The Armour Archive

chef de chambre

Hi Mordreth, Narrowing the definition a bit, the usual HWMA reference is to fechtbuch sections dealing with fighting in armour. Since the fechtbuchs we have extant dealing with combat in armour are from the 14th and 15th century, this is why groups like AEMMA armour themselves in that style of harne...

chef de chambre

Hi Russ, Thanks for the info. It is surprising to me as well, even with it being mild. Out of curiosity, did the blade have one of those tulwar-esque points (I realize we are talking sabre, but some of the Polish blades I have seen have this sort of point), with the false edge slightly built up? (ma...

chef de chambre

Ummmm.... Knoch?

In my reading the heading of the post, it is a gauntlet in question - read a little plate, perhaps it was the cuff, the metacarpal, or maybe a finger plate, Russ, will you enlighten us? It was also probably dead-mild.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi Russ, You are quite right of course, and that is based on my Western Eurocentricisim. The Byzantines on the other hand - well, that is extending the death date of the professional standing army rather than putting it's rebirth earlier. It is my understanding that by the 12th century, it is either...

chef de chambre

Hi Alcyoneus, That might be from an early semi-biography/hagiography of Maximilian "Die Weisskonig", which I have never read, and am really primarily aware of from the plethora of engravings that show up in a variety of sources, but most recently have liberaly illustrated "Martial Arts of the Renais...

chef de chambre

Hi Ancient, MJ makes decent armour. Some shapes he does very well (his open faced sallets, and his newer sallets), and some of his helmet designs look a little a-historical, or the shape is not quite correct. The shop produces superior armour to K&K art, I have handled harness from both, and he is a...

chef de chambre

Hi Ideval,

What kind of helmet? It wasn't uncommon to wear a coif over a small cevellier, wich would negate the problem.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi Steiner, Ditto to that sentiment (chills up the spine). Nothing looks so good as reproduction armour that looks precisely like what it is supposed to. Trust me - it is worth it to save your sheckels carefully, and buy it a piece at a time from the best armourers, rather than spend less quickly, a...

chef de chambre

Hi Pietro, Shouldn't the obvious and correct answer have been - because that is what men wore as their day-to-day dress in "X" century I'm portraying? The only reason I am 'harping' on this is that this question falls under the Authenticiy and Research board. ....That is assuming you were wearing ho...

chef de chambre

Hi All, Wolfe Argent would still have existed. We would just be buying more of our armour from Canada and the UK. The other 15th century East Coast groups would have existed, as they came out of Markland, who's existance didn't depend on the SCA. The European armourers who exist owe nothing to the S...

chef de chambre

Hi Aiden, In the begining, they were all riding horses. Yes, people got killed in early tournaments, but they were not foot combats. I haven't seen fighting on foot "in the lists" documented prior to the middle of the Hundred Years war. MOst of the people who got themselves killed in tournaments wer...

chef de chambre

Tee Hee Alcyoneus! The pics are very much baby pictures, and don't convey what it will fully look like. What looks like a large club at the point of the plackart is actually a large fleur, when that is cut out, there will appear points from amother slight cusp just below, and there are a seires of t...

chef de chambre

Hi All, For a while I've mentioned that I'm in the process of having my upper torso harness replaced. Here are some "baby pictures" of it underway, courtesy of Jeff Hedgecock. http://www.wolfeargent.com/breastplate/reed7.jpg It is a close copy of Lucern HM11, an associated breast and backplate atrib...

chef de chambre

Hi Pathfinder, I can't answer for Jeff, I don't know if he has gotten that far with the cuirasse yet. Since Jeff is a stickler for historicaly correct detail, as am I, and it is a 15th century harness (as close a copy that my physique will allow of a cuirasse from die Burgunderbeute that is housed n...

chef de chambre

Hey Jeff, You could show them one of the rolls on my cuirass or arms as you get to it. My armouring experience is limited, but it seems to me that it is logical to do it once the piece is shaped properly. You don't hem a pair of pants before you sew the trouser legs together. ------------------ Bob R.

chef de chambre

"One size fits all!"

Yes, very badly.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi Owynn,

Gettysburg (annual reenactment of, from 1995 onward), for starters. Everybody belongs in the same place as well.

