The Armour Archive

Russ Mitchell

for a catalog of the Hungarian National Museum's conquest-era finds? Little on armour, some on sabres, more decorative and attachment/strapping and jewelry work than you can shake a stick at, and some excellent essays.

Russ Mitchell

Iron Palm jow, available from practically any good kung fu shop (Nine Elder is a good recipe, and cheap) or magazine, is also very good for toughening your hands, without putting too much callous on them. Haven't gotten a blister in eons. Otherwise, if you're desperate for a quick fix, you can alway...

Russ Mitchell

Nobody wanted mine, either, nim... have to polish it and turn it into underwear, then you'll be able to move it in no time...

Russ Mitchell

I have had the same problem getting through to him... haven't gotten a human being for a couple of weeks now, and am going to request a refund: Hew, did you ever get your money back? Around 400 for a shirt, plus, if I remember about 180 for a coif, equals money I could really use doing something oth...

Russ Mitchell

Got your email. Will be a bit, but giving it serious thought, if I can ever get through to what's-his-nuts for a refund.

Russ Mitchell

Don't feel bad... we ahve a guy around here we call the "mad potter," partially because he does raku kiln work in denim... he was doing a demonstration of his just AWESOME copper-glazed work, and turned around as he took his piece out of the fire... I've never seen a man laugh so hard after running ...

Russ Mitchell

Brodir, okay, I'll bite, because you're asking in good faith...I suggest you go back over a historical atlas, and try to see what Poland and Belorus have, if anything, to do with Lithuania, Estonia, etcetera, prior to the 15th century. Also bear in mind the Belorus is a very ancient state, having ex...

Russ Mitchell

Brodir-- You could; you'd be wrong. Not getting into a flame war over basic historiography. End subject as far as I'm concerned. Lodhur-- No Sumerian connection. It's a red herring beloved of armchair historians who haven't done any real research, and has more to do with the presence of Alanic peopl...

Russ Mitchell

I would have a slightly different set of requirements, but it's a darned good list. SyrRhys is right in terms of how things are judged in some events, but others... I would need to know how to use the bow from the saddle, even if I didn't necessarily do so, and perhaps, even to know how to write in ...

Russ Mitchell

Thanks for the info and the leads... Meyer has a couple of odd stances that pretty much don't show up anywhere else, and I have really wanted to get a specialist's opinions on them...

Russ Mitchell

Have been consulting for a guy rehilting a sabre, will be happy to help you... but you'll have to send me an image, so I can see what type it is. Otherwise we won't be on the same page...

Russ Mitchell

OT: don't forget, you should be getting my material by the end of the week or so.

Russ Mitchell

Wasn't familiar with this guy's work... I have some quibbles, but it's a nice beginning of an analysis. Now he just needs to work with the plates themselves online some... do you know who did this, or what his email is? I'd love to bend his ear a little...

Russ Mitchell

Nice info all around -- Bascot, or sooner later we have to get together and bang on each other... I'm slowly assembling a late Avar/early conquest-era Magyar kit... if you ply me with beer, and I'll betray some Moravians for you!!

Russ Mitchell

Seconding what Eric Schmidt said. For example, if you take a peek at the armour on the St. George Statue in Prague (originally magyar, which is why I know about it.. I'm weak on 14th c. Bohemian armour), you see both larger AND smaller plates...along with scale, which can be either very loose and fl...

Russ Mitchell

If you're a western european, you may want to do more with linen, but certainly, felt does have one serious advantage as an article of padding, particularly for blunt objects: unlike practically everything else in existence, the more you beat it, the denser and firmer it gets...

Russ Mitchell

Check out Swiatoslawski's book on Arms and Armour of the Teutonic order in Lithuania -- there are several friezes in the back, where Lithuanians or Prussians are depicted. This is rough, because if it's Prussians, there may be costume differences we don't know about -- but it at least gets you into ...

Russ Mitchell

So in short, maybe richard did enjoy a bit of buggery, but it wasnt his only fun. Or put shorter, there is no evidence whatsoever to support the claim that Richard was homosexual, bisexual, or any "flavor" in-between, and there is plenty of evidence to ...

