The Armour Archive

Mac

Splendid Karen! Thank you!

There are a couple of others that I can think of. I will try to find URL's for them and send 'em to you.

Mac

Mac

Conal, Is there any reason you are not going to use silver solder? I don't mean the sort that jewelers use, and I don't mean silver bearing tin solders. I mean industrial silver solder. It will not be as good a color match as brazing rod, but you will be much less likely to melt your work by acciden...

Mac

The Romans, among others, plated with tin. Is there any advantage to using zinc rather than tin for rust protection? Zinc will protect iron better than tin because it forms a galvanic cell with the iron when in the presence of an electrolyte. In the case of armor, the electrolyte might be sweat, bl...

Mac

armourjon,

Konstantin is right, you should engrave, rather than etch. Engraving is the authentic way, and it produces a different line quality than etching.

Mac

Mac

Jason, I have Shiny Shapes Sitting by my Side here in the Shop. There are unfortunately no pictures of that armor in it. It is, however in Harnish und Helm, Laneszeughous Graz am Stiermarkishcen Landesmuseumn Joanneum, Peter Krenn,1986 There is only one pic and it is not as good as the pics you alre...

Mac

Jason, I see what you mean about the sharpness of the leaves, and I was prepared to think that it was only because the craftsman was working in the "inside of a circle" so to speak on the wings. On the other hand, the hems *are* different, and that tips the balance. I now agree with you , ...

Mac

Graham,

Let's see some pics of you wearing the arms.

I have seen some pics taken from as far around the backs of effigies as possible. The sculptors get pretty lax about the details back there, but it is clear that they thought the backs looked just like the fronts.

Mac

Mac

Jason, The foliage on the elbow wing does look a little "sharper", but I think it's only an artifact of working the design in a "concave" sort of way. So, I guess I think the arms probably belong. It's definitely not the original helmet. It's the right shape, but the wrong decora...

Mac

Sha-ul, I don't think that the cracking is caused by vibration, as such. I believe the problem is working the area in a way that puts the edge of the piece into tension at the transition of the cop and the wing. If the area *is* in tension, I'm sure that vibration will speed the initiation of cracki...

Mac

Graham, You are doing fine. I like the way you are attacking the project. It's time to start making things in pairs, though. Even if you are not satisfied, you will be able to turn your rejects into a pair of arms for "someone less fortunate than yourself" There are a couple of changes I w...

Mac

Jiri, The thing Cet has suggested is certainly the way I would do it. Lorenzo is right, though, you should ask how Ugo is doing it. Incidentally, the pitch I have used is the black pitch sold by Rio Grande m I find that it works well just as it is. I think I recall Ugo saying that he has used it, bu...

Mac

As is my chosen name of Halbrust, "halb brust" in German is "half breast" in English. I caught that. Something like a Roman muscle-cuirasse with a conspicuously hollow and "ribby" left side would certainly be striking. Likewise, the Greek thorax, with the usual embosse...

Mac

Matt, I see what you are talking about now. Thank you. As I see it, some of that taper is about the template shape of the lames, and some of it comes about because each lame in the series has thickness. Thus, the angle of the taper will be increased by making the lames "skinnier". If you l...

Mac

The missing muscle doesn't affect much. Isolated lifts in the gym mainly. I can do anything anyone else can (sometimes with the tiniest variation) I just may be a little weaker than others my size when it comes to chest stregth. BTW the picture got flipped, I'm missing my left pec. Not that it matt...

Mac

Mad Matt wrote:
As far as the missing taper I think it's just a matter of someone posted a pattern ages ago without the taper and nobody's bothered to do it right.

Matt,

I'm not sure what you mean by "the taper". Can you show me a pic?

Mac

Mac

Graham, Make the rerebrace fit as closely and as tightly to your upper arm as you dare....and then make it even smaller. The greater the diameter of the upper cannon, the sooner it will run into your arm pit, chest and back. There's a reason that this sort of rerebrace has hinges and buckles. It's s...

Mac

Dante,

I just now noticed the adjective "Italian" in your original request. My suggestions may not be appropriate for what you are doing. I should read more carefully before I start typing....