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Bob R.

chef de chambre

Hi All, In regards to "visuals", how I, You, We look, and why. No, I don't feel like a show-off. One of Wolfe Argent's primary reasons for existance is to show the American public as accurate a visual picture as we can of what different kinds of Burgundian soldiers looked like, according the the evi...

chef de chambre

Hi Steiner, One thing to keep in mind with Drurer. His drawings of soldiers date primarily to the 1490's at earliest, and there is a radical change in fashion in most of Europe by the mid 1480's. It's good for early Landesknecht stuff, but not much else. If your interested in 15th century stuff, the...

chef de chambre

Hi Gethin, I believe the harness is in Chatres Cathederal, and while photos have been published over the years, I don't know of any monograph on it. On the other hand, what I don't know would fill a warehouse - some French scholar has probably written one at some point. A few things I do know - it i...

chef de chambre

Hi Brennus, I will apologise for the 'tone' of the first paragraph of my refutation of your point. If you have a BA, then you have read a book or two. Please note the 'tone' of what I am writing is intended to be level, not 'snide and condenscending'. In any case, I have refrained from the open insu...

chef de chambre

Hi All, In order to steer this ship more on course and off the shoals she finds herself against, I thought I should put a point forward, and hopefully cut at this gordians knot. Regarding historical combat vs. martial sport- We have many good examples of manuals with historical fighting appropriate ...

chef de chambre

Hi Brennus et all, I hate to put it this way, but to be blunt, you ought to pick up a book or two and read about the topic of how armies were raised during the middle ages, and some social histories. I could recommend a good list to you - feel free to hit our partial bibliography at www.wolfeargent....

chef de chambre

Brennus, It is pretty simple, really. They were socialized to kill from childhood - that killing was accpetable. They trained to it most of their lives, practising killing with hunting. It was socially, if not entirely morally acceptable. Modern Westerners on the other hand are socialized to not kil...

chef de chambre

After this last bit, I think I ought point out that the HWMA community isn't sitting around and reading books. Most 'salles' have experienced martial artists heading them, who are amature scholars , translating the material, and applying it. I am amused that some of you think us a bunch of bespecete...

chef de chambre

Hi All, I don't hate the SCA. I think it is an interesting orginization and sub-culture. I chose not to participate in it as I find the mixing of periods, and the lack of interest in pursuing authenticity by most members to be distracting to the point of taking the joy out of my hobby. I prefer to n...

chef de chambre

Hi Vitus, I'm glad you are so open minded. http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/wink.gif I just have a few questions to ask - 1. Is or is not SCA combat "calibrated"? 2. In what fechtbuch do you find the most prominent styles of combat as practised by the SCA? 3. What is your favorite colour? http://www...

chef de chambre

Hi All, It is my understanding that AEMMA is more or less unsympathetic to the SCA, as some of the membership came out of that background, and left the orginization with less than pleasant feelings because their attempts to learn and teach HWMA were disparaged within the society. You will find that ...

chef de chambre

Hi All, Jeff makes an excellent point regarding intent of armourers. To back this up, several pieces in the Rhodes book were apparently subjected to quenching, although the carbon content of the iron/steel was so low that it was impossible to derive any benefit from it. Most intended to be of high q...

chef de chambre

Hi Ancient, This is really a new area of scientific study - I think some of the fiorst tests of armour hardness were in the 80's, and one of the most important new books with a lot of testing in it - "The Medieval Armour of Rhodes", was published just last year. Broadly speaking, tempering plate arm...

chef de chambre

Hi Alcyoneus, I don't have the time at the moment to reply in depth as I am running off to work, but I can clear up a few little mysteries for you... Schweitzerdegen - Swiss daggers. A degejn is also a specific dagger type. Anderthalbhander - one and a half hander, a bastard sword. 15 Jahrh - always...

chef de chambre

Hi Stephen, <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Ted- By off, what do you mean. I only say this because I look at them sometimes and say the same darn thing. At times I wish they would lay better but if they were to do that then it wo...

chef de chambre

Hi Rich, A close sallet is in essence a bellows visored sallet constructed like a close helm. They look very much like close helms except for their stubby articulated tails, and generally they are either flatish topped, or have a very low keel - not a comb. A varient has a flat visor with eyeholes a...

chef de chambre

Hi All, Sallets and bevors as being drawn and discussed were de rigure from 1470 - 1500. By 1520, you would be wearing either a bellows visored sallet, or a "close sallet" - maximilian harness, not high gothic. If you want to be accurate, you need to either change your kit, or change your era. -----...

chef de chambre

Hi All Past 1450, long-ish hair came into fashion, men were normally clean shaven (unless you were a barbaric German - schwietz), and haircuts similar to a "pageboy" came into vouge. How they dealt with it, into the first decades of the 16th century, was to gather it up into a "sallet cap", which re...

My new breastplate underway