The Armour Archive

earnest carruthers

"9] Once you study it, you alter it. "

A historical SchrÃ¶dinger's cat.

earnest carruthers

yes, but it is as you have discovered a great dye, I dyed a pencase with ink, you get the double whammy of the chemical reaction and the extra oomph as the ink absorbs into the leather

I am still intrigued if espresso = coffee.

earnest carruthers

"What it sounds like may be more correct is to actually extend the doublet a few inches further down from the hip (so a similar length to my current doublet), and point to the *bottom* of the skirt, requiring a set of hose that are about 2-4 inches shorter, or even shorter with a single point i...

earnest carruthers

d-farrell2 sorry, you have indeed got open hose There is still a difference between hose of the middle to late 15thc and late 14thc, the massacio pic is unfortunately marred by foreshortening and a lack of a full frontal view. the grey dragon site has a good example from the Decameron, see attached ...

earnest carruthers

Beat me to it Mr Terris, I would add that LENEL is used more often than not to justify agendas: "You can't prove they didn't have one/do such and such therefore I can" Char "or if youâ€™re trying to back-document a modernism." indeedy, sadly I see LENEL used a lot for this line o...

earnest carruthers

You might want to consider open rather than closed hose. Also late 14th early 15thc hose were lower slung in some cases quite a bit lower than the waist, it is a 'typical' look and distinguishes early 15th from late. As the century progressed hose rise to the waist and later to above, corrresponding...

earnest carruthers

"So, you would have three different systems working."

or possibly four, people raised for work in their own county were expected to fight gratis IIRC, so you might get some locals to the place who are not being paid at all.

earnest carruthers

Do you mean coffee??

earnest carruthers

Or cutting green oak with iron/steel tools

you get lovely purple black, pure tannin and iron ions.

earnest carruthers

Strongbow "FWIW, I dyed the leathers on my hourglass gauntlets black using an oak gall based dye (basically what I use for period calligraphy ink, but a little thicker. It comes out a very deep borwn, and with an application of beeswax based finish, it deepened to a visual black. " the act...

earnest carruthers

quite a few medieval reciupes for shoe balck exist, in the main a solution of ireon salts, eg ferrous sulphate, brished over the leather will react to give a black, rangign from deep grey to quite black, the leather then needs oiling to bring up the colour, as it dries matte. The other is the 'liqui...

earnest carruthers

"but baleen which would be comparable to making the gauntlets out of fiberglass. "

indeedy and there exist several references to baleen and being called baleen being used to make:

crossbows
pavises

because of the baleen's flexible properties.

earnest carruthers

We have a money bag based on the poster's query.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nellkyn/ga ... neybag.jpg

Also I reckon there to be the remains of one on the Mary Rose, it is listed as leather bits, but to me it looks like parts from one of these types of bags, I emailed them ages but I might as well have whistled, not even a reply.

earnest carruthers

LI is right, even the archive papers need a little burnish as they tend to the fibrous rather than textured. Also a lot of it is to do with technique, keep the quill upright and write lightly, suggest startng as you mean to go on, feather pens are not very forgiving, whereas metal ones are and often...

earnest carruthers

Patric A few things. paper was the most common substrate for secular books by the mid to late 15th century, all of which was imported to England from France and Germany, even the first mill in 1480 could not keep up with demand. Harcourt bindery m Is the sole US reseller of Griffen mill papers, they...

earnest carruthers

Shane, I think there is more option for painted armour than most reenactors realise. It is a cheap and easy way to decorate/identify an item, certainly documentary evidence to suggest it and of course the few that survive. But how, stylistically and to what extent is difficult, so you get two swings...

earnest carruthers

Thanks Strongbow, I shall keep an eye out for it.

earnest carruthers

Muriel " I think you're definition of bezants (being gold in the shape of coins) is a modern one." Bezants are heraldic charges. I had omitted the following in reference to the 'jewellery', there are many "in refernce to the coin of the same name. c1440(a1400) Awntyrs Arth.(Thrn) 367:...

earnest carruthers

A bit of digging Interesting, a bit later than I had thought. (1440) PParv.(Hrl 221) 313: Losange, or spancle [KC: spangyl]: Lorale. (1440) PParv.(Hrl 221) 467: Spangele, or losangle: Lorale. (1462) Paston 1.108: A litell cheyne of gold wyth a perle hangyng therby and ij spangell[es] of gold. c1500(...

