The Armour Archive

Mrs. W

A friend of mine had this question, and I figured that this would be a good place to look for answers for her. This is what she said: Greetings! I am really working to make my latest garb historically accurate. Does anyone know a good resource for 14th to 15th century stitching techniques? I have...

Mrs. W

Man, that is the best dressed Hoover I've ever seen...

Woolery

Mrs. W

Yeah, they hand out straight jackets at the airport. "Welcome to Fairbanks!" More trivia: "The Celsius scale is the centigrade scale with one change. Defined in 1954 at the 10th General Conference of Weights and Measures, temperature on the Celsius scale is the temperature on the Kelvin scale minus ...

Mrs. W

Yes, that is a good book. I have it, and it is where I read about that incident, as well. http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif I am hoping to find a book that is more biographical in nature, one that is focused just on William Marshal (or Stephen.) I could just seach Amazon or Books-a-million,...

Mrs. W

When I mentioned offing Ogadei, I was referring to this: <QUOTE>As it developed, the Mongols did not remain long in Hungary, either. On December 11, 1241, Ogadei died in Asia. Upon learning of the great khan's death, Subotai reminded the three princes in his army of the law of succession as laid dow...

Mrs. W

I was telling my husband about how King Stephen spared William from being a gallows ornament when William was a boy. Now my husband wants to know more. I want to get him a really good, biographcal work. Not dry or boring, but still accurate. Does such a book exist? (And is there a similarly good boo...

Mrs. W

Here's an article on some of the battles fought by the Mongols in Eastern Europe:
http://historymedren.about.com/library/prm/bl1mongolinvasion.htm

Reading this, it seems that the best way to stop the Mongols would have been to send an assasin to kill Ogadai.

-Woolery

Mrs. W

That e-bay helm...whoa. I wondered why the chainmail across the face, then thought, "for the truly ugly warrior bride..." Guy saw his intended walking down the aisle in THAT, he'd know to run. Oh, how weird. Now I must decide between Krag's pile o' pig poop and the coal scuttle from hell... -Woolery

Mrs. W

Yeah, what they said. The Medieval Soldier (Embleton and Howe), Has some pictures of re-enactors on a winter "campaign." (I am not trying to say "this is the way it was," but these guys do a good job and if you want to see pictures, it's a good source.) As in the summer campaign pics, they ar...

Mrs. W

From Daily Life in Chaucer's England by Jeffrey L. Singman and Will McLean (ISBN 0313293759) p. 41: "As a rule, the child was supposed to be baptised with the name of its principal godparent of the same sex. For boys, this generally meant either a saint's name or a name of French origin. The ...

Mrs. W

Any more specific links? (Not to dis those already posted.) I wasn't able to find much, just: http://www.sca.org.au/st_florians/University/Library/Articles-howtos/Camp1.htm And some stuff about corks: http://www.italcork.com/history1.htm Both of these basically say that, although the Romans used cor...

Mrs. W

Here are a few that have been collected over the years: Errare humanum est To err is human Cui bono? Who benefits? Contra bonos mores Against good morals Anguis in herba A snake in the grass Per angusta ad augusta Through difficulties to things worthy of honor Mens sana in corpore sano A sound mind ...

Mrs. W

So far, I have tried three plant materials: dandelion roots, the stems and leaves (together) of dandelions, and the flower heads of yarrow ( achillea species.) The yarrow yielded the brightest color of the three: a light yellow-green. While all of the colors are pleasant enough, (now that they are d...

Mrs. W

It seems that no one else has done this, either. Well, whoever said that dandelion roots make a magenta dye is either ignorant, colorblind, or has some sort of mutant dandelion roots. This morning, the yarn was a homely yellow-beige. Most unappealing. I am going to try making a dyebath with dandelio...

Mrs. W

Has anyone else used dandelion roots to dye wool? I saw a few sites online which claimed that the roots yield a magenta color. I am in the process of testing it out on alum pre-mordanted wool yarn. I used about 8 oz fresh, scrubbed and coarsely ground roots and a little less than an ounce of yarn. S...

Mrs. W

Oh, I agree about needing to curb those who try to look more knowledgeable than they really are. If we could just encourage a thirst for knowledge and actual research in people, fewer folks would stand for blatant inaccuracies. I would really love to see more hands-on projects done for the Arts and ...

