The Armour Archive

Ok, I just got back from gulf wars, where I bought brian prices book. Dear gawd is that book helpfull! I've decided that I am going to make a new suit of armour, out of heat treated 18g, and get rid of the 16g plate I have now. I want to go all out on this and make everything I possibly can, rather than relying on Petsmart to supply dog collars for straps and such. Most of my armouring tools are in houston, waiting the rest of the trip back from mississippi, so I wont have my sheet metal shapping tools for a few days, so I'm going to make some new tools that I have been needing in the time waiting. Here are my questions:

1. On gothic armour, I've seen some rolls, especially on breastplates, that dont roll all the way, just a 180 degree curve. Is this only done on the breastplate, and why? I assume it is so that the point of a weapon would catch it, rather than skipping into the neck or underarm.

2. Would it be reasonable to make couters that look like floating coppes, but have them hard articulated on lames? I figure hard articulation is better at stopping sword thrusts than floating articulation, but is it reasonable for german armour 1440-1500?

3. On vambraces, would hinges be on the inside or outside of the vambrace, does it matter, or is it relative to location and time?

4. I like the look of the millanese gauntlet style that is half mitten, with fingers on the ends. Was this ever used in gothic armour?

5. On some later period armour, there is the plate that comes up off the pauldrons to protect the neck, head. I know the name, I just seem to be having a brain fart and cant remember it. I'm trying to go for somethind different than mundane munitions armour I see on the field, and this may be something I can add, so was it used in the time period of 1440-1500 on gothic armour, and if so, would it be used on both arms, or just the left arm?(I just want it on the left armour).

6. I seem to have lost the link(again) to a czech armoury that had alot of stuff I liked. I dont remember the name, but i know it wasnt kkart. It had some really nice gothic and milanese stuff with maille, that looked very pretty and out of the ordinary. Anyone have a link?

Thanks ahead of time, as I'm going to go unpack my truck and crash for the rest of the day. I'm so sore from running around in plate and maille in the ravine battle, I dont know how I even fought the other two days. I've got to get lighter armour if I want to fight with Rhoadd, so thats why I'm going to heat treated 18g rather than 16g like I have now.

Hi Stoffel, to answer your questions;(1)I'd roll it all the way (2) Use floating articulations on the elbow cops.All German gothic I've seen is done this way.It does give great freedom of movement and should be easier to make than riveted articulation. This way of doing it was even popular in the 16th century in germany.(3) I've seen the hinges done both ways,either way would be correct.(4) Only the Italians used that type of gauntlet as far as I know (5) Haute gaurds or haute pieces are mainly found on italian armours in the 15th cent.If you see one on a german harness they are usually quite small.(6)http://www.bestarmour.com/

GWAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Is there some way to prevent these fields from doing the Windows thing, where you hit escape and everything blanks out??? I use the vi editor in UNIX all day, and as soon as I try to get out of insert mode in a post, everything disappears!!!!!

Anyway, take two.... I only have answers for a couple things here.

2. Would it be reasonable to make couters that look like floating coppes, but have them hard articulated on lames?

Ditto on what Otto said. I use floating cops, and they're pretty big. The only real problem I've had is that they originally came with sissy veg tan strapping. When I fight spear, I have a tendency to catch my cops on the guy next to me when I throw a shot in a heavy melee. It's never stopped the shot, but until I put bolshy oil tanned boot leather in place, I was blowing straps.

I imagine rivets would prevent that from happening, but I've never seen it done, period or otherwise. It's not that big a problem if you have real straps.

4. I like the look of the millanese gauntlet style that is half mitten, with fingers on the ends. Was this ever used in gothic armour?

Maybe. There are armors out there that incorporate both Italian and German styles. I once saw a bohemian armor that has a barbute, gothic chest and arms, and Milanese gaunts.

However, there's debate as to whether or not these are authentic, or were pieced together from separate harnesses at some point over the last five hundred years. I read once that in the Victorian era, when people were starting to get interested in this sort of thing again, there were dealers who unscrupulously pieced together any old thing, and sold it as an "authentic" harness.

I haven't seen any illustrations, woodcuts, or illuminations that would suggest that this was done. However, I find it hard to believe that the poorer soldiers wouldn't piece together anything they could fit in to.

If it were me, I'd do it. In fact, I do already. My theory is that I've got more justification for wearing differing styles of armor together from the same time period than others do for wearing smurf hide or putting horse tails on everything.

HELMUT