Current project- 15thC Italian Export for RA jouster

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

Hi all,

Since I've been busy lately and haven't had much time to post here, I thought I'd give you a peek at what I've been up to.

I've been working on an Italian Export armour for my friend and fellow jouster Arne Koets, who is a staff interpreter/jouster at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Here's one photo that links to some pictures of the armour in progress:
(This helm has an 11ga front and weighs in at 15 pounds currently!)
[img]http://photos-085.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v191/28/53/554676085/n554676085_650775_1937.jpg[/img]
and the direct link to the album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... =554676085

It's all spring steel and is sort of a "garniture" with a sallet and bevor in addition to the Stechhelm. I'm making him a pair of spaudlers as well for jousting with the Stechhelm.

Hope you like it!

[Josh W]

Hope you like it!

I do indeed!

Very badass, Jeff. I can't wait to see it finished.

Can you tell us the gauges on some of the rest of the components?

[dominic]

Awesome man, just awesome! I can't wait to see Arne take a shot in it!

Micah

[Black Swan Designs]

Its first outing will be at the RA Sword of Honour joust March 24/26, then he'll use it again at our Sword of Chivalry Tournament April 26/27.

Come on out and you can see it in person......

Gwen

[Otto von Teich]

Great work as usual Jeff! Arne will be very happy I'm sure. Thats going to be a stout helm, 11gauge spring in the front should be darn near bullitproof LOL...

[LeeC]

And yet again what I tell people about your jousting events is reinforced.

"Even without the jousting and intepreters the event is way worth it just to see the harness there!"

Of course with the jousting and interpreters it's a must see!

[Bruhn Engbrecht]

very nice! these types of helmets are one of my favorites.

[Ugo]

Beautiful!!!!

[RandallMoffett]

Jeff,

That is looking amazing. You do fantastic work. He is one lucky guy to be getting such a suit.

RPM

[Mike England]

Great work over all but I love those greaves Jeff.

[InsaneIrish]

Dispatching Jealousy ninjas.....

[MattB]

Inspiring, i love it.

I was wondering how your hand had recovered after last year, this harness answers that question.

Matt

[Shade]

Great stuff as always!

Can I please get your permission to save the pictures for private use?

Thanks.

Michael

[Sam O.]

That looks so cool and the design looks so simple.

15 pounds, isn't that like 7 kilograms... geez

[Andrew Young]

Looking great Jeff.

Is that a clay mock up I see here?-- Id imagine to get a sense of the final shape and measurements.

[img]http://photos-085.ll.facebook.com/photo ... 6_4122.jpg[/img]

thanks for sharing
Drew

[Black Swan Designs]

He gets a bit of a cramp now and again, nothing that some dit da jow doesn't relieve. His hand is pretty much back to 100%, and he's back to doing everything he usually does, including polo-

[img]http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos- ... 6_5667.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos- ... 5_5244.jpg[/img]

Gwen

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

That looks so cool and the design looks so simple.

15 pounds, isn't that like 7 kilograms... geez

Yeah, but the simple shapes are the hardest to do well, as they show -every- little imperfection. They have to be exactly right, or they look like crap. That's one of the reasons Italian armour is so tough to do properly.

Yup, 15 pounds / 6.8 kg. Right in line with the weight of 15th c real ones. Slightly later ones were up to 22 pounds! They have to be strong!

[Andrew Young]

Yeah, but the simple shapes are the hardest to do well, as they show -every- little imperfection. They have to be exactly right, or they look like crap. That's one of the reasons Italian armour is so tough to do properly

I agree with that 110%. ...especially if you take the polish any higher than high satin.

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

Hope you like it!

I do indeed!

Very badass, Jeff. I can't wait to see it finished.

Can you tell us the gauges on some of the rest of the components?

The top and back of the helm is .083", the cuirass is mostly .060", with some .050", then legs are mostly .042". I used to use a lot of .035", but found it distorted too much in forming and heat treat, so go with slightly thicker stuff now for stability.

Glad you think it's "badass"! I sorta do too, and luckily Arne does also!

[Duco de Klonia]

Hey Jeffrey,

That's a kind oof coinsidence, this is what I'm working on for a long time now,....

[img]http://www.pixis.nl/divertimenti/Brocas_341_t.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.pixis.nl/divertimenti/Brocas_342_t.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.pixis.nl/divertimenti/Brocas_344_t.jpg[/img]

It's only for display and nearly finished...
My hair turned grey making that, how about your hair?

I made some websites of making it:
http://anytime.pixis.nl/customer/Brocas ... rocas.html

http://www.pixis.nl/anytime/customer/Br ... _2008.html

[Tobar]

that helm is beautiful can't wait to see the finished product

i like the first pic with the "munitions grade" finish. i always thought you can see the spirit of the steel when its not pollished

[Tobar]

that helm is beautiful can't wait to see the finished product

i like the first pic with the "munitions grade" finish. i always thought you can see the spirit of the steel when its not pollished

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

Duco,

Interesting way you've chosen to do yours. If you need any pictures of the Brocas helm to help your shape, let me know. I'm happy to send you a few.

