The Armour Archive

Hi all,

Here's a project we're working on for a client now. We're training him to joust at Knight School. It's a 1460-70 Italian (Milanese) Cuirass made in spring steel.

We'll be making a spring steelgreat bascinet with a frog mouth jousting visor and an interchangeable melee/foot combat visor also.

The source pieces for this project are the Frederich the Victorious helm in Vienna and various cuirasses from Berne, Swizterland, Mantua and Churburg. The goal here is to produce an original work that's not an exact copy of an extant piece, but one that works stylistically within the period aesthetic and would fit in amongst survivals. I like doing that on most of my pieces, so a client gets something unique but still historically accurate in form and function.

Here are the pictures from the fitting yesterday-


I'll be posting more photos as there are still some details to add to the cuirass and I didn't shoot the tassets in these photos. I also have the rolls done now. The straps shown in the above pics are just temps for the fitting. I'll be starting the helm this week too, so that should be interesting to see as it progresses.

For those who are interested, we are accepting commissions for spring steel pieces! The standard 14th c stuff is up (the stuff people have fought over when used pieces come up for sale...), so take a look on the HE website. We're very much open to custom historical pieces too-- Just drop me a line and inquire. jeffrey @ historicenterprises.com

Looking good, nice clean lines.

I agree, very nice. I would very much like to see the finished product, keep posting.

Awesome! I always like to see more well-executed 15th century Italian-style cuirasses. This is my very favorite style of armour.

Ditto, I like the lines Jeff !

Damn skinny people always look good in armor. How come I never look like that? Oh yeah, answered my own question.

Please keep the pictures coming, especially the Great Bascinet.

Sean

Sean Powell wrote:Damn skinny people always look good in armor. How come I never look like that? Oh yeah, answered my own question.

Soft tissue is compressible, as long as one doesn't try to change the total volume...

Great looking armour BTW!

Nice stuff JEff!

RPM

RalphS wrote:

Sean Powell wrote:Damn skinny people always look good in armor. How come I never look like that? Oh yeah, answered my own question.

Soft tissue is compressible, as long as one doesn't try to change the total volume...

Great looking armour BTW!

Yeah, ever try to run, fight and BREATH with that soft tissue pushed to the wrong place? Heck just try and bend sideways until the soft tissue on one side becomes tight pulling the armor even farther and squeezing the soft tissue on your other side into your lower ribs and Illiac crest of your hip.

Been there, got the bruises. I'll trade hours of pain in the gym loosing the weight to miss hours of pain post fighting.

Sean

First up, that's plain ole gorgeous that is! Aaaargh, I was all happy in the 14th century but the 15th is nifty too.

As well as gorgeous that is one heck of an inspiration for staying on a diet.

Josh will probably have wet dreams about that backplate for months

That looks just great!

~j

Smashing suit mate. I will be in San Diego on business in a couple of months. I would love to meet you and your lady over lunch or dinner and perhaps discuss a new commission?

Thanks for the kind words guys. Been working on the culet plate and rolls. Also the overall symetricality-- it's always a bitch getting these things to the right match-up at the sides. Yikes! Coming together though.

I do really like making armour for guys who are shaped well for it. Makes the armour look soooo much better.

Brent--- Ewwwwww.

Catalan-- Happy to meet up and show you the shop. Your handle doesn't ring a bell. Have we met?

More pics tomorrow-- should have hinges worked and some plate lineups trimmed. Gotta pattern that bascinet up too.....o, crap--- BACK TO THE SHOP FOR ME!

Nice, can't wait to see the helmet! Is it typical to have the client have a fitting at this stage?

I love the look. Beautiful work. As you say, the shape of the client can add a lot to the beauty of the piece. I fear I am a bit more Henry VIII than Sigismund. When I get around to making my 1450 cuirass it will never look so nice even if only due to my love of food!

lorenzo2 wrote:Nice, can't wait to see the helmet! Is it typical to have the client have a fitting at this stage?

This was actually the second fitting. We did an earlier one when Luke had only the upper plates roughed out. Those plates had to be locked in before I could do the fauld, culet and rolls. Without the main body of the cuirass, the lines of the skirt plates couldn't really be even patterned, let alone sheared and formed.

