The Armour Archive

Mac

Let me invite you all to see the pictures we have just put up on the Billy and Charlie Facebook page. The pictures are of medieval pewter objects in our collection, and reproductions we have made which are based on them. We show the real objects, our reproductions and our molds. It can be found at.....

Mac

To me, the first image looks suspiciously like a modern redrawing of the picture in the Queen Mary's Psalter.

The line quality looks modern, and the lack of "pizzles" all around goes some way to support the idea of it being a copy.

Mac

Mac

3rd-Again from Cleveland-some of the rivets appeared to have the edge of the brass cap tucked under the rivet head all the way around, to completely enclose the head. Again, I can't say for certain, but I think I'm correct. That method would have the advantage of not needing to be soldered, but wou...

Mac

Thanks for the fine selection of pics Florian.

Where is that last one from? Do you have more of it? I am very excited by the details of the saddle.

Mac

Mac

Here is a link to a discussion about brass capped steel rivets. m It contains my procedure for doing it. Mac It's really not very hard to put brass caps on steel rivets. It is also the authentic thing to do. One does not see solid brass rivets in authentic armor until the seventeenth century; and e...

Mac

Michiel, My numbers come from Thordeman's book. It is a long and arduous read, but something that everyone should do every few years. Even if you can not bring yourself to slog through the information about skeletal injuries, his chapter on the development of the coat of plates is extremely valuable...

Mac

based on the number and types of cranial injuries I am however inclined to believe that many went onto the field at wisby without a helmet. es02, A great many of the cranial injuries were to the back of the head. I take this as evidence of "coups de grace". I imagine that everyone who was...

Mac

Gentleman, I'm pretty sure that what we are seeing here is that the cops (knee, elbow and shoulder) are a sort of "coat of plates" construction. That is to say, they are made of several plates riveted into fabric coverings. All the rivets are holding the coverings in place, just like they ...

Mac

Steve is quite right here. The archeologists found the remains of what were probably 1185 men. They found 25 more or less reconstructable coats of plate, as well as fragments a few more, about 185 mail coifs, fewer than a dozen gauntlets and one purse full of coins. Some of the coats were already ba...

Mac

Here is a link to a discussion about brass capped steel rivets.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... p?t=100180

It contains my procedure for doing it.

Mac

Mac

Graham,

Look for a PM.

Mac

Mac

Graham, Here is a change you will want to make next time you have the opportunity. Move the rivets which anchor the leathers farther up into the shoulder cop. A leather mounted lame system works best if the "free length" of leather is the same for each of the joints. That is to say the dis...

Mac

I am anxiously awaiting mousetrap reconstructions!

Cian?..Sean?

Mac

Mac

Medieval Miscreant, I think that there is problem is the fundamental difference in the cross-sectional shapes of sallets and kettle hats. Sallets which cover the face must have a more lenticular section, and a "crestier" brow than kettle hats have. This is so the profile line can sweep gra...

Mac

Does that make sense?

I could make up a sketch is words are failing me.

Mac

Mac

Anubis wrote:Everything you need to know :) ( You may need to join up? )

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=15010

Grant

Thank you for that link Anubis! It has made my day.

There's a lot of good information there. Much of it is also applicable to etuis as well.

Mac

Mac

Cian, Look back to the illustrations in the article. The important thing is that the clicket string is under tension. That's what keeps the lid in the up position. looking at some of the other traps will help to clarify this in you mind. When the trigger bar is depressed, the clicket escapes from un...

Mac

Suzerain et Guillaume, Those straps that buckle behind the helm in the Durer pic are the straps you can see attached to the chin and forehead of the linings the James has posted. They lead out through slots in the sides of the helm. They are there to keep the wearers head from slamming into the insi...

Mac

Baron Alcyoneus wrote:There is one set of legs surviving, where there are no lames on the knees(IIRC), they are just two ~3/4 cops nested in each other. So, I think you could even speculatively try that with the cuisses being covered.

I am not familiar with these. Can you provide more info, or a picture?

Mac

Mac

Eamonn, I've always thought that the scale covered limbs were the weirdest and least believable part of this statue. Scale sabatons.....Absolutely! Quite common. Scale pizane (standard, gorget, collar)....Very believable. You see ventails made of scale quite frequently. It's a short jump to making a...

Mac

Here is a photo of the original m Thank you for posting the link to the pic of the actual sculpture! I have been worrying about Kunz von Haberkorn's upper legs for about thirty years now. I am very pleased to have something other than nineteenth century drawings, and twentieth century re-drawings o...

Mac

I'm with Milan H. and Laurence. That thing is a broken loop for a weapon chain. There are other things which are conspicuously absent from the statue, which must surely have been there originally. The reins are missing, although his left hand is clearly supposed to be holding them. The dagger is mis...

Mac

Chef, Although later brigandines typically change their overlap direction at the waist, it is not the case with this one. I think that if you look closely at the pics, you will see that the same "roof shingle" overlap direction is maintained all the way from top to bottom. I think that the...

Mac

It is pretty clear from the pics, that the plates overlap so that upper plates are over the lower plates. That is to say that they are fastened to the covering at their lower edges. Put another way, they are set like shingles on a roof. The exceptions are in the plates immediately above the breast p...

Mac

Here is a link to a very nice set of pics.

http://www.svjiri.wz.cz/

Mac

Mac

There is a very nice series of pics here.

http://www.svjiri.wz.cz/

Mac

Mac

Gryndar,

I used 16ga (.062") black iron fence wire. I'm pretty sure my mandrel is 5/16".

Mac

Mac

Hrolfr,

Here is a link to a discussion of this topic.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... +mail+weld

Mac

Mac

I just don't want to waste poster board, hence the post. Don You don't *waste* cardboard by developing templates, you *use* it. Templating cardboard is a shop consumable; like abrasives, sharpy markers and WD40. By not using it you will end up wasting your time and materials. Spend some cardboard! ...

Mac

MattB, One of the arms at Churburg (CH T47e = CH S9) has a turning joint in spite of having only one lame distal to the cop. I have built a pair of English style arms with integral spaulders based on this arm. They worked just fine. They flex as much as they should, and rotate as much as arms with d...

Mac

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Mac

Sean, The arm holes of your proposed design look big. (I realize that the layout includes the underlaps.) Have you tried mocking it up in cardboard yet? I would be pleased to help you with the design before you commit to it. Bring it by the "shop" some day, and we can play with it. Mac

Mac

Talbot,

Thanks for posting that pic of the back of the "Velvet Bashford". It must be nearly 30 years since it was displayed in a free standing vitrine. I last saw the back of that thing in '79 or '80. I am pleased to see that my memory of it is almost accurate....

Mac

Mac

Cian,

I've just gone and looked at the pictures again.

You are probably right about the trap. I think I was overestimating the size of mice.

Mac

Mac

Cian,

I'm pretty sure that this is not a live capture trap. Based on the size of the one in the Marode alter piece, it looks to me like it is designed to close around their necks and hold them till they suffocate.

Of course, the only way to be sure is to make one, and see what happens.

Mac

Molds for pewter goods inspired by real objects

Re: Quick and Dirty Pattern Altering