The Armour Archive

Russ Mitchell

Well, *I* do, but I've never met the guy...

Russ Mitchell

Besides somebody being naughty in a duel? No... I've seen it once before in passing, but don't know much of anything about it at all.

Russ Mitchell

Errr. Hard question, b/c it's generic. Depends on how it's done out. Basically, it's got a little stretch, but not a whole lot (generally it's more "springy" stretch than "real" stretch, if that makes any sense), and can be anywhere from "pliable" to "garment-leather soft." I can't get "true butter ...

Russ Mitchell

Kel's right, and that's why I primarily stick to hungary-tan -- I can *do* the other, but the alum inclusions in hungary-tan make it a ton easier to break, whereas straight buff is, to put it mildly, a royal pain in the ass.

Russ Mitchell

I can produce Hungary Tan for you, which was used and is a variation of straight oil-tanned (which is what buff leather is), but unless you hang out around a lot of campfires, it will be a greyish hue rather than the yellowed color a lot of them tend to get off a cod-oil tannage. I have had the fort...

Russ Mitchell

I see "farsetto" used more ways than I want to think about.

Russ Mitchell · Re: TherionArms monthly news update - September 23, 2012 Orders in!

Orders in!

Russ Mitchell

Ah, got links!
http://lyho.io.ua/album19527
http://lyho.io.ua/album412492

Russ Mitchell

Hal, Dibs on the flail and Sempach head if they're not spoken for. Would LOVE to get the war sword (have needed it for my persona for about ten years now); will go on that one if you're willing to do a layaway over the course of a couple months. You've mentioned the sleeveless gambeson being "genero...

Russ Mitchell

I have detailed pictures now -- if anybody's interested, please PM me. On principle, I dont' watn to spam somebody if they're not. The basic boots don't look hard, just a different heel construction than the norm, and on the expensive version, an integral horseshoe.

Russ Mitchell

He wants a historical pattern, and sent me a link to page where they were discussed...but did I keep teh page? No-ooooooo. :/

Russ Mitchell

Dan Howard wrote:Same argument applies. How can anyone make authentic-looking mail without an authentic example to copy?

THIS.
As much as Dan and I sometimes go back and forth, since our research findings clash, this is just absolutely DEAD on the money.

Russ Mitchell

No good, unfortunately -- the boots in question are different than the Polish pattern, and not the traditional dance boots (my guy's a traditional dancer and boyovyi hopak guy, he sees those all the time). Thanks, though, Zippy.

Russ Mitchell

We can't make the assumption, no, though I'm starting to lean more and more in that direction. I ran my mouth off about that in the doubled-mail thread, so won't repeat it, but it should offer really, REALLY good protection against cuts, for a pretty moderate weight.

Russ Mitchell

Morning, I've a Ukrainian colleague who's frustrated by the inaccurate and low-qualify items he can find, and is looking for a bootmaker who might be interested in taking on making boots for him. I've dropped an email or two to some bootmakers recommended here, but had them bounce back as inoperativ...

Russ Mitchell

Medium, Psst: you're holding the ball. On a side note, unless you lived in pretty damned humid terrain (like, say, England), doing this true-to-cite is pretty much a non-starter anyway. That's a LOT of sod to cut and pile -- doing it "right" is either a quick way to inexcusably trash your land (as a...

Russ Mitchell

Okay, Saritor, that makes sense. My school calls cuts verbally, but it's less command than reinforcement/safety feature (I call "cut 1" while making it, so the guy parrying has the extra safety valve of always knowing what's coming). My instruction is continuous action, usually in patterns, with int...

Russ Mitchell

Saritor,

Your phrasing was a little vague. So you're specifically curious as to how long lunges specifically should be held during drills? Or techniques in general?

There's a lot of "it depends" going on, depending on what you mean.

Russ Mitchell

Where is it, Frank? I got a buddy visiting Istanbul, and he digs on cannon, too.

Russ Mitchell

Kieran: You're a costume designer who's good with a sewing machine? And you need metal or plastic? Trade a little sewing-machine time for materials. Done. Hard to get cheaper than that! I've enough thin metal plate in armoring gauges to probably cover your direct torso needs, albeing not a whole coa...

Russ Mitchell

You might want to stick with latigo or maybe moose. Elk hide just ain't all that thick, for the most part. I've never seen any that would be anywhere near as thick as two layers of good latigo sewn together.

