The Armour Archive

Hello all,

http://www.themcs.org/armour/knights/Pe ... 201323.jpg

Over the next 2 or 3 years I'd like to put together a very close approximation of the brass linked above but there are a few details I'm not yet sure about and I am hoping the experience of the members here may be able to help me.

First detail is the sword scabbard. I believe it would be textured to the pattern depicted and then painted. Does this ring true to how others understand decorative elements?

Next is the slight pattern that trims each of the armoured plates over the body. I cannot decide if this is likely to be a brass detail, painted, embossed, engraved, etched or another technique I have not yet considered, which is thought to be most likely?

Finally for now are the knee cops. They are decorated in a very floral fashion and from my studying this depiction I am almost convinced they are in some way a 3 dimensional ornament on top of the cop. The way the leave elements extend over what looks like the lines of the armour, that the flower doesn't lie true with the leaves and the thin line that lies in the fore ground which to my mind looks like it may be a small bar to help protect or provide rigidity to the decoration. I am open to alternative views on how the effect may have been done or of the general belief is that it is 3 dimensional what materials would they have constructed it from?

Any and all inputs and speculation are welcome and thank you for taking the time to read my post.

http://effigiesandbrasses.com/649/859/
There's certainly room for speculation! Many sources insist the highly decorated poleyns are cuir bouilli with tooled and painted décor. Most contemporary manuscript depictions of floral decoration on the knees merely show them as silver/gray/white and black.
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4447/13992/
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4278/9274/
The belt and scabbard might be a combination of tooling and metal or enameled plaques.
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4395/8754/

Thom Richardson documents the use of brass, silver, cloth, and painting of arm and leg defenses. From 1344 we have this example of a painted elbow roundel:

40 pairs of rerebraces, one pair of orichalcum, one of iron with an elbow defence and
‘lunette’ painted with the arms of England, 38 pairs covered with cloth in various colours,

It's almost impossible to guess wrong, as long as you're willing to admit it's a speculative reconstruction.

Tooled, dyed, then water-hardened, then maybe accent-painted as well leather seems to answer for ornate knees of that man's time -- a harness of hauberk and chausses with reinforcements laid on over each.

Contemporary with John D'Aubernoun and Robert de Bures, both of whom have similar arrangements for the swordbelt. Oakeshott's Archaeology of Weapons diagrams the principle of the attachment of the buckskin belt -- deerskin is flexible enough to do this while being thick enough for strength, cowhide better favors other, less interwoven, methods -- passing the thongs through arrangements of slits in both belt and the light leather covering the scabbard.

Check the the fb group, 14th century mafia,
Luca from the AA hosts the group. He has a very sweet kit and I know as a group they will be all about helping you achieve this goal.
Uls

I like the way Ernst puts it.

There are two 14th century mafia groups on facebook that sprung up independently without knowledge of each other. Facebook won't let us merge them. One has a period on the end of the name and one doesn't. There's a fair amount of overlap between the two groups, with the "." version being a little more international and the non"." group being a little chattier.