The Armour Archive

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Is the Villager front wheel drive? When I went to get a hitch on my (front-wheel drive) Chevy Uplander, the guys at U-Haul said they hoped I wasn't planning to do any serious trailering with it. I said no, I just want to be able to move the trailer, or maybe take something across town. Seems the con...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

At 6' even I don't quite fit the mold, though at 220 I'm not the skinny dude I once was. I wish I could be there to cross axes with you in honour of your friend. Sadly, we won't be making Pennsic this year. My pole-axe would be a fair match with your Dane axe. I raise it, though, in salute to your f...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

. Here are my renditions into English blazonry of the Bretons' arms: ⋅ Olivier Arrel : Quarterly argent and azure ⋅ Geoffroy de Beaucorps : Azure, two fasces Or ⋅ Jehan III de Beaumanoir : Azure billety argent ⋅ Caro III de Bodegat : Gules, three torteaux...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Your Grace~ If by honourable you mean done in a sense of fair play and sportsmanship, taking only the advantages presented by your skill and fortune, and using only as much force as is needed to decide a match; of giving your opponent the benefit of the doubt and trusting - unless proven otherwise -...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

James Anderson III posted this on the Merry Rose , Atlantia's mailing list. I am reposting it with his permission. The link is to his website. "I recently scanned a set of photocopies I have of a book that is written in italian, and has many pictures of armor in black and white. However, they a...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

According to some, King Arthur's horse was called Passelande. According to others, he had a mare called Llamrei (Lamri) and another called Hengroen. Still others name Arthur's horses Aubagu, Dhu, and Llamrei. And then some refer to Arain, Signus, and Grey Falcon. And they also call Sir Gawainâ€™s st...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

There are accounts of several Deeds here in the Archive, including one by Sir Bryce de Byram and one of my own. Here is the link to my Deed. I have pictures, which I haven't yet posted this long after. I didn't have the wherewithal then; I should create an album of them. I had a small pennon with an...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Edric the Bastard wrote:It was especially funny since I was wielding the stabbing spear . . .

Isn't "stabbing spear" redundant?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

So I challenge the white belt, and he beats the shit out of me. Wasn't I just pushed around? No, because you stood up for yourself and exacted a price from the other person, even if you lost. Your weren't pushed around, you were beaten. There is, in my mind, a big difference. A weaker entity can ex...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

List Field of the Barony of Marinus Here is an overall view. http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/315417/sn/718296249/name/List.jpg This shows something of the construction of one of the end posts. The flagstaffs fit into the opening left by making the 2X4s into a "box." http://xa.yimg.com/kq/grou...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Gotgo wrote:If I was going to say a time I would say the 12th century. Sorry if this is a shunned on this site . . .

Don't let the 14th Century Mafia types scare you off. That period is a favourite of a lot of the people here but we don't really scorn earlier periods. Not all of us, anyway.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Sable , an elephant passant affante argent on a flame gules within an anulet argent and in chief dexter a starling azure volant to chief dexter Is the elephant "walking out" of the image? His body facing outward? If so, that is affronty or affronte. The red flame is on the black field whi...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I tried thrusters on my one-handed swords, but I didn't like what they seem to do to the dynamics of the weapons, and I rarely seemed to have the chance to use them. On the other hand, I use thrusters on my great sword quite regularly, putting in a thrust as a follow-up more often than as a primary ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

D'you know you can bake in a cardboard box, with a pie tin and only a few hot coals?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

[T]he "finished" project was about 6'tall, 10' long, and had such features as... individual deck planks a mile or so of hand made rope working block and tackles I read an article once about some ship models at the British Admiralty. They were built as examples of ship classes and were ver...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

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My son wants one to shoot at Lego figures . . . he even has the idea of making a Lego gun carriage for it.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Crimthann of Fid-Nemed wrote:SCA related relics.

A feather from the arrow Caradoc first used to declare the first Pennsic War!

