The Armour Archive

Edwin

By bazubands don't slide due to the demi gauntlet cuff being sized appropriately.

Edwin

The last time I bought new punches for my Jr No5, the Roper Whitney website was selling them as either complete sets, or in quantities IIRC 25 per order, as a minimum. I called Roper Whitney and placed a verbal order for the 3 punches I needed all by themselves. The cost was in the neighborhood of $...

Edwin

I bought a yard of bargain tropic-weight suit wool, cut it on the bias, stitched the lengths together... and voila very inexpensive wraps that stay in place.

Edwin

#1 source of cracking I have seen in stainless steel armor: welds.

I am not an armorsmith however. I do some of my own work with leather, fabrics, and replacing rivets, but don't shape metal, or weld. I do have significant training and experience with structural steel however.

Edwin

Received: bastard sword to the elbow. The initial hit wasnt too bad, but the partial nerve entrapment (i think thsts what it was anyway) caused constant pain for 4 years. And bumping my elbow at all resulted in funny-bone feeling for at least 8 years. Given: rising blow with danish axe to my opponen...

Edwin

I sometimes start developing carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. Fighting has helped to relieve the symptoms; it's different motions than what I with my mouse and keyboard. My wife is a chiropractor: an adjustment on my hands and/or wrists every 3 or 4 months resets me back to zero as far as developing...

Edwin

Round robin: organize everyone into circles of between 6 to 10 fighters or so. One person starts in the middle of each circle, fights each person in the circle in order, and then the next person steps in the middle and fights everyone. Each fighter is fights everyone else in their circle twice that ...

Edwin

Armored Easter Egg hunt.

15 minutes hunting for plastic eggs, spread around a very large field.
2 hours of challenging people for to gain an egg. Chivalry had to offer up 2 eggs if defeated.

Edwin

Not only am I going to gulf wars, but we are starting to have 80 degree highs with a lot of humidity, so I'm conditioning for potentially hot and grueling battles already!

Edwin

When I lived in Iowa, I began making my own lamellar pieces, from spring steel coils I bought from McMaster Carr. They were easy to cut, easy to punch (roper whitney jr#5), etc. They sat in my basement, which was always humid, and had very little rust after 2 years of being down there. I moved to fl...

Edwin

I have 2 linen shirts that I wear. Sometimes a gambeson (2 layers of fabric one layer of all cotton batting) is sometimes too much; on occasions I couldn't tell that a telling blow hit me, and I'm sometimes a wuss.

Edwin

Ditto on the water: I drink water all day everyday. Ever since I moved to Florida I have found that I need almost 3/4 gallon per day in order to survive practice. I also started leaving my helmet on during my breaks inbetween fights. At first I would wait 2 minutes after stopping before id take it o...

Edwin

I cannot recal exactly right now, but my household uses either 38" or 42" diameter round centers for melees. Some of my squire brothers and household armsmen find they do not work for them in all battles, especially resurrection type battles where as a unit we don't necessarily reform into a single ...

Edwin

I am a righty, and still fight righty. But I've been training to fight off-hand ever since the other fighter in my shire at the time got a cyst rupture in his right hand. We fought off-hand for 6 months. My knight, even before he had surgery on his shoulder, insisted we practice off-hand. And every ...

Edwin

#1 Work with as many people as you can that recognize your tell and then inform you about it. #2 This is what works for me, it may not work for you: I try to turn my tell into a way to manipulate my opponent. In other words, I start that shot with the tell, but practice finishing that same shot stri...

Edwin

I highly recommend building one's first center grip out of wood. Over several years, change the size until you find what you like, or if you are lucky enough to have multiple center users in your practice, ask to borrow shields for several fights each practice for several months. My center tear drop...

Edwin

I am asthmatic. I pay an awful lot of attention to my breathing, in that I observe what keeps me on the field longer, and then trying to replicate whatever worked. Posture is crucial for people like me. If I let myself hunch up or lean forward or back for an amount of time, my body goes into stresse...

Edwin

Strategy for me is also big picture type of stuff. Example: if I'm in a round-robin setting, and there is 1 fighter in particular that is higher skill than everyone including me, I will fight everyone except that fighter with the same opening attack. I save my best opening attack for that fighter an...

Edwin

I normally use a tear drop center grip for tournament play. When I'm not using my knight's shield or the household shields in melee, I'm using a heater. It's the same heater that I learned on long ago in the Middle. The secret to having a comfortable heater is all in the location and orientation of ...

Edwin

To clarify, I'll describe a few different scenarios that happen to me on occasion. Sometimes I'll block a sword blow with my forearm. I call those as a good blow to the arm, even if they end up a little light, because I deliberately blocked. Usually this is a case of my opponent's specific motions p...

