The Armour Archive

chef de chambre

Hi K,

Since you are asking about 'gothic', I assume you mean 15th century. Sorry, but Anime appear in the second half of the 16th century, I do not think anyone can provide an example ealier than 1550 or so.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi Cap'n Jamie, Au contraire mon ami ! There is no such thing as a straight sided doublet, they were tailored to have a chest and waist and skirt - as indeed every extant 15th century brigandine does. In point of fact, we have the Geneva brigandine, which was made on contract to a generic size (I im...

chef de chambre

Of the brigandine or the brigantine? http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/wink.gif The brigandine must be tailored to the individual, and must be tailored to the (in essence) doublet body that is the foundation & cover . I cannot emphasise this enough, a generic pattern can not work and expect to give y...

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Hi David, That particular neck of the world had armour from both Eastern & Western influences. Many Hungarian funerary effigies from the 15th century look for all the world like normal Italian export harness, with the funkey shield added in for good measure. Germany ghad a great deal of trade with t...

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Hi Kahn, I'm not sure what you mean by 'segmented occulara', unless it is a reference to the c. 1400 bascinet with associated visor (but not original to it), that has one long occularum, the sight beinbg compoised of a series of vertical slits filed into it at regular intervals. Churburgs policy reg...

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Hi Will, In the Vienna Historical Museum is an extant model, currently thought to be circa 1470. It is the example with a folding lance rest. In form it is nearly identical to two very similar examples of French Provenance from the mid 1470's held in the Royal Armouries. It follows the form of verti...

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Hi Robert of Canterbury, If in making textile and plate defences one uses nails, and works them between the fibres of the weave, rather than using rivets and cutting the fibres, one will end up with a defence that lasts far longer. That is why we have extant brigandines with both foundation and cove...

chef de chambre

Hi Will, Well, you unfortunately picked a 20 year period that covers a major evolution in the form. I don't think you can realisticaly make an example that will be fashionable throughout this time frame. 1460 - 1480 would bracket the evolution of design better. In this time frame you still have fair...

chef de chambre

Hi Will,

I will post a long reply tonight.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi Will,

Can you narrow it down to a decade? It does make a difference. I'll be glad to elaborate if you can narrow the frame at least down to a 25 year period.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

As an addendum, I have worn a plate cuirasse for 8 hours at a stretch. It isn't particularly uncomfortable if the armour is made and fitted properly. If you have an itch it sucks though. It is important to understand people most emphaticaly DID NOT go about wearing a full harness for any longer than...

chef de chambre

Hi Will, My question for you is "when"? There is an evolutionary change in the plate arrangement of brigandines, and when on the timeline matters a lot. There are @ 20 intact 15th century brigandines, spanning from 1440 - 1500, with at least that many 16th century examples extant. There are a number...

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Hi Sir Rhy's <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Why? I can show you *lots* of tournament pictures showing knights without visors... or you can read Jaques Lalaing's chronicles and read about him fighting without a visor (among many others; I only use that source because everyone's seen it).</font>...

chef de chambre

Hi Capn', Well, if you want to be technical, of course the NPS does not allow any reenactments directly on the battlefield in 90% of the parks in their care (Lexington & Concord in exception). This is a legacy from the early days of reenactment , when artillerists had a habit of blowing their arms o...

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Hi Marshal <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Yes, authenticity is a ladder. It'd be really difficult to balance on the very top rung in your tempered steel MacPherson Churburg plate complete with documentable accoutrements like undergarments and rivetted mail gussets by Eric Schmidt, while callin...

chef de chambre

Hi Guys,

Looking good. I applaud your efforts!

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Frankly Hushgirl, I am continualy amazed at how judgemental you are of people you have never met, and presentations you have never seen. If the topic distresses you that much, why don't you avoid it. Best yet, please don't respond to my posts and I will do my best to ignore yours. ------------------...

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Hi Cap'n Atli, Joerg Bellinghausen wrote something very cogent and to the point on this subject on another board some time ago. It is his (and the Company of Saynte Gerorge's) philosophy that we should strive for 100 % authenticity - with this caveat. Obviously 100% authenticity is an impossibility,...

