The Armour Archive

Mac

James,

I thought about the ones at the Met, but I don't have any pictures of them here at the shop.

Mac

Mac

Klaus, The gauntlets didnâ€™t seem big to me when I handled them, but perhaps my sense of scale has been thrown off by having made too many Scajun gloves. Toby thought the gauntlets I made for him were too big too. In retrospect, I have to agree with him; so I guess Iâ€™ll yield on this one. I could...

Mac

Russ,

You snuck in while I was typing!

Mac

Mac

Klaus, I'm not sure there's any reason to think that the right gauntlet does not belong. It does not seem to me to be too big (speaking in my capacity as a professional armorer). As to the left (modern) gauntlet being a mirror image of the right; this armor is probably early enough to pre-date the a...

Mac

cool! could you tell whether or not the right (original) guantlet's articulation was an intended design feature or more from wear and tear? I feel sure that it was intentional. There is a lot of subtle shaping of the wrist of the cuff which would be unnecessary if it were not intended to move. The ...

Mac

Andrew,

Is there some reason why you are not just going to buy "fret wire" from a luthier's supply?

These guys have it in five different sizes, and you can get enough the whole neck for less than ten bucks.

http://www.warmoth.com/supplies/supplie ... n=fretwire

Mac

Mac

I've seen no Milanese style gauntlets with an articulated wrist. repros: they look like they are made of 2 pieces but not articulated: m m The repros cited above are fundamentally correct. The cuffs are attached by two rivets, one on either side of the seam line. These rivets are loose enough to al...

Mac

How he gets such a close fit without me being there is a mystery to me. I'd bet it has something to do with following historical originals not other peoples copies. Brian BINGO!!! There is an important truth in that statement. If I were inclined to put quotes in my sig file, I would use that one. Mac

Mac

Thank you Mephit! That's it exactly.

Mac

Mac

I can't make this link work. When I try to click through, I get a "404-not found" message. Can someone help me?

Mac

hrolf wrote:
what looks like a pretty thorough discussion is here (starting on or about page 555) : http://tinyurl.com/5axfh3.

Mac

The Avant armor has a surprisingly heavy backplate. My notes show it to be between .060" and .075" (1.52mm and 1.91mm) The average seemed to be about .070" (1.78mm) I did not notice any variations which seemed to be intentional. I don't have a note on the back plackart, but I do have ...

Mac

Doug,

You've just got to resign your self to the idea that finishing happens after heat treating. You have to grind it any way, you might as well do it when the piece is hard.

Mac

Mac

Flitie, For visors of sixteenth century helmets, the short answer if threaded fasteners. The male part would come through a squared hole in the helmet skull and be like a carriage bolt. The female part is a decoratively shaped "nut" on the outside of the helmet. The nut may be slotted for ...

Mac

The helmet jig which Chris (Magnus!?) suggests will certainly do the trick. I, myself have not had trouble with basinets warping. But, I have seen (and fixed) an example where a professional heat treater had made someone's basinet into a sort of banana. If you were having someone else do your heat t...

Mac

Keren, I thought the author's name was familiar, but I forgot to check my copy of "Books, Banks, Buttons etc" when I went home last night. If it is the same book I can recommend it for its pictures, but not for its text. So it might even be better to buy the Italian version. Mac

Mac

James, My God man! you're right! What's more he's not the only guy in that picture who's doing that. Check out the third guy from the left. I think it's a side view of the same thing. I think it would work. The location of the attachment at the greave would be a bit tricky. Too far forward, and the ...

Mac

The thickest point I was able to find on the breast of the Avant was .125 ", which is 3.18mm. The plackart, however was another story. It's center, just above the waist, was a whopping .150"-.170"! That higher value is fully 4.33mm. The center of the uppermost fauld lame was .160"...

Mac

Louis, I count that sort of surface blemish as typical of the process. Taking the temperature too high or leaving the piece in too long exacerbates it, but there will always be some. If you were able to control the atmosphere in the kiln, you might be able to avoid this sort of thing. I think that's...

Mac

White Mountain,

I see how the splints were wired to the smaller of your fixtures, but I don't understand how cops sere attached to the big one.

Can you help me visualize that?

Thanks!

Mac

Mac

Theoderic, It is vitally important that the piece not cool much before the quench. the thiner and less substantial the piece the faster it will cool, and thus , the faster it must be gotten into the quench. I like to get massive things like helmets and cuirasses into the quench within about ten seco...

Mac

White Mountain,

Is your "A frame" a reusable fixture? I think we would all like to see it. Will you post a pic?

Mac

Mac

Klaus,

What if he were making Thuringerwurst?

Mac

Mac

Gavin,

I think that you are quite right. Cameron's "one-size-fits-all-cuir-bouilli" is a chimera.

Mac

Mac

Luis, Iâ€™m sure that Stanislav is indeed hardening that leg assembled. Heâ€™ll temper it that way too Iâ€™d bet. Itâ€™s the surest way to make sure that everything still fits together afterwards. The down side is, that a big assemble like that will twist badly of its own weight if it is not braced....

Mac

Ingelri, We are all new to this heat treating business. I have been doing it for just over ten years or so , and I still find that my heart is in my throat the whole time. If a thing like a cuisse is broken up into individual plates, or small sub-assemblies, there is less need for bracing. You must ...

Mac

James B. wrote:Mac who has been floating around on the board lately make leather cases for Bob in La Bell's suit of armor he made.

James,

Bob made the boxes himself. My recollection of them is that they were not hardened, but were made of sole leather.

Mac

Mac

Luis, In my experience there are three opportunities for warping in the hardening process. The first is when a piece sags of it's own weight while at an elevated temperature. Large thin pieces like cuisses and backs are more prone to this than helmets and breasts. Getting them hotter than necessary ...

Mac

AvM, They are tough enough for most purposes. They survive tumbling in the dryer. I suppose that if one were to smack a button directly with a chunk of rattan, it could be sort of funny looking afterwards. They are only pewter after all. Finest quality pewter, of course, but pewter none the less. Mac

Mac

D. Sabastian,

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http://www.billyandcharlie.com/bell.html

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Tell 'em Mac sent ya'

Mac

Ernest, It was certainly Henry's later armors I was referring to. I was going to be more specific about that, but in the end, I posted without revision.... In his youth he was certainly athletic, but I'm not sure he could ever be called "slim". His figure, as represented by the unfinished ...

Mac

Chef,

The first pic James posted is out of Reverseau's " Les Armes et la Vie".

It is labeled-

Salade, France, vers 1430. Inv. H. Po.714.

Mac

Mac

Lawrance,

The trick is to make them look big and intimidating without making them look like Orson Wells' Falstaff.

Mac

Mac

Vitus, The helmet you describe sounds fine. A typical basinet would be fine also; just not THAT basinet. Almost any type of helmet can be made to work on a guy with "no neck". Check out Henry VIII's armors. Armor always looks "best" on guys with a slim athletic build, but these a...

Mac

James,

Thanks for posting the front view. It's got a lot of that "early sallet" thing, where the sides don't flair back out.

Mac

Mac

Vitus,

I fear, my friend, that you must set your sights on a different hat, and leave this one to someone with a long neck and low shoulders.

Mac

Re: Jiri Klepac Bevor