The Armour Archive

Kel Rekuta

[shrug] I use garters. You can see garters in period artwork. I'd rather have my boots have supple leather than hardened leather on my legs. Cheers! Bob Not if you have to ride through bushes and brambles while hunting! BTW, they aren't "hardened" so much as stiffened by the jacking proce...

Kel Rekuta

Kel, You make a good point about the omnidirectional orientation of the collagen fibers in hide. I am somewhat embarrassed for not having thought of that. I should think things through more carefully before I type. Mac No reason to be embarassed, Mac. You didn't write the part I quoted and underlin...

Kel Rekuta

I admit fully that I know little about the majority of WMA. That is not what I was or am refering to. Your analogy about military service is apt as well. I take advice and learn from wherever I can. Including folks who study WMA. I believe it would be better served if on the WMA side of the fence t...

Kel Rekuta

Oh I agree that the techniques are not meant to be sporting.. and I freely admitted that it was a bad analogy. It is just this belief that these few manuals is the end all be all that sticks in my throat. I think we should have full body targeting in the SCA. I mean we get hit in the "illegal&...

Kel Rekuta

[quote="american samurai] Mac, I asked Trevor Absolon the owner of Toraba.com, he has an incredible knowledge of methods and materials used in the construction of samurai armor, in fact I just read a preview of a book he is just putting the finishing touches on and it will be a "must own&q...

Kel Rekuta

Yes. I played SCA for 23 years all over North America. The local Ukrainian boys are all fit, athletic guys wielding what I can only describe as 30" flat steel bars in a vaguely sword-like shape. They hit fast, hard and then hit again. They don't seem to have any reservations on force. Since the...

Kel Rekuta

The are called "jack" boots because they are "jacked" with a mix of wax, pitch resin and soot. They tended to be made with fairly thick (perhaps 4-5oz) veg leather. The flesh side is out. Robert Land Footwear in Guelph, Ontario would be pleased to make you a pair. Mine are amazin...

Kel Rekuta

I am interested. We talked about the fighting today. Four guys are interested in practicing "Ukraine" style fighting. After the holidays we need to talk about a "unofficial" practice. The Ukrainian - Russian stuff is just SCA with blunt steel except no thrusts. None of you shoul...

Kel Rekuta

So we can guess that wood was used in this case by a servant. But can we extrapolate much with a straight face? How many wooden drinking vessels have been found in archaeological contexts in medieval or earlier? Was their distribution general or very localized? I tend to believe that while pottery ...

Kel Rekuta

Guess I needed some more smilies in there Steve. I used to read Heavy Metal magazine, used to play SCA too - so yeah there's nothing wrong with fantasy.

Kel Rekuta

But frankly, since my archaeology days, it is all about clay. Either painted like Greek pottery, or plain red/brown clay... God knows I went through thousands of vessels and shards in the cataloging rooms, working for the department to make a couple of bucks. One becomes attached to the fact that t...

Kel Rekuta

My suppositions: How can you tell from a sculpture whether a material is leather or textile? Supposition based on experimental archaeology is not unreasonable. Categorical assertion would be. I agree with B.A.'s opinion based on my own experiences with recreation of the Arnberg effigy. Heavy leathe...

Kel Rekuta

Hadrian Coffin wrote:I'm 98% interested... I'd like to see a pic first, but I'd probably be in on a set. I need one right now!

Ditto. I could use a wedge setting plier.

Kel Rekuta

I wonder what a real Templar would have thought of it... After a moment to utter a prayer of thanks to God for placing Satan's minion within his reach, the Templar would have sliced and diced this character to little bits. Then he might have ordered a serjeant to have the corpse stripped of any psu...

Kel Rekuta

Too bad the Gilded Boar tutorial is offline. This topic needs to be compiled and made sticky on this forum. It seems to come up twice a year.

Kel Rekuta

But I want it now Doug!!!!!

Kel Rekuta

That's a debate that is never going to end.

