The Armour Archive

justus

It might be more difficult now that the flesh side has been rubbed with wax ect.. To ensure that dyed leather doesn't bleed, I either dunk the whole piece in water and rub the wet leather with a cloth, or just use a wet cloth and wipe down the dyed surfaces if the whole item cannot be immersed. I ta...

justus

That is really good work James, do you have any finished stuff on a site somewhere? You could give the artists at Osprey a lesson or two, not to mention that since you've been in the press and worn the armor, you are coming at the process from a different direction. I wish I could draw.... -Justus

justus

The* extant viking shields are made of Linden wood (also called basswood) It is pretty light weight, great for carving. I think poplar would be a good substitute weight wise, and is very similar in durability. If you leave poplar out in the sun it will turn a nice golden color. -Justus *I should hav...

justus

Not knowing any better when I made my first hauberk, I made the whole thing with vetical rows. I had a picture of an effigy that only showed the arm, so I just made the whole thing like a continuation of the arm. I learned later that arms are often attached cross grain to the body of the hauberk. Ho...

justus

an earlier thread

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... highlight=

justus

Look up "shynbalds" In period the shynbald was just a gutter shaped pieces of metal or leather that covered the shin. But I've got a couple pictures of shynbalds that have a knee cop above and close enough that they could have been attached. As for real world functionality, they work great and lots ...

justus

It should only take an hour or so, warm water will help speed up the time.

-Justus

justus

3/8 is pretty loose for 14 guage wire, 5/16 is more common.

3/8 will give you a shirt that weighs 40% less than a 5/16 inside diamater shirt, and that does make it attractive.

This site has tons of good info on every aspect of mail.

http://www.mailleartisans.org/index.cgi

-Justus

justus

It is possible to leave the leather exposed, but it is hard to do the padding on the front. There needs to be good compression in front of the leather, as layered on edge like that it is very hard. I'm going to try with my next axe, I will do the leather wrap, then padd the front and sew soft leathe...

justus

Very well done! I like how you wrapped the final layer of leather around the haft to form a socket. When I make another I will do the same. Mine is in great shape as well, I've changed the front padding once, but the core is still solid. I think this type of leather head will become the cutting edge...

justus

It's the heat overload breaker on the saw motor. If you put too much strain on the motor it gets hot and trips an internal breaker. The breaker resets itself when it gets cool. 1. clean out under the table, and blow out the motor with compressed air. It's likley that years of dust are cloging the mo...

justus

There has been a lot of speculation about that, they do look like a one piece mail jumper don't they? I think everyone is pretty sure that they are just split front and rear for riding. As to whether they are tied to the leg, there is much debate. I'm glad you mentioned riding position, someone post...

justus

If it were just tied around the head with thongs it would slip down easily, but note the thongs attached to the back of the mail hood in the bottom picture. I bet the laces on the ventail are tied to thoes laces in the back. Not only would that keep the ventail from sliding down, but you could undo ...

justus

I post this pic a lot, but it is worth it, this if from Gerry Embltons book "Medieval Military Costume" I think it is one of the best researched and depicted books out there for reenactors. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justus1199/163280944/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.fli...

justus

Arts and craft stores sell it for making beaded jewlery, and almost any shoe repair shop will have some. I can't imagine that there are so few leather workers in the "Old World" that there are not several leather supply houses.

-Justus

justus

Waxed linen/hemp is the way to go, and was used in period, unless you period is "Neolithic"

-Justus

justus

Here is a rough guide to saddle stitching. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to show how to do something that is really so simple to do

http://www.flickr.com/photos/justus1199 ... 229767444/

For the Aussie folks it might help to turn their monitor upside down.

-Justus

justus

Yep, saddle stich is THE way to sew leather. I use it on everything, and with practice you can get pretty speedy with it. I'm sure there is an online tutorial for it, if you can't find anything I'll be happy to make one. Does anyone know if there is any evidance for it in period? There is precious l...

justus

It is a type of sword made by Albion swords.

http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/alb ... dhjalt.htm

A very fine sword indeed, of course I'm biased.