earnest carruthers

Andreas, polish off the silver, as that is usually aluminium, get it well polished and seal with either a car wax for modern durability or for a medieval finish linseed oil (boiled) varnish. As the others have said, there are more ways to cover a lid, cloth is one and the earlier the imagery the har...

earnest carruthers

Spangles are decorative items, the hole for a simple stitch They are for clothing or horse decoration and instructions exist on how to make them - Cennini, is one source, although his method is not the stamp cut of the one that I recall from MoL, and his would be thinner, but he mentions them for fa...

earnest carruthers

"Deaders don't care about mattresses, they won't complain about the pea underneath. Wink Do you really want them to get ripe on an expensive mattress? Ropes would be easy to wash if necessary, or simply replaced." Indeed Alcy, I had made that observation earlier, in the case of removing th...

earnest carruthers

I think that if we address this properly it cna be of use. Beds are described in many ways: (1444) Will Daubeney in Som.RS 19 341: Y ordeyne to Alice my wyf..a hangyng bede of Bryddis [Sur.Soc.30: a hanging bed of birdis]..a wurstede hangyng and bed of blak bokeram [Sur.Soc.30: a worsted hanging bed...

earnest carruthers

Those images prove nothing, other than there were items that were used to carry people, coincidentally they look like beds without mattresses. Ambiguous at best. What we need to make some more positive conclusions about this interesting conundrum are the following: an explanation of the narrative in...

earnest carruthers

I realised that despite my posts being of some interest they do not actually answer the initial questions fully, apologies. Briefly, pigments in glue size (gelatine) painted on to the leather and then sealed with linseed oil to prevent run off. Egg yolk medium can be used, it does tend to have bulk,...

earnest carruthers

Brazil gives you deep reds, a combination of the concentration of the dye and its pH, if it errs to the alkaline it gets deeper, up to a purple in fact, although that is abit tricky, but a deep red is straightforward, and it gets deeper once you oil it. Brazil wood might be sold as sappan wood and i...

earnest carruthers

IIRC in the 15th there are cases of people not wanting to be knights due to the financial pressure it entailed, or that they did not have the cash to maintain the image/status. On top of that, it was entirely possible for landowning peasants to be wealthier than a knight, and with the rising mercant...

earnest carruthers

I used proper medieval dyestuffs, easy and cheap and spot on. for uncoated veg tan leathers. reds: brazil wood, boiled with alum until you get the nice cherry red colour, you then brush it on to the visible surface of the leather, usually the smoother hair side. Do it cold of course. Different conce...

earnest carruthers

I have just found similar bed pics from a 7th century mosaic of the raising of lazarus in Ravenna, sadly can't find image online and my scanner is busted. It is in the early part of the Medieval Panorama book. Notably the design and actual subject matter are similar (taking a body/person to be bless...

earnest carruthers

Thanks Egfroth, made me go all goose pimply, again.

Not a bad production, thought it captured the atmosphere well, it would make a good reenactment recruitment flick.

I am all aglow. excellent. Took me right back.

earnest carruthers

If not mate, you know where I am.

I would like to have another made by then, unlikely though, way too busy.

Will you be Tewkes? if so we can do archer pavisiers for at least one day, might be fun.

earnest carruthers

Dweezle "I don't even think reinforcing the front and back with linen/rawhide/leather would keep a wooden gutter of that shape from splitting out.. it's just too rigid and has a grain that it wants to break on." The very first pavise I made has an almost semi-circular gutter, under an inch...

earnest carruthers

" Okay I have seen the bump in the middle shield in many later period images. But WHY? What does it give you? I understand the curve of a heater but I donâ€™t know what extra advantage you get from that. " According to one of the few books on pavises, the gutter appears to be a residual fr...

earnest carruthers

It is as likely as not to be sewn and quilted linen.

earnest carruthers

Yes, deduce, deduce is better. "that went on in military camps, the question becomes how relevant is that to England in the WOR and how can a good balance be made." That, over here is solely an issue about how to make the reenactment available to everyone, regardless of it being right or n...