the reliquary, I doubt that the goldsmith just sloughed off the standard because he was in a hurry. The border may be common for a finishe...

Trevor

Faulds were worn with breastplates by this time. I've seen faulds with horizontal lames that reach most of the way around the back.

I've also seen scale skirts as well. Not totally inappropriate with the Pembridge, though not as common as a Bascinet.

Trevor

Paint stripper does a decent job.

Trevor

Actually, if you look in the Les TrÃƒÂ¨s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry you will see examples of both.

http://www.christusrex.org/www2/berry/f2r.html

Trevor

An even better method for hiding the look of aluminum is to cover it with leather...

look at some 14th c. illustrations, and you'll see pieces that lend themselves well to covered plates. I love mybvanbraces of .05 7075 T6 alluminum slplints covered with 8 oz. leather.

Trevor

Spoke to Glendour on the phone and let him know people were talking aobut him here. He has no way to retrieve email from his site due to server problems. Apologies all around. He intends to take the site down to avoid further confusion. That said, he is looking to free himself from the pressures of ...

Trevor

The Charles de Blois pourpoint is a second layer of garment - it fill the same function as a doublet does in the 15th century, and a gown would be worn over it. A 'coat hardi' is also a second layer garment, from my understanding - these fellows are wearing the top layer, a gown. Note the fullness ...

Trevor

Glendour's apprentice here. Glendour has not dropped out of armoring. He has slown down. He has been spending his time taking care of rental properties and gearing up for the occasional war. He still is doing shields and odd runs of munition armor. It is sad, but I think he realizes that his heart i...

Trevor

You know, with enough tents that lack guy ropes, you could have a wicked bad night sortie in a camp! Think about it-a bunch of tents interspersed with incinitrons (at roped-off marshall points) At the start of the battle, you can have three sentries for the campers. The rest of the campers are in th...

Trevor

Torvaldr makes some GREAT cuir boili scales. If you squint, and the light hits it just right, you can make believe they're plastic if you want.

Trevor

There are plenty of places to get material without stealing street signs. Try Metal by the Foot-it's not far from where you live.

AS to the rest-you really are risking others lives and safety in order for you to play our game. Please don't.

Trevor

A lot of armor from the mid-14th century has mail sleeves that cover the elbow and reach to mid-forearm, with vanbraces poking out the end.

It very well may be that this armor was common, as the couter was not widely used at this time. Keep looking-I'll bet you find some other sources.

Trevor

Just to clarify my position - the King - Charles VI is wearing a heraldic huke or tabard - no doubt, no argument. His attendants are wearing houplands in an informal livery (one spring John the Fearless dressed his entire court in white for a lark) - French liveries are far more informal, mutable, ...

Trevor

Chef- hukes, huh? Never heard of the term and I appreciate expanding my knowledge base. Perhaps I am misinterpreting what you consider a "civil" gown. Do you mean that this was a civilian garment that was intended to be worn by itself, yet was pressed into military srevice? Since the retainer on the...

Trevor

You have a point, Chef. I'm not sure what they would call a heraldic garment that was made specifically to wear over armor if it had sleeves. It would be interesting to hear from someone who knew te difference. I think that people are calling anything that is worn over (real) armor a "surcoat", kind...

Trevor

It's always easier to cut off metal than to cut on metal...

Trevor

I'm not sure of the terminology, as I think the item you're referring to was a jupon. I can think of two off the top of my head. (again-I'm at work so i'll have to wait until I get home to post a pic) First, there's the Black Prince's jupon. That was theorized to have had long sleeves originally. Se...

Trevor

Yes-but having a spring makes changing belts a very quick process. It also allows the slack part of the belt to flex more-very handy when you are sanding the outside of a compound curved piece!

Trevor

I think that if the body has a lot of fabric in it-you could safely identify that as a gown. But, I've found that in those cases where heraldry is displayed, the material is "flatter" in order to display the heraldry better. Angel winged surcoats were most common in German iconography, in my experie...

Trevor

To make aslack belt sander you'll need: motor with cord and switch large wheel with key pin to attach to motor Base plate spring-loaded armature for upper wheel sanding belts of appropriate size and availability Two-wheel designs are fine-you don't need a 3rd. If you're having problems with tracking...

Trevor

Consider stainless as equivalent to mild steel in one guage heavier.

16 guage mild legs will dent. 14 guage ones won't.

If you pick up some 16 guage stainless-you should be in pretty good shape. I'd use 18 guage pretty much everywhere else, though.

Trevor

Yep-there's a gold reliquary c. 1400 with two angel wing surcoats being worn over armor. The main guy has a heraldic surcoat, his armored retainer has a cyclas/jupon/coat hardie (fitted tight bodied thing-what the hell is it called?) The third retainer also wears a simiar coat hardie as the armored ...

Trevor

The coifs I've seen at KL aren't constructed properly. They hang funny, and seem to have been made out of flat sheet rather than properly expanded mail. But, hey, they're $29. If it's worth it to you to get a metal thingy to put on your head that looks medievalish, then it's well worth the money. If...

Trevor

When you post a piece on the AA and ask for feedback-be ready for feedback. I'd assume that the person taking the time to leave feedback is trying to help you, rather than slam you. But I'll allow that I could be wrong. The vast majority of what I've seen is positive reenforcement. Other criticisms ...

Trevor

Does anybody have any information on whether baldrics are documentable? I am trying to find the best way to hang my rapier and need suggestions. Also if anyone can recommend a good source to purchase from I would also appreciate it.

Trevor

And one more thing: a 13th c. sugarloaf is not made of the same metal as a 15th c. barbute.

There was not much in the way of hardening and tempering before the 14th c., and then they didn't really widely understand the process until the 15th c. Most of the earlier helms were iron.

Trevor

OTOH, there is a BIG difference between a cleaving sword delivering a blow from the shoulder with proper footwork and body mechanics and a sword blow delivered at 30 mph from the back of a 2000 lb war horse. I have no doubt that you can do some ugly, ugly things to mail and helmets with a blow from ...

16th Century Baldrics