The Armour Archive

Mike F

Usually, I find we gravitate towards well-documented periods because something from that period (which was documented) struck our fancy. However, I say do what you want, and you can find what you need. There's a wealth of information in resources and people, especially on this board and others like ...

Mike F

Is that stainless? It has an odd sheen to it. It could just be the lighting, though.

Very, very nice. Gimme.

Mike F

The problem was the gold hammer I tried to use for raising. It mushroomed too quickly. Quiet you.

Mike F

I'm with Stonekeep. The bowl of my sugarloaf started as 12 ga, and the visor and front plates are 14ga. The rear is 16, but that should be enough considering it's not dished, and I don't fear two-handed shots to the -back- of the head.

Mike F

Hello, I scrapped my gold-raised gauntlet (for about a dozen reasons) and decided to work on a hot raised one off of a pattern I kinda got from Cad. See, Cad and Aaron mentioned how they got their pattern, so I printed out Cad's fabricated pattern and made a hot-raising pattern based off of that. I'...

Mike F

Mead:

You have to careful, most Indian helms I've seen are 18ga or thiner.

Mike F

I'd like to go on the record here for just a sec to say that I'd rather have authentic armor on the field. Period. I will make exceptions to gorgets for periods without aventails and, of course, face grills for open-faced helms. I don't like open face helms (personal preference) but they're not safe...

Mike F

Nope, I max out at 1600x1200, and this is a beast of a laptop.

I agree, the pictures should have smaller versions. And bandwidth on your end does start coming into play. But if you want 130 megs of Stanley, I've got it.

Mike F

I think I'm up to over 200 pictures, myself. Maybe as low as 170. Close to 150 of which were of the harness. Yes, <i>The</i> Harness. There are no others. Duane, I think I speak for all of us when I say, jealous as we were, we were just happy to see, even more so to touch, such a beautiful work. Tha...

Mike F

I was cleaning my shop and taking photos and, you know, the hachi doesn't look that bad with the menpo wth it . . . I'm tempted to lacquer the bastach up and sit a shikoro to it for kicks. Wouldn't be for SCA combat (look at those awful rivets) but it'd look good lying around. So, what do you guys t...

Mike F

Well, you asked for it!

Mike F

Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can buy Coke in 55-gal drums? Where? How much? GIMME! Ahem. In order to answer the question, allow me to share finances, albeit very simplified. I spend 40 hours making you a helm. Now, either you get it in several months, or I do this full time. Now, I need to pay to eat, keep...

Mike F

The only one I have of myself is from the side where you can't see my face and I'm wearing mundane shoes and ren-faire garb with a tabard over it. I'm not going out that way, so I'll find someone to use my digital camera on my harness n' me.

Mike F

I'm all aquiver in anticipation! Or would be if I wasn't so tired and busy. But I'll be there with pants on! As requested.

Mike F

First, may I say . . . Ow. Ow ow ow ow, ow ow. Second, hitting yourself in the thumb root with a raising hammer hurts. Third, this'll be bulletproof if it works. Has anyone actually cold raised an hourglass gauntlet? Is it even possible to do cold? I've done two courses (passes? Umm . . . Two going ...

Mike F

Sorry to hear that Bob. I was looking forward to meeting you as well. Next MAG get together, eh?

Mike F

Ugo, once again, you rock. Could you retire for the rest of ius to catch up?

Keep up the good fight, not only is your work beautiful, but maybe it'll cause Hollywood to use metal for their armor more often.

Mike F

Where's my baby! Show me my baby! With the newspaper!

What . . . I'm talking about my 3M wheel.

Ingrid, get WS_FTP, if you look there's a free license copy on the homepage for it (IpSwitch, I believe it's called) and you can tell it to upload whole directories if you want.

Mike F

Thank you, Owen. You can use the cross as not only is it not offensive to the masses, but also the device would, by definition, be protected as, much like the King of France, it's a real person or institution. Thus, nobody has registered it (or should not have registered it) and it should be able to...

Mike F

Yea . . . I have a gambeson (currently sleeveless) and I've actually completly forgotten to pad my knees. Time to get some blankets!

Mike F

Mike: His passes (Arador) seem to be from the outside to the inside, whereas raising (as far as I know) goes inside to outside.

Jacob: You're a funny man.

I meant more the dimensions and general shapes than the exact patterns, but you've got me, those are the shapes for a lot of work.

Mike F

As far as I know, even the very, very early sallets were well within (or after) the transitional period. I've seen reference to a few as early as the first two decades of the 15th century, but even at that point, you're talking breastplates and greaves over maille as a reasonable minimum for someone...

Mike F

I've seen that before, but I had forgotten where. I'm mildy wary, however, as that appears to be a completely different form of . . . forming, I guess, than what I was intending on using. I was going to start from the middle and go outwards, not the opposite way. And why is it that you need so much ...

Mike F

Bah, and here I thought you were going to ask someone to get me a check.

Looks pretty neat, though. I may pass on haivng one above my toilet, however.

Mike F

I was working at Gruber's and only managed to feed my raising bug. I was looking at the raised sallet and started to wonder . . . 1) Besides the crease down the center, could a helm like that be done completely on a 1-2" ball stake? The forming, I mean, not the clean up, etc. 2) Does anyone have a q...

Mike F

I will "liberate" it, and it shall bear my children.

That's beauty of the first order, my man, in construction, methods and materials. I have much work to do, it seems.

Mike F

Hey, JT, if you come and head to dinner afterwards, I'll buy you a drink for keeping this mess running for us.

Mike F

Agincourt.

Personally, I'd love to research it all, but I have to specialize. So, once this wears out its welcome, we'll see what else I can find.

Mike F

James: Any problems with the marshals?

Mike F

Not that I know overly much about the subject matter, but I like it. It;s informative and well-said.

Mike F

Don't suppose the SCA would go for that, eh? Too bad, I'd love to wear a period suit.

Mike F

Payin' the bills this month, Karl?

Are you going to put a visor on the suit as well?

Mike F

Well, I can always see you two.

Honestly, the motivation has never really come up, but it's possible I'll be crashing in Chicago (and working with Gruber) from Thursday late to the MAG get together that weekend. Just need to iron out the details.

Mike F

I'm inviting myself!

Mike F

Don't worry, Brannos, it's my fault for putting up something that large and popular. I'm glad you guys got a kick out of it! Plus it's nice to get some traffic.

Hot Raising an Hourglass Gauntlet

Kabuto: Salvaged Shop Art

Cold raising 16ga gauntlets

Hot raising stakes and "Patterns"