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Hi Noe, Nothing could be further from the truth than Fiore advocating some sort of sport combat. His concern is that his pupil should go into a fight with every odds stacked in his favor for victory, many of the techniques cripple or are lethal in application. He simply didn't want his pupil to go i...

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Try "Le Jeu de la Hachette" - it is a system entirely devoted to the pollaxe. Fiore dislikes them because they are "dangerous" (cruel, dealing mortal blows), and basicaly will wreck your day if they hit you. His entire system of combat with them is basicaly to trap your opponents head of his weapon,...

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Hi Scott C, I'll reply at some length when I get a chance. I think you need to understand the concept of a speculative reconstruction, and the idea that more evidence from a variety of soureces leads to a sound theoretical argument for the probablility of existance of an item. There are less than a ...

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Hi All, Talhoffer is a series of pictoral and written notations for a memory aid by Hans Talhoffers advanced students - not a complete "how to" manual. I stroingly suggest getting a copy of "Secrets of German Swordsmanship", as RIngneck is in the same school of swordsmanship, and he explains the sys...

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Hi Alcyooneus, I don't have time at the moment, but later this weekend I'll see what I can dredge up. I haven't made any particular study of it as I consider ancient German law to be crushingly boring to study (I had a taste of it in a course on Medieval law). Mark Rector mentions it in his recent b...

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Hi All, For what it's worth, considering I don't play your game, I look at it this way. Plastic used as hidden protective gear for kits that would not be armoured at the appropriate spots is an unavoidable neccesity for safely playing your particular game (more likely meeting the stringent rules req...

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Hi Sir Rhys, I am in no way, shape, or form comparing you to that ignoble idiot Sharpton. I was merely looking for an completely unbelievable aspiration (and Al's circling starships came to mind) to compare your worthy goal to. I say worthy goal, but unrealistic, as things stand now it "ain't gonna ...

chef de chambre

David - you need to lighten up. Tim was not suggesting banning people with disabilities, he was merely suggesting people do away with obvious modernisims. There are several alternatives to blatantly modern eyewear. In point of fact, most reenactment groups outside of the SCA (and there are more reen...

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Hi All, I've been purposefully avoiding this topic, but someone asked me to weigh in on it. An automatic caveat, I am not a SCAdian, so what I think has little weight on the issue at hand. What YOU , the members think is what is most important. I do not think that Sir Rhy's is "wrong", if the intend...

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I always thought the Manx-longton were fairly close - down to the 4 horns.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi Joaquin, Since our (Wolfe Argents) primary venue is the Higgins, if you stop by there you will eventually run into us. So, your harness is the one with the more traditional Italian form (the strap together breastplate and plackarts), with the full set of cullet, and side & front tassets? We may b...

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Hi All, Thanks for the kind remarks about my good taste http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/wink.gif , and The credit due to Jeff and Greg for their accomplishments. Jean Paul - your absolutely right, being a knuckle dragger I have longer forearms. I'm currently messing with my arming doublet to set th...

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Hi All, I have been meaning to do this since last Thursday, but circumstances have not allowed since I was invloved in the final organizing of a Flos Dueletorum seminar and attending same (a super seminar BTW). Some time ago, I had ordered an entire upper torso to replace in "front line service" my ...

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..........Of course since the question was about 9th & 10th century mail shirts, presumably the asker of the question was seeking information on Europe, Western, Centeral, Eastern, or the Middle East. There are no Japanese mail shirts on the order of a haubergorn I am aware of, and Japanese mail in ...

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My 'hosting harness' I have a Milanese half harness c.1450 by Rob Valentine that is decent, but has a couple of issues, with legs ditto by Peter Fuller, and gauntlets by same, and a raised armet c 1460-70 by Jeffrey Hedgecock that is supurb. The Valentine half harness is being replaced (this week in...

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Hi All, I'd like to see David Counts documentation for butted mails use in Europe at all. Not to pick on David, but I suspecthe is using a very old source of information. He has to be using old information, because the few shirts that were considered possibly to have butted links some tiome ago (bef...

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Hi Ryan, The breastplate extends to the navel, and the plackart generaly extends well up over the sternum in the 1485 - 1500 date range. What this does is two things, firstly, it provides a second layer of defence over the lungs & heart, and usually the harness is somewhat articulated - in a pure It...

My new harness by Jeff Hedgecock - a review