Mrs. W

I want to take this class!

http://cator.hsc.edu/~kmd/caveman/

Woolery

Mrs. W

Can you imagine the reaction of the kids at a school demo if we all looked like that? Sheer magic. I wonder if (in the USA at least,) many folks who are serious about re-enactment don't get siphoned off into areas that are specific to our history, like Revolutionary and Civil War eras, and the mount...

Mrs. W

Drum solo: what ensues when Sir Florentine meets Squire Rhino.

Drum solos are especially rewarding to catch on videotape, where they may be watched repeatedly at various speeds. Ask me how I know...

Woolery

Mrs. W

Oooh, nice, white linen! Listen to Gwen and everyone else who says that "natural" IS white, at least for underclothes. I live in a small town in central ALASKA, and even here I can find people here who use natural dyes. Look around where you are: if natural dyers can be found here, they can be found...

Mrs. W

Medb, For books, you might try either Celt and Saxon or Celtic Women by Peter Berresford Ellis. Unfortunately, I have not read these and cannot say for certain if they will be useful to you. I have read Ellis' The Ancient World of the Celts, which is too early for your purposes....

Mrs. W

This question was sparked by a recent visit to my local public library. I noticed that there was a pretty limited selection of books on the topic I was researching (Medieval food, in this case.) If you could, what one item (book, video tape, etc.) would you donate to your local library? If it comes ...

Mrs. W

All the Russian stuff that I have seen, at least, used squared logs. There are probably great sources for period documentation (written in Russian. http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/wink.gif ) The city of Yakutsk, (Sakha SSR, Siberia,) only dates back to 1638, but the construction there was of square...

Mrs. W

Those little details are what really bring history to life. Perhaps poplar is used more today because it is such a fast-growing wood and is more easily obtainable. I know that willow gets fairly sizable elsewhere. Locally, we have plenty of willow that stays small due to our sub-arctic climate. I su...

Mrs. W

For a picture of a wad of tow: http://www.jastown.com/fire/tw-196.htm They sell it as fire starting tinder. (It works very well for this - I have tried it.) Since Townsend only sells the 3-4 ounce bags, you might want to look for a source that sells in bulk. Buckram is cotton or linen canvas-type cl...

Mrs. W

Hmmm. I guess that I was hoping for some non-gold, edible substance that looked like gold and cost less than $30 a book...and while I'm dreaming, I want a pony

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But, thank-you for the information: it has been helpful.

Woolery

Mrs. W

This is kind of an out there question. I have been looking at a recipe for a soteltie (1553) that was to be given to a "painter or wood carver to gild it" when it was completed. I am guessing that this may not have been intended for actual consumption, but more as a decoration. What do people use to...

Mrs. W

How old is your felt hat? My summer hat is good quality wool felt. I wear it everywhere, and it does tend to soften up over time (especially if you wear it in the rain, although this can serve to improve the fit.) My new, unworn felt hat "blank" (from Jas Townsend and son, they are online,) is very ...

Mrs. W

Okay, one last thing: http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html This is a German cookbook from 1553. Recipe 19 is Jugged Hare, doesn't sound like the type that keeps for a long time. However, recipes 23 for dry sausage, 27 for pickled tongue that "will keep the whole year", ...

Mrs. W

Oh, wow, was it one of those Smithfield hams? Yum, yum!

Woolery

Mrs. W

In Montreal in the 1700s, people used root cellars to keep produce and meat fresh over the winter. A root cellar usually runs about 38-45 degrees F, depending on depth and outside temperatures. They also preserved delicate meats like doves in large stone jars, covered in lard to keep out air. Brinin...

Mrs. W

...So, you'd be the armorer formerly known as Prince?

Woolery, who should know better than to log on when she's so tired...

Mrs. W

The only problem I could see is if some rabid, anal-retentive type heard someone refer to you as Prince of Darkmoor and couldn't figure out that people outside of the SCA can have titles, too. But those people don't matter, especially if you aren't in the SCA. If you want to make SCA membership "cha...

Mrs. W

...at least in this group it is...

Woolery

Mrs. W

My local SCA group has got to be the lamest in the known world. At one recent event, my husband and a friend of his were playing their low D whistles while the so-called feast was making its ponderous way to the plastic folding tables. They were just taking turns playing tunes they knew, passing the...

14th to 15th century stitching techniques?

The best book on William Marshal?

Dye question

Caveman to Chemist

Better public libraries...

Gilding sotelties

Live music