The Armour Archive

This monday I finished re-strapping and covering my shield. I was having a problem with the shield's balance...tipping forward at the top due to the top heavyness of the handle. I also couldn't fit my gauntleted hand into the metal bracket type handle, and so I did the following:



I removed the solid bar-stock handle with the wooden grip that I had at the top of the shield and made a leather handle using oil-tanned leather. Inside is rolled-up veg-tanned leather at the center to give it bulk, which is then wrapped in ballistic cloth (for durability) that extends to the ends. So the leather is just ornamental, and the balistic nylon strap is doing the work.



I removed the buckle and narrow strap configuration I had, and followed Sir Corby's directions on hanging a shield. I made a wider arm strap from some scrap 13 oz. vegtanned leather. Before affixing the bottom, I realized that I would be unable to slip my gauntleted hand (with the large hourglass cuffs) through the strap, so I came up with a slide socket mount by using a carriage bolt on the shield and used some scrap brass to trim it out, to keep the leather from tearing out at the bolt head.

Now I can unhook the strap with one hand and free my gauntleted hand, so I don't have to take my hand out of my gaunt before I can withdraw my arm. And unlike the buckle and strap, I don't have to take the other gauntlet off to fiddle with a buckle. I can arm and disam the shield with my full gaunts on.



I also finished something else this week that I had been obsessed with since I bought the helm; adding a sew-in linen liner. Just a note; even though I will eventually come to appreciate doing this, I did a lot of cussing to get it done.

I drilled about a hundred holes around the edge and front opening of the helm to accept the stitches. While I had the aventail off of the helm, I also took the time to drop the barrel vervelles down where Drew (the previous owner) had intended to relocate them. This required a few more slots to be cut into the helm and the now exposed slots higher up on the crown to be filled in and cround smooth with the rest of the helm.

You can see the comparison photo here (before is on the left). It's not easy to see because the new image doesn't have the aventail in place, but it dropped the aventail by about 2.5" in the front and not at all in the back.



The padded liner was made from 2 layers of canvas duck, 6 layers of fused 100% cotton batting, and 1 layer of linen (the side that is next to my skin). I must have taken 20 measurements of the helm, and made a paper pattern and fitted it to the helm by trimming some of the excess off. Then I set about sewing the liner, which was a bugger trying to sew the 9 layers without breaking a needle (which I did once) or jamming the machine. Then I had to sew the liner into the helm. Fun, fun fun.




On to the next task!
-Cian

This isn't part of my fighting kit, but another item I didn't do from last year was to weld a pole sleeve on to this to turn it into a signa militaris for hanging a banner or gonfannon on:



The hoop is 12" in diameter.
You can see where I had to weld one of the seahorses' tails because the manufacturer had made it drawn up tight to the body. So I had to partially cut through the tail to extend it to make it look properly adorsed.
I think I'll add a steel cross-bar so it can be used for a gonfannon.

I have some silver and gold leaf around here somewhere, so it will be less drab when you see it on the the pole.
-Cian
(Or I may add a jewel between the seahorses, and when you place it on top of a staff of the correct length, it will indicate where the lost ark of the covenant is buried).

Cool man !

One of these days I shall have to fight my other head!

Cian of Storvik wrote:SNIP
I removed the buckle and narrow strap configuration I had, and followed Sir Corby's directions on hanging a shield. I made a wider arm strap from some scrap 13 oz. vegtanned leather. Before affixing the bottom, I realized that I would be unable to slip my gauntleted hand (with the large hourglass cuffs) through the strap, so I came up with a slide socket mount by using a carriage bolt on the shield and used some scrap brass to trim it out, to keep the leather from tearing out at the bolt head.
SNIP

On to the next task!
-Cian

I love the brass slide socket on the shield, that's genius.

Pray, where might Sir Corby's directions for hanging a shield be found?

Good on you to have the patience to make the liner like that.
I'm assuming the helm is mild?

