The Armour Archive

Dan Howard

When mail has been peroperly riveted the links more often fail around the wire, not at the join, so it doesn't matter which joining method you use the strength should be the same.

Dan Howard

Better off leaving the zinc coating on it and just using a treatment that darkens it so that it looks more like iron. Taking off the zinc won't make it any more authentic (the mass produced riveted mail doesn't look much like any of the museum examples) so you may as well save yourself the trouble o...

Dan Howard

I never understood this fixation on whether a bow was drawn to the ear or not. All archers can adjust the length of their draw depending on the situation.

Dan Howard

If English bows were useless against armour why did they wait until the late Middle Ages to make them longer? They had exposure to Scandinavian longbows going back to at least the Danish invasion.

Dan Howard

I have lots of evidence, including the quotations cited above, that longbow arrows killed lots of men-at-arms. But little to demonstrate that those men were killed by an arrow punching through a piece of solid plate. Some of the evidence does directly refer to arrows defeating the armor of men-at-a...

Dan Howard

England present shows the issues brewing at home had basically left Gascony to its own fate. I have seen nothing in the last large sieges or pitched battles that indicate England was inflexible militarily only that divisive politics and lack of funds for military needs in Normandy and Gascony doome...

Dan Howard

Have you read my long article on Agincourt, including the appendix on arrow penetration? You kindly sent me a list of those cites last time this was discussed. Most of the penetration cites are ambiguous. The only ones that can be considered useful must include all three of the following: 1) the au...

Dan Howard

I seriously doubt that the tiny percentage of longbow arrows that managed to punch through a solid piece of plate far enough to cause a serious injury had any effect of the outcome of any battle. It wouldn't matter whether armour was quench-hardened or not.

Dan Howard

Isn't there a lot of doubt as to whether Paul actually wrote this text? m There is not much point discussing the author's bias and perspective until the real author is identified. In any case the author isn't interested in real armour at all and couldn't care less what type of armour was worn in Eph...

Dan Howard

Yep. The word literally means "torso". In this context it means "torso armour". It usually refers to a bronze cuirass but can refer to any type of armour.

Dan Howard

What would be the point? Any decoration will be covered by the armour?
Even if it was done, how could you tell from an illustration? There would be armour in the way.

Dan Howard

No evidence for leather lamellar except for Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe. There was a single example found at Dura Europos that could have been Roman or Sasanian

Dan Howard

No evidence for leather armour from this region and time period. Would be more suitable for Asia, Russia, or Eastern Europe.

Dan Howard

There is also the question of how common integrated padded liners were. Just because a separate garment was not worn doesn't mean that the mail was unpadded.

Dan Howard

Buy a hauberk and turn it into a haubergeon? Should give enough of an offcut for a brayette.

Dan Howard

Bah. Anything after BC is "late" IMO.

Dan Howard

Im not annoyed Dan. Just being a dork I didn't think that you were annoyed. I'm thinking that those involved in the leather industry would get annoyed when trying to read some of these threads. Personally I'd get annoyed if I tried to search for some of these products and discovered that the people...

Dan Howard

Kel has a point. We get annoyed when people use superfluous terms like "chainmail" when there are perfectly valid terms already in use by the armour community. If the leather industry has terms for different types of leather and hide then it would be silly and counter productive to arbitra...

Dan Howard

A lot of so-called Mongolian lamellar reconstructions don't much resemble the museum examples. The Leeds example above is a good one to copy. Here is Carpini's (1246) description of Mongolian lamellar construction . "They beat out in large numbers thin iron plates a finger broad and a full hand...

Dan Howard

as an aside: Plumata = scales attached to a maile backing by method of linking ( think the ring lord scale vest kits) and was primarily parade armour. Squmata = scales sewn or stappled to a backing material. . The backing is irrelevant. The two terms refer to different types of scale. Plumata was u...

Dan Howard

The data from the above Warbow Trials is actually pretty useful if you ignore all the nonsense that the authors come up with to try and justify the poor performance of the bow. Basically a heavy warbow shooting very hard arrowheads at extreme short range against 2mm of poor quality flat plate will n...

Dan Howard

I'm also running some armour penetration tests. This is a pic of my "Proof of Concept." You might like to read the Defense Academy Warbow Trials to get an idea of how difficult it is to get plate with the same mechanical properties as that used by armourers. Williams book is a must read t...

Dan Howard

There is plenty of evidence for leather lamellar. Just not in Medieval Scandinavia

The earliest examples date to the Warring States era in China. A later example was found at Dura Europos and is the only confirmed find of Roman leather armour.

Dan Howard

You need to be careful what silk you use and how it is woven. Raw silk has a much higher tensile strength than processed silk.

Dan Howard

Raeven wrote:He asked how to do it in leather. Seems clear enough.

Hardly. If he is making it for reenactment purposes, he is wasting his time since they were never worn historically. Better he knows now so he can switch to iron or bronze.

Dan Howard

That's one point. The main one is that the Greeks and Romans made musculatas perfectly well out of metal with no interference in torso movement so, if it is made correctly, you don't need to worry about using rigid leather. The original poster would get better advice if he clarified the intent of th...

Dan Howard

the Bayeux tapestry shows someone wearing what could be leather armour. Odo If I recall. It looks a bit brownish in colour so it must be leather. And given that leather (being essentially skin) has an average decomposition age of 50 years or so, are we really surprised that there are few finds of l...

Dan Howard

Why? A solid metal musculata works fine. You just have to make it the correct length. A musculata isn't anatomically correct. The navel on the armour is a lot higher than it is on the person wearing it. The breastplate actually stops at around navel level.

Dan Howard

I know that this isn't the Historical Armour section but I'm just checking that you realise that the Romans never used leather musculatas (or wrist bracers).

Dan Howard

Here is an earlier Byzantine example
http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/download.php?id=27543

Dan Howard

There are four horse teams in the Iliad

Dan Howard

The Romans didn't need a stirrup. They used a horned saddle which served the same purpose. Just because you and I don't know all of the accessories a Greek charioteer might have used on his horse doesn't mean that it must be a stirrrup. Especially since the entire body of evidence for that period of...

Dan Howard

There were no stirrups in Greece for a thousand years after that vase. Yes they rode horses. They did it perferctly well without saddle or stirrups as the illustrations underneath clearly show.

Dan Howard

That's the photo with me wearing my Mycenaean t-shirt and board shorts underneath. It took a while to find a supplier who sold Bronze Age polyester

Dan Howard

Heavy armour has been worn in desert cultures for at least three thousand years. Climate doesn't have much effect on how hot you feel in your armour. I've personally worn heavy metal armour all day during an Australian summer and noticed no more discomfort than if I were wearing heavy clothing. It i...

Re: Riveted vs Welded

Re: Stripping a galvy hauberk

Re: Bow length through history- WAS: english military struct

Re: Bow length through history- WAS: english military struct

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century

Re: English Military Structure in the late 15th Century

Re: "Thorax" in First Century AD Roman World

Re: "Thorax" in First Century AD Roman World

Re: Multi-coloured Gambeson

Re: leather scales? PERIOD FOR 5-7TH MIGRATION

Re: leather scales? PERIOD FOR 5-7TH MIGRATION

Re: to gambeson or not to gambeson

Re: Mail skirts/brayetts

Re: So, explain your fascination with "Late" Period.

Re: Cuirie

Re: Cuirie

Re: mongolian lamellar pics?