The Armour Archive

Mac

Matt,

I sometimes find it hard to remember all the armor I dated..... So much armor; so little time. It's all a blur.

Mac

Mac

So....what have you got there Matt? It looks like the top lame of a cuisse, but it's kind of small.

Mac

Mac

Arne,

A round hem makes a better stop at its internal corner than a triangular one.

A triangular hem is a better stop out near its edge than a round one.

Defensively, they break even. It comes back to style.

Mac

Mac

PaperJack wrote:Do triangular rolls have any advantages over normal rolls? Like, strenght or something ?

It's all about style.... and when done well, they look marvelous. I think they were the "tail fins" of their day.

Mac

Mac

Ishmael, Your leather work is nice!....but you are being held back by your fittings. Allow me to suggest our goods at m If you go the the page of belt fittings you will find a buckle we call the "purse buckle. It is based on one in the Museum of London "Dress Accessories" book. It loo...

Mac

Very handsome Stanislav!

Mac

Mac

I think Wade has pretty much summed it up.

Mac

Mac

Here are some pictures of a couple of models I have made. They are 1/6th scale. The frames are bent wood. I have found that my models behave very much like full size tents. I think it is fair to say that they capture the lines that we see in period illustrations. http://billyandcharlie.com/tents/ten...

Mac

It would be nice to find "smoking gun" evidence of internal structures in medieval tentage in pictures. Unfortunately it's the sort of thing that artists are very unlikely to have shown. To see it, you have to be inside the tent. The fact remains that the shapes of most medieval tents are ...

Mac

If they were attached with threaded bolts/nuts, how the hell would you make one by hand? First, you make a tap out of iron or steel. File it up as round as you can. Make the end taper slightly. Make the other end square for your wrench. Lay out the threads as carefully as you can and cut them with ...

Mac

Koops,

threaded fasteners are being used to hold shechhelms to breastplates by the fourth quarter of the 15th century (if not earlier). By the 16th C, they are what typically holds exchange pieces on.

Mac

Mac

James, I found that notebook. It turns out I only looked at one gauntlet with a split mitten. It is a (left) Maximilian mitten called 29.158.228 I made a sketch of what the parts of the glove must have looked like. I have scanned the pages, but when I try to post them I get the .. The Attachment/Ima...

Mac

The Met has a pair you say... I was already planning a trip to NYC this summer I may have to make and appointment to see these gloves. If I can find my notebook, I can get you the accession numbers. My recollection is that I looked at two pairs of split mittens, as well as regular mittens and five ...

Mac

I've just looked at the pic (177) again. I now think that the lengthwise lines we can see in the palmar surface of the mitten's fingers are the seams of the fourchettes. The fourchettes are wider than I expected. Something unusual is happening where they end at the palm though. I wish I could see th...

Mac

James, I see what you mean. The pic of the bifurcate mitten in Carlo's book does not let us see what we need to see. On the other hand, I think it very likely that that glove *does* have fourchettes (gussets). My reconnection is that the "split mittens" I looked at in the Met's reserve had...

Mac

James, I think your best bet by far would be to ask Carlo Pagiorini. For every pic that made it into his book, he will probably have another thirty or so. Perhaps some of them will show the seam lines in a way that makes it possible to reconstruct the cut of the gloves. (Please keep me posted. I'm i...

Mac

James, I don't think there is any reason to doubt the authenticity of the gloves at Churburg. As Otto said, they have been conserved "in house" in the early 20th C.; but considering how many textile components in other collections have simply been ripped out and thrown away, I have nothing...

Mac

I just wanted to throw the copper option out there in case he was trying to make them look fancy. -Cian Cian, I don't think that fancy is an issue here. The vast majority of the rivets which hold finger scales are hidden by the successive scale. The only ones that show are the ones in the middle of...

Mac

sweet, carpet tacks are also sharp so no need to pre punch the leather... thank you Unfortunately, that sounds better than it works. You will be using the holes in the finger scale to mark the locations for the rivets from the *top* of the finger leathers, but you must insert the rivets from the *b...

