The Armour Archive

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Would that stuff be good for padding gambesons and the like?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Greeting, Lord Owain. Firstly, accept my condolence on the passing of your lady. Such an one is worthy of honour in this life and the next, forsooth. Secondly, accept my salute at your undertaking this Deed of Arms. You honour the memory of your lady, all who accept your challenge, and yourself in t...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Those sketches are yours, George?

Your artistic ability is admirable.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

What're you planning to do, Aaron? Take holy orders and fight as a warrior-monk like Bro. Amos?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Forgive my curiosity, but what part of the costume will this be? A wig?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Ursus, did you air-brush the "cobra pilot's" face or does he have some sort of screen or sunshade behind the bar-grille?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Your Majesty, my problem must rest with my 'day-job' computer. On this one at home the pictures come up with no problem. Thing is, I can't ask the IT guru at work to help me figure it out 'coz I'm probably not s'posed to be looking at commercial sites like that at work. So that aventail is suitable ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

The first link just took me to a black page such as I saw before. The second took me to a close-up of the aventail. All I could see was the right front quarter. The person wearing it didn't seem to have a helm on. Am I using the term correctly? Some call what I'm think of a camail - to hang from the...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I went back and tried that - in each case it took me to a black page with the heading of the maille type but no pictures and no links. One exception - one took me to the next page identifying different sizes of maille, but those likewise took me to the sort of page described above. I'm interested in...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Your Grace, when I go to your site I run up against errors aplenty.

All I see under maille, for example, is the close-ups of the different types. I cannot see examples of any of the items.

Whassamatta?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Kilian, I can't quite figure out how that last helm you showed (l_78a8cdbff90ffcd5b7673526bef91c81.jpg)is configured. D'you have any more images of it?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Why do I think of storm warnings when I see those?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Thanks for the update!

Donal Mac Ruiseart

In the Devonshire hunting tapestries, in the V&A, we see the social attitude recorded in art as late as 1425-1450. In one panel, a young nobleman is fondleing the Millers wife, she is in discomfort, trying to gently ward him off, while the miller looks away troubled in demeanour, but is helples...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

How's the progress on my gauntlets?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

In SCA style fighting such a weapon is not really practical because of the limited (essentially nonexistent) wrist movement. I remember one SCA fighter, many years ago, who made an SCA version of that weapon. It was almost impossible to score a telling blow swinging it, though it WAS pretty deadly a...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Aniol: No offence taken - my answer was just by way of saying I recognize what you were referring to. In fact, I was just looking at the display of them in Home Depot a couple days ago. My son needs one to finish making his trebuchet. Someone who didn't know what "other thread" you were re...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

For cutting a circle, up to a certain diameter, you can cheat and just get a drill attachment that is essentially a saw blade bent into a circle. That'll cut your circles out for you. Aye, a hole saw. I used one of those in making the cutouts in my weapons rack . I don' t know if they come big enou...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Vladimir wrote:At the time I built the chest I did not have access to any saws that would cut a curved line.

Heck, I have enough trouble making straight cuts true. To attempt curves would be my undoing, especially were I to try a circle!

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Donal's got a great adaptation of the basic cart/wain/wheelbarrow I've seen in woodcuts, and I wouldn't change the wheelbase at all. Thanks. Are the wheels you're using the lawn mower replacement ones with pressed in bearings? No, they're the solid ones you switched to. Nice diagram... Visio? I was...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Marco-borromei's version has easily removeable wheels. If I were to put the wheels on the inboard sides of the frame rails and have the wheels go inside the box, I would have to enclose the wheels inside, else there'd be the problem of friction between the contents and the wheels. BTW I lubricated t...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

This is the drawing I made as a guide for the chest: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2649/3874669296_eb9c6bf115.jpg I added explanatory notes to clarify it. To get a better look, go to the Flickr gallery . If you've any questions, please post them here so the questions and answers are available to ev...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Vladimir - I don't think anyone will have trouble telling 'em apart; yours is much better made than mine. My Lady WIfe Catherine keeps promising to paint my Arms on the front of it. Glaucos - neat idea but it would require two people to carry. One of the advantages of the wheels is that it's easily ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Whether stained, bare wood, or painted; chests like these add a great deal to the authentic appearance of events - even if they are not perfectly historical. I encourage anyone to construct some such container for their kit. I have a rather detailed drawing of the chest, including all the dimensions...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Actually, I INTEND it to be sat upon. I sit on it all the time, and it had a real trial by fire at a recent fighting practice, when a friend of mine weighing over 300 pounds sat on it. My Lady wife had reservations about the wheels. They're only rated at 60 pounds, but that's 60 pounds EACH, and whe...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Before I made the weapons rack , I made this armour chest. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/3866085293_47d23993ab.jpg The inspiration came from Baron Vladimir, who had made a similar chest about a year before. I made mine larger, because my armour is bulkier, and I used plywood because 15-inch pl...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Nissan Maxima wrote:I read that title as " beer, excuses and bruises."

Brews-es, Excuses, and Bruises?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

UrsusofAnglesey wrote:That's Prince Vlad of Atlantia on his knees, but I do not know his opponent. (HRH Dag Thorgrimsson)

That is an historic photo, my friends, something rarely seen:

Vladimir fighting with sword and shield.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

Your Grace, I salute your excellent instruction and the quality of the audio. Even in your helm, your speech was comprehensible. But if I may . . . I think the presentation would be enhanced if the presenters were in garb and if the setting were somewhere other than right on the street, with cars pa...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I'm not an expert but I'm also not completely convinced that St. George is wearing a corazinna. It very well could be just a covered breast plate with velvet and ornate brasswork over the top of it. I'm not qualified to discuss the armour but that's not St. George - it's St. Michael the Archangel. ...

Donal Mac Ruiseart

In '89 I had been in the SCA for 15 years and was possibly older than a lot of you kids are now.

I was 37.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

.

Gilebert: Ahhhh, yesss, now we sees it! Thanks.

Isabella: Thanks for the offer. I've got all the technical information I think I need. My only impediment is a total lack of artistic skill.

Donal Mac Ruiseart

The pages I went to when I followed that link didn't show me any Gatorade bottles . . . which photo or photos shows it? My curiosity is piqued!

The flags, pennons, guidons, banners, and all are out-bloody-standing! I need to make me one or two of those things!

Donal Mac Ruiseart

I'm thinking the brownish object next to the woman is a sugar loaf. Would its sweetness be an allusion to the woman's youth and beauty?

Donal Mac Ruiseart

The first guy who walked into the trombone shot with the slide looked SHOCKED - it was funny. And seeing Duke Comar swinging a list legal stand-up bass was worth the price of admission. OK, how did the 'bone work? How'd you get enough oomph to score a shot with something like that? And the bass . ....

Hello - Armourer Eric . . . .

Wheeled Armour Chest

Re: Pennsic pictures