The Armour Archive

Blaine de Navarre

In a perfect world, grass would be best, but it is much higher maintenance. Mulch, either natural or shredded rubber, is not as high maintenance as grass, but higher maintenance than DG. As Ciaran noted, DG is not the most comfortable fighting surface, especially if you go to your knees, but it is p...

Blaine de Navarre

I have thought about this a bit. Here is what I would have: 1: An indoor/outdoor space, say 20x20 enclosed (size of a standard 2-car garage) with another 20x20 covered and roll-up door between so the whole 20x40 space can be used in decent weather and the enclosed space used if it's too nasty outsid...

Blaine de Navarre

Your best choices for a fighting garment are: linen, linen, or linen. Wool can be OK; stay away from pretty much anything else. Unlike most here, I don't think it needs to be all that heavy a linen; I fight in various weights of linen and all of them hold up quite well (I do stay away from the reall...

Blaine de Navarre

mattmaus, he is looking for stuff to make and sell

Adric, "apron" dresses appropriate for most earlier period Scandinavian/Germanic/Anglo-Saxon women

Blaine de Navarre

Oooh, ooh, I know....a computer screen.

Blaine de Navarre

I have some from each of the above named suppliers - both are excellent.

Blaine de Navarre

Stapler.

Blaine de Navarre

What this thread is telling me, though, is that many of the SCA chiv (there's a LOT) who post, read/lurk here either consider themselves blameless, or are else too wimpy to fess up to their more asinine moments. Good thing you're not asking them to 'fess up to their social/romantic sins, just their...

Blaine de Navarre

Not to miss any of my regular fighting practices twice in a row without a really good reason. Not to miss any tourneys within day-tripping distance without a really good reason. Some time during the year to get off my ass and do "Couch-to-5K," "200-Sit-Ups," and "100-Push-Up...

Blaine de Navarre

When Kolfinna died, I know her greatest wish for me as her squire would have been not to retreat from the field, my household, my Barony, or my Kingdom, but to redouble my efforts to advance; and yet that is precisely what I did.

Blaine de Navarre

If you had a free day and wanted to make the trip to the Garment District, a native guide could probably be arranged.

Blaine de Navarre

If you want to be an effective war fighter, the <s> most </s> only important thing to do is to join, and train with, a unit.

You'll want whatever shield is standard for your unit.

Blaine de Navarre

Damn I wish I had 800 bucks to spend.

Blaine de Navarre

Pulled Pork by Jehan de Pelham First, fell trees six months prior to desired barbeque... Best, John OK, total derailment, but you just reminded me of one of my favorite stories of the way Medieval people thought. About 20-30 years or so ago, the roof of one of the 15th C buildings at Oxford was sag...

Blaine de Navarre

The rules only say the face grill must extend 1" below the chin; the tilting-the-head-back test is not now, nor has it ever been, a requirement. The gorget needs to protect the cervical vertebrae and esophagus; above that is the underside of the jaw, for which there is no specific protection ca...

Blaine de Navarre

Yep, and I get unlimited data on my Droid, so I'm listening to Pandora on my stereo right now.

Blaine de Navarre

I would definitely want a real sword similar in length, weight, and balance to my rattan swords. As far as the specifics, I don't have one yet, but an Atar/Salamander has been on my wish list for decades now. http://atar.com/joomla/images/stories/products/dsc00682a.jpg Of the swords I actually own, ...

Blaine de Navarre

OK, be careful scrolling and skimming - I thought it said Persian stripper.

Blaine de Navarre

And if you think spurs are brutal, take a look some time at what polo players do to their horses' mouths with those double bits.

Blaine de Navarre

Actually depends if they're prick spurs or roweled. With roweled spurs you roll them up the horse's flank with light pressure.

Blaine de Navarre

Alex Baird wrote:
Blaine de Navarre wrote:... haven't fought with it enough yet to say I'm totally comfortable, but I like it so far.

Ya'know, Blaine, I know a way to fix that problem...

Thanks, Alex, I needed that.

Blaine de Navarre

What is your gender: Male Do you enjoy melee or singles more: I only enjoy melee when I am part of a team that has trained and works well together; it's no fun at all when it's just a gaggle fuck. I almost always enjoy singles. Are you better at melee or singles: More or less same answer. What is yo...

Blaine de Navarre

I would have liked to see a comparison vid. You are using master cuts with follwo through. I'd like to see how a "snap" shot that is designed to end at the target cuts in comparison. I know the answer already but I'd like to see it anyway. There were some videos posted here a while back o...

Blaine de Navarre

Rana wrote:I got to play with one of Edric's shields, it's kinda odd--a long heater with a centergrip boss.

I just switched from my center grip kite to a center grip heater myself; haven't fought with it enough yet to say I'm totally comfortable, but I like it so far.

Blaine de Navarre

1) What are the dates of those illuminations, and 2) At what point (physically and historically) does a kite become a heater? I'm gonna guess based on the styles that the first illumination is mid- to late-14C and the second is mid- to late-13C. Round top kites are ubiquitous up until the mid-12C a...

Blaine de Navarre

I'm going from memory here, and can't give cites to back any of this up, but a few of us spent some time a number of years ago looking at every source we could find, and here is what we discovered: 1. Most sources that show the back side of a kit show it strapped, only a few show it held with the ce...

Blaine de Navarre

Other than some familiarization training, I know squat about rapier. I like the look of cut and thrust, but should I do rapier first? The two are different, like apples and oranges. You don't have to eat the apple before the orange. That's my thought. Cheers, Steven Sadly, at least in my Kingdom, y...

Blaine de Navarre

How much do they weigh?

Blaine de Navarre

Since baronial coronets don't change hands (heads) that often, I would go ahead and make the padding semi-permanent and just plan on replacing it for each new Baron & Baroness. Figure out how thick you need it to be, sew a tube of velvet or some other fabric, stuff with your favorite padding, fo...

Blaine de Navarre

Throwing intentionally flat blows is NOT swordsmanship....it is gay. I actually used to have a shot where I shifted my grip 90 degrees, so I was throwing in a way that would have been flat with my normal grip, and could throw lighting fast and plenty hard. Unfortunately, if the shot didn't work and...

Blaine de Navarre

I haven't yet gone to the length of the totally shaped blades some of ya'll are using, but I do shave the sides of my blades and shape the grips pretty extensively. I can almost always feel the difference if I hit someone flat.

Blaine de Navarre

When I am really "on" with my shield work, I find the key is having a really good neutral position, using the most economical movement to block each shot, and always returning to neutral.

Blaine de Navarre

Ummm, 2 different answers, really.

Ultimately, you want to be able to do either, even if one or the other is your primary.

However, for building up the fundamentals, sword foot back will teach you better body mechanics.

Blaine de Navarre

Set your way back machine to somewhere between 1975 and 1965. During that time frame you can use a real axe handle for your axe in the SCA. And the axe blade could be jigsawed from a piece of 1" plywood with some padding on the edge. People were actually still doing this well into the 80s, eve...

Blaine de Navarre

I have one of those. The handle sticks out too far from the boss; I have to wear a full gauntlet with mine, as opposed to a demi with my normal center-grip shield.

Other than that, it holds up to fighting just fine.

The Windrose ones are just right; my next buckler will be a Windrose.

Re: (SCA) Melee or Tourney

Re: Thinking of taking up rapier/cut and thrust.