Russ Mitchell

I've a scale vest that's good enough for SCA work, but I've never seen a reliable source for good scales, rounded or flattened. We had one guy around here make his own out of spoons, actually.

Russ Mitchell

NICE chahar ai-ne!

Russ Mitchell

Yeah, what's odd about this khazaghand, Said, is that it has none of that; instead it's fabric, mail, and fabric. And judging by the owner and fairly high-quality trimmings, this wasn't "munitions crap" either.

Russ Mitchell

Fantastic! First I've ever actually SEEN. Plus, My God, did they stitch down every single link?!

Russ Mitchell

Plum, peach, or cherry, unless you need your haft seriously long, in which case it's less convenient. But I've grown seriously fond of the fruitwoods for hafting.

Russ Mitchell

I have prototyped 3d positives, but don't know how to translate that into the actual mold-making. Basic ceramic or resin positives are cheap to print online.

Russ Mitchell

That's right, Wade. If you can get into the Armoury, that place is a gold mine. Which is why nobody can get in -- they can't afford the security systems they'd need if people knew what they were sitting on.

Russ Mitchell

Also, bear in mind that as moderns we tend to use the term "free" as a binary -- you're free or you're not. The medieval world didn't attach it to a binary, and a person who was "partially unfree" might actually have significantly greater status than somebody who was "wholly free."

Russ Mitchell

That's actually made of awesome.

Russ Mitchell

Hungarian National Museum's the only one of note in Budapest you'll be able to get to on short notice. Access to the National Armoury is tightly-controlled.

Russ Mitchell

Glue-layered paper does fine against sword cuts -- that's something I've tested before. 7-10 layers is more than sufficient for warding off "accidental ouchies" of the kind friends sometimes inflict on each others' hands. "Live steel" is a bit of a weird catchall, though -- a lot of places I've play...

Russ Mitchell

Oh, definitely. This is a case of "I"m generating something that's going to waste otherwise." Thus the "modern" label. While I"m going to try to take some principles from what I saw in Wade's pieces, this isn't an adventure in "authenticity."

Russ Mitchell

Yeah, Eirik, if they're not too large, I think you and Isabella are on it with those brads. They wouldn't have a ton of strength, but they'd be stupidly easy to field-repair.

Russ Mitchell

Hung out in Wade's "Room of old stuff" last weekend and learned a few things, one of which is how *relatively* painless the ideas behind making some of this armor work are once you've got the originals to get you started up the learning curve. The applications are clearly non-trivial, but the base i...

Re: Couch to Canne in 30 days

Re: Berlin Fechtbuch

Re: Buff Leather Source?

Re: Buff Leather Source?

Re: Buff Leather Source?

Re: Italian Glossary of Armor Terms (as well as clothing)

Re: TherionArms monthly news update - September 23, 2012

Re: Zaporozhian Cossack Boots -- Bootmaker interested?

Re: TherionArms monthly news update - September 23, 2012

Re: Zaporozhian Cossack Boots -- Bootmaker interested?

Re: Zaporozhian Cossack Boots -- Bootmaker interested?

Re: A Comprehensive Discussion on Mail

Re: Zaporozhian Cossack Boots -- Bootmaker interested?

Re: Some question about Baidana.

Zaporozhian Cossack Boots -- Bootmaker interested?

Re: Dirt mound for an archery target?

Re: WMA (or SCA) Formal training question

Re: WMA (or SCA) Formal training question

Re: Jazerant

Re: Recommendations for plastics?

Re: scrap thick elkhide?

Re: WTB/Commission: Scale Armor

Re: Turkish/Pesrian type set coming...

Re: Jazerant

Re: Jazerant

Re: Woods for pole weapons? (Not SCA)

Re: 3D printing for maiking molds and such?

Re: Museum Recommendations for Budapest, Vienna and Munich

Re: Norse Slave Trade

Re: MODERN: how would you rivet paper-mache armor?

Re: Museum Recommendations for Budapest, Vienna and Munich

Re: MODERN: how would you rivet paper-mache armor?

Re: MODERN: how would you rivet paper-mache armor?

Re: MODERN: how would you rivet paper-mache armor?

MODERN: how would you rivet paper-mache armor?