Russ Mitchell

Yup, that's right, Estonians and Hungarians' languages come from the Uralo-Altaic language group, and have no Indo-Eureopean anything, with the exception of some adopted vocabulary. Estonian shows more of the purely Uralo-Altaic vocabulary, whereas Hungarian has a vast collection of turkic loanwords...

Russ Mitchell

What John said: definitely not Slavic.

This link's pretty good:

http://www.litnet.lt/litinfo/religion.html

Russ Mitchell

Sure, Brennus -- but you've talked around my response. Clearly what you're talking about is not a valid revisionist history: it's simple propaganda, and if you were to insist on hewing to that propaganda in spite of the myriad of historical facts...

we'd disdain you.

Russ Mitchell

Backwards justification is very common among modern Historians what would you call revisionist History. Brennus, methodologically correct revisionist history has nothing whatsoever to do with backwards-justification. Revision is, rather, the essential p...

Russ Mitchell

Cinqueda is from the wrong period.... WAY OFF. Ahlspiess is a footman's weapon from further north... if he's a man-at-arms, he might or might not use such a thing, but if he's a knight he probably wouldn't to any great extent. single-handed sword and shield, eventually the mace, eventually the polla...

Russ Mitchell

You need to go to a Lithuanian tourism website and follow some links. Medieval historical documents concerning Lithuania and their pagan status, for example, the politically-expedient and immediately-renounced conversion of Mindaugas, only says that he was pagan, and doesn't go into the beliefs them...

Russ Mitchell

These are very clear explanations. I have found that while the movements are generally pretty simple (with the exception of figuring out the hips, as that has lots and lots of tiny but important details), I have been unable to maintain proper edge alignment on the impact. I can hit with the edge, bu...

Russ Mitchell

Jean-Richard... I went with Duncan in Ansteorra and talked about these... and found myself feeling mixed: though we do use something like the "wrist wrap" in winding at the sabre in my lineage.. One of my questions on this, as a guy who's used to fighting at longer ranges than you guys, is that thes...

Russ Mitchell

Ladies and Gentlemen, due to financial strain, I am forced to sell weapons from my collection. The first is a 19th century Tulwar, damascened, with gilged koftigari. $350. The issue sabres for sale are a 19th century Cavalry and Infantry Officer's weapons. $500 each. The last sabre is a beautiful 18...

Russ Mitchell

I think my post on the other SCA thread pretty well sums up how I feel about it, which is actually pretty irrelevant, but I just wanted to toss in, that y'all who really like the wrap shots in general ought to take a look-see when we get the messerfechten out and translated. What I'm seeing so far i...

Russ Mitchell

--This post may be a little long. I'll try to get my pieces in w/o it being too wordy-- Of course wraps are workable. Witness the "coup de Jarnac..." -- they just wouldn't happen even remotely as often as they do in the SCA, because at the ranges required, given a choice between throwing a wrap at y...

Russ Mitchell

so living in a country with less "economic clout" really has nothing to do with how much is available to spend on one's hobby. What?? Mi amigo, have you ever lived in one of these countries? It makes a **huge** difference. Spending that you and I take f...

Russ Mitchell

UTTERLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR A PAS.

These guys were militantly "middle class," and was trained in a civic unit depending on which guild he belonged to. The typical Swiss pikeman did not take part in courtly culture at all.

Russ Mitchell

Actually, though we still have to figure out the fabric thing... in the future, if I can get access to the relevant armouries (actually, I already can, it's just affording the trip), I will certainly throw you some cadd work for the pieces I measure out.

Russ Mitchell

Yeah, that's the kicker. That Norman stuff is psychotic.

Russ Mitchell

Thanks: you just might have saved my ass, as I have aluminum and iron work scheduled in the not too distant future. Rev., that's actually not all that far-fetched: your average ceramic kiln's wadding is incredibly insulative. You'd have to get a specialist to run the numbers (well, really, to know w...

Russ Mitchell

I can be number 3 on that list, as I'm getting ready to lace some metal lamellae anyway, and having the two side by side for comparison would be interesting.

Tulwar and Three Magyar Sabres for sale.