The Armour Archive

Steve S.

I, too am confused as to what you are trying to achieve, but I'll throw this in: If you are riveting to metal plates together, the rivets themselves will do all the holding you need. If you are concerned about rust or moisture getting in between the two plates, I suppose you could make a gasket of s...

Steve S.

There are period examples of maille with designs woven into it, but I'm not aware of anything on a massive scale, like a cross in the middle of the chest. I did see a shirt at the Royal Armouries that had a cross-like emblem on the bicep of one sleeve. It was not known what the symbol was or stood f...

Steve S.

O.K., now I have time for a proper response. both 16GA (.0625") and 18GA (.0475) wires fall within the range of thicknesses seen in period maille. Thus from a historical point of view, either size is acceptable. From my limited exposure to authentic maille, my feeling is that 18GA is closer to an "a...

Steve S.

I use 18GA, and find the weight savings a boon. My 18GA 3/4 sleeved shirts weigh 18 pounds; similar shirts done in 16GA weigh around 25.

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Wow, thanks for all the kind words and comments, guys! My goal is every time I do a medieval project like this to document it with pictures and put it on the web. I mean, I'm doing the work anyway, why not snap a few pics along the way? I know for me a lot of starting a project is the apprehension o...

Steve S.

Well, I bought 5 dozen "finished" arrows from Sir Erika in Trimaris for about $220 I think. These had fletches and nocks, but the baldar blunts were shipped separately (I had to attach them). Be aware that traditional nocked arrows with fletches are no longer legal for SCA combat - you need APDs (An...

Steve S.

Yup, I'm going to drill many holes along the entire bottom opening and face opening of the helm, I'm guessing about 1/2" apart. The liner will be stiched to this, making a suspension liner. The hardest thing left to do is make button holes at the top of the points of the dags to run a cord through. ...

Steve S.

http://www.forth-armoury.com/photo_gallery/helm_liner/in_helm2.jpg Well, I bought this great basinet with klapvisor a while ago, and as soon as I got it I put a blue-foam liner in it so I could fight with it. But now that I've seen other folks' attempts at more period liners, I decided this helm de...

Steve S.

"Is it riveted?"

Of course! Is there any other way?

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Well, I'm still waiting for my shipment of maille that includes the coif to attach to the hauberk I have been working on, so in the mean time I have begun working on a skirt of maille for another customer. You can see it here: http://www.forth-armoury.com/Commissions/skirt1/IMAGE017.JPG http://www.f...

Steve S.

I just finished a pair also, and I'm scared to cut the doe skin to make the slits! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif I may leave it up to the customer to slit them to their own satisfaction! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif Steve ------------------ Forth Armoury The Riveted Maille...

Steve S.

I want to see events that are billed explicitly as tournaments, and portrayed as accurately as possible with safety being the overriding priority. I also want to see events that are billed explicitly as wars, and portrayed as accurately as possible with safety being the overriding priorty. In all ca...

Steve S.

It would depend in which organization you are participating.

In SCA combat, those techniques are not legal. For SCA combat conventions, see http://www.sca.org

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

"And I agree it's supposed to be fun: Why would we do it if it wasn't? If you try doing it more accurately you'll have *more* fun, not less."

SCA Combat would be less fun for me and countless others if you got rid of combat archery.

Steve

Steve S.

"But you are mistaken in your belief that in order to do that you must look out through a narrow eyeslot, that's been my whole point. *Many* knights chose to forgo their visors, even in war, in order to get better vision.If we ignore that fact, we're *not* simulating the entire range of knightly co...

Steve S.

"LOL! It figures that some folks would take my question as proof I don't want women to fight!"

Nah, I just figured as gung-ho as you are for absolute historical accuracy for other aspects of tournament combat that you would be just as gung-ho over this one.

Steve

Steve S.

I think what Trevor is looking for are "tournament" swords. That is, batons that look like medieval batons as used in medieval tournaments. The SCA is a loooong way from any kind of steel combat. But we could have combat with medieval tournament batons fairly easily. Steve ------------------ Forth A...

Steve S.

Does anyone have any documentation to support noble female women traveling on Crusade? Even better, with Templars acting as escort for noble female pilgrims?

