The Armour Archive

Russ Mitchell

adric... even besides teh "taking care of your skin" aspect, it sounds useful...

SIR -- COULD YOU PLEASE LET ME BUY A VOWEL?

Every time I try to bake leather in the oven, I scorch it... nothing I put between leather and metal seems to save it, either...

a clue, please...

Russ Mitchell

My twin was a Trinitarian seminarian before upping to San Francisco. Write me, and I'll forward this over to him...

Russ Mitchell

Janos: you've met Kevin, and you think I'm afraid of getting hit??? Actually, it's a lot worse than that... the problem with a first armour, is that you keep being reintroduced to little concepts like learning curves... put a bunch of strips over each other clinker style. Put them in plastic deforma...

Russ Mitchell

Morgan: Possibly sooner than you think. Still much that has to be arranged, though.

Wulfgar: I've tried to leave some slack for precisely that reason... but there's been a lot of learning curve on this project, so I wouldn't be surprised if yet another thing rose up and dusted off my butt...

Russ Mitchell

Heh. That's better than feeble instructions... does make me wonder, though, if a lot of those bends could be done by non-metalworkers with a couple of clamps and vices, rather than a hammer... it's a little farfetched, admittedly, but would solve the apartment-dweller problem... (and give me an excu...

Russ Mitchell

It's been a bit since I've been over to that site, but a sort of banded armour is clearly depicted in the Shahname.

Also, banded leather armours were in use across the western mediterranean at least. Now, the exact maek of the bands or hoops involved varies...

Russ Mitchell

Zero interest in hourglass... Wisby, otoh, would get me writing a check for a couple pairs right quick.

Russ Mitchell

That's unfortunate... I'd hoped to find somebody I could use and abuse as a basis for comparison...

I don't think subscribing to a list when I'm not SCA is really appropriate... but I appreciate the list-post. Perhaps this Ironwyrm fellow will be interested.

Russ Mitchell

Hi there. I am going to be continuing my mail-vs-archery experiments as soon as some equipment gets in from Hungary and fletched up, and since I'm going to be working with a Hungarian bow, I'm wondering if there's anybody out there with authentic longbow equipment who'd like to get in on the fun... ...

Russ Mitchell

Jehan, Nice post... There is much back-and-forth about the frequency of battles vis-a-vis sieges, and it is important to remember that although "set-piece" battles were infrequent, raids and counter-raids were ridiculously common. LOTS of skirmishes, or even sub-skirmish fights, and whereas your hig...

Russ Mitchell

Borrow a book? From an Italian? What's the point in that, when you can just ride on through Ravenna on your wee little horseys, shooting everythying in sight?

Russ Mitchell

thanks. Yes, it is looser... you will DEFINITELY feel a stout blow from a mass weapon if you're not wearing any padding under this armor... it's designed to keep out spears, arrows, swords and the like, and so the "doubling" under impact was a primary consideration.

Russ Mitchell

When you're done, I'll come shoot arrows at you...

Russ Mitchell

Egfroth: yes, the artwork is very clear that the opening is in the front, almost universally, or as universally as I can find. With THIS banded lamellar, there is indeed lateral flex with teh bands, which allows for sideways bends of the torso... it is really pretty flexible. The one issue with this...

Russ Mitchell

I just lost five minutes worth of typing, so let me make sure I didn't forget anything... 1. Janos: hoping to be done by end of September. 2. Dmitry: shoulders will be simple bands until I a) get more plates b) finish up some projects for my wife. Tokaji is the king of wines... 3. Halvgrim: The lame...

Russ Mitchell

Janos has been gracious enough to host these for me... http://www.skeesick.com/images/lamellar/DSCN0113-800.jpg http://www.skeesick.com/images/lamellar/DSCN0114-800.jpg http://www.skeesick.com/images/lamellar/DSCN0115-800.jpg http://www.skeesick.com/images/lamellar/ [This message has been edited by ...

Russ Mitchell

Share set: sorry about that. This is my first armour, Halvgrim, and your post is unclear to me: is your lacing rawhide, or leather? Edit: I just saw that "full-sized file sharing is only available as a premium service on yahoo, so I will take up Janos' offer to host these, so the detail isn't lost.....

