The Armour Archive

Black Swan Designs

I'm being flooded with requests for tracking numbers and whatnot. Here's the scoop if you've never ordered from us before- Francena accepts your order when she's sure we have the items you want in stock. At that point you get a confirmation email. Then she processes your order and enters it into the...

Black Swan Designs

Just responded to it.

Black Swan Designs

No, I don't think so. I don't find an email about size 6 shoes. Did you send it to me or Francena?

Black Swan Designs

What means 'shipping numbers or info.'?

Black Swan Designs

They come out of inventory as they're ordered, so if a size shows in the drop down menu, we should have them.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

You could do that. Send it to Jeff though- jeffrey @ historicenterprises.com.

Black Swan Designs

Hi Lemarchand- That's certainly a fair question, and one we've talked about here quite a bit over the last couple of days. The bottom line is that we would love to be able to offer a budget shoe. We know most people don't have unlimited amounts of money to throw at their hobby, so being able to get ...

Black Swan Designs

Hi folks- For anyone planning to attend Caid's 12th Night festivities tomorrow, a quick not to let you know that we will be merchanting. Of course we can't bring out the whole shop, but the plan at this point is to bring tableware (glass, cutlery, napery), books/magazines, the Dark Ages range, shoes...

Black Swan Designs

Lucien, I'm sorry but we can't 'hold' shoes for you. The demand for these has been overwhelming and we are running out of sizes, so the only fair way to do this is to fill orders as they come in. If you want a pair, you'll have to place an order thru the website. If there is still a 10 available, it...

Black Swan Designs

Sorry, the response has been phenomenal and we're starting to run out of sizes. Francena is filling orders now in the order they come in. Sorry if anyone is disappointed.

Black Swan Designs

Gunthar- your shoes have been pulled and are waiting for the fax. Lucien- No fax yet. Simon- 'wide' and 'tiny' are relative terms. If you'll fax us foot tracings we'll be happy to let you know if we think they'll fit. Fax is 760-789-6644. Be sure to put your name on the page, along with a 1" sq...

Black Swan Designs

Oh no, shoes are very much done- we have a whole box of them!! But I do want to point out that this is a one time offer, and when they're gone, they're gone. Trousers and leg wraps are in stock and ship as well, so that order will probably go out today. Speaking of which, I have one of my ladies doi...

Black Swan Designs

Wow! And to think we really were going to pitch these! Dansknecht- Jeff says if your foot isn't evtremely wide and you don't plan to wear thick socks, the 12 should be fine. If you want to wear thick socks and/or use an insert, you might want to consider a 13. Lianor- We do accept PayPal. Indicate t...

Black Swan Designs

If you wear a 9.5, I'd order a 10, but it's really your call. You could certainly do the 'stretch them with acetone' trick to widen the toe area, which is where we feel they run a bit small. The heel and arch are pretty good, the toe just seems a bit cramped to us. If it's any help, Jeff is the mode...

Black Swan Designs

The major problem is they didn't follow our pattern, which is taken directly from a shoe in the MOL. This shoe uses our pattern for a reference, but it takes liberties: -The sole is much wider in the heel and arch than the MOL exemplar. -It's also straighter, like a modern shoe. -They didn't put the...

Black Swan Designs

Budget medieval shoe Hi all- We have some medieval shoes at a great price that I wanted everyone to know about. These are leather shoes of a generally medieval shape. They are well made, hand stitched turnshoes, made of nice leather. Unfortunately, our manufacture did not follow our design, so alth...

Black Swan Designs

Have you looked at Matuls? He might have one, and if you have to commission one it will probably be affordable.

Gwen

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Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anyone saying that specialized armour did -not- exist. As a point of fact, Jeff says 'the armour Rene shows could be specialized tournament armour, and may not be typical for field/war harness, given the number of surviving vambraces and vambrace elements of plate...