It's a very nice presentation with the aventail on it.

Would you mind posting some detail/a review of your chinstrap? That looks like the style Andrew Young has been advocating and I've been considering puting it in my new helm when I get it.

Adam

Are those bars on that bar grill round cross section flattened on the ends?

Mac Thamhais wrote:Pray, where might Sir Corby's directions for hanging a shield be found?

A: http://delaflamme.org/site/makeashield

Adamo wrote:I'm assuming the helm is mild? ...Would you mind posting some detail/a review of your chinstrap?

A: Yes and I'll try to put together an illustration. It's pretty simple, yet very comfortable, depending on the material you use for the cup (I use a durable, yet slightly giving oil tanned leather; the same I used on the shield handle in fact).

Piers Brent wrote: Are those bars on that bar grill round cross section flattened on the ends?

A: Exactly.

Thanks

Okay, it's really not that large of a difference in appearance, but the helmet on the left (old version) has the butted mail aventail; the new on the right has the riveted stainless aventail, with a new leather mantle.

When you buy an aventail, it's sort of a big "cone" of links, and you have to do something to infill the triangular void that exists where the mantle turns-upward near the eyes. Not only is filling in that little triangular shape a real pain in the butt (It's taken me a half a day just to do the right side), but it also draws the aventail up tighter to the helm. Which is necessary for the proper 14th century bascinet look (especially mid-century).



The only negative I see is that dropping the aventail makes the bar grill even more obvious an anachronism.
-Cian

The next thing to work on are my cuisses. I used these for about a year, but they simply aren't protective enough for someone that leaves his forward leg open all the time. After a few practices last year, my leg looked like hamburger.

(Cuisses are your thighs, FYI.)



Period cuisses were probably overlapping metal brigandine attached to a fabric foundation. But I don't like that much weight on my legs. So no steel on my thighs. I went with a solid piece of leather wrapping 3/4 of the way around my leg, and attaches with points at the hip bone. The rivets therefore are just decorative.
The problem I had was that the cuisse was only water hardened and I only had a few layers of very light fabric and a single layer of batting (ouchie!).

So the new version of the cuisses will be glue hardened (this not only makes the leather more ridged then using water but it also protects the leather from mildew). So here you can see the water formed leather and glue. And the stack of batting (now 5 layers of 1/8" fused cotton batting) before it's been stitched to anything. This is the left cuisse.



And lastly whole assembly will have to be sewn beteen layers of canvas and linen. The poleynes (knees) will be pointed to this, and so for durability sake, several layers of fabric will need to be sewn together. This will not wrap just 3/4 around the leg, but encase the entire thigh and knee cap, so the pattern is much larger then the leather and batting.



Hopefully, today I'll finish the sewing and assembly of atleast one cuisse.
-Cian

Thank you for posting these updates. I especially like the pics. It definitely gives me some ideas as to what I can do to improve my kit. I am goint to try an cover my shield handle like that and make helmet liner.

The other option being not leaving your leg open all the time.

but they simply aren't protective enough for someone that leaves his forward leg open all the time.

Cian, that's the second prettiest shield arm strap in Atlantia. Good work.

Your top handle is angled wrong for my tastes, but too late now unless that facing is easy to remove.

I also really prefer cross straps when not using a rigid handle.

Are you considering covering the back? That would really improve the look!

Dante della Luna wrote:The other option being not leaving your leg open all the time.

but they simply aren't protective enough for someone that leaves his forward leg open all the time.

got it in one.

Thank you, Sir Corby. To be completely honest, it didn't even occur to me to even think of putting canvas on the back side. I had thought of just painting it, momentarily. But that sounded messy. I

I saw that you had the handle more paralell with the edge of the shield, but decided to do what was most comfortable for the wrist, as I couldn't figure out why the strap being perpendicular to the ground would be of benefit except to be uncomfortable.

The other option being not leaving your leg open all the time.

