The Armour Archive

Richard Blackmoore

Good Sir Vitus, I pray thee forgive me for being unable to bear witness to your knighting or to attend your vigil. Events beyond my control prevented my attendance. My thoughts and prayers go with you. Welcome most worthy brother to our Order. I suspect that it will benefit from your inclusion in wa...

Richard Blackmoore

This is one of the chief arguments against SCA tournaments with counting blows landed. If typical SCA tournaments with dozens of fighters, even if you go to single elim, a tournament can take forever if you have talented fighters with good defense. Hell, I've watched a single SCA combat take 15 minu...

Richard Blackmoore

Good info Chef, but I do have a question for you. I too always assumed that gambesons, especially when used to refer to the garment worn under maille (right or wrong, many people refer to early period under maille padding, cloth armour or cloth that way) were of some substance and stiff. The reason ...

Richard Blackmoore

Apparently I am misinformed, my squire Bartholomew will actually be camping with some Midrealm folk camped across from East Kingdom Royal. I believe it is Kendra's household.

Richard Blackmoore

My squire called to tell me he is going to Pennsic after all and he is taking his son with him. They just got back from the archery Nationals (modern archery) where his son placed third in his age bracket. We are from the East but he will be camping with friends of his in Mid Realm Royal since I can...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "Someone wrote those who hit do, those who can't post."

LOL. That was me and I meant it as a joke.

-Richard

Richard Blackmoore

Thanks guys. It has always been my opinion that some thrusts would certainly pierce some plate. The frequency with which this happens and the combinations of weapons type, armour type/quality/specific area on the armour where the thrust lands and force levels required were all I questioned. However ...

Richard Blackmoore

Perhaps off topic, but the illustration shown has come up before in discussions of the effectiveness of plate. Many people have tried to say that thrusts from spears (when on foot) and from the top spike on most pole axes, would only rarely (if ever) pierce most decent quality late period plate armo...

Richard Blackmoore

Those that can take a blow do, those that can't post.

Richard Blackmoore

I can't go because my boss is a slave driving jerk and won't give me the time off (I'm self employed). Even if I had managed to get the time off, I would have had to cancel going, my partner's wife was supposed to have a baby at the end of August, her idiot Dr. decided he wanted to take a vacation a...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "Taking this conversation on a slight tangent, I am curious about something. When I was at Pennsic last year, I heard several people say variations on "that was excessive, *I don't have to take that*" Now, I am confused by this. To my understanding, excessive force is a safety issue, and shou...

Richard Blackmoore

Vitus and Rhys are largely correct; prowess was absolutely single most desirable aspect of knighthood. The other aspects are of course important, but without prowess, you are just a cool, honorable person who tries to fight. With prowess, you are a cool, honorable person who may be recognized as a k...

Richard Blackmoore

Wow. A very old picture. That was taken at the Lakewood Renn faire in NJ. The horse belonged to Baroness Amsha (wife of Bart the Bewildered) who was involved in the early days of the SCA equestrian pursuits out west. My jousting opponent was Sir Shannon Au Chauser (sp?) who was known as King X durin...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "Excuse me for being blunt and simple, but... If they hit too hard, pull their card." We can't even pull cards for more obvious problems, witness the problems in the East getting rid of a notoriously problematic fighter that went all the way to the BOD and the BOD made us let her fight anyway...

Richard Blackmoore

Recent research suggests that horses were actually an impediment to success on the battlefield and they smelled bad. Knights only rode them because it looked "cool". Much the way the movie stars smoked cigarettes, it is not because they wanted too, but because of the image it presented.

Richard Blackmoore

Find the biggest, baddest fighter with a white belt or pointy hat (they usually have a lot of big bad buddies with them). Stand somewhere near them during all battles. People will be completely ignoring you either because a) They want to make a name for themselves fighting big, bad fighters or b) Th...

Richard Blackmoore

Vitus, I am intrigued. I know little of Krotchpunt, only that Mr. Clements respects it so highly that he is afraid that it might fall into the wrong hands and be used for evil purposes. I asked him about it. He was clearly so worried that he feigned to have no knowledge of it whatsoever. For myself,...

