The Armour Archive

Dan Howard

There are two famous leaning towers in Bologna but a lot of the others lean to some extent.

Dan Howard

Some cities charged a tax based on the length of frontage to the street. You paid less tax if you lived in a tall, narrow building. Naturally this would encourage tall, narrow buildings. Roman insulae could be six or seven stories tall. Augustus legislated a height limit of 70 Roman feet (about 20.7...

Dan Howard

The Romans had steel armour. Sim and Kaminski's book is well worth reading.

Dan Howard

Older mail is as varied as later mail. It is impossible to guess the date or where it came from just by looking at the rings. Without context to help, all you really have is the type of riveting and the tailoring. Personally I don't have a clue. The hook might provide a lead. The good condition of t...

Dan Howard

I wouldn't put too much trust in the Osprey books. I've found alleged cites from Dawson's book that didn't exist when I checked the original source material. The only thing for which you can really use Osprey is good photos of extant artefacts.

Dan Howard

A dappel is a spot as far as I'm concerned. Most dictionaries define it as "a spot or mottled marking".

Dan Howard

My first thought was "water damage" but there are no spots anywhere else on the painting. Looks like a spotted horse to me.

Dan Howard

"Flat" is relative. I can't think of any museum examples are as flat (or thin?) as the modern stuff being sold today.

Dan Howard

Ashdown actually notes that on the brasses, the inside of the armour looks the same as the outside, and says his reconstruction looks identical from either side.

A few rows maybe. Try making a whole hauberk out of it and you'll see that it can't hold together without being attached to a backing.

Dan Howard

The "washer" reconstruction has been discredited for at least a century - Ffoulkes, Laking, etc all reckon that it is bollocks for a host of reasons. For a start it doesn't look like the illustrations. Take a look at any of the illustrations that show the inside of the armour - they don't look like ...

Dan Howard

Albrechtthesilent wrote:Then WHY is it banded in the elbows and armpits? In other words, why would such an armour type be adopted when it is a known disadvantage to mobility?

One obvious answer is that it is not banded mail. It is artistic convention.

Dan Howard

Drawing stripes/bands on mail is a lot simpler than trying to draw all of the individual links. Some illustrations use cross hatching, some use lots of circles, some use horizontal lines, some try to draw all the links, and some draw half links and half lines. If you show regular mail to a class ful...

Dan Howard

That is "mail and plates". Banded mail is regular mail with leather strips woven horizontally through the weave.

Dan Howard

It is obviously plausble in certain situations because we have surviving examples. It was used to create rigidity around the neck and, as Russ says, possibly to help to retailor it. I think the Vancouver anthropology museum has an example with banding across the chest but I doubt it was ever done on...

Dan Howard

If there is a current injunction against point 3 then continuing to sell the book will leave the defendant open to separate charges levelled by the court.

Dan Howard

The riveting looks different to a brig. Seeems like there was no attempt to try and articulate the plates - they just riveted a pile of off-cuts together into a rigid construction.

Dan Howard

Now I definitely want to see the original language. I can't imagine a phrase can can be translated as both "curly hair" and "leaf mail".

Dan Howard

You have the passage in the original language?

Dan Howard

Cool passage though. Would be interesting to know how accurate the translation is.

Dan Howard

Chariot racing is hardly ceremonial. It would be in these examples that you would find similarities with light war chariots. The Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Arraphians, Mitannians, etc all used war chariots that were very similar to Roman racing chariots. They were little more than a platform with wheels...

Dan Howard

Destichado wrote:Besides, the Romans had shrugged off chariot use for ages.

Only in battle. They used plenty of chariots for other things - mainly racing and ceremonies.

Dan Howard

iron seated farm equip? of the old horse drawn disks and rakes ive seen they sure weld like wrought. It is all called "wrought iron". Doesn't mean that the mechanical or metallurgical properties have anything in common. From what I've read, puddled iron is generally comsidered to be inferior to blo...

Dan Howard

IMO the Vacheres status was done by someone who was not looking at a mail shirt when he did the carving. Roman mail hangs the other way like everyone else's mail.

Dan Howard

Old iron from scrap yards won't do either. Pretty much all of will be puddled iron, which is completely different to bloomery iron.

Dan Howard

Wlliams lists the thickness of a lot of breastplates in his book. The heaviest are around 8mm.

Dan Howard

Here is some info from the MET about the ankle guards that should help with a replica. http://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/journals/1/pdf/1512869.pdf.bannered.pdf Here is a pair that Christies had for sale http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5321781 When wondering about how pra...

Dan Howard

[duplicate post]

Dan Howard

Looking at the ankle guards, it makes you wonder if Achilles was just like, "Nah, I won't be needing those today" that fateful day at Troy. Or if Achilles folly was the inspiration for them. In the original story Achilles was never killed by an arrow in the heel or anywhere else, it was made up lat...

Dan Howard

Apparently this foot armour was likely worn by Greek cavalry, not infantry.

Dan Howard

Another footguard - also from Olympia

Dan Howard

Here is an ankleguard to go with it. This was found at Olympia

Dan Howard

Baron Alcyoneus wrote:Fur linings and trim were quite popular.

In the Carolingian region and period? Source? I supose it depends on the definition of "quite popular" and the section of society to which you are referring.

Thanks for the cite Russ, and your analysis. Makes sense to me.

Dan Howard

Hulit's PhD thesis has the best study of Tut's armour. By the time he got his hands on it the Museum staff had managed to lose most of it and the rest had deteriorated a lot since Carter found it. All of the important details have been summarised in my upcoming book - including arrow tests against H...

Dan Howard

Keep in mind that Bob measured the thickness of brig plates, not COP plates. The two may not correspond. Also keep in mind that the only plates worth measuring are those that haven't much oxidation and have not been "restored". That narrows down the field considerably. The best contenders are those ...

Dan Howard

You'd need a large furnace that could burn continuously for days and something made of carbon to pack around the object during that time.

Re: How many floors could medieval buldings have?

Re: How many floors could medieval buldings have?

Re: steel armour origins

Re: A mail coif from Bulgaria

Re: help with documentation for pic of varangian guard, plea

Re: Rise of Destriers?

Re: Rise of Destriers?

Re: maille, round link vs flat link

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: Of interest to everyone that does historical reproductio

Re: Looking for documentation Brigandine

Re: Any sources for "leaf mail?"

Re: Any sources for "leaf mail?"

Re: Viking War Clubs

Re: Celtic chariot rope suspention.

Re: Celtic chariot rope suspention.

Re: Iron Age knives?

Re: Hamata shoulder doubling - is it?

Re: Iron Age knives?

Re: How Thick Was Shot Proof Armor?

Re: Greek sabatons?

Re: Greek sabatons?

Re: Greek sabatons?

Re: Greek sabatons?

Re: Greek sabatons?

Re: Greek sabatons?

Re: An argument against Carolingian leather armor.

Re: Scale armors King Tut-17thC

Re: Thickness of plates at Wisby

Re: Hot rolled mild