I appreciate that sage wisdom, but I'm a very slow learner, and I was starting to feel like I might go lame before I learned to keep the back of my thigh protected from people practicing their wraps.
The other problem is that when someone is continuously pummeling your leg repeatedly to "teach you a lesson" not to raise your shield to block a head shot or scorpion, some of us have the tendancy to say "screw it" and drop our sheild rather then take any more punishment to the tender thigh.
Which is why after that practice I am completely unable to multiply by the number '7'. (E.g. I was intentionally taking a lot of head shots because my thigh was in so much pain).

Cian of Storvik wrote:I saw that you had the handle more paralell with the edge of the shield, but decided to do what was most comfortable for the wrist, as I couldn't figure out why the strap being perpendicular to the ground would be of benefit except to be uncomfortable.

Ask me about this next time you see me. Or Sir TJ, who first showed me. There is a simple out-of-armor, gear free demonstration that will have you going "AHA".

Thank you, Sir Corby. I will take you up on that gracious offer.

Cuisses:
I still haven't finished the cuisses, as I need to do some riviting. The way the cuisses were before, the rivets were simply decorative but they also kept the rigid leather from shifting inside of the fabric. I was using speed rivets (half of the speed rivet actually) and a decorative washer.

The new rivets are more then staples, as I'm going to be using some 1/8" brass rivets and metal mirror escutcheons, which you can see here. There will need to be around 70 of these on my legs (and that only covers 3/4's of the circumfernce aroudn the leg. No rivets will be on the back or inside of the legs)



Because I still have the sewing machine set-up, I'm setting the cuisses aside so I can work a little more on my other sewing projects (aventail padding and my new pourpoint). I found my old pourpoint pattern with the help of Mr. Peabody but the aventail padded liner was going to be up to me to come up with a plan.

Here is a proper profile for a 14th century aventail. (I"m using the black prince, because I don't have any good images of anyone from my own timeframe to use).



This was not as difficult as I thought to do, but took a lot of measurements. It is basically a cone of material that flares out toward the shoulders. You can see the navy blue material (muslin) peaking out at from under the aventail at the shoulder.



You can also see the metallicised gold cord I'm using to secure the aventail is not affixed yet but simply laced through the staples. (I keep pulling the aventail off to do measurements and corrections). Once the permanent aventail liner is complete I'll fix the cord more permanently.

From this angle, the helm looks very rounded, which is fine as I do a mid 14th century impression and helms didn't have the high back points as on the Black Prince's bascinet. If you look in Osprey's English Knight 1300-1400, I'm tring to bring my kit to looking like the plates E & F.

I took Corby's advice and added a canvas backing to my shield. It greatly improves the look of the shield. No picture but it's there. It's begging to have a motte painted on the back now.

Okay, back to the cuisses.
I found enough washers to do all of the rivets to finish riveting the hardened leather on to 2 of the layers of canvas.



Sadly, all of those rivets are only an intermittant step. There is still the attachment of the lining which I needed to do after the rivetting process because I don't want the back side of the rivets right next to my leg. So another layer of canvas and linen along with 5 layers of batting are between my thigh and the rivets.



I thought that sewing the helmet liner was bad. Well, I actually found something I like sewing even less...cuisses. It's a lot of work for a part of my body that isn't even supposed to be getting hit. I still need to add eyelets for point and for the poleynes to attach to.


-Cian

Again I'm thoroughly impressed that you went to the trouble of sewing gamboised cuisses to back rigid cuisses, just like they would've done back in the day (or so Osprey tells me). Five layers of batting is really thick though, someone who uses them locally uses no rigid cuisses and his are only four layers.

You're putting a lot of work into a great looking kit, and how long have you been authorized? If I recall correctly you mentioned it less than a year ago!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to pad and strap an old loaner helm in the garage for some local new guys, I'm gonna try out this chin strap method you used, it seems easier than what I'm used to (on me first, not on a newb).

