The Armour Archive

Sean M

Ann Wroe found an inventory of the meeting-house of the City of Rodez in Languedoc from 1355 with what she translated as "20 good crossbows, one broken ..., some with a wheel-lock, and one with a reverse lock." I would guess that the wheel-lock is something like ad turnum or its Provencal equivalent...

Sean M

Jess Finley of Fühlen Designs did another talk for A&A on linen armour but I don't know if they have posted the video yet. I have seen an argument that most of the quenching recipes are the same as the nonsense that fills health magazines, or sewing magazines ... the basics that work don't fill many...

Sean M

There would be two ways to make thin sheet. Worked hot, with large amounts of scale being formed and reducing the overall size of sheet. Cold working with frequent annealing, with scale loss reduced. This will be dictated by quality of iron billet and its slag content and chemical composition and t...

Sean M

Here is the reconstruction of the Dürrnberg grave 373 shield. The article does not have many measurements and the diagram is scaled "1/4 life size" not "this much = 1 cm" but they seem to think that the spina and umbo were something like 60-70 cm long. https://www.bookandsword.com/wp-content/uploads...

Sean M

Over on Twitter Mike Bishop or Jon Coulston has a list of the evidence for padded arming garments in ancient Roman world. https://nitter.net/EquipmentRoman/status/1720830446299214300#m - The thoracomachus in 'De Rebus Bellicis' - The subarmalis (under-armour-thing?) in the Historia Augusta, a kind o...

Sean M

A grave chamber from Austria around 400 BCE contained a shield with lots of thin iron reinforcements. It had engraved iron sheet over the wooden 'barleycorn' boss, four legs with curled 'antennae' ends, and reinforcements along the rim. It would have looked something like this (although this is from...

Sean M

And here are some of the documents from seventeenth-century England which talk about the surface of armour. Markham's Soldier's Accidence (1625) https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A06964.0001.001/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext All this Armour is to be rather of Russet, Sang•ine or Blacke colour• then Whi...

Sean M

Ooh, thanks! In my experience the leather at the top of a cuisse is plenty stiff on its own but attaching velvet to the leather would be one reason to have the little brass or bronze studs. And then they could be used on armours without the velvet just to look pretty. I would not be surprised if the...

Sean M

The cuisses in Schloss Ambras often have gilt grommets in the leathers at the top, especially on armours which were re-leathered recently. Its easy to see why you would want grommets in holes which will be under tension. In October, I noticed one of the cuisses with a different kind of metal fitting...

Sean M

Thanks! I wonder why that did not show up in my search from MS from France, Switzerland, Austria, or Germany dated 1251-1290? UBH Cod. Pal. germ. 389 Der Welsche Gast has a nice battle on foot https://manuscriptminiatures.com/4830/10234#image as does the Psalter of St Louis https://manuscriptminiatu...

Sean M

Aside from the Maciejowski Bible, does anyone know of any French or German art from around 1266 which shows a large cavalry battle? Manuscript Miniatures gives me lots of battles on foot or against towns, and individual horsemen fighting, but not groups of horsemen going at each other.

Sean M

With the knee and upper lames fully flexed. The knee wings are still blank, because I've not yet decided what to do about the decoration. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHdeYQ5ojC9KR_b9nw074Uxlao6zJ_6KeBdKQ9Kn9EHCOCLP7jfju4fbKPXXRiQPid4b6SUmbh66k0Qzyddb3u0flF7E3VtJN5ggO9Ua7salLacUYSa1oT3K...

Sean M

The issues with that argument is both brigandine and jack plates are quite simple to make from plate, without any major tooling. All the work can be done cold with hand tools, you'd need a punch an chisel, ideally you'd have bench shears, some jigs and files to clean it up. The dipping them in liqu...

Sean M

This https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/EEWills/1:13?rgn=div1;view=fulltext has a pare glovis of plate white and also a pare of glovys of plate blacke. I agree, that is one of the good ones. We just don't have anything from medieval England which describes the surface of so many armours as the Archiv...

Sean M

I thought it might be helpful to post three of Chris Dobson's best examples of paintings that show bright steel next to dark steel. https://www.bookandsword.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/DP300711-cropped.jpg The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, by an unknown Catalan artist around 1450 Met . He th...

Sean M

Its a different type of open infantry helmet, but Roland Warzecha found a rare painting where a kettlehat has a visible chinstrap. https://www.bookandsword.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1250_Mainzer_Evangeliar_Aschaffenburg_Hofbibliothek_Ms13_fol_18v.jpg Mainzer Evangeliar, Aschaffenburg, Hofbiblio...

Sean M

Lets not forget that art and documents record a certain amount of scale armour in the 14th-15th century. I don't think any survives but it was probably laced in place. So small-plate armours had always been both laced together and nailed together, in 16th century England they just really liked a ver...

Sean M

"TEMPERA IN QUESTA AQUA": EXPERIMENTING WITH IMPACT OF MEDIEVAL QUENCHING RECIPES ON STEEL HARDNESS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufpOe4BnMQc (a 90 minute talk) Text and slides at https://www.arms-n-armor.com/pages/tempera-in-questa-aqua-experimenting-with-impact-of-medieval-quenching-recipes-on-s...

