The Armour Archive

Russ Mitchell

Because he's not a scholar. It's the same old thing year after year ( since the 90s) because this is all he's got. Not worth worrying over.

Russ Mitchell

Thanks for the replies, y'all. Suzerain, if the sandwich lasts, I'll go that way -- done plenty of string-wrapped-and-glued handles in the past, just usually for smaller stuff.

Russ Mitchell

I could swear that maybe 10 years ago I saw an advertisement online from Landsend where they were traveling across the country with a 3d scanner booth that would record your measurements for an online "virtual model" to try on clothes. They seem to have dropped the idea within a year, but I'd LOVE ...

Russ Mitchell

Hi folks. I'm converting a civil war sabre to a Cuman-style "bastard sabre," and have all the furniture I need ready except for the grip. But then I'm striking out. The tang that needs to go into the grip is longer than any of the drill bits I've got, and since this doesn't use a pommel, drilling fr...

Russ Mitchell

Second dibs if he doesn't for some reason.

Russ Mitchell

Dunno about the inversion, but the shape is consistent with draping a rectangle across the human torso. To me that suggests ease of manufacture was an issue, and that tailoring wasn't.

Russ Mitchell

I need about 8000 of them, so I'm curious about dimensioning, too.

Russ Mitchell

Sounds to me like it would be better used as a material for gauntlets. A lightweight but not hideously expensive gauntlet would be a wonderful thing.

Russ Mitchell

While that's true, Maeryk, I think you're seriously underestimating the horrific toll disease takes in places with poor sanitation until even recently. Breastfeeding is no panacea. http://tinyurl.com/d933ub9 Check those numbers out. India in 1960 was rockin' healthy with a 25% child mortality rate. ...

Russ Mitchell

Maeryk:

Ever walked through an 18th/19th-century graveyard? Outside of the fancy/schmancy ones, the small-town cemeteries are mostly children.

Russ Mitchell

So when you see bullfight horses dancing all over hell and creation, that's something that Barbs tend to outclass other horses at? I'm just now learning enough to start looking at medieval horse depictions to get a sense of what the animals might have been like, so thanks for being patient and spell...

Russ Mitchell

I've thought several times of pointedly making fantasy equivalents to some of the Victorian armor ideas, just to play with them. More on topic, bedliner paint doesn't have any impact resistance that I know of, but it cures in one piece and is really good against abrasion -- if I were using it in my ...

Russ Mitchell

Russ Mitchell

barbs abd arabians are amost as different as they can be. front leg proportions, shoulder, neck, head profile, backs, leg size, character, haunches, tail setting, evrything, hence it is pretty logical they were seen as distinct things. they were used in completely different forms of warfare. (arab ...

Russ Mitchell

HRE political divisions are, well, intricate enough to keep you fascinated for years. Its more or less federated structure seemed to make it durable, though, yet there was enough unity to make it powerful. Wasn't it more or less the strength of the HRE that brought the Ottomans to a halt in Europe....

Russ Mitchell

Randall,

I can't make much use of their shafts -- the style's too different between Hungarian and English. But they are absolutely excellent products, and worth the money.

Russ Mitchell

I have to say that I'm really skeptical about the washer idea. It would be an incredibly inefficient and over-heavy design.

Russ Mitchell

If I need it, I'll just go ahead and tan some. With my tendonitis keeping me from doing any meaningful leatherworking, it's just not something I could invest in right now.

Russ Mitchell

Well alright then. Can you point me to any sources because now I am curious. This may just be a terminology fail as I thought banded mail was what I posted. Not arguing, just trying to work out the common terms. You're using the terminology as generally used in East-Central Europe. Dan's using it a...

Russ Mitchell

It is obviously plausble in certain situations because we have surviving examples. It was used to create rigidity around the neck and, as Russ says, possibly to help to retailor it. I think the Vancouver anthropology museum has an example with banding across the chest but I doubt it was ever done o...

