The Armour Archive

Cap'n Atli

Talk to the Swiss!

Cap'n Atli

My stock answer to these threads: A singular interpretation from a single location from a single period; I doubt that we'll have to adapt. I suspect that either it's just another Wild @$$ Guess (People do not get in the media by repeating orthodoxy. or it represents a "fashion" that broke ...

Cap'n Atli

I've been able to remove iron stains with hydrogen peroxide from the medicine chest. (Never leave "try-pieces" of ironwork sitting on top of someone else's oak sleigh outside, especially when it might rain.

)

Cap'n Atli

X-Posted from the Viking Camp discussion, a Longship Company oar tent with our stormsail spread over it:

Cap'n Atli

Personal Tents: One of the problems we eventually ran into in our Viking and Anglo-Saxon camps for MTA was a surfeit of gear- everybody had a tripod, and a cookpot, and a tent, and a sword... We soon caught on that this was both historically inaccurate and a P in the @ to truck around. Now we agree ...

Cap'n Atli

Oar Tent: Here it is. The front abd back pair of oars are lashed together with a standard "Bay Scout" lashing, and the ridge oar is lashed down rather simply to each pair of oars. The handles of the crossed oars are set a little way into the ground, she's staked fore and aft, and the robbi...

Cap'n Atli

Flapper valves can work when located on the top, but you have to be a little more agressive with the pumping. I feel putting them on the bottom gives me better control, but that's a personal preference. Then again, the depictions may have the holes at the top just to show that what is depicted is a ...

Cap'n Atli

A Question of Vise: From some research I and others did back at the Blacksmith's Virtual Junkyard... Earliest mention of the mechanical screw-driven device with moveable jaws (per OED) is 1500. Earliest illustration noted: 1568 edition of The Book of Trades (Der Standbuch). It could be earlier than ...

Cap'n Atli

Sail Tents: It's all in how they're rigged. We've never had any problems, including a squall that came through camp and lifted a frame tent into a tumble. Like Columbus' egg, once someone shows you how, it's easy. I do like the picture of the fishermen's tents, we've done a couple of those, too; but...

Cap'n Atli

Donasian wrote:I saw lots of 16th century iron cauldrons and ladles in Istanbul.

-Donasian.

Interesting. Were the cauldrons riveted or raised out of a single large sheet? Tell me more...

Cap'n Atli

It's the charcoal briquets that folks are warned to steer clear of; a combination of charcoal, sawdust, anthracite, and binder in various combinations to make a commercially convenient cooking fuel out of (mostly) waste products. Real or natural wood charcoal can be found, as mentioned above, at var...

Cap'n Atli

What would the "village blacksmith" be making? Whatever was required to keep an agricultural society at work. He would be a generalist, with a number of basic skill sets, much like village blacksmiths into the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Axes either for woodwork of for weapons woul...

Cap'n Atli

Mike Stratton (Ragnar) has done a lot of research on encampments with his "Real Viking" camping events up on the Ohio. Check out: m Halvgrim and friends have our former ship, the Fyrdraca, out in Missourie, and they sail her from time to time. And if you can swing by the Mid-Atlantic, come...

Cap'n Atli

You can't work iron properly without a good harper!

Further information tonight!

Cap'n Atli

First Thoughts on Reenactment Forges (DRAFT) The first thing you need to do is define your primary, secondary and tertiary missions. 1) How big is the maximum project that you are likely to work in the forge? 2) Is this to be an authentic forge? 3) Is this to be for public demonstrations? 4) Is the ...

Cap'n Atli

As we tell them in the Longship Company: "Viking is a job description, not a national or racial designation." In the 19th through 21st centuries, it's just a convenient shorthand term, like "cowboy" or "ranger" (National Park Service Ranger? Texas Ranger? Forest Service...

Cap'n Atli

I had someone do that to me here a number of years back; probably one of the worse experiences I've ever had on the internet. I lost a lot of sleep over it, but I appreciated that a few folks came to my defense. Whoever it is, don't let him get away with it! These folks can be tracked down with the ...

Cap'n Atli

Well done, sir! The Anglican Communion does Gothic very well, so I'm sure you fit right in. I googled Grace Episcopal Cathedral's image, and I'm curious about the steeple shown over the transept. There seems to be two different versions, or else it telescopes! "Curious Episcopalians want to kno...

