The Armour Archive

Tibbie Croser

Maeryk, I'm still confused. Are you saying that you don't think the woman in the original account complained of being hit too hard?

Tibbie Croser

I suppose the fencer lady who complained about a hard hit and thereby got women banned from SCA fighting is partly responsible for the low reputation of SCA fencers. Sad I can almost guarantee you are mis-reading that whole situation. http://swordmaiden.com/history/beginning/ Here's the link, Maery...

Tibbie Croser

Thanks for the link to the Flowers of Souvenance. I skimmed the first two issues. They were eye-openers. Also amusing to see discussion of carpet armor and pride in spun-top helms. I was pleased to see articles on rapier included. I suppose the fencer lady who complained about a hard hit and thereby...

Tibbie Croser

Jess, if you look at my original post, I wasn't trying to encourage bashing of female fighters. I wanted the historical perspective, and I assumed that there were enough old-timers on here who would remember. I'm more interested in hearing how minds were changed and how the conflict was resolved. Ac...

Tibbie Croser

Given all the talk about X, Y, and Z ruining the SCA, I'm curious as to whether past controversies might offer some lessons in resolving current issues. What arguments were made for and against allowing women in SCA armored combat? What did people predict the effect on the SCA would be of allowing w...

Tibbie Croser

I think Icefalcon has a sidesword-legal burgonet.

I have one of the modified Indian imports from marco-borromei.com. However, I have a 22" head, too small for most standard SCA helms.

Tibbie Croser

Isn't part of a fourth peerage talk a precursor for finding ways besides winning Crown tournaments the way they are currently set up, so that a non-chivalric fighter can 'win' some form of Crown? And, I'm not talking of a consort, but the 'main' winner. If that's the case, mark me against it. Val Y...

Tibbie Croser

You need to get Bob (Chef) and Jenn Reed to post here. I believe Jenn's done sidesaddle. Both of them know huge amounts about medieval riding. If the medieval sidesaddle gave a woman little or no chance to control her horse by leg pressure, does it necessarily follow that she could not control her h...

Tibbie Croser

I've noted that hockey and lacrosse pads often incorporate rigid plastic inserts between layers of foam padding. It's possible that a fencing chest protector might be adequate if sandwiched between layers in a gambeson.

Tibbie Croser

There are certainly high-waisted gowns for Italy in the early 16th century. I have a book called "Lives of the Courtesans," by Lynne Lawner, with a number of portraits of 16th-century Italian women. Some of the examples of such gowns are in the paintings "Two Courtesans" by Vitto...

Tibbie Croser

Rowan, I don't think Aaron was expressing his own opinion as much as paraphrasing many other people's opinions in this thread.

Do Atlantians truly love their combat archers? There are some Atlantians who don't seem to love CA. Prince Logan is reputed to be one of those.

Tibbie Croser

Welcome to Atlantia. What barony are you in (or mundane state)?

Tibbie Croser

The Janet Arnold book starts at 1560. There are no garments in it from 1520. Dragon Argent, if you can't find anything for 1520, start looking backward, not forward, in time, back to the end of the 15th century. Have you also tried asking on the FireStryker 15th-century living history forum? The Ger...

Tibbie Croser

I think others can explain them better than I can. Search the Armour forum and some of the other forums here for "jack chains," and you should turn up pictures and descriptions.

Tibbie Croser

Aaron, thank you so much for posting this review, as these two armorers are relatively local to me and I may want to commission something in the future. By the way, Baron Heinrich was at the Atlantian Kingdom Arts and Sciences Festival last weekend displaying some of his work, including helms for bo...

Tibbie Croser

There's an Almain Rivet armor with splint arms in the City Museum of Winchester, England. The URL is too long to post here, but a Google Image search on "Almain Rivet" turns it up. It was mentioned on MyArmoury.com. Splint arms are really interesting. They seem halfway between full arms an...

Tibbie Croser

Muttman, you say you tried fencing for the second time 10 years ago. Things have changed a lot in 10 years. It still might not be what you want, at least not in your kingdom, but your description of fencing doesn't match what I've seen in my year and a half in the SCA. I haven't seen a foil. I used ...

Tibbie Croser

Dante della Luna, do you ever get to fight in northern Atlantia? The Lochmere folks, for example, seem to have pretty decent calibration in rapier. I've been doing SCA rapier only a year and a half and only in Maryland/northern Virginia, but I haven't heard (or engaged in, I hope) "whining"...

