The Armour Archive

Mac

If so, that implies that the central plate isn't a rectangle so much as a dumpy or heavy barrel shape like you see for some shampoo bottles. I think that "barrel" is the key word here. The plates are analogous to the staves of a barrel, and like a barrel they have to be wider in the middles. Mac

Mac

Looking splendid, Chris!

Mac

Mac

I hope to get a start on the central plate of the breast sometime today; and will report later.

Mac

Mac

Tableau wrote:Dang, looks like I'm a little late to the party to register my vote for Kastenbrust, but I can see the value of a thorough look at the chruburg 13.

Exciting stuff!

Perhaps there will be a kastenbrust next year. Have you got an example in mind?

Mac

Mac

I would expect the overlapped areas to be thinner. Not a big deal at all to do if you have good strikers. For those not in the know, they are handling this stuff more like dough than sheet metal. In the real breastplates that have come through my work, it has been interesting to see that where the ...

Mac

I thought I'd put up a pic of the project that has been distracting me. The optical tube assembly (OTA) was a Craig's list purchase from an old guy who was downsizing in preparation to moving to a smaller place. It'a a vintage 6" f/8 reflector with a fiberglass tube. The previous owner bought it dec...

Mac

Hi gang, Anyone have any idea what soft-lead (not alloyed) studs or tacks would be used for? Especially the kind with decorative beaded or floral heads? Or at least where to look for this? Thanks! Chris I'm having difficulty understanding the question. Is it that you possess some studs/tacks with b...

Mac

I've made a couple more attempts today, and while there was some progress, it's nothing to be proud of. The most recent one was in .025" (.64mm) brass, rather than .032" (.8mm). It was easier to work, and probably strong enough to do its job, but it's a bit too thin to remove the hammer marks I made...

Mac

I would think that the central plate would be 0.080" to 0.090" thick, with the other plates going down to no thicker than 0.050", or even thinner, for those going around the back. I would think so too, were it not for what we seem to be seeing in this detail from Carlo's book. This is just below th...

Mac

John Vernier wrote:The "bucket" bascinet in San Gimignano also has Maestro P's mark. That must be the best-represented shop of the period.

Just so! I'd forgotten about that one.

I think Meastro "T" is not far behind.

Mac

Mac

If I'd noticed this before, I'd forgotten about it. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/71/f1/ae/71f1ae402bd1aec3004192e0b70f4cad.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b1/d6/30/b1d630a328aed6ac48c663f5c7119f86.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c9/d6/e7/c9d6e75b6445b30c89668bf985c65236.jpg Three breastplate from the turn ...

Mac

Gustovic wrote:Here's a new link.

https://imgur.com/SBLX1CX

Thank you!

Mac

Mac

Also, one of the archaeological reports, maybe Carol van Driel-Murray or Leather and Leatherworking from Anglo-Saxon and Medieval York , estimates that the scabbard leathers were a few fingers longer than the sword. I thought that was to allow for the unsealed wood to expand and contract in the fie...

Mac

Perhaps someone with web-savvy can help me here. Two days ago, the pinterest image below linked to a high-res image here... https://scontent.ftxl1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15965497_10211079493445143_3979085031325416594_n.jpg?oh=c0b1399f1fb1623d438657618e695a89&oe=591C5E7C https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564...

Mac

Where does this term 'bell closure' come from? All the bells I know are cast, right? I made it up :oops: This is the sort of thing I meant to compare it to. Modern bells of sheet metal are frequently formed this way. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b6/4a/29/b64a29c70e52ae5d714ee18fdcfc13e6.jpg There is a...

Mac

Looking tantalising Mac. Thank you! It's good to get something down on cardboard. Will the whole project be in this thread or will it get one of its own? I think I'll keep it here. What are your thoughts on the reason for segmented breastplates? Could it be a function of the availability of suitabl...

Mac

I sketched up the first generation of templates this evening. There are hem allowances included, but I've penciled in the brass borders because they have such a profound effect on the visual impression. I thing having them drawn in will help me see the proportions better. https://lh3.googleuserconte...

Mac

I tried making up a chape over a hardwood mandrel. I used .032" brass, and that seemed plenty thick enough. It was a very limited sort of success, however. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QaZbLEnbtLaWcxgjt153BCbfak5QGf01UG4o-cnyl23PWJ64MCfFNU_AmTp8q8rv__1JMo-S1yppMmh4VZ0AlS6L9RCE7JGV1jeCpb9n-IY0F4...