Richard Blackmoore

I have never been thrilled with the fighting from the knees concept. It would seem to me that if in a tournament someone was so disabled that they could not stand, they would most likely either a) Yield because it would be smart to do so b) The bout would be stopped by the judges/officials/nobles in...

Richard Blackmoore

I'm a Ford man myself Sarnac, though I'm not sure about those Huscarl's. Are those like a Geo Metro or a Daewoo?

-Richard

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "That's not a bad thing; your implication is that inclusivity is somehow superior, a notion I find appalling--it's like pretending everyone's opinion is valid." To a large degree I agree with Rhys. It is good that the SCA is open to all comers, it is bad that we do not set or enforce higher m...

Richard Blackmoore

I can't wait to see Vitus's posts on the known world chivalry boards...

Congratulations!

-Richard

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "S&S gives an advantage to it's user over a spearman. Is it unchivalrous?" That depends on the context of the combat and your definition of chivalry (modern, Victorian, period AND which period, which country; chivalrous means a number of different things to different people). In period? In ma...

Richard Blackmoore

FrauHirsch, I had tried a metal tape that was highly polished silver in color. It may be the same tape you found. It was hard to apply, it did not hold up well at all and it was very difficult to remove and it also scuffed up other people's armour and they complained that it was "metal" and therefor...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "There are examples of 16th c armies using scutums and maces. The way the soldiers were dressed were certainly not lowlife scum. Whether they were nobles or not? Who knows." In the SCA, the folks behind a giant wall of Scutums rarely look like nobles, they usually look like commoner infantry,...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "You're right, fighting chivalrously means that you mount a horse in complete armor that makes you practically impregnable and you ride in a charging phalanx." Memo to self, must add smilies. I don't need to be impregnable. By the way, lances did go through maille. Sometimes even plate. "Hope...

Richard Blackmoore

Thank you Bascot, I posted the above before your amending post hit my PC.

I just want us to start sharing info instead of insulting each other.
-Richard

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "But see, Richard, his post wasn't "thoughtful, constructive and useful"; as I said in my most recent reply to him, he didn't show the advantages of such weapons, nor did he make a case for their advantage in SCA fighting. What he really did was to just try to come up with *anything* to contr...

Richard Blackmoore

Hi. Welcome back. First of all, you have to find some really old aircraft aluminum.... Seriously? Period shields are one of the biggest question marks we have. We have a number of fittings, but a small sample of pre 1500 shields, and many of the surviving pre 1500 samples are in bad shape, tournamen...

Richard Blackmoore

I have respect for the training, the organization, the teamwork and the effort put into the Calontir shield wall. It was a great idea from the perspective of winning within the confines of the SCA rules structure. Its use in the bridge battles years ago at Pennsic tended to allow the Middle to domin...

Richard Blackmoore

Rhys will be so pleased. His award is inspiring people to be the best Vikings they can be!

Seriously? My goal is to be the best knight I can be, help the SCA stay on a proper course of growth and to inspire others to fulfill their potential. I also want to have fun.

Richard Blackmoore

Bascot: "Why not stitch up leather batons as shown on "The Medieval Soldier" by Gerry Embleton and John Howe, page 32, instead of being a loud-mouthed uninformed jackass as you so frequently prefer?" The first part of this sentence demonstrates why I used to look forward to Bascot's posts; thoughtfu...

Richard Blackmoore

A round shield can be the best thing for newbies. To make one, cut a 38" Diameter round blank out. Now make a horizontal cut to flatten the top. Now from each resulting point at the left and right top (Dr. Evil calls these "corners"), cut a vertical line straight down towards the ground. As you get ...

Richard Blackmoore

Oh boy. First of all Owen: I am not jumping on the bandwagon. I generally detest hippies and hippie culture, that does not mean that I can't think portions of the culture or philosophy have some value. Despite my strong dislike of the Democratic Party, political liberals and Political Correctness, s...

Richard Blackmoore

Thank you for the explanation Owen, we are more in agreement than I realized. I thought you were trying to use one wrong (MSR's blatantly inauthentic design's/patterns) to justify another (your use of plastic). I think that style is not more important that substance. It is my belief that substance c...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "AFAIL the Irish, well the whole British isles, never had all that much of an indeginous arour industry. They did have one but not like Italy or Germany." That is not really accurate. The British Isles had an armour industry, the armour made on the mainland was simply generally considered bet...