Sean M

The English militia act of 1558 is generally indifferent about whether the cheapest armour is an almain rivet, a brigandine, or a coat of plates (ie. a plate coat which seems very similar if not identical to a jack of plates) except that the poorest men obliged to keep arms just need a coat of plate...

Sean M

Aside from the article by Ian Eaves (80 pages of photos and documents for 10 GBP plus postage!) there is the 2019 article by Lauren Piper. https://doi.org/10.1080/17416124.2019.1662992 The jacks in the Royal Armouries consist of just two or three layers of fabric and leather plus the plates. Did any...

Sean M

Was there an historical distinction in terminology between a brigadine and a jack of plates? After all, the difference isn´t that big, and medival terminology doesn´t seem to be consitent. Yes, absolutely! The 15th/16th century English terms are "brigandine" and "jack of plates" (there were also pl...

Sean M

In the 16th century, were jacks of plates worn much outside of England? Around 1500 England was 'deindustrialized' because anything you could make in an English city, they could make better in a Flemish or Italian city and still sell it cheaper after exporting to England. As far as we call tell from...

Sean M

Baleen is whalebone right? That odd as mostly you hear about it being used for corset boneing. But as its springy and plastic like i can see how it would be usefull. Brits and Americans called baleen whalebone in the 19th century but it has nothing to do with bone, its a ceratinous substance like h...

Sean M

In the fourteenth century there were aketons reinforced with baleen in England and France

1311 Inventory of John fitz Marmaduke, Lord of Horden
Paris guilds

Sean M

Hi sean, to recap: 1. I found the Tasha Kelly Grande Assiettes pattern a while ago. 2. We talked about the makeup and layering of arming garments recently. The Facing-Interlining + Lining make here, you said over in the other thread, became popular end of 15th century. La grande assiette is a term ...

Sean M

There are also people who think that sculptures from the city of Rome might be influenced by theatre costumes . A lot of Roman art shows soldiers in solid breastplates with flaps sticking out at the armholes and below the waist, and the flaps must be attached to something. There are some really deta...

Sean M

Big sculptures were made by whole teams of sculptors. Its possible that either some sculptors liked to texture their mail and others left it to the painters to deal with, or that they had been told to use one technique for the archers and another for the cavalry, based on whatever model they were us...

Sean M

My copy arrived!

Chris Dobson has seen my working paper on the surface of plate armour in the 14th century. I expect that he interprets some things differently but that is to be expected. And his earlier books, like the one on armour in Piedmont, were good.

Sean M

Thanks, I will put rawhide on mine. Does adding more to one layer make a difference? I have read people suggest putting 3-4 on the front, but others just have a single layer. Do you make your own gesso, or do you buy it? My feeling is that especially since its a plywood buckler, the main benefit of...

Sean M

I am building my own buckler from plywood and using a steel boss, basically building it like a viking round shield in minature. I have a couple of questions: I plan to cover it in linen, is it worth it to cover both sides and do multiple layers? What weapons and level of force will it come up again...

Sean M

Very interesting, thank you! I notice many of the images of similar armor in that thread appear to be German. It would make sense for Lithuanians to be familiar with German armor styles since they had been at war with the Teutonic Order on and off for hundreds of years prior to the early 15th centu...

Sean M

An old thread with some 15th-century armour which seems to be built of vertical slats strapped or riveted together like a tatehagi okegawa dō from Japan or the S-13 breastplate in Schloss Churburg http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... &p=2744361

Sean M

Ralph Moffat thinks that the shield in Rohan v. Beaumanoir 1309 is of wood and leather and sinew ( ners ) rather than vers . I think on pavises from the 15th century, the sinew was shreaded and scattered onto a layer of glue like grated cheese on a pizza. Moffat's sourcebook on arms and armour also ...

Sean M

Hi Indianer,

here is the thread where I made a doublet of white linen with grande assiettes using some of Matthew Gnagy's ideas.

Sean M

I could make a mockup of a doublet bodice in about 1:5 scale, but just drafting the pattern will take 1 or 2 hours. How about a deal: I will make and photograph the mini doublet, if you agree to pick a place and a time and make a mock doublet out of cheap cotton or similar (just one layer, to test t...

Re: Arbalest à Tillolles

Re: Oakeshott Institute Lecture on Medieval Quenching Recipes

Re: Making Very Thin Sheet Iron

Re: Making Very Thin Sheet Iron

Re: Felt Armour

Making Very Thin Sheet Iron

Re: Traditional Armor Finishing Processes

Re: Cuisse Leathers with Studs

Cuisse Leathers with Studs

Re: Battle between horsemen circa 1266

Battle between horsemen circa 1266

Re: The "Nurenberg butt armor"

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: Traditional Armor Finishing Processes

Re: Traditional Armor Finishing Processes

Re: Chinstraps for sallets?

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Oakeshott Institute Lecture on Medieval Quenching Recipes

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: Why was the jack of pates developed and popularised when the brigantine was already in use.

Re: A doublet of white linen

Re: Felt Armour

Re: Felt Armour

Re: New Book: Beaten Black and Blue

Re: Wooden Buckler

Re: Wooden Buckler

Re: Lithuanian Cuirass?

Re: Lithuanian Cuirass?

Re: Felt Armour

Re: Arming coat for supporting armor only, no padding

Re: Arming coat for supporting armor only, no padding