The client is only about 2 hours away, so we have the luxury of more frequent fittings than when the client is further away. Sometimes we have to schedule fittings with more long-distance customers, so it gets trickier to arrange and I have to do more with measurements and body castings or photos.

We'll have one more fitting for the helm, but that should be the last one, before we finish up the project. I'll be heat treating the cuirass in the next couple of days, while I pattern and form the helmet body. The sight position of the visor is the major concern there, but I have a profile tracing and photos so it shouldn't be too hard.

Hey Doug, thanks for the compliments. It means a lot coming from you.

I'll try to get more photos up tomorrow.

One of the few times It is correct to say authentic.

Thanks Jeff, the only pieces I have made are for myself and neighbors so I have not had to tackle the fittings problem.

Looking real nice Jeff, you and Luke have got some really subtle shaping in with striking results, I look forward to seeing further progress.

Matt

The cuirass is basically ready to heat treat. Did up the rolls, hinges and trimmed some plates since the last photos. Also did a little hot-work on the culet plate. It's come together nicely, and the afternoon I'll be patterning the great bascinet.



A couple of other views, since you can't see all the shape in the ones above...


The hinges... (I did a couple extra, only needed 5)

And mounted on the left side...

Interesting. Do you heat treat and then grind & polish?
I grind, polish, heat treat, and then polish again.

This is something I've wondered about for a while with these...is the backplate put together with fixed or sliding rivets?

Hi,

I always do my grinding and polishing post-heat treatment.

These multiple plate backplates have solid rivets. I'm still trying to figure out why the Italians made them in multiple pieces, other than that they look cool and to show off their talent that they could make something in multiple pieces when it is actually easier to make it in one piece.

J


(spelling corrected)

Jeffrey Hedgecock wrote:I always to my grinding and polishing post-heat treatment.

I will have to try that. It would save a step of redundancy.

I've gotten a lot of hard work done on the great bascinet that goes with this cuirass, so thought folks here would like to see.



Here's the album with more photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 ... =554676085

The sculptural lines of that piece are wonderful! Will it be strapped to the cuirass when worn?

Thanks for the progress pics.
It sure is coming along nicely.

vacca boia! (XV century popular exclamation meaning loosely what a marvel).

That is some beautiful work. Gotta be in pretty good shape to fit into that waist line too.

So I go and see the Knight School site and notice the jousting event that I missed which happended just yesterday, and less than a two hour drive away near San Diego. I'll definitely be going next year now that I know about it.

Jeff,

Wow that is looking really nice! I'd love to stop by your shop and say hello of(when) I move back to California. I bet in person it is 100 times better.

RPM

btmcrae wrote:That is some beautiful work. Gotta be in pretty good shape to fit into that waist line too.

So I go and see the Knight School site and notice the jousting event that I missed which happended just yesterday, and less than a two hour drive away near San Diego. I'll definitely be going next year now that I know about it.

You're in luck!

That "event" yesterday was just our regular monthly training session, and we'll have another one next month-- March 7. Check out the Knight School Website for more info.

We'll be having another Tournament of the Phoenix in October

I've gotten further along on the helmet, so here's a couple more photos:



I'm working on the two visors now, one for tilting and one for melee, and will post more pics when those are a little further along in a day or so.

Hope you likeee.

This whole harness is just truly inspirational!!!

A question about the faulds. They look like they are directlt articulated to each other rather than to internal leathers. Is that the case? I had thought that the italian style harnesses from this period generally used some form of internal leathers.

Thanks again for posting this.

Alec wrote:This whole harness is just truly inspirational!!!

A question about the faulds. They look like they are directlt articulated to each other rather than to internal leathers. Is that the case? I had thought that the italian style harnesses from this period generally used some form of internal leathers.

Thanks again for posting this.

I'm assuming Jeff is using the same technique that I was taught. The faulds are firmly bolted or riveted together during final shaping and heat-treat. Then the rivets or bolts are removed and the visible holes filled with a decorative rivet through the outermost plate only. The inner plate uses that same hole to attach to leather straps.

In some cases the faulds might be connected with slotted rivets on the left side only so the right can compress when mounting a horse but the faulds won't rotate but I don't think that is a typical 15th century feature.

Sean