Kel Rekuta

Just a side note that soaking vegetable tanned leather removes the tannins that were added to make the leather durable. When you wash out the tannins you are reducing the leather's ability to stretch as well as resistance to molding and cutting (I find it's much easier to slice through water harden...

Kel Rekuta

Mallet is a must read; a little drier than Trease but better referenced for further reading. Haven't heard of the other one - added to the "someday list."

Kel Rekuta

Tease. How about Surviving Examples of Early Plate Armour. Vol I Helmets . By Douglas W. Strong 2011 Surviving Examples of Early Plate Armour. Vol II Limb Defenses . By Douglas W. Strong 2012 Surviving Examples of Early Plate Armour. Vol III Body Defenses . By Douglas W. Strong 2013 All three volume...

Kel Rekuta

They serve as practical reinforcement directly in front of the throat. Snazzy and effective!

Kel Rekuta

More like US$62 - 70 for steer hides used for strap and sole leather.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/nw_ls442.txt

If you think leather is expensive, you should try tanning some dead skin yourself. you may reconsider your opinion.

Kel Rekuta

A wooden cup/ can or a bowl unless you could afford ceramic cups. Perhaps a horn can? Leather drinking jacks become popular a bit later by most available information.

Kel Rekuta

It seems like you want something painted up and the aged/ distressed look done on a metal shield. Or do you want a shield constructed in a period fashion, decorated as an historic shield might have been? I can help with the latter, if you care to discuss it. The former, no. I can't help you with that.

Kel Rekuta

Geez, Siggy really burned out that shoulder didn't he?

Kel Rekuta

We arent about fantasy , we are about studying medieval culture and mindset. What SCA do you belong to? How many medieval kings organized a tournament to decide who would depose them in six months? How often did a Japanese warrior enter a double elimination tournament with Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Re...

Kel Rekuta

As awsome as I find the COTT, I'm just not interested in spending several grand on a 14th c. kit. Can I find a couple of dozen people in the eastern half of North America interested in doing a late 16th/early 17th c. rebated steel, armor as worn battle? Yeah, I hear you. I'd like to leave the 14th-...

Kel Rekuta

Some day the Battle of Thirty will be fought with steel. Probably not in our lifetime... In the USA. Most countries aren't as litigious as America. The Eastern Europeans could do it now if sixty fighters were inclined to do so. It might be fought in Ontario within a decade if our current pace of gr...

Kel Rekuta

Quick sand with 80 grit, cement both sides, pound out the air bubbles. Easier said than done I'm afraid. That's why shoe repairman charge $60-80 for a full sole job...

Kel Rekuta

But guess what? No one got really hurt. Armour works. Welcome to our world. Now add thrusting, grappling & dagger so you can fight to submission. There is more to it than just banging each other like the Russian and Ukrainian guys do. Kel Rekuta Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts www.aem...

Kel Rekuta

Lots and lots of tall, narrow glasses filled with Kolsch bier... after a long day investigating relevant historical artifacts.

Kel Rekuta

JoJo Zerach wrote:I know you said you wanted to do it quieter, though you also mentioned doing some stuff when you visit your mother-in-law. Couldn't you just drive your dishing equiptment to a remote location anytime?

You really haven't done any of this stuff, have you?

Kel Rekuta

DukeAvery wrote:
I should think that adherents of any fighting school posting here should do so with tolerance and respect for a variety of opinions, some well formed, some not, from a variety of sources.

Most of us do. Its just that the loudest and most exasperating are so readily noticed.

Kel Rekuta

Bleddyn De Caldicot wrote:What is the date for that painting, they really are spiff!

Gentile da Fabriano
STORIE DI ROMOLO E REMO (part.)
Foligno (PG) - ITA, Palazzo Trinci, Loggia
affresco

c1411-12

B,

If you like it, find us a clever tailor to make them up. I need one by spring.

Kel

Kel Rekuta

I am quite taken by the fashion of the giornea over Milanese plate. Is there a pattern for them that a non-historian tailor could follow? Does anyone you know make by commission?

I wanna looka lika thees guys... they are mondo spiffo!

giornea for armoured combat