The Armour Archive

Russ Mitchell

I would give a a discount in that case, obviously -- since people have a whole block, assuming that there weren't so many that I thought I had to refuse the job. So long as I'm still gainfully employed, this would just be something to pick up slush-fund money because I enjoy doing it. (Part of why I...

Russ Mitchell

Much obliged, Ed.

Thanks again, everybody.

Russ Mitchell

I don't use belt sanders at all, it's all by hand. I can get a good edge in fifteen minutes, and superb one in thirty.

Mostly I'm thinking of sharpening for regular folks (been in a kitchen of all dull knives? Yeesh...), but you guys have good ideas. Thanks.

Russ Mitchell

We didn't get bonuses this year in spite of making some very ambitious numbers (my bank held 400 million in debt from United, which went belly-up), and they don't "currently foresee layoffs..." so I'm planning ahead. Doing leatherwork, whittling, all that jazz, I've always had to keep a sharp knife....

Russ Mitchell

Egfroth... if placed right, it might not have been a problem. According to some of the folks I worked with, there are kettle-hat survivals with vision slots not much bigger cut into the brim, so if need be the crossbowman can shoot while keeping his head down.

Now, granted, that's a bit later...

Russ Mitchell

Would anybody be willing to post their references for this discussion? I am still in the early phases of rebuilding my library at all, let alone a library for this topic.

I do, otoh, have access to a very good ILL service...

Much appreciated in advance.
-Russ

Russ Mitchell

Wish I could help you... :

:

Russ Mitchell

France, "Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades." Bachrach, (too many, and I don't own a single one... pout.) "Early Carolingian Warfare" for an example. By the Ottonian renaissance, I **definitely** agree that mail would have been more common than scale -- I'm not certain to the extent to which...

Russ Mitchell

It's based primarily on image work and secondary sources. I know that there are folks who prefer to interpret the better-known Carolingian miniatures as mail... but it rarely seemed so to me, and much more often seemed to be a mix... in the end, I think that Bachrach's and France's arguments (though...

Russ Mitchell

Sean, if he's willing, that would be appreciated -- our savate salle is seriously looking into some kind of protective gear that won't a) cost a thousand bucks or b) break the poor sap's hand when he connects with it...

Russ Mitchell

Thank you for the updates, gents. It seems clear to me that the Carolingian brunia is a scale garment -- a longsleeved garment meant for one-size-fits all use, and adjusted with the "soldier's belt." I believe strongly that Bachrach's mild mystification at the dissapearance of the short sword is exp...

Russ Mitchell

Hi everybody. I've never mastered teh art of hunting down image links, but I need to check on how far out of date Laking's ideas regarding scale byrnies are held to be. I'm drawing from a publicly posted copy of Laking, said description to be found online here. While I'm working on my banded lamella...

Russ Mitchell

We still have room for anybody who would like to come. Should be a chance to meet some folks you might not otherwise... we've even got one guy driving a thousand miles to get here...

Russ Mitchell

A replica like that lets you see the staggering difference between the mace of East-Central Europe and that of Western Europe... Cuman maces, particularly of the same area, would weigh roughly the same total, but with a haft length of almost a meter, and a more compact, semi-globose studded head... ...

Russ Mitchell

Out of curiosity, do SCA rules allow you to strike with the back-spike/butt, rather than simply poke? A Hsing-I man asked me last night how the rules had changed since he did glaive back in the eighties.

Russ Mitchell

Alexi, You're right, but sources in English are so few and far between that you kind of have to grab everything you can get, and stripmine their bibliographies. p.s. -- I'm with you, Egfroth. There's a reason that they were kicked out of Transylvania... [This message has been edited by Russ Mitchell...

Russ Mitchell

If you're going to work your pivot, you MUST let your hips go with it, so that you get a full-body twisting, and keep your body as lightly-weighted as possible. You should see the amount of knee and hip pain that beginning savateurs go through until they start to understand the basics of how pivotin...

