The Armour Archive

WinterTreeCrafts

I currently wear "soupcan" poleyns that are pretty well fitted (I made them for myself after all, though next go around will have them extend farther back to cover the rear of the knee better). Without anything over the top of the shin the lower edge (even when flared) does dig rather uncomfortably ...

WinterTreeCrafts

So has anyone actually tried these nifty sock things?

These would be *REALLY* handy to send to customers who want greaves and aren't in traveling distance... (if they are any good and fairly user friendly)

WinterTreeCrafts

Hmm.

Looks like I should get the apprentice making both...

And apparently one needs to be backwards for finnacan

WinterTreeCrafts

Hey folks, I'm getting my apprentice started on shield bosses and bucklers. Quick poll: Do folks generally prefer bucklers that are flat except for the center boss (the knuckle dome) or do folks generally prefer bucklers that have an overall dome to them including a center boss. This would be for st...

WinterTreeCrafts

You guys always beat me to my own hawking...

Vulg, my stainless gorgets are usually in-stock and are definitely quite functional. They are also fairly low profile and thus easy to hide under stuff when you decide on a period theme.

WinterTreeCrafts

Hmmm... ok... thats what I suspected but was hoping I was wrong. I think I'm gonna go grab a whole bunch of round tube and round stock and slice the tube in half and make some positive-negative swage forms I can just squish these in between with a big honkin hammer. Losthelm that tool looks damned s...

WinterTreeCrafts

Quickie question for you guys. I can't seem to find anyone I know around here who has one to let me try it out so I'll put it to you guys. I'm chewing on the idea of getting a slip roller to speed the process of making bajillions of 18-20 gauge 1050 splints for my splinted stuff. However, from what ...

WinterTreeCrafts

Hey wait, I did send you some feedback via PM on the two-tab vs. three-tab stuff! Many months ago! The doughnuts have held up just fine, save the 2-tabbers where the tabs keep breaking off (first at the weld, and now the rectangular tab piece itself broke in half, as you said, just too much force in...

WinterTreeCrafts

Hey folks, after having a very similar conversation with several customers these past few days, thought I'd throw a general note up here as kind of a heads up so no one gets blindsided. I can only really speak for myself, but conversations with other shops and a general sense of the market, this see...

WinterTreeCrafts

Precision Steel is much better for larger orders.

WinterTreeCrafts

Guess I should start offering spring steel hinges for sale...

WinterTreeCrafts

*sheepishly* Umm, I may be the one, I hope there are more of me. For all intents and purposes I am in perfect health in that I have no chronic medical troubles or lingering injuries that cause problems. Then again I'm only 29. I had a scare with skin cancer last year but they cut it all out and I wa...

WinterTreeCrafts

I have a pair of spring steel rondel couters on the shelf that are a size large-ish. So, about 4.5" wide. This pair was a one-off as the pattern came out a bit more shallow than I wanted, but they will definitely do their job. Given that they are "old pattern" I can do $150 plus shipping for the pai...

WinterTreeCrafts

Do you make the arming garment too? I did make the red gambeson I'm wearing in those pics but I'm not getting into the tailoring business unless I manage to marry a beautiful and talented seamstress who likes this historical stuff ;) (one can hope right?) Was actually one of my first attempts at se...

WinterTreeCrafts

The rerebrace uses just plain rectangles but the vanbrace does have a small taper on some of the splints. The effigies that I looked at don't display any taper, so I left the exterior ones straight. Theres nothing stopping me from making them all tapered though, its not like it takes any extra effor...

WinterTreeCrafts

Those are really, really, nice work. I'm just waiting to get delivery of something very similar myself. Have you considered doing splinted greaves to go with your legs? I have been testing out a pair of splinted greaves for a few months now in sparring and did some tinkering and revisions and the p...

WinterTreeCrafts

Russ, manually reload/refresh whatever page you started from.... if you have been to my site before it may be loading from your local cache which will link you to files which no longer exist. Either that or you hit the button just as I was uploading updates with typo fixes and an attempt to fix a gl...

WinterTreeCrafts

Hmm, good to know... We used a fancy (for us anyway) image that had click-able text to navigate to the different parts of the catalogue... having just tested it on older browsers it seems to be problematic on stuff thats a bit out of date. I'll add a link to that page to provide a low-tech alternati...

WinterTreeCrafts

Yeah 36 individual heat-treated plates with a buncha rivets apiece, 8 hand-made buckles and a pair of raised elbows to boot... they were never aimed at the economy market

WinterTreeCrafts

I'm not likely to offer kits for any of my stuff anymore, not that I marketed them much in the first place. They take all the hard and pain in the ass parts like designing/patterning, cutting, deburring, shaping, polishing without all the other stuff that compensates and gives the ligaments a rest l...

WinterTreeCrafts

This is my last plug this week, I promise. I didn't want to overload one thread. I've posted up in design and construction before about my spring steel great helm attempts and I am now satisfied enough with my results that I am now accepting orders for them. These are .062" (16 gauge) *Spring Steel*...