Black Swan Designs

The leg harness is in the same style that you wear for war, without any difference, except that the smallest guards are the best, and sollerets are very useful against the points of spurs. --Rene's Book of the Tournament So some tourney armour was exactly the same as worn for war. Just to be clear,...

Black Swan Designs

there are no two exact identical bascinets in existence it would therefore be reasonable to extrapolate that having an exact copy of some other dudes bascinet would not be period. That's a great and very valid point, and it will be interesting to see the rebuttals. There are definitely loads of peo...

Black Swan Designs

Oh, and it just occurred to me- if you bring your armour, you and Jeff can bash each other with the new pollaxes.....

Black Swan Designs

Luther, don't mess yourself, it's unattractive in a man your age. Leslie is cute as ever, but she still doesn't like your sunglasses. Why don't you fly down this weekend? We have Knight School. Bring David, Darth will be here and it will be just like old home week. Ramona airport is just around the ...

Black Swan Designs

OK, thanks Russ, that's a start. I think the first thing I need is a map of the area in question, and the geographic breakdown. Looking at a modern map is useless, so I'll need to find a couple of maps that show who was living where at various periods. If country boundaries are not useful, then know...

Black Swan Designs

Telling me where to look / identifying source material would be a tremendous help. Names of books, papers, collections. Who has extant clothing, who has examined it, stuff like that. I have friends and colleagues in libraries and museums all over the world to help me get the stuff, if I know where i...

Black Swan Designs

Don't assume I know more than I do! I'll be the first one to tell you that as much as I know about some things, I am *abyssmally* ignorant on a world of other things. In this case, that would be Eastern European clothing. Now the flip side to my ignorance is that I am a fairly bright bunny, with a f...

Black Swan Designs

OK, awesome!

Please send any info directly to my email. I don't use the AA private message thingie very much, and messages have a habit of getting lost there as I forget about them.

gwen @ historicenterprises.com

Thanks!

Black Swan Designs

To give credit where credit is due (and to perhaps give people more resources)

New Varangian Guard, Australia

The NVG on Cunnan

and Peter's personal site- Birka Traders

I was serious about info. I would be most interested in basic things like shirts, trousers and suchlike.

Gwen

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Must be.

Hi Luther. Leslie says hi.

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'but the handles are always bending in my grasp when warmed up'

Metal that softens at body temp?

I'm stealing Luther's line - -DUDE-

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Poor Peter, everyone lifts his stuff, me included! Thankfully he's really a good guy about it all. Hmm, II have to admit I'm very skeptical about the 'balloon pants'. I'm not saying they didn't exist, but I would like to see what they're based on. The last chap, well, let's just say I'm a bit skepti...

Black Swan Designs

FYI, I'm willing to consider additions of any garment/s that can be reasonably documented. I'm currently working on Dark Ages Gaelic (basically plaid stuff) because someone asked me for it. Just don't send me pages from the Osprey books as your documentation or I'll shake my finger at you sternly an...

Black Swan Designs

We didn't want the season to pass without a heartfelt note of thanks. 2008 marked our 12th year in business, and we know we couldn't have done it without you, our loyal customers and supporters. A quote that may or may not come from Mahatma Gandhi states: A customer is the most important visitor on ...

Black Swan Designs

There are a couple of aspects to the 'upgrading' thing you might want to consider. You can 'upgrade' to historical items of better quality across the board. The primary goal with this is to put together a more historically accurate set of tableware. This approach will necessarily involve parting wit...

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I've known Clayton for years and will vouch for him if anyone wants or needs a reference.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

The medieval glassware that is offered by HE, Northerner, etc... is nice. One caveat though is that they are extremely fragile. Great for making an impression, but must be handled with care if you take them to a field event. To the best of my knowledge I don't believe Jenn has actually seen or hand...

HE at Caid 12th Night tomorrow

Shoes at blowout prices!!!

Thank you from Historic Enterprises, Inc.