Russ Mitchell

If you look at the following yahoo photo directory: http://photos.yahoo.com/russnanna under the lamellar directory... The interpretation of the leather I've done here comes from a number of period imagesand a couple archaeological finds, some of which, unfortunately, are unpublished and held in conf...

Russ Mitchell

Just as a total aside... part of the arrow and mail issue between western and eastern europe is that very often the warbows of the region I study, weighing in at about 70 lbs, and performing roughly equivalently (depending on design) to a 75-90 lb. longbow, were routinely used for close-range direct...

Russ Mitchell

Animal: I suspect that your projects and mine are going to wind up looking pretty similar... you and I should definitely swap some emails, I'm thinking. BUT, a chemist buddy of mine tells me that modern spray lacquer is ridiculously close to the original creature, with the exception that using it is...

Russ Mitchell

I've got news for you... compared to the throws I just catalogued from Leckuchner today, that's a VERY friendly throw...

Russ Mitchell

Actually, you could use that distinction between the spiritual and temporal churches, and use that as teaching material to contrast the Catholic and Byzantine faiths and how they interacted... and by doing so help to show the cultural differences that played out... we are STILL playing out these dif...

Russ Mitchell

In terms of pure protection, it is clearly asinine to argue that anything does a better job against arrows than a full plate harness does... otherwise, it's all a matter of context. The lamellar does you no good if your internal organs are pulped under the impact force of the halberd: the plate harn...

Russ Mitchell

Yes. Beating your ancestors with leather maces as a fun way of celebrating saints' days is definitely one of the nastier enthusiasms that ought to stay buried with phlogiston...

Russ Mitchell

DWolfhunter: Allow me to shed a little bit of light on some of your out-quoted phrases. I'm not a practicing Catholic any more, but simply as a medievalist... there are things you say that simply aren't so. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial"...

Russ Mitchell

And perhaps the prevalence of lamellar in said region then results from long bodkins having been around since around the 9-10th century or so?

Still waiting on my newer arrowheads to arrive, so I can redo the mail tests...

Russ Mitchell

Oh yes, that one... yes, that's a hell of a book.

Russ Mitchell

You showed me some scholarly material, that's certain... but my chance of having remembered the title... very very small.

Russ Mitchell

Dmitry: are those suckers still readily available, if you know where to look? I'd like to be able to put the Hungarian and Russian scholarship side-by-side, and see what falls out...

Russ Mitchell

The "Viking" sword certainly was found in Hungary... there are several extant examples.

Sersem: Thanks. Now to learn to read something beyond "ja tolka americanec..." [img]http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Russ Mitchell

I haven't seen it, but they have to compare the draw methods... the thumb release is critical to achieving good accuracy with a shorter bow... the thumb release can act very much like a trigger. Arrow weights may or may not be an issue, because composite bows can be made in weights that approximate ...

Russ Mitchell

Sersem, as I've lamented to Dmitry, about the only thing I can do in Russian is pronounce things adequately... is Kirpichnikoff describing Russian sabres, or sabres found in Russia? I know that the state-mandated line used to be similar to Romanian state historiography, which asserted the primevally...

Russ Mitchell

Chef: fwiw, if my group operated the same type of LH as yours, I would very, very likely agree. But we are primarily a research group, rather than a presentation group, if you know what I mean... you're a red delicious and I'm a granny smith...

Russ Mitchell

Marshall... want some habanero to go with that troll? Sir, if you feel the need to move to stainless to minimize your maintenance, who is anybody on this board to tell you not to do so? So long as you are aware of the differences between your gear and more "authentic" metal, and do not attempt to po...

Russ Mitchell

Dmitry,

I'd need a minimum of four, preferably six or seven. It's a front-opening rig, so if I don't buckle per band, eventually it will allow for gappage...

tnx.

(looked for a sabre for you, btw, but couldn't come up with anything that didn't have a huge lead time)

Any Ansteorran longbowmen out there?

Banded lamellar progress pics

Any Ansteorran longbowmen out there?

Banded lamellar progress *pics*

Banded lamellar progress pics