Tibbie Croser

So...who, on or off the AA, makes early-16th-century cuirasses and the wide gorgets to go with them?

Tibbie Croser

I just watched a bunch more vids. The shots are like...bops. Visitation. Not slams (against armour) or cuts. I would like to see what a Belegarth fighter would do with a real sword in a cutting test. Would they cut or smack the tatami mats? The thrusts look good, and some strikes to the shins look ...

Tibbie Croser

What KRMs list? Do you mean an e-mail list for all the KRMs? Atlantia has recently changed KRMs, but nobody here seems to have heard of a new "official" list; it's said merely that a new list may be coming out sometime. The Atlantian KRM's approach seems to be that the only "official&...

Tibbie Croser

Cian, where did you get your cuirass? What period is it?

Tibbie Croser

David, have you considered posting specific questions about things on the video to the "Ask Duke Paul" forum? I think you'd be more likely to get constructive answers on actual mechanics. My other suggestion is to try a WMA forum, like Sword Forum International. Explain clearly what you're...

Tibbie Croser

I don't think the list on sca.org will be "out of date" officially until another list is posted there. Until the SRM and the KRMs announce a new list and publish it, I'd take the officially posted list as current. My new kingdom rapier marshal is being strict about allowing only blades tha...

Tibbie Croser

Krylon, Rustoleum, and other companies make paints for plastic outdoor furniture. Some of the paints create a "textured" or "hammered" finish. Has anyone experimented with these to disguise plastic? They wouldn't make it look like shiny steel, but I wonder if they could make the ...

Tibbie Croser

(I believe the term is spelled "fustian.") The inner layer should be linen, not cotton or silk. It was pointed out somewhere on the AA that human sweat degrades silk over time. As for cotton, linen wicks sweat from the skin better than cotton. So linen inside and fustian outside would be a...

Tibbie Croser

I like your originality. How about a leather "musculata" or a short leather tunic? Could you use the leather subarmalis as a fencing doublet, if you added leather sleeves to cover the armpit? For the mandatory skin coverage, you could try a long-sleeved linen tunic and braccae with high so...

Tibbie Croser

I deleted my original post because, when I rechecked my books, I couldn't find references to leather being used as plates in jacks of plates. Metal and horn, yes, but not leather. Leather was reportedly sometimes used as a covering for the jacks.

Tibbie Croser

The best source for what's legal is Appendix 5 of the Society Rapier Marshal's handbook, revised July 2006, linked from sca.org. Check with your kingdom rapier marshal, too. As for local marshals, not every local marshal is completely familiar with the current list of blades. Here in Atlantia, it ha...

Tibbie Croser

If you use denim for the main layer of the doublet, you might well be able to use a light, but tightly woven, layer of another fabric for the shell. You could even use tropical (very thin) wool twill for the shell. I'd recommend a linen shirt as the layer next to your skin; it really does wick persp...

Tibbie Croser

The other day I happened onto the Royal Armouries website. They have at least one ca.-1510 breastplate from the Rhodes armor find. The link is here: http://collections.royalarmouries.org/image.php?i=309725&r=2&t=4&x=1 There's another piece, or view: http://collections.royalarmouries.org/...

Tibbie Croser

I think it's at least possible that the fellow in the illustration is wearing black low-cut shoes over black hosen. I think the ankle straps for the shoes may be hidden by the spur straps. Those leg coverings look awfully tight to be boots. There are no buckles to tighten them on the legs. Also, the...

Tibbie Croser

That .pdf is not the latest version of the approved blade list (I've seen a newer one, at least) - check with your KRM to see if a specific blade is or isn't approved. Jon, that list is the Appendix to the 2006 Society Rapier Marshal's handbook. It's linked from the SCA Society Rapier Marshal's pag...

Tibbie Croser

Hi, Aaron. As you know, I'm an Atlantian lady fencer myself, though still a new one. Two valuable Yahoo groups: LadyRapier and Atlantian RapierNet. Several other people (maybe Audax?) have raised the following question in previous threads. Does your lady, Maureen, *want* to fight at all? Would she b...

Tibbie Croser

There's an often-photographed anime cuirass in the Graz Armoury (Zeughaus). It's shown in the Imperial Austria book.

How did women gain the right to fight heavy?

Leather plates in jack of plates