The Armour Archive

earnest carruthers

"Of course, yes they are, but what I was trying to point out was that they were not men at arms, and were not fully harnessed in allwhite armour. A "light" armour, if you will."

Indeed, I see what you mean.

earnest carruthers

Mac, I make a poor scientist, I had some caustic soda solution left over from another project, I plopped a piece of spare horn, round section, rough and dirty and left it. When I do it again I will use the medieval test, ie floating an egg in the lye, that is an indication of the correct strength, I...

earnest carruthers

the thing tunred to a foul smelling slime, well nearly all of it, the outer layers dissolved leaving a semi-dissolved gelatinous layer, the deeper the permeation of the lye the softer the horn fibres become. My mix was way too strong and was cold, I strongly suspect that a hot and less concentrated ...

earnest carruthers

"The Scottish archers, for instance are wearing brigandines, and open helmets. "

Are they not wearing a green, white and pink skirted garment over the blakc brigandines, according to the Fouquet picture? or are the skirts part of the brigandine?

earnest carruthers

Mac "Urine.....why does it always have to to be urine....? " As James rightly says it is readily available. But it comes up a lot, I mean a lot in painting treatises, sometimes to help liberate a colour from a dye, sometimes to substitute for an ash lye, either as fresh or stale (there you...

earnest carruthers

Cat, I take it you use a water based acrylic size for the leaf? You might want to look at oil mordants (if you haven't already), one main advantage is that the gilding is permanent as the oil is obviously not water soluble, you then might not need a top sealer. It was a very period method of gilding...

earnest carruthers

"The native people of SE Alaska made a number of fantastic items out of horn including spoons and bowls. I assumed they boiled them to reshape, etc as was the standard course in early America and , I assume, Europe. What I found is some soaked them in a strong base solution (the guys I know who...

earnest carruthers

From the little I know, Chef may well add to this, in certain towns and cities citizens were under obligation to do stints at watch duties, for example a woman in Southampton was fined for non-attendance in the 15thc. This system was due to the Statute of Winchester. Watch being night time and ward ...

earnest carruthers

The gilded piece is beautiful, excellent work.

earnest carruthers

Diggers you would have loved 06, awesome in every way, sadly I was a nasty Norman, I just prayed that each of my arrow shots would miss their targets, alas my prayers were not heard

earnest carruthers

"But.. I don't know how you would get it hard again... Perhaps it's a matter of how far you go with the decalcification...."

I did that and it dissolved the calcium coating entirely leaving the membrane, over keen on the experimet I think

earnest carruthers

But neither the crusades or hastings can be shown to have a continuous and tangible link with the more distant events that followed them, hastings did not dictate everything that followed it, especially nice is the absorption of the Nasty Normans into being good englishmen, becoming english kings an...

earnest carruthers

http://www.greydragon.org/library/underwear1.html

they show a form of breech that comes to a point, these appear sometimes and are quite interesting.

earnest carruthers

As it happens there is a recipe for bending bone somewhere, IIRC it uses vitriol, whether copper or iron I can't recall. But the horn one is of great use, if the recipes prove right then horn can be moulded not just formed, one recipe says to dissolve horn particles in lye then mould and dry them fo...

earnest carruthers

For a painter in an urban area 1 - reading and writing english 2 - basic maths base 12 3 - certain alchemical processes that pertain to preparing pigments 4 - religious observation 5 - brush making 6 - preparing pigments 7 - pigment identification - their materials and quality 8 - possible use of a ...

earnest carruthers

Hi Mac, not as yet, I have a set of deer antler and cow horn put aside to work one of the recipes, however lye will dissolve hair and skin, horn is an extension of skin I believe, so it might make sense in that respect. I might give it a pop this weekend on a small piece, but I will use a modern lye...

earnest carruthers

Not at all, I am talking parameters, different thing, narrows the focus a bit

earnest carruthers

It is another case of an item, supposedly a reproduction that has no provenance provided, if it is based upon a particular item, esp a piece of armour, then what the item is based on should be supplied as well.

