The Armour Archive

Stonekeep Armory: Restyling Club Fan Elbow line.


Not sure where the big club fan elbows came from, but they have been in our lineup for some time. They haven't been as popular as the fanless or spade fan varieties, and i dont blame anyone cause they were huge.
I havent liked them for some time, but once a while back when we changed them, i felt the small fan was too weak, so we canned the new patterns. Course we have a lot of premium fanstyles now you can choose for club fans which will make them stronger, but this basic basic style will be strong enough with the lames supporting it and a slight roll of the tips.

Anyways thought Id throw the old and new pic out for a little advertising and feedback. Also I needed to do Something new cause we've been so busy i havent in a while. Remember on feedback this is just the basic style where the buyer has no desire to spend another $5 to get something nicer.


OLD
<img src="http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/spiers-saddlery_2006_26604967">


NEW
<img src="http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/spiers-saddlery_2006_27042125">

Also the club fan knees will have a larger fan while the elbows are going smaller.

smaller fans look much better. But I prefer fanless myself.

I think the larger fan would look good on a knee but not on an elbow... but I'm also prone to later period designs and 15th cent knee wings are rather large.

Out of curiosity did you look at any 14th cent effigies that have club style wings for a sense of proportion? Nothing wrong with imagination, modern aestetics or just the need for modern safety but all other things being equal historical accuarcy isn't a bad thing either. "New smaller club style fan per the effigy of Lord John of Doe died 1387 is a nice by-line in an item description".

Sean

Angusm0628 wrote:smaller fans look much better. But I prefer fanless myself.

Me too, thats why I push them in my starter kits...

Sean Powell wrote:I think the larger fan would look good on a knee but not on an elbow... but I'm also prone to later period designs and 15th cent knee wings are rather large.

Out of curiosity did you look at any 14th cent effigies that have club style wings for a sense of proportion? Nothing wrong with imagination, modern aestetics or just the need for modern safety but all other things being equal historical accuarcy isn't a bad thing either. "New smaller club style fan per the effigy of Lord John of Doe died 1387 is a nice by-line in an item description".

Sean

Oh ive got danged near every osprey book. what i normally do is flip through them, then sit down and draw something i like. I try to avoid those kind of by-lines cause as everyone knows, my stuff will be munitions grade and wont be a perfect rep. lolol

I do want to (and have wanted to) do something like that in spring, but time constraints of orders always keeps me from it.

Stonekeep wrote:

Sean Powell wrote:"New smaller club style fan per the effigy of Lord John of Doe died 1387 is a nice by-line in an item description".

Sean

I try to avoid those kind of by-lines cause as everyone knows, my stuff will be munitions grade and wont be a perfect rep. lolol

I do want to (and have wanted to) do something like that in spring, but time constraints of orders always keeps me from it.

You know, munition gear is a perfectly medieval concept too. It's like a base line 57 Chevy vs. a tricked out a suped up 57 Chevy. Back in 57 there was an aestetic that Chevy produced. You can produce basic replacement parts for the basic munition model and not have them completly blinged out and top of the line... but if you're going to say '57 then you should be able to point to a picture and say "that' not '55 or '59 but '57.

Same thing with armor. There is base model and there is fancy and tricked out but they both cary an aestetic from the time period. It's great when I tell people to buy from you and I can say 'No you want early 14th century not late 14th century. Go with the wings that are documentable for your time period."

You have damn near cornered the market on good starter gear. You could do the SCA (and other groups too) a great favor by making your designs a little more documentable when it will not affect cost or safety. Instead of 'generic munition knee-cops' people have the choice to buy '14th century or 15th century munition knee-cops'

I'm not saying you have to but if you are doing a re-design anyway, why not play with the more historicly documentable designs in mild first before bringing them into the spring steel market.

Just my $0.02
Sean

Cause i LOVE spring steel...lolol Thats why I have tried to make it cheap so more people will buy it..lol
Id love to go to it exclusively but i cant do that to my customers.
That may be my "retirement" in a decade or so.

No, I hear you sean, and I also think thats very doable.

Right now we have basic spade fan, basic club fan, and fanless.. from there we have designs (in flutes and rolls) that can be added fairly cheaply. most of them i have seen somewhere and liked (whether it was from an Osprey book, or like in the case of our "Half Crease spade fans" it was a design from a suit of armor made by an english armoury (I think Best Armoury, I used to love going to their site)
Yep, I just looked and found the inspiration piece on there for those. (and i found lots more inspiration) lol

Stonekeep, while you're on here, I have a question about your leather demigaunts. Are they hardened leather? Could they be ordered in hardened leather?

Once the spring steel pieces are hardened can they be worked at all? And could one special order spring steel pieces not heat treated so they could do little modifications then get them treated themselves?

Flittie wrote:Stonekeep, while you're on here, I have a question about your leather demigaunts. Are they hardened leather? Could they be ordered in hardened leather?

No, I dont mess with that curboille stuff. Did it before just to say I have, but it was a big mess.. Id look more to some of the guys on here like Torvaldr and House of the Wolf.

Peder wrote:Once the spring steel pieces are hardened can they be worked at all? And could one special order spring steel pieces not heat treated so they could do little modifications then get them treated themselves?

No they cant be moved at ALL... Thats what makes them so cool to begin with is you can damage 14 gauge steel and bend it but 21 gauge spring in 1/3 to 1/4 th weight cant be damamged with that same force at all.

I havent thought about it, but on a item to item basis I Could be willing to make a product without treating and send it to someone. I may require some kind of notarized form releasing me from any liability associated with that armor since i was Not selling it at proper strength for sca use. Id have to check with my lawyer on that.