The Armour Archive

...or the alternate title: Is Sinric really tall?

Anyways, I've just about got one leg done of Sinric's 15th century leg pattern.

Here's a couple of progress pics:





My question? I'm just not sure where these things should sit on my leg. I'm guessing the top part of the cuisse should line up with the seam between leg and torso, right about here:



But when I do that, the bottom part of the cuisse hangs way out over my knee:



If I used the cuisse from the pattern, the knee cop would hang about 4-5 inches past my kneecap.

So before I take my saw to this thing, is that where the cuisse is supposed to sit? As far as I can tell, that's where she should be. But I figured I'd ask first before I start cutting.

Seems the right way to hang these. And James Arlen seems to wear his at that altitude.

So what say the archive? Trim the cuisse because I'm hanging them right and they're made for someone taller than me, or do something else because I am hanging them wrong or I'm misunderstanding something?

Stand up, too, and see whether the cuisse, with the upper articulation right up there at the crease of the thigh (the other definition of a groin) where you have it in your pics and see whether the cuisse end lands short of your kneecap, which is where it should.

I call this kind of effect the "parallel lamp-arm effect" after the parallelograms an adjustable lamp arm with two beams and hinged crossmembers at either end of the pair of beams makes by being moved about. Your leg hinges at your hip socket, but your cuisse hinges at another point some inches away from it -- higher if you're sitting as in your pics, ahead if you're standing. To keep the cuisse from migrating up and down relative to your thigh, it's usually valuable to have its suspending or swing point over near the hip socket, so that the cuisse isn't being pushed up and down as your leg moves.

Often, a cuisse should come rather short of the groin line, to give room for your leg to fully flex at the hip joint. Cloth folds, metal tries to cut its way into you. The articulation at the top is intended to give you some slack with your leg fully bent. In the next century you saw a series of lames working in the same place.

Konstantin the Red wrote:Stand up, too, and see whether the cuisse, with the upper articulation right up there at the crease of the thigh (the other definition of a groin) where you have it in your pics and see whether the cuisse end lands short of your kneecap, which is where it should.

Ah, good! So that is where they should hang then. Thanks. Yeah, I'll do some mobility tests before I cut to make sure I fit this thing correctly.

I call this kind of effect the "parallel lamp-arm effect" after the parallelograms an adjustable lamp arm with two beams and hinged crossmembers at either end of the pair of beams makes by being moved about. Your leg hinges at your hip socket, but your cuisse hinges at another point some inches away from it -- higher if you're sitting as in your pics, ahead if you're standing. To keep the cuisse from migrating up and down relative to your thigh, it's usually valuable to have its suspending or swing point over near the hip socket, so that the cuisse isn't being pushed up and down as your leg moves.

That makes perfect sense, thanks. Good way to describe it.

Often, a cuisse should come rather short of the groin line, to give room for your leg to fully flex at the hip joint. Cloth folds, metal tries to cut its way into you. The articulation at the top is intended to give you some slack with your leg fully bent. In the next century you saw a series of lames working in the same place.

I think that was what was throwing me. I really couldn't visualize what that top articulation was actually for.

Lookin' good, Louis! I'd play with it, as it might still be longer than you really want it to be.

Thanks Clermont! Will do.