The Armour Archive

Mac

Matt B,

The sallet has a very nice shape.

Mac

Mac

I would not be the least bit surprised to here that this effigy had been extensively reworked in the Nineteenth century.

Much of it is odd, and some parts of it whisper "Victorian". The face and helmet scream it.

Mac

edited for spelling

Mac

Here's another pic, showing how our piece compares to the original.

Mac

Mac

Thanks!

I have a couple of dozen cast up. I hope to cast some more today. It's a fussy mold to pour, and I'm getting less than half good ones.

Mac

Mac

Here are my thoughts on this. The helmet has the usual close set row of holes to take a typical basinet lining. This lining does not cover the cheeks. The mail ventail probably had its own lining. The lower edge of this lining would have been sewn to the lower edge of the mail. The upper edge would ...

Mac

Here is a picture of the pin badge I have just finished the mold for. The buckler is 1 3/4" (45mm) in diameter, and is backed with copper foil. the original is in the Mitchiner collection, and is illustrated in his 1986 catalog. It also appears in Brian Spencer's Salisbury Medieval Catalog, par...

Mac

I finally got around to following Karen's link to Marc Carlson's info on lantern panes.

Here is the link to his stuff on horn in general.
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-ca ... nhome.html

There's lots of good info in here!

Mac

Mac

Since a Medieval "press" of any sort, would either involve weight, or a screw-jack (of wood, as in the case of a printing press, a-la Gutenburg), what you are suggesting would likely be a historical method, save for the materials chosem, and the crazy-use of expensive screw-like devices. ...

Mac

Thank you Earnest! I will have to try this some time.

Does the treated horn retain its original properties, or does it remain soft? Do you do anything to neutralize the alkali?

Mac

Mac

Pairs of holes along the lower edges of helms and helmets at around the turn of the 14/15c are not at all uncommon. Here is a link to a couple of pics of famous jousting helms. m And are a couple of great basinets. m m Although I can't find good images of them right now, the great basinet at Paris (...

Mac

Here is a pic of a pair of wooden lanterns which I started about seven years ago. They are waiting patiently for me (or someone else) to develop the technology to make the horn panes. I expect to put sheet steel candles holder in them. They will get handles of cord, pinned to (yet un-drilled) holes ...

Mac

Horn can be softened without heat, it needs to be soaked in lye, this was done at the time. You need to ensure the right concentration of alkali. Once soft, the piece can be pressed flat. It then needs to dry out, then scrape and polish etc. Earnest, Have you ever tried this? What *is* the right co...

Mac

Armorjohn, I hope I have not discouraged you. Your workmanship is good. It's just that the elbow is a "pointier" joint than the knee. If it is going to fit and work comfortably as an elbow cop, it just has to be deeper. What you have there will make a perfectly good knee. It lacks only a c...

Mac

Sorry guys. I said that wrong. I meant to address Armorjohn, and agree with Lorenzo.

Mac

Mac

Lorenzo,

Armourjon is right in thinking that what you have there is a little shallow to be an elbow. You might be best off to turn this pair (you have made two, haven't you?!?) into knees.

Mac

Mac

I like that "press" in Fritz's example. As for flattening horn I believe that heat is the important factor rather than soaking. Thomas I'm with ya' on the heat and press thing. Diderot's encyclopedia shows how they used big arsed vices with screws to do the flattening in the eighteenth ce...

Mac

Lorenzo,

I'm glad you like the goods!

Do me a favor, though..... Those whistles have loops on them.... tie a loop of string to to each of those so the kids can hang them around their necks. This will make the whistles harder to loose and less likely to be swallowed.

Mac

Mac

Thanks guys!

Mac

Mac

Angus,

I put yours in the mail this morning.

thanks!
Mac

Mac

Krieger, Applied borders are pretty common on 16th c. fencing targets. They are also used some jousting manteaux d'armes, along with the applied lattice work. The hems of the armholes (but not the neck) of the famous Churburg segmented breastplate are part of the applied brass work. The reinforcing ...

Mac

Krieger, That's a nice looking buckler! I like the faceted onion shaped boss. It is boldly done. That hem was a lot of trouble, wasn't it? I suspect that the real one would have had the edge made with separate bars riveted on rather than a turned hem. That would have made the surface easier to grind...

Mac

Here is the short version of the procedure I use to make brass capped rivets. There are probably as many ways to do this as there are armorers, but this will give you a start upon which you can experiment. -Start with a convenient piece of brass shim stock. I usually use .012" (.3mm). It comes ...

Mac

David Teague wrote:We were doing England this time. :?

David,

The kneeling fellow in the picture is the very fashionably dressed young English king.

Mac

Mac

Jiri,

I have a procedure for butting brass caps on steel rivets, but I don't have time to write it up today. I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

Mac

Mac

Alexendre,

I've just "bumped" the ordering instructions over on the Classified board. The thread is called " Armour Archive badges?" Go to page two.

Mac

Mac

Ladies and Gentlemen, We have a special offer for the Armour Archive badges, with reduced shipping charges. The shipping price for any number of Archive badges in the US is $2.50. So: --For 1-11 badges, multiply the number of badges by $5 and add $2.50. --For 12+ badges, multiply the number of badg...

Mac

Galfrid,

Quite so! The locket of the scabbard is well below the belt. I was so shocked to see it on that side, that I never asked myself weather it was attached to the belt.

Mac

Mac

Statistically, it seems fair to say that *most* extant liners are working life replacements. Of course, it will depend on the conditions of the working life. Armor which has seen a long hard life might be on it's third or forth lining. Armor which was used once or twice and then retired may still ha...

Mac

Yes, I agree. I wasn't stating that they are not genuine in form , just that they have been consistently repaired, and, presumably some of the cloth replaced in a 400 year span. I don't think that we can conclude that they were "consistently" repaired, since the armory was more or less ne...

Mac

Florian, Thanks for posting those pics! Has anyone else noticed that Herr Katzenelbogen's sword is on the wrong side? It's not that the pic has been reversed, because his dagger is on that side too. If it were that he was a lefty, I would have expected that the dagger would be on the other (his left...

Mac

Otto's childhood memories of his mother, re-stitching, and re-stuffing the helmets, which are a part of the forward of the cataloug. Bob, I've just reread Graf Oswald's forward in the 1929 catalog, and I can not find the thing you mention. When you find it again, would you post the page number? Tha...

Mac

Otto's childhood memories of his mother, re-stitching, and re-stuffing the helmets, which are a part of the forward of the cataloug. Bob, I've just reread Graf Oswald's forward in the 1929 catalog, and I can not find the thing you mention. When you find it again, would you post the page number? Tha...

Mac

Aaron, check out the several extant late 15th - 16th century jousting helmet liners from Germany, which takes the concept to the extreme (and was needed, when the helmets were in essence loaners rented by the city), and were put on the man, then pointed to the helmet. This oft repeated idea that th...

Mac

The Late Medieval ones are either working life survivals, or copies of working life survivals, as in the Churburg, where the family took some pride inkeeping their armoury in more or less working order, and the liners were taken out when degraded, repaired or copied, and put back in. If I'm reading...

Mac

Aaron, I have a picture which was taken of the inside of the armet at Churburg which was formerly on the Avant armor. (C 20, I believe) The lining is fundamentally like the one in the painting that d-farrell2 posted above (from an Osprey book n'est pas?) However, it differs in several important resp...

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