WinterTreeCrafts

A shameless plug and discussion thread for my most recent take on a splinted arm harness for which I am also now taking orders. I decided to go with an internal/external alternating pattern so often seen on the effigies. All metal parts are spring steel. One detail I think turned out particularly we...

WinterTreeCrafts

Finally! Its prettier! It has more stuff! It has videos ! Go look at it! http://www.wintertreecrafts.com Aside from some new items and a prettier look, most notably on this new site is that I've included a fair bit of information on arming clothes and some videos to walk folks through sizing. Feedba...

WinterTreeCrafts

But, see, I'm not even sure that those cuisses are necessarily splinted... it could just be decorative covering. If those cuisses are indeed splinted, then I think it must be for a functional, practical reason, since otherwise, why cover them up? And this possible functional, practical reason is a ...

WinterTreeCrafts

The availability and cost of large, one-piece sheets of iron/steel to work with may be a factor. It takes more square footage to cover a thigh than it does to cover a forearm or a shoulder. It took a pretty sizable manufacturing operation to make blooms large enough to hammer out into sheets of suff...

WinterTreeCrafts

What kind of rivets did you use? They are custom made #11 belt solid shank belt rivets made in brass instead of copper. I forget the alloy off the top of my head (C260?) but its a bit darker in color than the standard bright yellow rivets and is *much* nicer to work with and still very durable/stro...

WinterTreeCrafts

Slight delay, but here is it being worn.

I'm such a tinkerer I figured folks would be more into the interior construction

WinterTreeCrafts

All the metal parts on a CoP can easily be formed cold, theres no way you'd need a forge to make a decent CoP. Most of the plate are just curled (bent) by hand over a pipe, with a rawhide mallet to work the edges. The upper chest plates get a light dishing which is also easily done cold. 16 gauge mi...

WinterTreeCrafts

Yeah, I was going for a bit of the waisted profile in the effigies where the dags seem to reach the thighs... didn't work out too well...

WinterTreeCrafts

Hey folks, I just finished my own personal new and improved Wisby I coat of plates and thought I'd post it up here for reference and comment. After making a few dozen of these for customers and students over the past few years I went back and re-worked my pattern to more closely follow the original....

WinterTreeCrafts

...So you see a lot of WMA folks doing armoured training? News to me, but good news. :) Presumably many of these folks are his own students. Do you mean to suggest that having an armourer as a group head might unduly encourage said group to focus particularly heavily on training and sparring in har...

WinterTreeCrafts

Well the ones who aren't doing any armoured practice aren't exactly my customers ;) And I don't know about you, but a dropped poll-axe or the point of a crossguard during a grapple have had me doing the hop on one foot ouch dance more than once during harness work when I wasn't wearing foot armour o...

WinterTreeCrafts

Hmm, I am running into the requirements of modern practitioners. I need the strapping on this to work for both an SCA and WMA crowd. WMA guys tend to practice in gyms and if I interrupt the grippyness of the highly common vibram soled turnshoe with a leather slipper I'm gonna have lots of folks slip...

WinterTreeCrafts

Yeah the more I tinker with this the more I'm convinced the attachment was via the foundation material, whether interior or exterior. Still havn't arrived at a great solution for attaching the toe end without disproportionate frustration for the modern customer/wearer who may not want to sacrifice a...

WinterTreeCrafts

My customers are beating me to the threads to hawk :) (Thanks for the kind words folks) Have you taken a look at these? http://www.wintertreecrafts.com/briggorget.html A bit pricier than my standard stainless ones but they may better suite your needs depending on what era the rest of your kit is.

Re: "Floating" Knee and Elbow Cop Points of Contact and Padd

Re: Making a Calf Casts

Re: Flat or domed bucklers poll

Flat or domed bucklers poll

Re: WTB Gorget

Re: Will a slip roller work on narrow plates?

Will a slip roller work on narrow plates?

Re: Feed back requested on my tools.

Public Service Announcement for BOTN 2013 armour buyers

Re: Where can I buy 1050 and 4130 steel sheets?

Re: Armour Failures at the BoTN

Re: Uninjured Armourers?

Re: WTB 14th Century knees / elbows in existence

Re: New WTC splinted arm harness

Re: New WTC splinted arm harness

Re: New WTC splinted arm harness

Re: Winter Tree Crafts has a new website!

Re: Winter Tree Crafts has a new website!

Re: Winter Tree Crafts has a new website!

Re: New WTC splinted arm harness

Pembridge Great Helms now available from WTC

New WTC splinted arm harness

Winter Tree Crafts has a new website!

Re: Splinted armour questions

Re: Splinted armour questions

Re: Recent Wisby Coat of Plates

Re: Recent Wisby Coat of Plates

Re: Recent Wisby Coat of Plates

Re: Recent Wisby Coat of Plates

Recent Wisby Coat of Plates

Re: Sabaton "tops"

Re: Sabaton "tops"

Re: Sabaton "tops"

Re: Sabaton "tops"

Re: Single gauntlet, single gorget