The Armour Archive

Kel Rekuta

PartsAndTechnical wrote:I am now coining a new term.

Sloughed Hide.

This implies it came off but avoids death or pain to the animal. I now demand this term be used and want total credit for it.

Perfectly valid for snakeskins...

Kel Rekuta

Would you poll a hundred random people to research an academic topic? Or would you seek information from the industry or field most closely related to your topic of interest. To do otherwise would be a waste of time resulting in more pop history based on anecdote and misconception. Does that annoy y...

Kel Rekuta

James Arlen Gillaspie wrote:I'll take Mercenaries and Their Masters by Mallett!

Robbery.

I paid a hell of a lot more for that book!!!!

Kel Rekuta

After some thought, Im eschewing the term "RW" and hardened hide in favor of "dried hide" to avoid misinterpretations, the DH I got my hands on came freshly slaughtered in a five gallon bucket. The tanning trade has particular terms for all of these - Freshly slaughtered fresh o...

Kel Rekuta

How thick would the rawhide be if it came from the shoulders? That leather tends to be fairly thick when finished. I think our ideas of what rawhide is comes from our modern usage where there really isn't much commercial demand for thicker than what Tandy/etc sell. In terms of readily available hid...

Kel Rekuta

I was hoping that somebody had escavated a cuirie between 1959 and today. From what I am reading here, no such luck. Unlike shoes, belts and pouches, such a thing wouldn't be tossed into a midden or "fall in" a latrine like so many of the London finds. That and leather items rarely surviv...

Kel Rekuta

Konstantin the Red wrote:The 1.5, 2, and 2.75 are probably the handiest. I think I'd start with the 2.

I have the 2 and 3lb Osbornes. The 3 kills my arm the first day if I haven't swung it in a while. After that, no probs. The 2 is more useful in terms of face size.

Kel Rekuta

Andeerz, A couple things... I am in the wholesale import biz, supplying the allied leather trades (shoe, luggage, harness, pet accessory, fetish - whatever) with the tools and supplies they use. I just have weird stuff fall in my lap sometimes. A few bends of imported sole leather came from an histo...

Kel Rekuta

+1 on Swetnam. You won't need anything else, although Lindholm's book is pretty good. Terry Brown's book is well worth owning and not just for the chapter on staff. I have only glanced through McElmore's book but it struck me as mish-mash of Japanese, Western and Boy Scout material with a large doll...

Kel Rekuta

I'm curious as to how the scabbard butts are different, and whether Gavin's stuff is the same stuff I had tanned a couple years back. (Honestly, my big problem with the bowl shapes, is how do you keep extra material from screwing the shape?) I presume purposely partial tanned scabbard butts are sub...

Kel Rekuta

Have you tried Goo-Gone? Its cheap and less toxic than MEK.

Kel Rekuta

Well, I'm all for it. I have two clients interested in persian leather shields since November but my research into production technique has been spotty until this week. (Thanks guys!!!) I intended to use hide glue and press two layers of bovine rawhide. The half tanned I have (as does Gavin) is pret...

Kel Rekuta

BdeB wrote:I am, btw, terrified of Horses. Bastards want to eat me, I KNOW IT!!!

When you know you will be near horses, don't put apples in your pockets.

Kel Rekuta

This is all very interesting. Great topic!

Kel Rekuta

How about cheap chinese woks? Utterly enormous ones are available a lot cheaper than one could get such a shape made by a potter. Line it with plastic dropcloth et voila! No chance of cracking those things in a press. I had planned to turn a set of molds out of soft maple but the plastic sled idea i...

Kel Rekuta

Kel, Both Theophilus, and Ceninni have cheese glue recipes. This PDF quotes both of them. m Mac Thanks for that link to the pdf. I have Cennini's extremely vague recipe but didn't have any luck with it using commercially available cheese curds. The whey cheese issue may have been the problem. Good ...

Kel Rekuta

While the board was down, a gent named Tod very generously offered to check the Ashmolean for us, to see if there's more to these recipes. That would eb me. If you tell me exactly what you want me to find out I'll give them a call and then go in and get the info. you want. A period recipe for casei...

Kel Rekuta

I found my notes this morning. There is a very high probability this one is rhino rawhide so would in fact be a single layer. Well I guess that plan for a repro is out the window.

Kel Rekuta

I took a few since I was there to view all the weapons and armour in the Near East reserve collection. The curator is interested in having them catalogued into a data base. Not really my area of interest but to get access to the shields I may have to cough up the time. Anyway, this one was particula...

Kel Rekuta

Russ, I recently examined a number of turs in collection at the Royal Ontario Museum. Two of them are amazingly translucent. Regardless of being painted or not, they are all too thick to be single layers of rawhide. They are undoubtedly doubled. Many have rolled rims so I suspect that's whats meant ...

Kel Rekuta

Just have it sent by air mail, the brokerage fee isn't so insulting that way. Icefalcon is a reliable vendor. If the product you want is in stock, its out the door pretty quickly.

Kel Rekuta

well after reading copious amounts of old posts, i have decided to just use 1/8" lauan plywood, 3 sheets, and then cover them. Don't use lauan plywood. It will be destroyed more quickly even than poplar underlay. What make it flexible is a core of spongy wood fibre. It is designed for curved s...

Kel Rekuta

Lentner.

Kel Rekuta

That would be my guess.

Kel Rekuta

And yet again, I am feeling the effects of too many blows to the head.

I scanned all twenty pages of the thread I recalled about the Musee de l'Armee but nada...

I don't recall where I found this image but here is a compressed version of it.

Kel Rekuta

That's the ticket! Thanks!

Kel Rekuta

There is the one in the Musee de L'Armee in Paris. The one they display upside down... Its in Manoucheher's huge photo gallery of that museum.

Kel Rekuta

Gryndar wrote:Hi Kel, that was exactly what I was hoping for. how do I place an order with you?

Call the toll free number I listed. Shop hours are 8am-4pm. I saw a #2 split mallet on the shelf Monday.

Kel

Kel Rekuta

We are the Canadian dealer for C.S. Osborne. If we don't stock the weight you want , we'll get it.

http://www.csosborne.com/rawmal_1.htm

Capital Findings & Leather. 800-567-0305

Kel Rekuta

Ah, can't read everything here.

Shane Adams sure seems to run with winners, eh?

Kel Rekuta

Yeah, from his bio.

IMHO, the guy is nut job poser. I would be pleased to be corrected if I am in error.

Kel Rekuta

Somehow, from reading the testimonies of injustices over the last two decades, I get the feeling he already doesn't care about making it right... Then why is this thread here? To try to crash his business into the ground in vengeance? Sounds good to me. Seriously. Its unlikely letters to the Better...

Kel Rekuta

Did you bring in any of the gambesons? If you have a small in stock, I have an instant sale for you.

Kel Rekuta

Nah, dis is fruit hat!

Kel Rekuta

And

What do you call this kind of hat?

Re: Cuirie

Re: Cuirie

Re: A bunch of books for sale.

Re: Cuirie

Re: Cuirie

Re: Cuirie

Re: What rawhide mallet to get?

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: LF good manual for English Quarterstaff.

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: Ink removal

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: The Iron Chicken stance has got to go (SCA).

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: WTB: Three cheap preferably round shield blanks FOR SCI

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Re: Hardened leather armour 15th century English recipe

Who makes early 15thC hats?