creating a full italian suit of armour

[fishermanscan]

hello, I have done some armouring in the past and have now be blacksmithing for almost a year. Once again armouring has peaked my interest and would like to create a full italian suit of armour from the late 16 century. What I would like to know is does anyone have any good patterns out there and or good books with pictures of armour suits from that time? thank you for your help. Sincerely, a butting blacksmithing trying to make some armour

[Kenwrec Wulfe]

Might want to try budding instead of butting!!

Welcome to the Archive - There is a pattern archive here on the AA where you can find many patterns. Beyond those, you are likely getting into closer guarded means of income. Many armourers keep their patterns close as it is their means of income.

Best way to get a pattern? Get some pictures of extant pieces, or the extant pieces!!! or paintings of the pieces you want to do and some scrap metal and practice. You will learn more about shaping metal by designing your own pattern then you would in a years time just making something from someone elses pattern. (Coming from he who struggled through making his own Corinthian helm pattern... which will be done this winter.)

[Konstantin the Red]

It's a worthy goal you've set yourself.

The road to doing it all yourself is kind of long.

The most detailed how-to out there that's in print is Brian Price's Techniques Of Medieval Armour Reproduction: the Fourteenth Century. Concentrating mainly on the late fourteenth, it details where full plate harness really got its start. It's about a century and a quarter before your period of interest -- but, the bascinet armors of that time were what the armourers of later decades built their advancing skills on. Price has a fifteenth-century book in the works, covering the German design school, no word yet on publication date. It's not known if he'll ever get around to Italian fifteenth himself.

In the fifteenth, Italian and German styles of harness became distinguishable from each other, in contrast to the previous century's internationally-distributed bascinet & camail armours. It seems in the sixteenth that a certain degree of confluence occurred. While regional styles are still very evident, there was more of an overall sixteenth-century-ness to armor design, too.

You may end up building several harnesses spanning the decades until you arrive at the sixteenth-c. one you desire.

A butting smith surely exudes determination (to say nothing of blood), but yes, do use hammers. We will then be able to suppress any giggles and not be quite so, er, Evil Denizen (inside joke).

[fishermanscan]

Thank you all for your adivice. I know you all are know how difficult it will be but I'm not alone. I have my other blacksmithing buddies to help me if i get in trouble. But the main reason I want to do it is I KNOW i can, even if it takes alot time. I have the skills and i have the book you mentioned. so I guess all I have left is to but some metal and try try try. thanks again for your guys help. P.S. you guys caught me on my spelling but if you can belive I used to be alot worse Master another lanuage? lol yeah right I barely know English....

[Konstantin the Red]

So, then, what is it that makes a harness sixteenth-century? Well, they were evolving, decade by decade if not every five years by then.

Helmets grew into many forms, both for horse and for foot but especially foot. A stripped-down edition of the bascinet, no visor nor camail, was out of the picture by then, in all but the most very backward places -- and I couldn't name for you which places those were, either. Some of the usual suspects like the Scottish Highlands and Ireland, I suppose. In more up-to-date regions, i.e., more fought over, and f****d over too, we still see kettlehats soldiering on in more advanced forms (fancier-worked skulls, more downturned brims) and the outgrowths of these from Spain and Portugal, the morions and cabassets. The horsemen still had their armets and their close-helmets, which are distinguished by modern-day scholars in that the armet opens by opening its hinged cheekplates and the close-helmet has bevor and visor, or even an intermediary piece between them, all swinging on the same pivots at either temple. As the century went on, this helmet became more popular, at the expense of the older armet. Period sources tend to use these terms pretty interchangeably, however; armet is a word derived from "helmet" and close-helmet saw use for any helmet of this general type, at least in English sources. Something that got popular with both horse and foot was the burgonet, in various configurations, some with hinged cheekflaps, some without, and featuring various treatments of the crest, which was fashionable in helmets of the time. Finally, here was a European fighting hat that shaded your eyes -- certainly took 'em long enough. Some burgonets had peaks that could be pivoted upwards if you wanted a bit of extra view rather than an eyeshade. Oh, and please pronounce it "BERG-o-net;" this was the Englishing of bourguignote, which in French meant something like "Burgundian thing." The hat is universally credited with an origin in Burgundy. I think the barbute was going out of date.

Breastplates, formerly often in two pieces in the fifteenth, breast and plackart, became all of a piece and developed a midline crease and several stylistic tweaks. German-style spaudlers became less common, and pauldrons became more and more articulated, with lames inboard and lames down the arm. Asymmetric pauldrons were to be seen, but besagews went out. Pickadil ornamentation came into use around the pauldrons' edges, guarding the breastplate from getting scratched up.

Brigandines continued, now being shaped according to the fashion of the sixteenth century -- they turned peascoddy, and had panes flaring over the hips, accommodating sixteenth-century trunk-hose that made you look like your hips were pumpkins. Takes a well-stuffed codpiece to carry that off properly, and armor of the era accommodated that too with the steel brayette, decorated en suite with the armour, and sometimes abstractly pornographic as well. This tended to pose problems for the museum exhibitors of Victorian times, who resorted to some rather odd display strategies to avoid exciting the, uh, excitable.

Gauntlets evolved, developing dozens of plates across the carpals and fingers. The shape of the gauntlet cuffs changed decade by decade too -- I may be mistaken in this, but earlier gaunt cuffs were straighter and rather longer, and later cuffs belled out like trumpet bells, getting both concave curved outlines and shorter. They got the pickadil treatment by then too, perhaps for the same reason as the pauldrons.

The lobstertail cuisse was coming in, completely replacing taces and tassets with a single piece of gear for each leg. These were more characteristic of three-quarter armor than cap-à-pie plate. Armor was being worn with tall riding boots, which became so ubiquitous as fashionable English gentlemen's wear as to excite amused comment from foreigners about Englishmen going about all day engaged in ordinary matters while booted -- even spurred -- as if expecting any minute to go to horse. Tall riding boots do lend a certain dash to punkin-pants.

[knitebee]

If I was to embark on the journey that you have chosen I'd study hard the gothic design notes in the patern section of this site, while not exactly what you're looking for it does have many simular shapes and construction. Realize that for any suit of plate from most any era teh pieces need to be custom fit the in individual so even if there was available patterns they'd have to be greatly taylored and modified to fit. So study what patterns there are and see how complex curves are translated to flat steet. even make minatures out of card stock and put them together and see how a flat pieces need the added complex curves to fit properly, some areas need streched and some possible compressed. Unless you've a master armourer near you (I know I dont) then the best teacher is experiance.

Happy metal bashing. Keep us updated with some photos as you progress