The Armour Archive

raito

... to annoy me. These pictures are from one of my guys, Koha. He was the guinea pig for The Raito Method a few years ago. Now the guy is braiding his own lacing. As for the annoyance, he chooses color schemes based on my blood pressure. How many times have you heard someone say that they're going t...

raito

In the old days, barn door handles were about $2.50, and a whole length of 3/4" conduit was that much. Bought the conduit, cut it up, bent it, and had shield handles for all the new guys. And you can make them whatever rise you wish.

raito

You can still use a guide (like your angle iron example) with the saber saw.

raito

Well, I wear plastic Japanese. I find that sheet Kydex compares poorly to sheet mild steel in price, but is a bit less than sheet stainless. Barrels are relatively cheap is bought used, but theey're limited in what you can make from them that is good looking. Around here, 20 ga stainless would get b...

raito

Yeah, lots of force. I've expended copius amounts of sweat literally jumping up and down on the edge of a pair of cuisses getting the stuff to bend enough to work (long time ago, I have better methods now). I haven't done much with 7075, except to know that in 1/4" thickness, at least one perso...

raito

. "Hit hard and take light, and you'll be a better fighter This is the philosophy I was taught by Master Feral and try to instill in any who will listen. This does not fly in the face of playing hard, it just means you have a bit less room for error on the taking side. And it is a good philoso...

raito

Some prefer LacesForLess, but I've had very good luck using St. Louis Braid. I buy a gross of 72" flat athletic lace in the main color, plus some red and white for hishinui and mimi-ito. Not only is that 200 yards (most places will sell a hundred yard spool), but it has the oh-so-handy plastic ...

raito

And then there's the question of what to do when things do get pussified? 12 years ago (was it that long?) I moved to Texas for a few years. The level of force all around wasn't different, except for face shots (I was used to full force). When I came back, the whole darned Northshield had gone to so...

raito

Standard rant -- name the alloy as well as the temper... That aside, I'll assume that when you say 'by hand' you mean sans tools. That won't work very well. It will bend enough for a COP, but it'll take muscle. But that's good, because as much as you have to put into it to bend it is as much as your...

raito

If you can't afford metal, leather isn't going to be cheaper. With the price of metal going up, and recycling going on, it is getting harder to find free metal, but it's still out there. If you want stainless, find places that are getting rid of it, like restaurant kitchens being torn out, remodeled...

raito

It's not just a female thing. Most people's legs aren't tubular. Fortunately, it's not a hard technique to get the lames to be 'conical'. I'll guess that you're lame pattern is (very) roughly rectangular, with one side bowed out in a curve (some patterns have both sides in the same curve, like part ...

raito

I saw a tutorial somewhere that used something commonly available (from the hardware store) that was modified for use as Vervelles. I *think* it was written by Master Cad, but I could be wrong. Hopefully someone here on the Archive will remember and post it. http://www.horton-brasses.com/products/p...

raito

Kendo kote work OK, but your knuckles will still sting when hit. Japanese didn't wear much on their hands.

raito

Too extreme? Compared to what? Compared to early 80's TKD, SCA never had anything. Compared to full-contact fighting, SCA never had anything. It almost compares to high-school wrestling. It's not even close to high-school football. And Sir Vitus, please don't make statements like 'The influence of c...

raito

Bump. Finished the shitagi description.

raito

iomtalach wrote:First response from a Halal slaughterhouse, so no pig...but I can get lambs's heads.

How would that be? I can get a few and try a couple of things on them.

Pointless. Bone gets harder when it's dead.

raito

If we are taking bets on this ( and I hope we are) I bet its hard to kill that pig. Let me tell you a story... That's because the dumbass hit it in the head, instead of somwhere it would bleed. Crazy friend of a friend (and I've seen the pictures) says that when you're killing a pig in the wild, wh...

raito

Ever notice that English helmets resemble kettle hats and German ones resemble sallets?

raito

I had occasion to order a couple pieces of butcher's mail from ringmesh.com for a project involving kote - Japanese arm armour. This requires fairly fine mail, and I didn't want to weave it myself this time. I ordered 2 largish flat pieces of butcher's mail from ringmesh.com last Tues. (I think it w...

raito

Let's set aside sword and spear for a moment - what % of crown lists are won by someone fighting two sword? It's certainly a form that can compete with sword and shield No, let's not set it aside. Both Royal Lists I have won, I won with sword and spear (not by choice). I have also fought two sword ...

raito

Mykaru is right, of course -- but we weren't talking about jinbaori or I would've mentioned it.

raito

Remember, it's about form and line, not expense.

raito

Any armour for a samurai pre-1600 (and I bet Kieran's is fine, though he calls it 1601) is fine. Sugake? Sure. Okegawa? Sure. Mogame? Sure. All that stuff. Jingasa? Nope. Hara-ate? Nope. Tatami-do? Nope. You called it right, Master Eff. Requiring all kozane kebiki all the time would have the one guy...

raito

I find aluminum most useful for parts that are covered. One other thing that aluminum is good at is shedding heat. Coat of plates in AL is cooler than in steel.

raito

I've never tried it. Why don't you, and let us know?

raito

Bump - I add tools and materials as I use them.

raito

Yes, I know that's not what it says at http://www.j-armour.com/method , but I'll change that some time today. Patterning the dou is pretty long, and so I'll break it out into its own thing. A warning: This is not finished, but someone out there actually needs the info sooner rather than later, so I ...

raito

Bump - There have been additions.

raito

Bump - the next steps in making the shitagi have been added.

raito

I've seen them used (though I haven't used them myself). THey are definitely used with a slapping motion, rather than a hammering motion. That is, there's a significant horizontal component to the strike. Ido think that one could be used on most thicknesses of metal that is sued as armour (with the ...

raito

To tie in with my previous comment, right now I'm waiting for the wife to finish showering so that we can take off to the nearest event. There's going to be 10 tournaments today -- and none with the same weapons (unless you count 'any weapon' as the same weapon). Performing well in all the day's eve...

raito

Probably better luck in that over at Legiodraconis, 'cuz he runs that himself.

raito

My guess is that Kenric uses half inch padding. That means a inch total (because you have on your head metal padding head padding metal as a cross section). Since the formula for the circumference of a circle is pi * diameter, and you have the naked diameter, and an extra inch of diameter for the pa...

raito

No blasting Takeda-dono. Excellency, The first choice for such an exhalted rank is silk, but only if it doesn't have slubs (raw silk and noil just don't work). Second choice would be hemp (or ramie if you can find it). Linen behind that, and cotton behind that. The usual suspects for natural fibers,...

raito

Eff, yeah, non-armouring types might benefit from fully formed, pieces, but this might be an alternative. It's a half-step closer to fully making something.

Mykaru, I hope you continue to post pictures and such here. I think we'd all like to see that. But you're leaving a pretty wide void.

(Japanese) How far will some people go...

Review - ringmesh.com

The Raito Method Part 3 - Patterning the Dou