The Armour Archive

jester

I imagine you buckle the belt with the under-piece that is undecorated and perforated and you wrap the decorated tongue around the belt behind the buckle and let it hang down (standard SCA O-ring belt knot). That's just my guess, however. Where's this image from?

jester

I sold most of my combs at Battlemoor. I have a busy week of kids back to school, back to soccer (which I coach), and back to scouts (which I den-lead) and will try to make more combs and put them up for sale this weekend. I have a question for you. I've tried to hew as closely to the medieval examp...

jester

Inlaid. More combs You've seen the top left one before in previous pictures. That will give you an idea of the size of the newer combs. The one middle left is inlaid with an ivory substitute (vinyl). It's just a generic comb that I designed. It's walnut with a single coat of linseed oil. The bottom...

jester

Perhaps this could be a regular thing. Photo essay with a different "contest theme every so often. Could you send a note to JT to pin this to the top of the page? I don't see any reason to organize this. I know that I've been inspired to do this by other activities I've seen and maybe some other pe...

jester

Store bought tea-lights don't count. You can use them in your design, but they can't be the only element. So the tap-lights surrounded by a parchment column (which I've used, btw) are okay. Let's say the Five-foot rule has to apply. When looking at it from five feet away it should pass as being auth...

jester

Who lives in a place with regular fire bans? That's right, a bunch of us. So candles, even candles enclosed in lanterns, are just not an option. Now, there are a bunch of LED options out there, but they're mostly modern in appearance. Cian of Storvik has a great fluorescent lantern tutorial on the w...

jester

I made six last night (courtesy of Sir Ramon the Chronologer who took one look at the cut leather I produced and said it would be faster and easier for him to do the seams on his machine than it would be to teach me how to do it, by which he meant the 15 minutes it would take him to sew them was a l...

jester

Souldn't the grain be running the other way for those combs? Inline with the teeth? And actually I'd buy one of the mistakes---the joy of having a blacksmith persona and so not needing to portray gentry and above! I have cut across the grain and with the grain. I cut across the grain on two occasio...

jester

Are you ready to take orders yet? I want a Mary Rose comb. --T. Let's make sure we agree on what a Mary Rose comb should look like. I did a google search on the Mary Rose combs and came up with a couple of images. This one. In the above link the combs bottom center, bottom right, and top left are w...

jester

jester

Wow. Just. Wow.

jester

Are you ready to take orders yet? I want a Mary Rose comb. --T. I'm headed over to the shop to do two of those in oak. I made three in poplar and they *all* snapped during final shaping. The narrow spine makes them really susceptible to this and I'm wondering if I'm missing something in the Mary Ro...

jester

All these failures. To get to this. And this. Didn't get to do the inlay pieces today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. This is what I've been working towards. There are a lot of people who make excellent combs. But, so far as I know, no one is doing combs inspired by examples from the Arabic worlds. And...

jester

Will you have any of these for sale at Battlemoor? I'm eyeballing them thinking they'd make a gorgeous addition to a gift basket I'm workin on... I am working like crazy to get these made in time for Battlemoor. I also want to have a couple of six-board chests, some rosaries, some pouches, and a to...

jester

I would think American white oak would be sturdier than red oak and is available and is closer to european oaks than red oak---though I would not suggest using used bourbon barrel staves for stock! What about beechwood? How about holly? Cherry? Apple? Lots of stuff that is fairly close in looks to ...

jester

Jester, Will have to get some of these off of you. When you say unshaped and unsanded is it simply square corners then? RPM The last set of pictures I posted are unshaped and unsanded combs. The corners are rounded if I tell the laser to cut them rounded (which I generally do) They're flat without ...

jester

Note that the sapwood of black walnut looks a lot more like European Walnut that the heartwood (and is usually so much looked down on it can be sourced often for free from wood shops that cut it off and discard it) Thank you. I'll look into that. Thomas brings up a good point. I'm using poplar, oak...

jester

A generic comb. The crosses were a design failure because I sized the cut wrong and the cone of the laser pretty much destroyed the pieces that would make these visibly crosses. A Mary Rose style comb. What makes it Mary Rose style? The narrow, unadorned central spine. I can do these with a flat si...

jester

The Hot Fair. A gathering of merchants. Massive deeds of arms. Evening the sides to ensure everyone has a greater chance at glory. Oh, wait, the structure of the SCA (and the massive weight of traditions) prevents this. Never mind.

How would you change it for the better Falcone? Anyone?

jester

IsobelMuire wrote:In a similar vein, what other non fencing activities would you recommend and use to get into better shape as a fighter, aside from foot work drills, and practice bouts, and pell work?