You might want to try the sculpture idea as well. It really helped me understand the shape and work out the sight position as well. I want to do more helmets with the sculpture technique in future. Of course it's best if you have a bust cast to sculpt over. I didn't want to have to do too much guesswork in the 1/8" plate. Too hard on my bod. Big heavy plates are hard to muscle around and pound on at the same time.

I chose to raise my top first, then do the front, then the back. I don't like to grind anything until it's all formed, but that's mostly what one is required to do with spring steel. Things go all wonky if you grind at all before heat treatment.

Best of luck with your helm. I hope it works out for you.

[Duco de Klonia]

Thanks Jeffrey,

I got a load of pictures ( original black&white museum pics - front, top, back and even inside -) from the museum. My customer was allowed to measure it, and that payed off.

The top could be a little higher, but the looks are good.
It's 1,5 mm mild all over, and nearly all hot raised, hammered.

I had to do some welding in order to create a "fat" rim on the visor, next time (if any) I will do that part in a differend way.

But I still like your pictures of the original. You cannot have enough pictures ever.

I will not try to make a close copy of a museum piece for a long, long time, because it makes you a bit "jumpy" constantly looking with one eye to your workpiece, with the other eye to the pictures...

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

I will not try to make a close copy of a museum piece for a long, long time, because it makes you a bit "jumpy" constantly looking with one eye to your workpiece, with the other eye to the pictures...

Well, I guess I've gotten used to that because I do it every day, plus I have to make it fit the client and STILL look like the museum piece-- VERY tough. And I do a lot of "speculative reconstructions" too, making pieces that only existed in sculpture and painting, so I have to get the medieval aesthetic into my blood, then create pieces that probably never existed, using survivals as a basis for shape and some details. Rigorous work and incredibly testing to my visualization skills but it's my stock in trade these days.

[MattB]

Well Arne is certainly quite trim, so the armour has a real nice taper into the waist, i'd certainly rather be making armour for that sort of figure than the 58in waist type!

Any chance of letting on about the source of the carving you're basing it on?

Matt

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

Well Arne is certainly quite trim, so the armour has a real nice taper into the waist, i'd certainly rather be making armour for that sort of figure than the 58in waist type!

Any chance of letting on about the source of the carving you're basing it on?

Matt

And Arne's 6 foot 4 inches tall too! This harness and the last one (another Gothic for Tony Dingman of the Frazier museum) have been real pleasures to work on-- slim guys who really fit the silhouette-- and none of the plates are really huge or heavy. Well, with the possible exception of Arne's stechhelm.

Arne's armour is based primarily on the effigy of Ulrich Busch, circa 1470. I don't know where the effigy is located, and unfortunately I don't have any photos that I have rights to post. My apologies.

Secondarily, the cuisses are primarily based from an image of St. Michael by Michael Pacher, which is part of an altarpiece in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. I've seen this altarpiece personally and was really inspired by it several years before Arne commissioned his armour, so it was nice to have the opportunity to use part of that in this harness.

The sallet will be based on one in the Philadelphia museum of art (1977-167-1a). I roughed one out based on another source piece, but we've changed styles and I'll have to make another. No big.

The pauldrons for wear with the sallet are based on one in the Scott Collection, Glasgow, and there may be a mate to it in the Met NY, though I'd have to check up on that to know for sure. Neither the Glasgow or NY pieces are published. The source spaudlers for use with the frogmouth are in Philadelphia, and are my standard 1470's style.

[Eisenmetzger]

Hello Jeff,

the effigy of Ulrich Busch zu Vilsheim is in the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. He died 1458, but the harness seems to be of slightly later style indeed.

Greetings

Peter

[Mike England]

...Arne's armour is based primarily on the effigy of Ulrich Busch, circa 1470. I don't know where the effigy is located, and unfortunately I don't have any photos that I have rights to post. My apologies.

Secondarily, the cuisses are primarily based from an image of St. Michael by Michael Pacher, which is part of an altarpiece in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. I've seen this altarpiece personally and was really inspired by it several years before Arne commissioned his armour, so it was nice to have the opportunity to use part of that in this harness.
...

Are the greaves part of the cuisses from the Busch Effigy or the St. Michael image? They look a lot like a pair at RA Leeds that I am very interested in.
I am used to the stechzeug armours not having legs but rather using a padded defense on the front of the saddle and around the front of the horse for protection. I don't think I have ever seen one of these reproduced. Is there any chance Mr. Koets is looking into one of these as well?

[Jeffrey Hedgecock]

Basically the greaves are from the Busch effigy and the cuisses from the Pacher St. Michael.

Arne's not asked for a "hourd", the padded defense of which you speak, but he has asked me to build him at least one saddle. There's even the possibility I may mold the RA Hohenzeuggestech saddle if we can find funding for the project. This would yield a casting or two for experimentation-- we want to see how they work and what type of horses they fit. Really exciting.

And wait till you see my Rene' saddle.....hoooooo doowggie.....!!

[Ugo]

Tease

[Alecks]

It looks very nice already. I can't wait to see him wear his new gear!