-Justus

justus

Neither, I thought he was giving me a hard time for not getting back to the post promptly like I said I would.

Either way I was just teasing back. No harm no foul.

-Justus

justus

Nicley Rounded and taped with strapping tape would be fine, I'd even be happy with a 1/4 inch of closed cell foam if they really wanted to make sure no one got the hard edge of rattan. The 1/2 inch of compression just is not needed.

-Justus

justus

I'm all for it, I think the mandrake low profile head would be fine on a two handed weapon. I also think we could get rid of thrusting tips on one handed weapons, as long as we ensure that the tips are rounded, no hard sharp edges. They are supposed to be like that anyway. The idea that a thrust fro...

justus

Here is the straight deal from the SCA's leading satirical publication, "The Quarter"

http://www.thequarter.org/issue07/page03.php

http://www.thequarter.org/issue07/page04.php

http://www.thequarter.org/issue25/page02.php

http://www.thequarter.org/issue14/page04.php

If you havenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t discovered the quarter yetÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ oh dear. It is the SCA version of Ã¢â‚¬Å“The OnionÃ¢â‚¬Â

justus

Blue sleeping mat foam is the devil. Go to a store that sells kayaks, and ask for "seat foam" or "Kayak foam" it is usually grey black, but I've seen it in light grey. It comes in many thicknesses (I don't know if that is a word) from 3/16 to an inch (sometimes 4 inches) and most in between <a href=...

justus

Raimond was kind enough to convert this article into a pdf format. It is much less cumbersome to read through than the one page at a time format of the online version, and it's handy for printing if you so choose. If anyone would like a copy please e-mail me justus1199@yahoo.com -Justus

justus

One nice thing you can do when forging your own web is to make the stock tapered from the edge to the back so the edge is naturally thicker and so doean't require much in the way of set.

You are absolutely correct. High quality modern saws are Ã¢â‚¬Å“hollowÃ¢â‚¬Â

justus

It looks like you have three hands? Some of the pics have both your hands and appear to be shot from the workers perspective. Tells the story well that way. Tripod, 4 second timer, but a third hand would be awesome. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s still hard to show how to make the cutsÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ maybe several images in ...

justus

I have an admission to make, The "thin kerf saw" I used to cut the slots for the webb was my... ...Japanese Ryoba. It's going to be hard to learn how to live without that thing, I doubt that any western saw in the middle ages has a kerf that thin. But since I had to actually make the kerf wider for ...

justus

I found the that large frame rip saw hanging on a wall in a woodworking shop, I asked the guy how much he wanted for it and he said, "I don't know $40.00? I got it cause it looked cool but I never use it" "Sold" It's german, a Wilh.Putsch I love it, but it does take a lot of practice. The handles ar...

justus

Any evidence of them being made with the blade 90 degrees turned from what you have there? I would think that saw would be handy for small crosscuts, and cheek cuts for tenons and such.. but not for doing any deep cutting. Nope, that is what a turn saw is for. This saw is specifically for joinery, ...

justus

How to make a medieval frame saw using only hand tools. m <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justus1199/194641112/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/62/194641112_9d26ca2f0a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Medieval Frame Saw" /></a> This is a continuation of a previous e...

justus

This is from Dan's new "Swamp thing" line of leather armor. Wait till you see the new "webbed" sabatons!

Nice work as always.

Justus

justus

They've got to portect themsleves. For the most part Scadians are one of the last holdouts of honor and personal responsiblity left in the country, but we are big enough that there could be folks hoping to play the lottery with someone's liablity insurance. Welcome to the world where you can sue bec...

justus

The helm blown up to ink dots, it's very similar in shape to B. Amos' salt shaker helm, the eye slots are difficult to interpret, they actually look like they are beveled outward, like the slots on a houndskull basinet, but it could just be the way the seal makes everything in relief. <a href="http:...

justus

Here is the Richard I seal. I think I've seen another picture of a thrid crusade era great helm as well. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/justus1199/193250833/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/77/193250833_b56782c260_o.jpg" width="648" height="692" alt="Richard I seal" ...