Edwin

I really enjoy trapping weapons using my shield, preferably against their own body. My own rule of thumb: if their weapon contacts their body, no problem. If their weapon contacts my body, I need to loosen up to allow them to clear it. I will maneuver myself so that when they do clear it, I have an ...

Edwin

Being the smallest person in my Judo school was an advantage. It is easy to learn to throw a smaller person with flawed technique. It is impossible to throw a larger person with flawed technique. Ergo... I learned better technique because I practiced it with every person and every throw. The transla...

Edwin

Russ Mitchell, I didnt really have a question... Only an idle comment for the tangent topic of feints.

Back on topic: I wonder what affect astigmastism could have on eye scanning software?

Edwin

I'm no elite fighter, but I dig the conversation here. And have at least a comment about feints. I believe that every feint should be thrown with the appearance of being a sincere attack... and one needs to be capable of turning the feint into a genuine blow depending on the opponent's response, or ...

Edwin

There's the pictures of statues, frescoes, etc, of military saints that were on Egfroth's geocities page. I don't know if he's maintained that site, IIRC he hasn't. I've found a few similar photos of the same saints in the Byzantium books by John Julius Norwich.

Edwin

The very first armor I ever made for myself were my demigauntlets, but I used 14oz saddle skirting, not sole bend. I used the same patterns that the local SCA shire had been using for metal demi's, but I deliberately enlarged them, by about a 1/2 inch all around, but left the holes in the same place...

Edwin

Is your sole bend vegetable ranged? I use both chrome tanned and vegetable tanned sole bends. Chrome tanned is goods for the harness and hinges under the metal parts of my lamellar. The chrome tamed stuff resists growing fungus better than vegetable tanned, but is not easy to form into 2 direction c...

Edwin

Tournament: If there is doubt in my mind being struck, I call it good. Don't think i've ever questioned my opponent. I have always assumed that if he didn't call it, I didn't hit hard enough or it was on a weapon or shield. Practice: If there was doubt in my mind, either.striking our being struck......

Edwin

#1, but with one side flat. Also wider in the middle narrower and more round where my index and pinky finger go.

Edwin

What do you think are the most important fundamentals for someone who is BRAND SPANKIN NEW to SCA heavy fighting? How early should a newbie be introduced to melee style fighting as opposed to 1-on-1? Most important thing? Have fun. It's easy to talk someone to boredome, to explain things they won't...

Edwin

I am a nobody in the SCA but I will oppose the inclusion of grappling until I see an adequate training requirement for falling. I was sparring with the senior student in my old judo school; I countered his leg reap, he tried to resist with his weight (300 lbs), instead of technique. That caused him ...

Edwin

I have never seen a problem with having multiple kits from different times... while having only one SCA name. You're speaking modern english at events right? Using modern english pronunciations for people's names? IMO, it's better to have a kit that is consistent with itself than to change your name...

Edwin

My chin strap is made of 2 strips, stitched together at their ends to form a cup. It stays in place better when I have a beard than when I don't. Using rivets allows the straps to be adjusted, but I haven't had to do that.

Edwin

I enjoyed the Ansteoran chili; ate 2 bowls of the regular onion.

Fighting was awesome. Bridge, field, fort, ravine battles were all epic. A true test of endurance... I feel for those who weren't acclimated to the heat and humidity.

Edwin

Armor can cause bruising, even when an ineligible target is hit and the armor causes a bruise on that same limb... just in a different place.

Tip shots or glancing shots make good bruises while not being falling blows when they strike an unarmored area.

Re: Strapping bazubands

Re: where to buy a replacement punch set for a whitney jr 5?

Re: Leg wraps

Re: Metal fatigue

Re: Single Most Painful Shot given/Received By You?

Re: Fighting wiht carpal tunnel

Re: Need Tournament Ideas

Re: What is your favorite Tourney style/format?

Re: Gulf Wars XXIII

Re: Lamellar in 4130-Have a couple of questions

Re: Padding under lamellar (SCA)

Re: Energy Levels at Fighter Practice

Re: Large Round Shields

Re: Going Sinister

Re: Removing Tells

Re: Center-grip Shield Sizing Question

Re: Posture and breathing

Re: Help with simple strategies

Re: Heater shield annoyance

Re: Fouling a weapon

Re: Fouling a weapon

Re: What about us little dudes?

Re: Visual Cues in Martial Sports?

Re: Visual Cues in Martial Sports?

Re: Byzantine military clothing

Re: Uses for sole bend leather?

Re: Uses for sole bend leather?

Re: Most Powerful Shots in SCA combat

Re: Perfect rattan handle

Re: The absolute fundamentals (SCA)

Re: Will the BoTN change the SCA:s HF game?

Re: question about fighting style and time period.

Re: Chinstrap with beard

Re: News from Gulf Wars?

Re: (sca) Light shot, good bruise.