The Armour Archive

Harry Marinakis

For sale
Dargen tophelm
Maker: Andrey Galevskiy
Material: 14 gauge mild steel
Color: Polished steel
Lining: Padded coif
Size: 58 cm (22.8 inches)
$340 + actual shipping

Harry Marinakis

Soak the degreased maille in Evapo-Rust. It chelates iron oxide, and that's all it does. It is not strong enough to remove iron from steel, so it just removes the rust.

Dry the maille using an old towel, and then apply a rust-proofing agent such as Fluid-Film.

Harry Marinakis

Thanks Sean
Spiro's book is just a small book with random pictures, not very useful.

Harry Marinakis

Here are the 3 books on firesteels: 1. Acciarini, Gli. Fire-Steel . Milan, Italy: Be-Ma Editrice, 1991 2. Cacciandra, Vittorio, and Allessandro Cesati. Fire Steels . Italy: E. Umbaerto Allemandi & Company, 1996 3. Svoronos, Spiro. Medieval Firesteels . Houston: Copperfield Noise publishing, 2004 I h...

Harry Marinakis

https://www.ukdfd.co.uk/ceejays_site/pages/buckletitlepage.htm Also try searching on manuscript miniatures, and look at the images. Armour & Castings in the Ukraine makes a lot of great buckles. The wait (1-3 months) is well worth it. Great stuff. Raymond's Quiet Press makes a buckle that you're loo...

Harry Marinakis

I am writing from memory here. There are 3 books dedicated to firesteels, all out of print. I bought 2 of them at great cost, but the 3rd was unobtainable. I don't have access to them for the next several weeks. Years ago I wrote a research paper, and designed a typology, on firesteels based on the ...

Harry Marinakis

Promise Land Tannery sells a cream-colored Latigo leather that is the best leather that I have found for these belts. Its not white but close enough. It's very soft but doesn't stretch. It's a bit too thick but I run it over a belt sander to skive it thinner.

Harry Marinakis

Maybe it's not as clear as I remember. But here it is.

http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4688/12045/

Harry Marinakis

Here is my interpretation of the Naumberg scabbard that I made almost exactly 5 years ago. I used a very soft, almost cloth-like, leather that doesn't stretch. Roland also did the proper piping around the rain guard, which I had never seen anyone else do before today. Big congrats to Roland for doin...

Harry Marinakis

I have seen illuminations that clearly show that the Manesse style suspensions have the belt passing directly through the back of the leather cover -- not through a "slider" as reproduced by Kernig. Otherwise I love his work.

Harry Marinakis

"This was very fashionable around the year 1300 and then fell out of fashion in the early 14th century. How early can it be found?" The scabbards of the Naumberg statues are the earliest depictions that I have found of the offset sword belt. This would be circa AD 1200, if you presume that planning ...

Harry Marinakis

A 3-piece bauernwehr

Blade: O-1 tool steel, about 10 to 12 inches long
Nagel (knuckle guard): mild steel
Grip scales: European Red Deer antler

Harry Marinakis

A Latvian brooch seax

Blade: O-1 tool steel, 3-1/2 inches long
Grip: Swedish Masur Birch and deer bone
Bolster: Bronze

Sheath: 24 gauge sheet brass, rivets made from 10 gauge wire

Rings & Chain: 10 and 12 gauge wire

Harry Marinakis

Mac:

re: closing the ends of chapes

Google pipe fitters "orange peel"

Harry Marinakis

C. Gadda
Most excellent work. Congratulations.

Harry Marinakis

Go to Europe and wander around inside of castles. There are a surprising number of smaller castles that allow unregulated access. Check out the choke points, weapons ports, lines of fire, etc.

Very educational.

Harry Marinakis

I have done a lot of research on scabbards of the Dark Ages and the medieval period, and making historically-accurate scabbards is one of my specialties as an amateur historian/craftsman. I, too, have a keen interest in understanding scabbard manufacture from the medieval perspective, and medieval t...