Mac

drywall nails have nice broad flat heads on them and are about the diameter shaft you want too. Matt, In my experience, drywall nails are too big for finger scales; although they are a good size for internal leathers. On the other hand, siding nails will work. So will "light box" nails, i...

Mac

James B. wrote:Thanks for the info Mac, I think I will hit the carpet store on the way home. I might have my gauntlets set up before MTA after all.

James,

Any hardware store (even the Home Despot) should have them.

Mac

Mac

James, Use carpet/upholstery tacks. The heads are flat, and sort of random looking. They look enough like the real thing that they are the choice of second rate armor fakers around the world! Don't let that stop you tough....they really are pretty well suited to the task. Chose a size that will give...

Mac

About twenty years ago, when my shop was in the basement of Risley Hall at Cornell, one of the students came by because she had heard that I had a couple of anvils. As she ran her hands over the polished surface of my bench mounted 125#, she told me that this anvil would be "perfect for blowing...

Mac

Quite right about Phillip II. [img]http://0.tqn.com/d/arthistory/1/0/n/l/vett_ngl_08_14.jpg[/img] I think the red stuff tied to his upper arms may be more decorative than practical. I'm not sure there is room in his upper cannons for the bows. On the other hand.... he also has something tied around ...

Mac

If you zoom in on the wrists of the fellow in this mid 16th c. portrait....

http://www.googleartproject.com/museums ... -shaft-146

.....you can see that he is using garters with hooked ends to gather his mail sleeves. I suppose this lets him close his vambraces without having the mail get caught at the wrist.

Mac

Mac

Aussie Yeoman wrote:One way or another, I came across the following site:

What are the white rings at the left hip of all the horsemen?

Dave

Dave,

If my memory serves me, those are a sort of spool for carrying extra bow strings.

Mac

Mac

Alec, In the case of the greaves in question, there are pin fasteners. The assembly holes will be the locations for these. The one will receive the necked-down-rivet-end of the pin and the other will get opened up a bit. If the greaves are going to get straps and buckles, the assembly holes will get...

Mac

Wade, Thanks for pointing out the construction holes under the hinges on your greave. I usually use the hinges themselves to hold that side of the greave together while shaping and heat treating. Holes that end up hidden under the hinges are really a better idea. Temporary rivets or bolts would hold...

Mac

Our posts crossed in the aether.

Same thing about that other pair. I think that pic shows it very well.

Mac

Mac

Josh W wrote:Doesn't the right gauntlet on the Friedrich der Siegreiche harness have three lames over the fingers?

Josh,

It has an extra lame, but it's not really over the fingers...it's more like a two piece metacarpal. It will allow more extension, but not more flexion.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/2042800201/

Mac

Mac

I know I can get Poplar locally. MJ, It is well to know that the much of what is sold as "poplar" is really tulip tree. This is the stuff you can get in boards at the Home Despot that has the greenish-brown heart wood. The poplars that were used for pattens were Populus sp. These woods ar...

Mac

Gaston, Not exactly that sort of thing, but there IS ample evidence that some sort of layout was used in breastplates. Many (most?) breasts show circular punch marks in characteristic locations. If my memory serves me---- -- one mark in the center, just below the neck hem. -- one mark in the center,...

Mac

Like Wade, I seldom use my templates more than once. They mostly serve as a reminder of what I did the last time. When I have a project, I take out the template or templates which are most suitable as a jumping off point. Then, I ask myself several questions. ---Did the old template serve to make th...

Mac

I am sure they used patterns be they of metal, wood, or leather, they used them as tailors did. Cheers, Matt Mathew, Do we know for sure that medieval tailors used patterns? The earliest information I have seen for tailors seems to show how to lay out garments directly on the fabric. Perhaps this i...

Mac

Thanks, Mac!!!! But it's too hot out there now for those things. :cry: Vitus, I can see where they might make the helmet a bit stuffy. On the other hand, the liner seems to be the thing which makes the mail lie down and behave its self, rather than getting all bunched up like they otherwise always ...

Re: Question about nuts/bolts

Garters on mail sleeves!

Re: The most amazing 13thC Samurai resource