earnest carruthers

Mac, boil the horn in lye, the alkali helps soften it, according to the Strasbourg manuscript circa 1430 ish.

earnest carruthers

"In the SCA (which I am and on again off again member) most folks concentrate on being high class and very much NOT the average person." A high class what? which was my point for either LH or SCA, which relates to being specific about role, you can have a high class soldier, merchant, prin...

earnest carruthers

"I am not convinced a boy would be taught 'girl' skills like weaving, sewing or embroidery (perhaps some basic sewing techniques but if so more likely for other purposes like injury or leatherworking) " yet tailors were men, broderers were men, weavers were certainly men, in the 15thc thes...

earnest carruthers

There is a reference to a jack of horn, 15thc, Paston letters IIRC, but not much in the way of what or how? whether it was a jack with horn plates within etc.

Medieval recipes to soften horn call for the use of a strong hot lye.

earnest carruthers

I know what ethnicity means, or is supposed to mean, but my persona may not have a concept of that, his 'people' may be his towns folk, his county or his nation or all at varying times.

earnest carruthers

1. What is your personaâ€™s name? George Midwinter 2. What year was your persona born? 1440 3. What is your personaâ€™s native country? England 4. What is your personaâ€™s current country? England 5. What are/were your personaâ€™s parentsâ€™ names Unknown 6. What are/were your personaâ€™s parentsâ€™...

earnest carruthers

Try Museum of London - shoes and pattens, HMSO publications, most of them are in your era.

But you will need to cross reference these with austrian/bohemian finds of the same era to make sure you have the regional variations (if any) sorted.

earnest carruthers

Re the archer - that was not a job so much as a service for most men nad temporary at that, so their income would have and could have come form other areas. Debts and loans were common in this period, communal buying of carts and kit was the norm. Rural and urban prices varied, the Statute of Labour...

earnest carruthers

"Depends on the rarity of the book. Ask me about Duarte and THE artillery of the dukes of burgundy (not the current English language release - which isn't complete- but the French one)." or the strasbourg manuscript or a list of rare and desired tomes Nothing beats the time spent with mate...

earnest carruthers

earnest carruthers

Jeff "Seriously, though: you can buy stuff later. Missed experiences are hard to recover. " Spot on. After all this is a social activity, moreover of the event is of a scale that you normally would not be doing then the event, the people, the collected sense of participation is the most im...

earnest carruthers

"that must be 10yr ago and you don't look any older, what is your secret, monkey glands? "

fatter and greyer and some of those pics are 20 years old, or will be in Sept

Sadyl due to 'an administrative error' I wont be there until 1st weekend in June - oh joy. Amyway..

earnest carruthers

Randal " To be fair the armour crowd has not paid the piper to find out either. There is plenty of blame for all. RPM" couldn't agree more mate, as far as I am concerned it is a two way issue, you can't bows without talking armour and you can't talk armour without talking bows. It just see...

earnest carruthers

These static tests are pointless, no one seems willing to pay for a piece of properly made armour and then additional foundation garments to see the actual efficacy of a successful penetration. These tests focus on the penetration of the arrow rather than the mechanics of the armour, eg mid to late ...

earnest carruthers

But relatively late in the body protection circuit, gambesons, aketons and then jacks predate the brig and afford very cheap protection for the money at least. Keep you warm in winter, offer not bad protection against blows and arrows and widespread. Mind if I could afford one I woud get a brig, alw...

earnest carruthers

I have just realised who's excellent brigandine this is, nice one, you will probably need some written materials to go with this excellent piece of kit ------ Konstantin "It performs like a rather super scale, and makes a flexible, silent, livable armor that gave its name to the brigand -- a so...

earnest carruthers

"We are writing our responses to the question in ENGLISH, not Saxon, or Arabic! Hmmm!?? " Erm but the English were not major shakers in the crusades and the widespread use of English was directly attributable to colonial expansions which was a much later affair than either crusades or hast...