The Armour Archive

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A fauld works only when you're able to walk, kneel, run, take stance, and generally fight in it. The shape of the fauld is basically a truncated cone. If the sections of the truncated cone overlap from bottom to top, then you're able to apply pressure to the bottom of the truncated cone and it will ...

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Andrew Ward has made some small gauntlets as well. Perhaps not tiny, but I gave a pair too small for me (I'm not huge) to a friend who is a 5'7" slender woman and they fit her perfectly.

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When looking over that Pistoia altar piece, don't neglect the rest of the armor depicted.

There's some really interesting stuff going on with the arms & legs in particular that you don't find being worn today.

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Whenever I do this on couters or poleyns, I use dividers from the edge, and scratch a certain distance in from perpendicular edges to make a cross where the hole goes. But I take it you're looking for something a little faster. (In any case, dividers are the most important underrated tool in the arm...

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I haven't got a clue, but I just wanted to say welcome... and that there's a member here that has your answer (I just don't know who).

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Well, as a friend of mine says, "ain't nothin' to it but to do it". I think the trouble you'd run in to is with weight. 5 gallons of paint weighs considerably less than 5 gallons of mail/sand. One other thing that bears mentioning is the fact that tumbling only works when the media can mov...

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What is it that you're lining? A helm? What kind?

You don't mention wool. Mine prototype helm liner is wool, and I love it. It's for a sallet, and really only in the skull, so my ears are uncovered.

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I am also very interested in seeing how the wrists move.

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Sir Andrew Ward also recently bought a plasma cutting table and at Pennsic he was saying he'd be willing to deal.

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+1 Clermont: using a cross pien works much faster and easier. Also, if you're serious about armoring, get a punch bigger than a #5jr. I have a #8. I bought 1/2" and 3/8" punches which I use when cutting out pieces. Nothing is better for a tight angle like where a cop meets a fan than a rou...

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Muriatic acid will make some really foul smelling and pungent fumes if it reacts with anything quickly. Like if you drop some galvanized steel in it, the HCL will react with the zinc and you'll be left with bare steel + lots of stuff you don't want to breathe. I would not work with muriatic indoors,...

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Well, if "period" is traditional SCA dark ages all the way through the baroque period... I don't know. I'm pretty sure Shoes & Pattens mentions a couple medieval English tan methods. The only ones I remember being authentic to medieval Europe are veg and alum tanning. I'll try to verif...

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your not sure about what exactly it is because you have forgotten to write it all down I took a composition book with me. The digital camera automatically numbers pictures sequentially. So I just kept a log as I went, where I wrote down the picture numbers and the RA catalog number of the piece nex...

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Regarding not having leather for straps, Nobody ever does this in the presence of real leather, but nylon webbing makes excellent straps. I don't know whether I'd put a buckle tongue through it randomly on a regular basis, but rivets will stay just fine. It'll pay off especially in AL if you're doin...

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There are so many other options out there it surprises me anyone would spend $60 on a weed burner. I've had so much success with my Reil burner (total cost, because I had to have a hole drilled for me, was about $15) that I wouldn't even mess with weed burners. There are about 5 or 6 different popul...

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Here's what I learned in Oct 2005....

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... ight=leeds

It sounds like you've got most of what I had problems with covered, since you're there for more than 6 hours.

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Bavaria to Alabama? Bit of a change.... Some tips I'd offer, in no particular order.... -Stay away from sports padding and encourage him to do likewise unless he's in a complete bind. My kit has gone through steady changes over the years, but the one that made the biggest difference was getting out ...

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Smooth river stones (or ball bearings) plus a clothes drier you don't care about. Probably should line the inside of the drier with carpet.

I like neatsfoot, I apply it liberally and it dries out eventually - as mentioned, faster in warmth.

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Ok, some things haven't been said yet. First, remember what it is that you're doing. Truthfully, all you said was "pounding metal". Will you be doing anything with chemicals? If so, then air-sealing everything completely is a colossally bad idea. Will you be grinding? If so, you're going t...

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I can't think of an example..... In fact, I don't think I've ever seen an extant or illuminated example of archer's knees. The closest I can think of is the gothic legs which have a roughly archer-knee shaped plate which attaches to the cuisse and to the greave. In any case, for me the proof I'd be ...

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Check out the FAQ's and essays for some of the more basic basics. Generally noobs through intermediate armorers don't work with heat. There's much you can do without it. Pauldrons (at least small pauldrons, or spaulders) are so easy to do without heat that I don't think anyone bothers. I think after...

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So, are you asking what's authentic, or what works? Regarding shoulder/elbow attachment, I'd like to know where that previous discussion is. For I have seen no extant example, no memorial brass, no painting, and no illumination which depicts an elbow attached to shoulder lames, prior to the 16th cen...

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"Pattern" means something different than what you're thinking, I think. In my experience other people's patterns are worthless to me. Unless I'm using the exact same tools, swinging the hammer the exact same way, I'm unlikely to end up with the same thing that the pattern author ended up w...

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I don't run a business. Sites like this are catering to businesses only. I order tools on my lunch break or at 11pm and I don't have time to shoot the breeze with sales staff. So I'll never order from one of these sites. Not when other sites have the same tools, with prices next to them, and an &quo...

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Have you put any serious thought into casting? If you have a setup where you can forge, I'd suggest looking into it. And casting will get you much better consistency, and it'll allow you to do things like floral rivets pretty easily. The big drawback is that it's a lot more science and less art. Hom...

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Yeah, don't forget to paint your eyes silver and yell "you keep what you kill!" whenever you win a fight.... I wouldn't trust it. It serves a fundamentally different purpose. Falling off a bike once is a lot different than getting repeatedly struck with a baton. Plus, bike armor is designe...

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Getting the authenticity stuff out of the way: Well, if it's an aventail, there's really only one helm it could be - a bascinet. Anything else would be attaching a mail collar type drape to the bottom of a helm. I've only seen one example of mail attached to the bottom of a non-bascinet helm, and it...

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No. I made a shield out of an aluminum sled once, the nice domed kind. It lasted for exactly one half-assed one-handed blow, and then it had a gigantic crease across it. I'm pretty sure those sleds are more substantial than an oil drum lid. If I were a marshall I would not pass it on safety concerns...

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I'm interested in the "melter" in particular, please give details.

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It's okay to pad the cheek lines as well. That way there will be no room for it to pivot. It may get in the way of your chinstrap arrangement, but it will also make it less necessary to go with a 4 point strap. I wear a celata that is mostly bargrill in the front, so moves quite a bit if I get crank...

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Ok, more info: I am not planning on melting down sports bottles.
McMaster has PP sheets in various thicknesses between 1/16" and 3".

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Trust me, if there were a magic way to avoid planishing we would all be doing it. Probably, but alas, there's no such thing as magic. I can recall three decidedly nonmagical ways I've seen described in the last couple years, and I hate planishing so much that I'm in the process of implementing one ...

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Not a venue for plastic praising or bashing, I have a real question for people who have used plastic in SCA style armor before. It seems like once someone decides to make something out of plastic, there are really only two avenues: either get a chemical barrel, or shell out a significant expense for...

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I've tossed the idea around and will probably try this some day: Make rows of scales all attached to each other, in bands, which are shaped like scales enough to simply look like scales when they're banded together, and weld the bands. Kind of like victorian home siding. I've never done it before be...

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I would not sandblast. I wouldn't use any abrasive. Think chemical paint strippers. Anything else is going to really freak up your finish. Get a bunch small pieces of stainless to experiment with. I would get the oven as hot as possible (not the clean setting!) and go in 1 minute increments. Then I'...

Any merit for polypropylene?