The Armour Archive

Mac

Hello folks! I am searching for documentation of ailettes being worn with a coat of plates. If you have any sources, please share. Thank you. A search for 'aielettes' on the Manuscript Miniatures page will show that they are mostly worn with mail hauberks. However, there is a rather late appearance...

Mac

I’m very tempted to get some Kodiak oil tanned leather (4 to 5 oz) from Tandy's and use it for both the turn shoes and articulations. Jeff Wasson recommended that leather for light articulations on his lecture Making and Using Armor: A Studio Tour with Jeff Wasson livestreamed on facebook for Loric...

Mac

Reconciling the medieval sole shape with the human foot takes us down a strange path. The soles are consistently narrower on the lateral side than the barefoot contact patch. Yet... they made them that way, and they worked. There will be some wear on the leather of the upper, where it wraps around t...

Mac

Hi folks! I'm working on a Wisby Type I CoP. What are the most accurate buckles to use? Thank you. The most accurate buckles would be the ones found at Wisby. :wink: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/46/65/b4/4665b4b461841e6a6f62705a709d604f.jpg I have a Pinterest page of armor buckles here , and have just...

Mac

This clause has to be after 24 February 1304 (1305?) because clause 7 was written then, and I think one of the later chapters is dated 1308, so sometime in that 1304-1308 time frame. The earlier clauses are sometime in the 13th century. Are any of the earlier crossbows in art shaped more like a Tur...

Mac

I've made up a Pinterest board about medieval shoes. There is also one that Tom B started for arming shoes here.

Mac

Mac

Sean,

Please remind me about the date of these regulations. I went back and looked at the earlier posts, but I must have a blind spot about it.

Thanks!
Mac

Mac

Carter, Spend some time looking at real medieval shoe soles and comparing them to the soles offered by modern makers of shoe for the medieval market. One of the biggest differences will be the size of the heel. The other difference will be the width and shape of the "waist" of the foot... especially...

Mac

The regulation about marking the work is pretty straightforward, but XIII is very puzzling. It's certainly tempting to interpret rotundum as referring to bows of round (ish) section, but it might also be about the overall shape of the bow. They might be referring to reflexed bows. The next part of X...

Mac

The thing about the human foot is that it's not very stylish. People have never (well almost never) made shoes that looked like feet. They have done there best to make the foot look "better". That is to say "better" to any particular culture and time. I made up a little sketch to show how the typica...

Mac

As part of my new variety juggling approach I’ve drawn some other armour. On to the other end of the body we have my earliest pieces of armour for this project. The sabatons. (The first real pieces of armour I attempted too) I originally chose to start with them because the shape and hammering look...

Mac

I like the way this is looking! https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3dL3KFrTsPtVRvMkOnoZFo1OGzmZG6ytOxhm1_scIrYFYSsBWGtSCIWAlomxqMfiUG7sJ_bDiL1nscR0T1uJ8ZpHbqhiEjVeEdRsL-nCAelqrU-ccl4eHZlscULjYU7XZWD5OrSsPA5dQxc3yiLDgPy=w800 Most people make the cheeks too "jowly" and the neck too wide. It loo...

Mac

I remember reading an entry in the late 14th century purchase accounts of the city of Deventer, where pear is mentioned. Of course now I can't find it. -edit- I found it. It was in the 1361-1362 purchase accounts of lord Jan van Blois. Jan is preparing for a campaign and has one of his servants and...

Mac

I think you'd do well to use a Roper Whitney punch. This may require snipping the shank shorter to get it to fit into the tool. I'm presuming that what you have there is die cast zinc with a nail cast right in. If you try to drill them, there is a very good chance that one of the cutting lips of you...

Mac

For what it's worth, my preferred wood is hard maple. That's clearly not an option in Europe, but it's practically a weed in the North East US. It's very strong, and takes a smooth finish. I used pear on my first crossbow. It was nice to work with and seemed strong enough, but it's not easy to find....

Mac

Can you grind the taper till it fits the plate?

Mac

Mac

As I understand the wording, the rules don't prohibit applying a finish, per se. They seem only to specify that the wood must not be colored to look like a wood that it is not. That is to say, you can't stain birch and sell it as pear.

Mac

Mac

Ilkka Salokannel wrote: Never knew how much of an S shape curve my back is.

Everybody's back is curvier than they think it is. This is one of the reasons that backplates are among the most difficult things to make.

Mac

Mac

Well that just connected several dots and probably saved me several hours of frustration and scrap brass! Excellent! I've been zooming in on every period example I can find and have noticed that they all seem to have a similar "wobble" as you describe. On the contrary, when looking to modern source...

Mac

Indianer wrote:
In other words, the gusset must be a slightly wider curve/larger radius than it's bearing/the notch?

It's not quite as simple as that. It's more about having a sort of twist to the gusset so that "out" is the normal position.