Harry Marinakis

Thanks bro

Harry Marinakis

http://warfare2.netai.net/15/Froissart- ... -f292r.htm

Harry Marinakis

Mac,
If you're inclined, I would like to see a photo of one of your chapes - but flattened back out. I'd like to see the pattern.

Harry Marinakis

Thanks Sean for turning us onto the chape images. I just spent a lot of time looking through the data base. Here are the different chapes that I found: SHEET METAL CHAPES The simplest chapes are rolled into a conical shape with butted or lapped seams. The tip is either left pointed (rare) or folded ...

Harry Marinakis

We'll done
When you've got it down, feed us some tips

Harry Marinakis

I think I would use iron binding wire to hold the parts together. Might work for a clam shell or butted seams. But for a lapped seam, you have to make sure that the entire overlap is clamped together tightly. Wire can't do that. Many of them seem to have been attached to the scabbard with rivets/na...

Harry Marinakis

Here is a clam shell chape with butted seams. You have to sand the two halves to fit perfectly together - PERFECTLY - before soldering. But when you're done, you can't tell there is even a seam there unless you stick your nose right up to the chape.

Harry Marinakis

When I made this locket, I had gobs of solder to clean up. When I switched to the "pre-positioning" method, the solder was where it needed to be and I didn't have this big mess to clean up. Plus, When I tried to attach the rings, the locket got so hot that the lapped seam in the back melted out and ...

Harry Marinakis

If you add solder, instead of "pre-positioning" the solder, then you can get a big mess to clean up. And there's no guarantee that the solder will fill the entire lap joint.

Harry Marinakis

Here is my soldering set up. I use a small butane pencil torch, and a plumber's soldering kit from Home Depot. It has water-soluble flux, and the solder seems to melt at a reasonable temperature. DO NOT use petroleum flux.

Harry Marinakis

So here is how I have managed to make lockets and chapes: The typical method for soldering goes like this: 1. Clean and polish the metal seams 2. Apply flux 3. Clamp the pieces together 4. Heat the metal until the flux sizzles, then apply the solder 5. The solder should naturally flow into the seam ...

Harry Marinakis

The first is whether the solder joints are overlapped or butted. The one is stronger and the other is neater. I almost think I'm seeing a lap on the long seam and butting on the shorties at the tip. I'm new at this, but here is my take: Looking at some of the photos above, they all seem to be lappe...

Harry Marinakis

...am surprised to see the typical method of closing the end like a bell. My thoughts exactly. I just started making metal lockets and chapes for scabbards, and wondered how they were made in period. Now I know. I'm disappointed, really. I would look for brass between about .7mm and 1mm. The shapin...

Harry Marinakis

Rare in art? I found plenty of examples in art during my research. I was looking at scabbards from c. 1500. Most of the scabbards with this type of suspension do not show the 2nd critical buckle. I never copy anyone else's scabbard because almost all scabbards made today are wrong. I always use prim...

Harry Marinakis

I do not know the brand name of the sword. My friend bought it second-hand. Quality-wise it seems to be similar to Valiant.

Harry Marinakis

Made a scabbard for an Oakeshott Type XVIII sword. Just have to attach it to the belt. Scabbard is made from Birch and Poplar, it's just over 1/16" thick. Leather wrap was originally dyed with a medieval indigo dye. I found the leather dye recipe in an old medieval manuscript. But the client didn't ...

Harry Marinakis

A friend gave me a commerically-acquired seax and asked me to make a sheath for him. Here is what I did. I gave it an worn "antique" look. Instead of dyeing the leather, I gave it a dry rub. I like the way that it highlighted the tooling. Not my best work, unfortunately, but I tried numerous new con...

Harry Marinakis

I've bought a couple of helms from him. Nice stuff.

Some armorers just can't get the shape and proportions correct, and their work looks "funny."

Alexander make really beautiful stuff with classic lines.

For sale: Dargen tophelm

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