The Armour Archive

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I have a bascinet but as yet I cannot afford an aventail for it. Not in maille anyway. I have it in mind to ask my Lady Wife to fabricate a gamboised one, mostly for the appearance. Will someone give me a guideline for how many vervelles one uses to attach an aventail to a bascinet? It has a grille ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I wonder if we could convince the manufacturer to make a black or gray version . . . . ? The red colour is the only downside to these, once you get 'em mounted. I recall someone on one of these forums saying that spray-on bedliner (such as you use on pickup trucks) is durable and flexible enough to ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

That it's true competition and so realistic is outstanding. Wish I had the resources to venture into that arena.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Great if you read Italian. Is it a historical-research book?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Are you sure "anime" is the right term?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

We had a rather odd run-in with an authority figure at a park in Portsmouth, Virginia earlier this year. We had been moving our fighting practices around to get exposure to different populations. When we went to a large park in Portsmouth, both our armoured fighters and fencers showed up and began t...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

There are several designs for armour stands using hinges that can be folded up for ease of transport.

I have a welded steel armour stand, but I often think wooden ones are more pleasing visually - and probably better for the armour as well.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Russ Mitchell wrote:Make yourself endure it, over and over and over again, preferably in connection to something good that you like.

(Why does that statement make me think of a scene from Excalibur . . . ?)

Donal Mac Ruiseart

When I dye leather that's going to get hard use (such as my body armour), I use a sealant on it. Don't recall the exact name of the product but it's a milky white liquid. In fact, I've treated the INSIDE of my body armour with the stuff so it will absorb less perspiration than otherwise. One who per...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Excellent idea, and elegantly executed. A commendable project.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Guillaume de Channynge wrote:Besides Fred is taking the piss.

Isn't that rather difficult to do on horseback?

Seriously, I understand that the phrase is probably a figure of speech. Will someone please explain it?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Hm, another case of being on the outside of an inside joke.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Vermin wrote:Well, I assume if I leave my orange juice laying around, he [Sir Vitus]'ll drink it.....

I doubt that.

Knowing it belongs to someone, though he may not know who; Sir Vitus's sense of honour would prevent him from even so petty a theft.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

That many? I thought it was more like six. At an air show where I saw one of them (surprising how small they look up close), the owner explained that the reason the ones still flying are the later models is that most of the earlier ones didn't survive the war, and when the Govt. offered the (demilit...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I've only a couple of things to add to the excellent advice I've seen so far. I think there IS a finite amount of Pennsic Wisdom, but I'm not sure where the finity is. Early on, get on one of the hay-wagons and ride it all the way around, until it gets back to your starting point. That will give you...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I've always used a soft grip on my shields (usually old military belt webbing). What I like about using that along with a hockey glove on the shield hand is that it puts my hand directly on the back of the shield, with the mostly-flat back of the glove, melding the shield to my arm very well with ve...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Perhaps they do now, but for quite some time she got underway twice a year, for the turnaround. To equalize the wear and tear, every six months they'd ease her away from the pier and . . . turn her around. She was officially underway for that time; they probably went through all the formalities of s...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I remember reading about Bam. There was a big fort or city wall that just sorta dissolved when the quake hit. One minute, a spectacular if moldering structure, another minute, BAM! - a big pile of dirt. Good thing no one was in there . . . I suspect that the term "mud bricks" comes from a ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Probably. This has been educational as well. I'd never heard of rammed earth as a construction technique. I wonder how a well-cured rammed-earth wall would stand up to trebuchet projectiles. I see that some of the examples shown are fortifications, so it must have some of that kind of mechanical dur...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Some years ago, after a major refit, they actually bent sails on Old Ironsides and put to sea under sail.

Must've been a heady experience; it was the first time she'd been under sail for decades.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Will someone point me to an image of such a helm?

I'm unfamiliar with the term as applied to helms.

I've heard of lobster TAIL helms, but not of lobster POTS.

When I think of a lobster pot I think of a wood-framed mesh trap . . . .

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Aye, Baron Alejandro, Sir Roland, and Duke Ragnarr all competed in both the duelling and armoured combat pas.

Much credit to them, who underwent that added exertion on so hot a day as that.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Interesting standards he has . . .

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Thank you for the compliment and the pictures, Alejandro. You are a true friend and a worthy and preux opponent. (And I won't comment on those spears.) The event itself was something RenÃ© of Anjou would have approved. There was pageantry, elegance, fine exchanges of blows, and good spirit throughou...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

This probably is a very naive question, but . . . Did the Byzantine Empire make knights? Was there an institution of knighthood in the Empire? My understanding is that the Byzantine Empire maintained some form of the Imperial Roman military structure. If that was the case, it does not appear that th...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

OK thanks, I'll see what the h-cost folks will find.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Have you a URL for the image? When I quoted your post, nothing appeared.

I copied it and enclosed it in a message to my wife but she didn't receive the image.

My wife is on a costumers' list some of whose members may recognize it.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

"Doc, it hurts when I do this."

"Don't do that!"

Donal Mac Ruiseart

From what I understand, the Romans loved to game and gamble, and a favourite place was the bathouse.

I know they played marbles but didn't know about the different dice. But they'd be a natural for the bathouse, too; since humidity wouldn't affect them.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I've seen Hever described as an old soldier's dream house, because although it incorporates many sound military features, it's built too weakly to be of real value as a fortification. And I had an aha moment not long past, reading some of the posts that mentioned bastles. I've seen the word used and...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Boni sunt [et] malique, et officium bonorum est malus necare. Well, the "et" is not needed because the -que ending covers that. And the "malus" in the second part is the nominative singular, should be, um, accusative plural = malos. And "est" is often omitted in this s...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

There is an awesome little chidlren's book about a jousting princess called "The Princess Knight" by Cornelia Fulke. I think it was a story in a magazine, but I recall a tale of a noble lady who refused to accept the gender role. I don't remember the details but I do recollect one line, w...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

[T]he Barony of Northwoods adopted, translated into bad Latin and constructed a big banner to proclaim these deathless words of Stan Lee: There are the good guys and there are the bad guys, and it is the job of the good guys to kill the bad guys. I REMEMBER that banner! It was present at one of the...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I have seen Greek hoplite types with spears and the so-called "figure-8" shields, and I believe they used the cutaways in that manner.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Impressive! What version is it that you're reading? Publication info? (It's not part of your father's dissertation, is it?)

NEW QUESTION: How to Secure the Visor Strap?

????

Airworthy B-17s

Byzantine Knights?

Re: What is your motto? and Why?

Re: What is your motto? and Why?