Wind sprints and handstands.

jester

I had a set of barrel plastic lorica that never failed me, and I started out in Atlantia and got hit a lot. I find the tricks to shaping barrel plastic are: -Get it hot enough. ABS barrel plastic should be heated slowly in an oven until it goes translucent. It's then ready to shape. -Shape it on a f...

jester

You may be thinking of this. It's not a pop-up trailer.

jester

This again? If it's a public park, step over to one side and do your thing. If you want to be really proactive and SCA-friendly, put up a little sign: "You've left the SCA practice" The only thing a marshal can do is say 'Owing to the presence of combatant who might be construed as being part of the...

jester

I'm going to stay on the edge of this discussion because I don't like to disturb the big dogs. :) If you want the shorter look then you want the tailored look. Move towards split hose. Make sure your hosen are properly constructed (bias cut). Consider stirrup hose rather than footed hose to help min...

jester

Thank you.

jester

Nissan Maxima wrote:Tuchux charity tourney. Full body targeting and grappling. (random weapons draw) lots of fun.

Not an SCA event (or doesn't really exist, I've never been able to get that straight from the replies). Ask any Marshal of the Society.

jester

Here's the deal. I finished my test cutting yesterday and finalized the body shapes. I tested a couple of polishing methods and we're going to go with a 180 grit initial sand, linseed oil soak, 220 grit final sand, linseed oil soak. Wet sanding and waxing and buffing were just too labor intensive an...

jester

I'm pleased you are exploring medieval and renaissance combs with the idea of offering reproductions. I'm definitely in the market for a Mary Rose comb. Will you also laser-cut the bone for the inlays, or will you have to use a plastic imitation? Have you considered making medieval spectacle frames...

jester

Trystyn of Anglesey wrote:You've seen gnat balls?
How did you get their little legs apart?

A movie, dinner, a few drinks... You know.

jester

What's the fun with lasers made things in a medieval hobby? That's an excellent question and since I get asked that question on a regular basis I'll try to give you a good answer. When we are re-creating elements of the medieval material culture (aka making medieval stuff) there are a number of ele...

jester

Things that work for me: 1) 100 pushups workout. I did this at my desk. I also got a resistance band (the big blue rubber bands) and a foam roller. With those I can do curls, seated rows, and put the band around my ankles while walking to work the supporting muscles of my upper leg. I'm also a bit n...

jester

Yeah I would not buy bud k for anything that didn't just hang on the wall, and still probably not then. I like the Hanwei but yeah the prices have are just crazy now. I was just seeing what was out there. After looking at the crafting process I feel their prices are perfectly reasonable. Still twic...

jester

Longsword, armingsword, whatever really just seeing what's out there. Sca or wma. The current rules regarding swords for use in C&T say (I'm paraphrasing): Nothing made by Bud-K. Aside from that, if it passes the flex test and isn't a sharp, it's okay. We really, really meant it about Bud-K, though...

jester

I think the basic combs, like the ones I have pictured, will be in the neighborhood of $10-$15 dollars in poplar and walnut (and hopefully red oak and maple). Bigger and more elaborate will cost more. How much? I just don't know yet. I want to keep the standard combs under $40. I want to keep simple...

jester

Your page, Mistress, is only the tip of the iceberg. The Met (my God, the Met!), the Victoria and Albert and the Royal Ontario can take all day to get through, for instance. I know I spent a couple of hours studying the folding X comb alone. And making notes, and drawing it, and grabbing some cardbo...

Re: How is this belt worn?

Re: Combs

Re: Combs

Re: A lantern contest

Re: A lantern contest

A lantern contest

Simple Girdle Purse

Re: Combs

Re: Combs

Re: The Bardicci Guild

Re: The Bardicci Guild

Re: Combs

Re: Combs

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Re: Combs

Re: Combs

Re: Combs

Re: Combs

Re: The War Shouldn't Be Over in June

Re: Rapier manuals/books

Re: Barrel plastic question

Re: Medieval Camping 'Pop-up' Trailer

Re: Fighters Fighting at an Unofficial Practice (no Marshal)

Re: Avoiding the 'Diaper' Look

Re: Salisbury Cathedral Table

Re: Acceptable Risk and Safety

Re: Combs

Re: Combs

Re: Wanted: Pennsic War Survivor's Guide

Re: Combs

Re: I need to up my game

Re: C&t blades

Re: C&t blades

Re: Combs

Re: Combs