SyrRhys: Do you think women should be allowed to participate in SCA combat?

Steve

Steve S.

"Doing what we do now and pretending it's "war" just to let people shoot bows who won't fight honorably is silly." I would ask that you not refer to combat archers as people who "wont' fight honorably". You may say that we don't fight "chivalrously" in the medieval sense if you must. But combat arc...

Steve S.

I agree, Trevor, this sounds like a great idea! It would be, in effect, another type of SCA combat. Very much like we currently have rapier and "heavy" combat, this could be a new grade of "heavy" combat, with rules and armour requirements specific to it. Steve ------------------ Forth Armoury The R...

Steve S.

"I'm sorry that you think doing the right thing will spoil your fun, but allowing CA is simply *wrong*. It doesn't fit our medieval model, and it keeps us from achieving our potential. I'm not here to ruin your fun, I'm here to show you how much more fun it will be to do the right thing." Well, I t...

Steve S.

Me, with poor Jacob after hauling my heavy ass around. [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/novae_militiae/steves2.JPG[/img] Someone else looking much cooler than me: [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/novae_militiae/steve8.JPG[/img] Jesse, our founder (Novae Militiae) and the guy who's teaching us to r...

Steve S.

"Bascot, I think most of the people who argue that a solitary man can somehow fight off cavalrymen with ease by themselve, rather than being in a body of disciplined troops just don't know much about horses, the sort of training that went into making a courser or destrier, or have never seen what a...

Steve S.

"The fact is that riveted maille rings are heavier compared to butted rings of the same gauge and inner diameter, which is what I hoped the bulk of my post above would convey." Oh I get it. Well, then let me ammend what I said: "Butted maille almost always weighs more than riveted maille of the sam...

Steve S.

"I don't know, Steve. Take 18ga 3/8" rings for example."

Except you generally can't make 3/8" ID butted rings out of 18GA wire; they will pull apart.

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

I think stakes of all shapes and sizes, not just ball, are one of the essentials for any armour shop. Thus I think you will have a marketable product. Hammers and such you can make yourself, and fluting and shaping you can do without special machines. But you gotta have stakes. Steve ---------------...

Steve S.

Butted maille almost always weighs more than riveted maille of the same ring I.D. This is because riveted rings are essentially solid, while butted rings hold together only by virtue of the stiffness of the wire, which is often directly related to how thick the wire is. For a research article on the...

Steve S.

I agree, if his express purpose is to learn a trade to make money, I wouldn't teach without some kind of fee.

However, I also agree that 90% of the people who get a wild hair to "make armour to sell" don't have a clue what they are getting into, and usually fail.

Steve

Steve S.

"I have one problem with Mount Eislinn-Eislinn's ashes are scattered there. That kind of makes that a cemetery, and I hate to see portajohns and garbage piles up there." Wow, really? I didn't know that. I knew that the hill was named after her, but not that she was burried there. That's cool! I pro...

Steve S.

Wow! Are these SCA guys?!?! Fantastic armour! I'm sincerely impressed!

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

First, he'll be glad it hit him in the helm, so he doesn't have to take the shot. Second, he'll thank the stars that melees are still places where he can get bonked in the head with arrows! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif http://www.armourarchive...

Steve S.

"By the rules given at the war Pennsic is a particularly awful recreation of medieval battle."

Whatever it is, it sure is fun though!

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

I belong to a Knights Templar living history group called Novae Militiae. We do not do live steel fighting for two reasons: 1) It would not make sense to the public to have a live steel combat between two brothers of the same order. In other words, we would never historically have engaged in a fight...

Steve S.

"Battle and war were distinguished in period by the rules of combat. Tournament combat had extensive rules designed to ensure the safety of the combatants, wars did not (which isn't to say they didn't have rules, they did... but they had to do with things like ransom, etc., not the safety of the en...

Steve S.

Using the definitions provided by SyrRhys in the thread on Knightly combat and archery, it is plain that SCA melee combat is not tournament combat. SyrRhys asserts that: 1) Tournament combat is for nobles. 2) Archery combatants are not nobles. Assuming that these two assertions are true, any melee w...

My go at a more authentic helm liner

Current commission progress