Adam

Thanks, Adam. I've been heavy authorized for a bit under a year (I was authorized as a combat archer about 3 years ago, but you get a much better appreciation for the protectivness of armor when someone is giving you a beat down).

I forgot about giving you an illustration. Sorry but this is quick and dirty, and I'm not really sure how to illustrate 3-dimensionally. Hopefully this plus asking me questions will make it clear in your mind. This is actually how Master Magnus's kettle helms are strapped too (atleast the one I have is)



The cup is a piece of soft non-stretching leather just as I've shown it drawn (obviously not to scale). The purple is nylon or paracord. The D-rings can be welded in place or the 4-point strap method. Since I have a welder, I did the welded route.

The springy clip thingy is the adjustable strap clip you get from fabric stores that you lace the cord through. (I hope you know what this is, because I have no clue what the actual snigglet name of it is).

It also helps to have a hole on the grill for you to feed the cord through before feeding it through the clip. When in place, when you draw the spring clip up tight to the hole in the grill, where the cord is laced through, helps hold the spring clip in place.
-Cian

Yesterday and today I worked on re-doing my greaves. Since I'm re-doing the cuisses, it seemed only fair to re-do the greaves. Take a look at the picture of my legs above (where you can see the poleyn and the sabaton), and you can see the old half greave or shin guard (It doesn't encase the whole calf).

These are the oldest piece of my kit. I made them about 3 years ago. And they have been modified about 4 times during that period.

Anyhow, they used to be covered in blue sueded leather and had mild steel splints. The edging was brown pig-skin stiched on with artificial sinew. But by the end of Pennsic the splints were rusted, the sinew had frayed from where it was rubbing against my sabatons, the suede had seen better days and I'd lost a couple of the speed rivets holding the splints on. Also, you can't see it from the picture above, but I didn't do as good a job at shaping the splints on the other leg. But the hardened leather greaves themselves are still in pretty good nick, despite some cosmetic issues.

Well, I stripped off everything and only keeping the hardened leather greave itself. Everything else is being changed out. I've cut new splints in stainless steel. These actually come to a taper unlike the old splints which have parrallel sides. Here you can see I've replaced the blue suede with blue velvet. You can also see part of one of my new vambraces too. It also has been covered in blue velvet.



Now, for the frustrating part, as you can see from the photo above, one of the greaves looks different color then the other, that is because the velvet has a grain to it, and I applied the velvet to one of the greaves upside down. (UGH!). Well the velvet is applied with spray glue and if I try to pull it off it makes a big mess, so I decided to just live with it.

And the brown pig skin edging which had gotten torn up was replaced with a navy blue polyester which I'm hoping will hold up to abrasions better. I've cut back the greave a bit so it doesn't come into contact with the sabatons, which should help.



The way the edging was applied to the greaves before was I used a blanket stitch, where the cord wraps over the outside edge of the greave. But in doing it this time, and seeing how the nylong had take some abuse, I did a normal running stitch along the edge.

I need to finish shaping the splints, drill and set the rivets. This time I'm not using any of the domed speed rivets (I knew they would be a problem when I was doing these before).

Good milord, I commend all of the fine work that you have done thus far, but I do have one question concerning the greaves.

Those don't just appear to be different color, but drastically different colors, however the pics just show them lying flat on the floor, which may be affecting the color perception due to the angle of the lighting. Is the difference as noticeable when the greaves are in an upright direction, as they would be while being worn?

EDITED TO FIX TYPOS

It's the same material; cobalt blue 100% silk velvet.
And it has a nice shimming color to it in day light. But I was working with it inside in incandescent light and didn't really notice that the color shift was so severe until after the glue had set. (I've never worked with velvet before).
With the suede, there was a brightness shift, but it was just however you brushed the suede down, and you could change it by just brushing it in a certain direction. But this velvet actually has a grain to it, and it doesn't mat in the opposite direction.
Here's another picture with the right greave flipped upside down.
Ta-da! It's magic!