Mac

Mac

Those gaps are pretty common on armors from the first half of the 16th c. I've always worried about them, myself. Here are my thoughts on them... -As Alcyoneous says, they make the waist look really slim. -They are easier to get into, because you don't have as much trouble squeezing your waist into ...

Mac

Dante, You might also check out the early 15th c. hair styles in the Gaston Phoebus hunting book. I have the printed version called..... Medieval Hunting Scenes ("The Hunting Book" by Gaston Phoebus), Text by Gabriel Bise after Gaston Phoebus Translation by J.Peter Tallon Liber SA,Fribourg...

Mac

Sian,

A well constructed and well fitted articulated leg with an attached closed greave could probably substitute for a hinged knee brace. That is to say, rather than figure out a way to get your armor *over* your brace, you could make your armor *be* your brace.

Mac

Mac

Russ Mitchell wrote:Duh. Yep, that's it. Sometimes with google, apparently less is more...

I guess I'll try to take that as a compliment....

Mac

Mac

Russ,

How 'bout this one?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ribolo.JPG

I searched "altichiero" and "lucia"

Mac

Mac

Russ, Have you tried a Google Image search for "Oratorio di San Giorgio", or "Altichero"? There are a bunch of images out there, but they might not be detailed enough. There have been a couple of art books about Altichero published within the last decade which have good detail pi...

Mac

B. Fulton wrote:I posted several pictures of the extant saddles from the Neuburg. I may have pics of that particular one, I have posted them here in the past.

Searching "saddle" and "Neuburg" did not bring up any results. Did you call the saddle something different when you posted it?

Mac

Mac

Konrad,

That looks pretty nice. That's 1/2 inch tape and 1/8 inch holes? Have you ever tried using a smaller hole? I'll bet you could get away with 3/32.

Mac

Mac

Konrad---That stuff looks very nice! Years ago, I tried in vain to find nylon tapes like that! Do you have a pic of something you have laced with it so we can see how it behaves? Raito---I make points on nylon lace with a hot exacto knife. After a couple of tries you get the knack of cutting at the ...

Mac

Hank, Try these guys. m I think they are the same people who used to have distributor in Ithaca about 20 years ago. I have used this stuff in the past. It is a lace, rather than a tape, so it will not look as wide as the stuff on the real armor, but it will look a hell of a lot better than paracord....

Mac

Mac, I've done a lot of reloading for accuracy by only neck-sizing the brass, and loaded for several "wildcat" cartridges which require either stretching or compressing the case to get the desired shape and caliber. In both of these I've used the <a href="http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.ht...

Mac

Alejandro, I think that you will find that cartridges are all made of "cartridge brass". This is the copper alloy called "260", or "deep drawing brass". It is 70% Cu and 30% Zn. Any differences in the springiness or hardness of a finished cartridge is probably a questio...

Mac

Hey Mac, I am going to ask the local weekly that I used to write for if I can do a feature story on you. Would you be interested? Of course, I would have to come to your house.... -V You're welcome to drop by the shop, but I must say "no" to news coverage. I developed a sort of an allergy...

Mac

Thank you Vitus!

Mac

Mac

Vitus,

Year round, I'm afraid. People don't expect a professional armorer to look normal, and I don't want to disappoint them. I'm more likely to wax the beard for Pensic though.

Mac

Mac

In 1986, Maestro Roberto cut his hair in a bowl cut and trimmed his beard to a small fork like any fashionable man in his prime would do in 1386. Now, in 2009, I am still cutting my hair in a bowl, and forking my gray beard like any old goat of 1409 who is still clinging desperately to the fashions ...

Mac

Wade's right. There are a lot more "first rate" armorers today than there were a few years ago. These days, six months doesn't go by and I see some "new guy's" work that shocks me into humility. This is good. It's how it should be. It shows that the craft is progressing. I would ...

Mac

knitebee, Here's another thing you will want to pay attention to in MKII. The location of the ankle bosses should respect and accommodate the underlying anatomy. If you view your leg from the front or the back, you will see that the lateral (outside) malleolus is lower than the medial (inside) one. ...