Russ Mitchell

Mike, I attempted to repost a considerably more conciliatory reply to Randall, but my computer skeezed out. First off, I apologize if I've irritated you or anybody else in your organization... one reason that I closed down the conversation with Shane, I think/hope amicably, is that what happens in o...

Russ Mitchell

Randall, while I'm glad to hear that you've had better luck with your sparring tools lately, personal shots like that should have been left off the archive. Now that you've decided to air it in public, let me ask you something: if what you're saying is correct, then why did Sean, George, and the oth...

Russ Mitchell

I'm sorry, folks, but the falchion depicted there absolutely looks designed for thrusting and chopping... what's that big godawful spiky tip, complete with edge, for, if not thrusting? That's a much moer complex form to make to no purpose than simply truncating it would have been.. plus, it looks co...

Russ Mitchell

Fair enough, Shane, I can only speak to what I've seen. When your MarkIII comes out, I'll definitely take a look.

Russ Mitchell

EDIT: I make some critiques regarding ARMA's training tool and how it affects training here. The following remarks are intended in a purely constructive manner ---Orig. Post----- Yeah, Shane, you're right... I know you guys are Strong Ringeckians in your fencing, as opposed to Talhofferites or Dobri...

Russ Mitchell

No, what I meant by regular fencing is something different... the padded weapons are terrible for blade-on-blade actions. I see that Shane is helping you with links. I have also found good success, when making curved sabre toys, to use a wooden mockup of the weapon (a cheap 4-dollar red oak job will...

Russ Mitchell

I used to play a little bit with the arma dfw gang. You can modify the instructions, but the biggest thing to look out for is the weight. Every one of these things I ever saw was like handling a godentag rather than a longsword: that fits with the arma cutting philosophy and footwork, but won't do y...

Russ Mitchell

Bojei: I am using D-shaped plates, and the same system of rigging the bands as described in Carpini. I believe this to be acceptable, given that the reconstruction in question is intended to be Western Kipchak or Cuman/Kun/Polovtsi. Thirteenth and fourteenth-century Persian miniatures show plates wi...

Russ Mitchell

Egfroth, let me see what I can do. The long and the short of it is, the minatures/manuscript images show only about a third of the plate to be overlapped.

Russ Mitchell

Diogenes, Two bands. The leather behind it was 2.5 oz pigskin. I had figured that brain-tanned pig or deer would wrap around the plates and put them under tension that would improve the protection, and that was true... but I think much the same results could have been achieved with 6 oz. leather cas...

Russ Mitchell

Egfroth, I'm familiar with it... but the manuscript images I'm workign from don't seem to perfectly support quite so strong an overlap, rather more on the lines of... ----\ -----\ ------| <--overlapped Center curve showing distinctly. ------/ -----/ <---overlapped so that what you see in the images ...

Russ Mitchell

I have been attempting to make banded lamellar, and have migrated away from an early opinion that the armor was designed to be lightweight, with only a thick enough band to hold the plates, the protection coming from the plates themselves. I migrate away from this after I put a band on my body, and ...

Russ Mitchell

I haven't read Kaeuper, but otherwise, exact agreement with Peder. Keen is good.

Russ Mitchell

SWEET!!

If this all works out, my wife is going to have a very happy birthday... that palmetto design at the bottom, silvered and gilded, was very common with teh magyar as well...

Russ Mitchell

Your buddy's got a tough row to hoe... start her off by looking at fifteenth-century Poland, because those references are her best shot at getting solid ones for Lithuania, which is a major regional power at this point.

Russ Mitchell

Actually, I thought the sword and shield was the best part...

Russ Mitchell

Flonzy: close, but not quite. The difference is that as research has brought out more information, the general direction of understanding has changed away from much of what is asserted in the book. Mr. Clements and company have a very specific understanding of how to do even the most basic actions (...

Russ Mitchell

I also don't really buy into the quilted padding argument... the texture just doesn't look right for it to my eyes.

But you're right, this one's definitely an open call.

What's a sharp knife worth?

Spot-check on Laking, Bayeaux Tapestry, Scale Armour

Banded lamellar discoveries