Russ Mitchell

It's a giant can of worms. The mail guys tend to laugh it out of the room, and Dan Howard has a plausible argument about it being a convention to capture how mail can look in certain lights -- I don't agree with that per se, as the images don't look similar to my eye.... at which point we then get i...

Russ Mitchell

It wasn't "slavery in place," so much as one could call it an early equivalent to the Triangle Trade. Western and Northern Europeans raided for slaves into the region, sold them out-region, and took their lands. A crapton of them wound up in Egypt, but beyond that, I don't know much, as it's not my ...

Russ Mitchell

Dude, YES. There was a MASSIVE slave trade in the 14th century. East-central and Eastern europeans were regularly enslaved and sold off via Italian merchants all over the place, and that was merely one of the main conduits.

Russ Mitchell

Again, Jan's on it -- those not sold as slaves also regularly decamped and joined other communities because they were treated so badly even after conversion. This isn't "what-if" territory here, Randall: we have a very good idea of what actually happened, when, and to whom.

Russ Mitchell

What Jan said regarding period and "Prussian-ness." If you're native and from the eastern coastal side of things, lamellar is legit, full stop.

Russ Mitchell

"Motion to dismiss."

Russ Mitchell

Chef, We talked horses a LONG time ago, and I don't know if you remember it, but the widespread assumption that cavalrymen in the Kingdom of Hungary were using a Tarpan variation (logical given the immense wild herds available just to the east) appears to have been mistaken. Burial work done at Csen...

Russ Mitchell

Bit confused here, PatternWeld. Why would you go to all the mess and trouble of starting with wire rope as your stock?

Russ Mitchell

Eh, no. Edward III actually delayed his initial invasion until he met with one of Louis' emissaries. The Hundred Years' War was a bit more wide-ranging and complicated than the english-language historiography makes it out to be.

Russ Mitchell

Be interesting to see what he got there; I'll pick it up, thanks.

Russ Mitchell

I'm in TX, so unless you're in Canuckistan, no customs. Would need it by July-ish or so.

Russ Mitchell

My sample sketches vary (actually, most of them have the business end topping out at about 2, not 2.5/2.6, but the sockets all appear to have been for a 3cm shaft -- they're remarkably consistent. If you're on metric and want to call it an inch, that's okay as well.

Russ Mitchell

Okay, thanks, Wade.

Russ Mitchell

I do not need specific material/hardness ranges: we don't have metallurgical testing on the piece: modern shortcuts which are not visibly obvious are fine. It's basically just a plus-size "long bodkin" arrowhead; must be a tapered socket and a square section, which needs to be close to spec -- micro...

Russ Mitchell

Seconded on pictures.

Re: Not what you think it is.

Re: WEAPONS CONSTRUCTION -- How to construct a grip?

Re: 3D printing of armor?

WEAPONS CONSTRUCTION -- How to construct a grip?

Re: FS: Coat of plates prototype

Re: Byzantine-style lamellar

Re: Scales for SCA armor

Re: Gauging interest: Kevlar Shield Blanks & Lamellar Plates

Re: Finding Water

Re: Finding Water

Re: Rise of Destriers?

Re: RhinoLiner?

Re: RhinoLiner?

Re: Rise of Destriers?

Re: 14th Prusian Armor

Re: Wanted: Medieval type arrows

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: Willing to go in on an order of scabbard butt leather...

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: How plausible is banded mail?

Re: 14th Prusian Armor

Re: 14th Prusian Armor

Re: 14th Prusian Armor

Re: 14th Prusian Armor

Re: Of interest to everyone that does historical reproductio

Re: Rise of Destriers?

Re: WTB/WTT: Lance head made to spec

Re: Book Review: The Man Who Believed He Was King of France

Re: Book Review: The Man Who Believed He Was King of France

Re: WTB/WTT: Lance head made to spec

Re: WTB/WTT: Lance head made to spec

Re: Cross-grained layered breastplates: from what era?

Re: WTB/WTT: Lance head made to spec

Re: 12' Yurt needs to sell!