It probably won't be that bad once I have added the steel splints and when I'm moving around in the day-light.
-Cian

This was not part of my original list of items to complete, but I'm so sick of looking at the sewing machine, I had to set stuff aside to work on something else last week.

I've been wanting a box to put my shaving kit (straight razor, brush/soap) into as well as have a mirror for shaving. At Pennsic, I did a bit of dry shaving with a disposable razor. The dry shave wasn't the problem, but not being able to see if I was even with the beard was a task (I wear a sort of van dyke).

About 2 weeks ago my girlfriend told me to kill some time until she got home, so I wandered around a Michaels and found this cheap, unfinished wood box for $2.50. I figured I could spiff it up a bit and it would be suitable to my shaving gear in.

I removed the tiny brass hinges and the clasp, and used leather with upholstery tacks to make new ones. The clasp is a decorative piece of leather that slips over a brass rivet acting like a sam brown button.




I used a piece of scrap stainless steel to make a mirror. It's actually a brushed finish that I scrubbed with a metal polish for about an hour to get a shiny spot in the middle. It fades out toward the edges as I was buffing in tight circles in the center to give it a "rubbed piece of silver" look. It's held in place with 4 more upholstery tacks.



I built a small lid prop out off a wire coat hanger. Basically pounding two short pieces of the wire flat where it would be riveted and a hook to lock the two in place for keeping the lid up while I shave.





The top has a long window in it, that had a pressed flower motif in bass or balsa wood. I removed the panel and I'm planning on putting a tooled leather insert with my badge and some other icons. Most of the leather pieces I've seen from the period (bottles, bracers, boxes and the like) all have mottos/slogans as well as images. I'm not really happy with what I've done so far, but here's what is in the photo. Three frames.
Left most: Atlantian Ensign and the words "Dulce et decorum est pro Patria mori" (It is sweet and becoming to die on our country’s behalf)
center: my badge (three escallops, conjoined in annulo) with the words "ad moiorem, dei gloriam" (to the greater glory of God).
Right most: a mermaid with a spear and banner with the words "de iure" (for justice)

Cian of Storvik wrote:Here's another picture with the right greave flipped upside down.
Ta-da! It's magic!

Cian, this thread is really a fun read. As for the velvet problem, yeah, it's a sneaky but undeniable one. This is why clothing patterns that can be made with napped fabric include instructions for how to place the fabric layers when cutting out the pattern pieces to avoid this exact problem. But hey, you're far from alone. I've sewn velvet going in wrong directions before, as I'm sure many others have too. Heck, it's probably a period problem too.

The shaving box is a great idea, and the polished stainless mirror is awesome under awesome sauce. Can't wait to see it when its done.

BTW, where did you get the straight razor?

I've transfered the pattern to the leather, and started tooling the outlines of the figures (I haven't done the background or lettering yet). I didn't like the vine work around my badge, and instead I'm going to put a semi of arrows (the badge of the King's Missilier's in my kingdom, which I'm a member).

Edit: I have settled on the mottos for the box lid. Since this is going to hold my grooming tools and the mirror, I've played with the symbolism a bit in a way to remind me of the evils of vanity. The first panel will still have the kingdom ensign. But I've altered the historic motto of "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", and have replaced the word "decorum" with "pulchrum" which now means "It is sweet and beautiful to die for one's country".
The last panel still has a mermaid. The mermaid is usually shown in her vanity (holding a mirror and brushing her hair), but since vanity is a sin, she instead holds a spear (a symbol of military and a nod to my household). On her panel will be the words: haud victoria sine humilitas which means "No victory without humility". Humility being the virtue in direct opposition to hubris/pride, and also a play on words as "humilitas" has the word "militas" or soldier within it. (It's also a derivation on a more modern military quote that was "no victory without sacrifice".)