Mac

Here is my first attempt at soldering a clamshell chape. It was a F-ing mess! Laugh with me, not at me. I think I would use iron binding wire to hold the parts together. Also, if you can keep the flux from running out of the joint, the solder will stay where you want it. But, you know.. that cheesy...

Mac

Solder would have cost the maker some money, and wouldn’t have improved the appearance. I was prepared to say something to the effect of "while it did not improve the appearance, it would probably improve the likelihood of it staying on the scabbard".... but then I remembered that these are metal d...

Mac

The sheet metal chapes I've seen are usually badly made. Here are five sheet chapes and one locket from my collection. 10487 is the most typical style; the others are more up-market:) No signs of solder on any of them. Would you expect to find solder on ground finds like these?... or does it typica...

Mac

The shape of the central plate can be thought of as a rectangle.... or can it? Here is a front view with a superimposed rectangle. It's clear that the upper and lower widths are less than the central width. To some extent, this is what we would expect of a fundamentally rectangular plate that is cur...

Mac

Here is a notebook page I made about a year ago. The overall view is a sort of "schematic" of the armor, laid out flat like it can't really be laid out. The side view shows the height measurement form Trapp's catalog. I am presuming that it is taken by offering up a meter stick to the armor as it si...

Mac

I just started making metal lockets and chapes for scabbards, and wondered how they were made in period. Now I know. I'm disappointed, really. There are a couple of things I wonder. The first is whether the solder joints are overlapped or butted. The one is stronger and the other is neater. I almos...

Mac

dr.charlemagne wrote:i would bet St. George's red bit is a leather tunic.

I'm putting my money on silk velvet over stout hemp canvas, like the covered breastplate that survived in Munich. Pink is not his usual color, so it must have been very nice velvet

Mac

Mac

Was Brian W. Rainey the Armour Research Society guy? It seems like he was active online from 2004 to 2008, I think I remember that their domain got hijacked and deleted from the Wayback Machine a few years later. Did he die or just lose interest? Edit: Humh, and there was Eric Slyter's arador.com w...

Mac

Mac, correct me if I'm wrong, but I swear I remember you pointing out the sliding rivet, barely visible in a photo, probably over 25 years ago, probably looking at a book at a Cleveland armorers' guild meeting or something - but I don't know what source we were looking at, and I have access to most...

Mac

Not sure if this 2006 thread is of any use but here is 2006 thread discussion of Churburg S13 in detail Construction of 14th Century Segmented Breastplate (S13) Thanks! I had not read that thread before. It's a great shame that Brian Rainey took his pictures with him when he departed; the thread wo...

Mac

Will you do a separate, but complementary fauld? A suitable fauld is a whole different can of worms. If, for example, it is made of the usual sort of hoops, it would be rigid in the direction that the segmented breast is flexable. That sort of negates the segmented thing, I think. The alternative i...

Mac

Are you sure the neck flare on the #13 is down in brass? No, I'm not. It's something that has bothered me for years. This inside view shows what appears to be a smooth transition from the plate to the flare. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bT-4H6vwH8bOfiW8n4f6rObFn0taJrx9Kpew_q3VfH6-_fNs2WRMW7XI4...

Mac

Mac, I think you are stating that you are not doing the applied latten borders. If so will you be doing the edge treatments in the steel (e.g. rolls & flare at neck) ? That's right. Version 1 would have to have the hems and the neck flare in steel. If I move on to a version 2 the hems and neck flar...

Mac

Will you do a separate, but complementary fauld? A suitable fauld is a whole different can of worms. If, for example, it is made of the usual sort of hoops, it would be rigid in the direction that the segmented breast is flexable. That sort of negates the segmented thing, I think. The alternative i...

Mac

dr.charlemagne wrote:Mac, you absolutely must etch in the Latin......essential aspect of the piece

If I do a follow-up with the brass etc, it will certainly be engraved like the original. That will more than double the price of the armor when it comes to it.

Mac

Mac

What resources are you guys using for the Cherburg stuff? I think all the images on this thread have been pulled off the web. Many of them have been lifted from one or another of the big expensive armor books. https://www.amazon.com/Armoury-Castle-Churburg-Oswald-Trapp/dp/B007ZDMPBC https://www.ama...

Mac

Thanks to all of you for your ideas and excitement! I've pretty much settled on the idea of a segmented breast for the next project. I'm collecting relevant pics here , and will probably start discussing the planning steps in the next couple of days. https://i.pinimg.com/564x/52/53/ad/5253ad6b5ceec7...

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