Cap'n Atli

SNIP To say that all peasants struggled to make it through winter is flat wrong. SNIP â€¦maybe even a cathar? The peasants would have stayed home farming, not leaving the county to go to events. One of my favorite peasant myths is that "...they never would have traveled more than five miles fr...

Cap'n Atli

>>>SNIP<<<The>>>SNIP<<< Drey "The Hussite movment. All I need to say is Armored war wagons! This was both a social and religious movement. Such radical things like relative equality between the sexes and a bible in language you can read. Supposedly women warriors were not all that uncommon wit...

Cap'n Atli

You use maps? Still, there is usually a sharp divide between those who primarily make their living herding livestock in the mountains, and those who make their living from the sea; and I'm unfamiliar with any "seagoing Highlander" tradition. I'm sure there were some, but most of the sailer...

Cap'n Atli

Actually, 40 years ago (in the most recent "Dark Ages") this actually might have been considered pretty good!

Of course, you need a totally awesome Viking Ship; This one looks durable! http://www.smartisans.com/personal/ccam ... -55apm.htm

Cap'n Atli

Using a modern context, and looking at culture and ways of life, a highlander and an islander probably had a lot less in common than a modern West Virginia mountaineer and a Maryland Eastern Shore waterman. Of course the West Virginian is probably the descendant of disgruntled Scots and the Maryland...

Cap'n Atli

(Note: I started on this reply shortly after the thread started, but it was side-tracked in my computer 'til now.) Hansa Warriors: One advantage of the reproductions of Hanseatic period vessels is that they tend to be large enough, and substantial enough, that they could practically carry an engine ...

Cap'n Atli

Ring belts are historically accurate for mid-twentieth century acolytes (especially crucifers) in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. (You can trust me on this one; but where the tradition arose from for this accoutrement to the vestments is presently unknown, although I suspect a ...

Cap'n Atli

I have received some comments from Drey and Devon about the "Not the prettiest of equines..." comment, so before I find myself on the wrong end of charging Normans I have promised to post a pretty picture of one of the Haflingers.

Cap'n Atli

>>>SNIP<<<Their>>>SNIP<<< After a number of experiments and demonstrations we've come to the same conclusion; a large stone anvil works well for roughing things out at a yellow heat, but good metal anvil, even a small one, works best for fine work and hammer smoothing. Now, if you can find a nice s...

Cap'n Atli

Most under- represented culture/persona in the SCA Several hours of thought, returning to the original subject, and summing-upâ€¦ Weaknesses of representations in Scadia and in many reenactment groups: As I originally mentioned, the entire hierarchy and structure of the church is pretty much frozen ...

Cap'n Atli

Rereading Glen's post (sorry 'bout that) I realized that I did not respond to his points about Vikings and horses. The inland raids by the Vikings were much noted, but they weren't cavalry raids. Riding on horses and fighting from horseback are two interelated but fairly distinct skill sets. The Vik...

Cap'n Atli

They're Haflingers from Austria. m They belong to my friends, Drey and Devon in the Markland Horse Guild. I'm afraid that I have been misunderstood; I was not complaining about Vikings without horses (knights, actually, if you re-read the original), or even Vikings without vessels; but about folks w...

Cap'n Atli

...and then there's the reality!

Cap'n Atli

Knights and Horses: The ideal...

Cap'n Atli

While the SCA is full of "Vikings" there are few doing a single time and place from the Viking culture having a mix of clothing, jewelry, arms, and armor from many time periods and long distances mixed together. >>>SNIP<<< Knights without horses, Vikings without boats... It's not so much ...

Cap'n Atli

My appologies for not making myself clear. I meant the structure of the forge itself (the place where you keep the fire, the heart of the operation) could be drystone, not the building itself (unless you really want to explore drystone cosntruction, or the Amish have a drystone wall man). The buildi...

Cap'n Atli

That's odd, I just got a similar question from one of our crew, who is also the blacksmith for the sailing ship Kalmar Nykel in Delaware, on building a 17th century shop. He's asked me to look at it in terms of how the National Park Service handles things like building codes and fire safety in histo...