My razor is just a typical wwII era straight razor. You can pick them up on ebay for under $20. Make sure if you get one that it is a hollow ground, high carbon steel (preferably german or english blade). And make sure it doesn't have any nicks or cracks in the blade. Some knife companies out of Asia are cranking out stainless razors that I am very weary to drag across my face.
The one I picked-up was about $15 and isn't much to look at up close, but was sharpened with just a bit of stropping on leather.

A tip about straight razors: Drag the blade across the face of your thumb nail using only the weight of the blade. If it drags smoothly, but doesn't cut into the nail, then it's just dull and needs a stropping, or minimal honing and then some stropping. If it is jerky and feels a bit like dragging a rat-tail file across you nail then it's very much in need of a honing. If it feels smooth with intermittant catches, then you may need a more severe honing by taking it to a knife shop. Once you have it honed and stropped, you can do the piece of paper test. It should slice through an unsupported piece of paper with little effort.

It probably saves me around $15-$30/mo. on disposable safety razor heads. It takes a bit more time (because you need to be careful with this thing so close to the juggular and prevent you from scarring up your pretty face), but it's time well spent.

I do plan on making a new handle like one on made by Tod's Stuff in the UK. that looks like THIS (this makes me ooh and ah. Feel free to join in with me):

The tooling on the leather insert is done. I used an antique finish on the tooling.




I really like the way the mermaid holding the spear and banner came out. It's sometimes difficult to get a lot of detail in a small section of leather. The window in the top of the box is only 1 7/8" tall.


My cuisses are also finished now
-Cian

Mucho impressive, milord.
If you ever do another one, you might consider going with a darker/lighter shade of stain, or a different color altogether, on the leather so as to set it off from the wood color, now it sorta blends.
Still an awesome job though.

Dead sexeh!

Very, very cool.

I recently made a new arm strap for my sheild. Two layers of leather sewn together. That sucker is never gonna break.

Where did you get the letters you used on the leather box top insert? I am going to make another arm strap and tool it this time and I'd like to add a motto.

The lettering style is from the Great Site's replica of the hand scribed 1384 Wycliff bible. (or I should say, my attempt at recreating the lettering from that source).
See here:
http://www.greatsite.com/facsimile-repr ... -1385.html
-Cian

Looking great man. Did you weld in the slots? Do you need me to?

Its very impressive so far.

lmk
Drew

I already welded up the old staple holes. Thank you for the offer though. Get your own SCA stuff back together so we can go a few rounds!
-Cian

I've cut out a blank for the new razor scales, but pushing this to the back burner of projects, as I need to finish more dreaded sewing.

The pourpoint is done, and the greaves, so I decided to attempt finishing the shaving kit.

Initially, I had intended on doing some bone looking plastic or some horn, but I can't stand the smell of cutting the stuff. I had cut a blank out of the stainless sheet I have, and started to detail it, and liked the way it looked and since stainless resists rusting, I just went ahead and made another scale out of the stainless and using that for the razor handle. Thank God for Dremel tools.

I removed the rivets holding the original $10 ebay razor together, and removed the blade, spacers.



I cut a latin cross and 3 circles to make a sort of trefoil (but the circles don't connect, so the handle stays more ridged at that point).

I had to make a spacer out of something. I measured the thickness of the hollow ground blade from where it would set on the handle when closed, so that the sharp edge won't peak out the other side. That doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you decide to do this, it will become completely obvious that this is the most critical aspect. It turns out that a .035" will do the job perfectly, so I cut a spacer out of some scrap brass stock I have.

I peened it all together with some 5/64" brass rod.



The case now holds a small cup for holding the shaving soap, a shaving brush, an ear spoon/nail pick and a comb.

When I bought this box, I imagined I would just toss all of my toiletries into it (toothbrush, paste etc.) but due to the small size of the box and my desire not to keep my toothbrush in the same container as the piece of wood I drag through my hair, it's just now a shaving kit.


-Cian

Edit: The comb and ear spoon are from Historic Enterprises.