Mac

Mac

Thanks Mac, So the fussing is to make the gusset bear against the breastplate in a springy fashion somewhere? Like bending in the top corner of the BP slightly, or gusset edge out? I was focused on bending out the area around the lower rivet when I thought I could not make that work. Perhaps too fo...

Mac

I like that you flush riveted the brass. Zooming in on the wriggle work does not show anything bad. What sort of trouble did you have? Mac Thanks! The steel rivets sticking out of the most of the example pair at The Met looked terrible to me. I noted that the brass that is said to be original (on t...

Mac

Here are a few things to think about... --Greaves can be higher in front than in back. That's very typical of later ones. It's hard to generalize about the early ones, as we have so few of them. This lets you take advantage of shape of the leg while still giving the tendons what they need. --Authent...

Mac

As far brass, I tried to keep things to what was on the pieces from The Met I'd more or less targeted but there's certainly a lot of options on other examples. Brass was an adventure on its own. I deliberately didn't include close ups of my feeble attempts at wriggle work engraving. I need a lot mo...

Mac

That is a pretty credible and creditable pair of greaves! I wish I could say that my first pair looked as good. When I saw the first set of pics, I was struck by how they looked big at the top. When I saw them on your legs I understood why. If the next pair was about two fingers (or so) higher on yo...

Mac

One reason my brain fog is bad today is that I have been unemployed for a while and getting work where I am living is a bit complicated due to the terms of my residence permit. I know its not customary on the AA, but I have a patreon and a paypal dot me . I sent a few soldi to help support the tran...

Mac

VII. Anno Domini millesimo .CCCIIII., indicione tercia, die .XXIIII. februarii, tempore dominorum Marini Busenago, Phylipi {start of page 173} de Fontana et Andree Marcello iusticiariorum veterum, ordinatum fuit et firmatum per eosdem quod a modo aliquis balisterius non audeat vel presumat ponere v...

Mac

VIII. Item, quod aliquis magister balisterius non audeat ponere vel poni facere aliquam nucem in aliquo balisto que non habeat refollum reveditum in vivo nucis de subtus, sub pena soldorum .X. pro quolibet balisto in quo dictus ordo servatus non fuerit et pro qualibet vice contrafacienti. et nichil...

Mac

VIIII. Insuper, quod quilibet predictorum debeat laborare sive plicare omnem fustem de balisto cum sepone et non cum aqua, {start of page 175} sub pena soldorum .XX. pro quolibet fusto sive arcu et pro qualibet vice contrafacienti. 9th : In addition, that each of the aforesaid ought to work or fold...

Mac

I find that with a bit of careful fussing, the gussets can be tweaked so that the sides of the breast will act as springs. There is a lot of friction involved, and the results are not as "snappy" as I would like them to be.

Mac

Mac

I think that this is one of the ones that was made for Maximillian, and most folks (who have chins) won't fit into this as designed. IIRC Tom B had a picture of this with his head in it, and then Maximillians head - and it would only Fit Tom after major jaw reduction surgery. Close sallets are one ...

Mac

I think Tom's are missing because he pulled them off his server or hosting service (since they're 3 years old). I suspect he is experiencing an issue with permissions. I think I recall him complaining that something about his computer changes the permission settings on him without his knowledge.......

Mac

Ilkka Salokannel wrote:Hi Mac:

Love your posts.

I can not see Tom B's "Tue Sep 05, 2017 9:22 am" post of pics. That post is the second one on this thread.

Ilkka

Are my pics visible to you?

Mac

Mac

valdred wrote:
Heights seems pretty comparable to these others. Perhaps the narrower slits create more of an illusion of height?

Yes. The heights are comparable, but look at the relative positions of the eyes with respect to those overall heights.

Mac

Mac

Tableau wrote:
I’m sort of leaning to the scale model of the finished piece myself. I feel like it would complete the dramatic effect of the before and after. Plus I was looking forward to making the twisty rivets

It's going to be a really nice helmet for some lucky kid!

Mac

Re: Searching for documentation: Ailettes and CoP

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Buckles from Wisby?

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Drilling out upholstery tacks

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Pexto question

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Replacing armour: A Churburg 13 based project

Re: First Attempt at Greaves- Critiques Welcome

Re: 1580's Augsburg Cuirass

Re: 1580's Augsburg Cuirass

Re: First Attempt at Greaves- Critiques Welcome

Re: First Attempt at Greaves- Critiques Welcome

Re: First Attempt at Greaves- Critiques Welcome

Re: First Attempt at Greaves- Critiques Welcome

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: 1580's Augsburg Cuirass

Re: Björns Builds

Re: An old project returns

Re: An old project returns

Re: Barbute Bernardin da Carnago 1475 - project log

Re: Experimental helmet forging