Make a set of wax tablets with one of the leaves engineered to hold a thin watch. This was my first thought. I've seen countless people consulting such a tablet--do it right, and I doubt anyone would notice. Alternatively, you could put something fancy on the back and encorporate it into a piece of...

Coining is not unlike armouring. If you want to make an object that has the right medieval look, you must first study and thoroughly understand both the final objects themselves, and the techniques used to make them. Fair enough. But we both know that you don't start out with Maximilian plate. I'm ...

What I mean is that I'm re-enacting a member of the Teutonic Order, from when the Order was first starting, and I'd like to make some Period-ish coins (meaning I want to use Period techniques, but I don't necessarily want to reproduce any particular coin). I know (thanks to this thread) that a lot o...

When did the practice of breaking coins into halves/quarters start? If I were to create something for the early 1300s, would it be something I need to include?

I had considered using ties--something that'd slip through the maille and tie onto the outer tunic, preferably with some suitable disguise (metal buttons that look like fancy rivets, or some some cloth thing that looked like what they'd use). If I wear this, that'd be a really good idea. Otherwise, ...

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I can only assume the "cut a hole ina tablecloth" method won't suffice...

Though if it will, wear plastic armor in the open near a Laural. Use the tabbard they throw on you as a pattern.

A friend of mine gave me some coiled wire a while back, and my life has calmed down enough that I can play with maille again. So I decided to make a hauberk. Not being content with the insanity of that task, I decided to do a horribly inaccurate reproduction of the Turkish hauberk I saw a few pictur...

I was talking more about looking for maille in a modern context. Look up "maille" on a site like M.A.I.L. Artisians and your brain will explode. Look up E4-1 and you'll only fry half your synapses. I have never seen mail with 3 in 1 used for fabric I think I have, but the weave is less tha...

I guess the weave you're thinking of would be called European 3-in-1 (E4-1). It would be very weak, and very open. It would also be a pain in the back side to attach sleeves to, or expansion/contraction joints needed to fit the maille to the wearer's body. It could also be trippling the rings--inste...

The first coins were made by using the punch directly on the metal, correct? I read in one of the recommended websites in this thread that it was a silver/gold alloy.

The easiest type of die to make is one that is entirely punchwork, and where the designs are built up using a small number of geometric punches. This is very common prior to ~1300. Huh. My personna is from around that time as well (early early EARLY Teutonic Order). Convenient--I can start with the...

I'd love to get into this as well. I've always loved coins. Used to spend rainy afternoons with my grandfather going through his change looking for "good" coins (bicentenial quarters, wheat pennies, buffalo nickles). And I'd love to make my own. My only problem is, I'm broke. $180 rolling ...

But if by honourable you mean risking one's life or health for the sake of a match, or of espousing only a cause worthy of defending with one's life; then honour is not really available to us who fight in the SCA, Nor is it available to the overwhelming majority of any given population. I'm not sur...

By these definitions, SCA fighting can not be honorable because we are not committing ourselves to combat. I must disagree. By your definitions, SCA fighting cannot be honorable combat. However, it can be honorable--ie, it can be done truthfully and faithfully ("faith" here meaning "...

I don't think it's possible for "Leave no doubt" to represent less than about a 6 on a 10 scale. You still have not address the issue I raised--there are times when you know you're dead, your opponent knows you're dead, and there's nothing you can do to stop them. In a tournament, among p...

That said, for the people that take lighter, good for you, but I didn't go to all the trouble of putting on my 12 lbs of helmet and chainmail for you to play tag with. This ain't tiddlywinks. If you want to play that game then there are plenty of groups out there that don't wear armor. Find one of ...

I'm reminded of a fight I had while back in the Midrealm. It was my second event after a shoulder injury (you know you did something bad when the doc turns funny colors while looking at the X-ray), and as expected I was getting my rear kicked up one side of the field and down the other. Anyway, I li...

I'm not at all sure where to put this, but I figured with the number of people working metal on this part of the forum this may be a good place. I understand that a ring is not armor, but it's also not a period piece of jewelry as far as I know, and it doesn't fit in any other forum. My humble apolo...