Cariadoc. Cariadoc of the Bow, the king who declared war on himself - and lost.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I've used MS Visio Pro. It's not the best for pictorials, but for a long time it was all I had. I've mocked up arms and standards in it.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Below, in order of precedence, are the registered entrants in Atlantia's Spring Crown Tourney, to take place on the first day of May in the Barony of Hidden Mountain. Count Sinclair Hawkins Count Vlad Ivonivich Aleksandrov Sir Bryan of Sacred Stone Sir Theron Andronikos Sir Afshin Darius Sir Kieran ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

The helms aren't sitting atop the crests; the crests are sitting atop the helms! A lot of people misunderstand the use of the term "crest," using it to describe what is properly called a coat of arms. That's what's on the shield: The coat of arms. In some periods, a knight going a-tourneyi...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

is there a wording for somthing like, Or, Two Horses Combatant Sable, Tails Entertwined? If you trace the drawing, you'll see that there is one strand connecting the tail-ends of the horses, and another strand not connected to either of them. Drawn differently, you could possibly do that but they'd...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Aonghus wrote:Men of Iron / Black Shield of Falworth, Ivanhoe (several nice versions), Henry V (Branaugh version),

No, not the Branagh version of Henry V. Too bloody. Find the Olivier version.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

My pell is a section of treated lumber, one of the pieces they sell to use as borders around flowerbeds and the like. I bought it at a yard sale. It's sunk into the ground so as to be just about 6 feet tall. That's my height. It's covered with heavy-duty carpet that I salvaged from a former workplac...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

"Brave and bold Sir Robin
Set forth from Camelot . . . "

Wasn't the field of his checky Or and argent?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

dukelogan wrote:none of my guys will let me hit them with it though......

Would you let any of them hit you with it?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Robert of Canterbury wrote:The Company of Saint Barbara. (She's your Patron Saint)

Or if you wanted to go classical, The Company of Apollo (the God that strikes from afar)

IN RE Saint Barbara: That tower would be more dramatic if you included the lightning bolt.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I remember something similar called a Heidelberg tourney where you square off in range of your opponent, plant your lead foot, and only take head shots. First good head shot or moving the lead foot is out. That's a sort of back-formation from the German style of sabre fencing popular in the 19th ce...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Fine enough. But just saying.

I don't equate decency and courtesy with bovine excrement.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

If you're going to lay a scatalogical insult on someone, why bother to hide it by putting it in Latin? But if you intend to use it in the SCA, my opinion is that such expressions are out of place on a field of honour. If I were marshalling a tourney and saw something like that on a shield or surcote...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

lochinvar76 wrote:Would a harlot patch be used to ween someone off their prostitute addiction?

Or is it a repellent, like a mosquito patch?

Maybe Sir Vitus would know . . .

Donal Mac Ruiseart

That rule has literally been around for decades. Its been on the books since I started in 1980. Back then there were almost no basket hilts. Almost everything was a cross-hilt made of split rattan taped across the sword. Things were simpler then... It was in place when I started fighting in 1974 (A...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

"As we know them" means what, exactly? What you referenced are all royal crowns. Those, in one form or another, go back to antiquity. I concede that my reference to "coronets as we know them" was a bit vague. What I meant was, the array of coronets denoting the ranks from Ducal ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I remember reading, years and years ago, that coronets as we know them go back only to about the 17th Century.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I use those [spiral dog lead stakes] to hold the tongue of my trailer down when I roll motorcycles on and off. Two of them hooked to the safety chains works quite well, and is plenty strong to hold a Harley and my 200+ pound dad when he put his bike on. Now that is an EXCELLENT idea. I always have ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

http://www.historiavivens1300.at/ Austrians for the knight photos surf to http://www.historiavivens1300.at/biblio/ritter.htm And in case you hadn't figured it out, add -e after ritter to get the English version, i.e., http://www.historiavivens1300.at/biblio/ritter-e.htm The English translation was ...

Illustrations from an Old Armour Book

List Field of the Barony of Marinus

Re: An attempt at heraldry

Atlantia's Spring Crown List

Crests on Helms, not Helms on Crests

Re: my new axe, almost finished (imgs attached)