The Armour Archive

tiredWeasel

I apologize for the lack of pictures:
We are moving (into a house build in 1752, unfortunately *not* medieval) so other stuff comes first.
I hope the project will resume in December/January and then I'll post pictures of the progress.

tiredWeasel

Edit: I am looking at tiredWeasel's project as "I have a mild steel salet in the style of the mid 15th century based on a guard at the Crucifixion, how should it be finished?" I will polish it and I could leave it blank, of course. But as I said: There might be other possibilities, heat blueing mig...

tiredWeasel

To clarify, if armour was heat treated and NOT polished, then you can look at the surface, and if it is the right shade of blue, you can be fairly confident that it is *correcty* tempered. I think that "the look" was more a visual way to check the quality. Higher quality armour was often polished w...

tiredWeasel

Oh I know how steel reacts when you temper it. I'm a Büchsenmacher myself. I just thought that the blue color was a deliberate choice and was applied as an decoration. I'm just not sure what I'm seeing on most of these pictures - it does not look like blank steel, like "white" steel - especially not...

tiredWeasel

@Gustovic: Well then I did not recall correctly

Mild steel it is.

@Sean M: Thank you, that makes sense that the blue colour is a product of the heat treatment and not a deliberate decoration.

So I guess the best way to finish the helmet is polish it (shiny with scratches) and leave it blank.

tiredWeasel

Wouldn't a deep blue not be around 550°F/290°C? (IIRC the helmet is made of C45) I don't want to discuss the polish - I have the thread about armour polishing open :D - but want to hear some thoughts about historical alternatives. I want to go with the "french blue" but just want to hear some though...

tiredWeasel

With the Covid-restrictions relaxed I picked the helmet up in June and am now in the process of polishing the visor. Pictures and a short overview will follow but a quick question first: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/ec/e2/6dece2fa435ea7508b5e5fc2324c9a7a.jpg What are we looking at here? Just a ...

tiredWeasel

While visiting Wittenberg I saw the following statue in the St. Marien, the church where Martin Luther preached and the reformation started. The curator/vicar (I have no idea what his position) said it is from 1530 and not a later restoration or addition. https://www.pinterest.de/erikgiesewiesel/mar...

tiredWeasel

I don't know if it is what you are looking for, but the fencing masks used for longsword fencing use V2A steel mesh with a 2,5mm (~0.1") mesh width.

Of course - hardened and annealed.

Pretty much indestructible even when fighting with rebated steel swords.

tiredWeasel

Meh, the test with the swords was kinda pointless - not cutting/slashing only hacking.
But in general I guess it's a mix of the quality of the fabric used and also of the quality of the manufacture.
Given how stiff properly made fabric armour can be I'm always skeptical when I see flabby test pieces.

tiredWeasel

This project I wanted to start years ago but a busy job and general laziness got in my way. But we all have to start somewhere and so I asked a young blacksmith, who had just started his career in armormaking, to build me a helmet after my (vague) specifications. And only a few days before Christmas...

tiredWeasel

The visor is not raised (the same artist drew raised visors of similar types on the same pictures) - the helmet seems to small for the deformed soldier (he's a bad guy, leading Christ to the crucifixion) but the visor is not raised - maybe a little bit, like 5-10°or the helmet is tipped back because...

tiredWeasel

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/02/46/4c/02464ca3a94b7080a6c374e0718710ab.jpg I really hate to disagree but I doubt that this fellow would sit flat on a table. (Karlsruhe Passion, 1450-55) I would say, in my limited and prone to misinterpreting knowledge, that your broad statements holds true for later s...

tiredWeasel

I would say that not all brigandines used steel plates - and he does say that brigandines cover such a wide field that this test is in no ways absolute. @Gustovic: From a testing standpoint his choice of draw weight makes sense - he wants to test penetration and for that it's wise to start with a po...

tiredWeasel

These hosen did have a very low waist compared to later hosen. It is pretty much normal but keep in mind that in most cases you would wear an outer layer that is longer than your doublet and would cover that area. Only when fencing, working or torturing Christ you would want to shed your outer layer...

tiredWeasel

Well they did not wear pants for over 200 years, so there is precedent

tiredWeasel

Earlier sallets tended not to have the mouth covering visor. Of course it's hard to gauge in most artwork were the visor or the sallet is tipped up but might a sallet with a visor that reaches the nose but not farther down be more appropriate for the time? I have a few examples were the "short" viso...

tiredWeasel

https://ig14.at/

Not a forum but a page that's smack in your timeframe.
Also they are from Austria.

But they seem to discuss everything in various FB-groups.

tiredWeasel

Tom B. posted the manuscript in another thread - and this picture shows a clear view of a spanning belt (front and back):

It doesn't show a hook but a "slotted tab" (my words fail me...) on a chain(?).

Also a T-toggle.

tiredWeasel

The pilgrim or merchant angle would be the easiest to exploit for travel and lodging. Aachen received a lot of reliquies in 799 and some roman roads in now Germany where used for travelling and trade up until the modern age (and still exist now). The pilgrimage network would not be as vast as in the...

tiredWeasel

@ Mac: I've read that too - but never in the context of an extant shield, they always (afaik) just say "leather". But it certainly seems plausible.

tiredWeasel

You can use them while holding the straps in your fist, like a buckler. When the shield is constructed right you can use it quite effectively like that. There are some similar examples - this one has two horizontal bars that would hold strap and add some rigidity to the shield (I'm assuming these ar...

tiredWeasel

So it's possbile that there may be a hidden helmet under those bushy hats? https://www.bilder-upload.eu/upload/cc7f89-1586001803.jpeg (Karlsruhe Passion, ca. 1450) There's also a sallet under a hat (not exactly "hidden" while worn by an armored man) in a painting by Gerard Davis(?) from around 1510-...

tiredWeasel

Weird, I thought I posted a reply a while back to James Arlen Gillaspie... maybe it got eaten by the server downtime that time. @ James Arlen Gillaspie: That's what I was afraid of. The visor does in fact not hinder my vision but the face opening does. I think it should be more round and less oval a...

tiredWeasel

The Munich-breastplate has a closed front - I would guess that a split back would be a better match.
But it still has an intersting rivet arrangement.

tiredWeasel

RWWT, I live in an apartment without an anvil :D Apart from that I have a pretty good workshop set up in my apartment (only handheld powertools though) - so I can make noise and dirt, should the need arise. But of course I try to keep the noise to a minimum. The dents are on both sides in roughly th...

tiredWeasel

An observation:

This is the visor in the extreme open position. That's not much - I guess the pivots should have been higher on the skull.

tiredWeasel

A few years ago I bought this beauty for a few € from a friend. It was used in full contact fighting, what would evolve into HMB, and looks the part. It is big, battered and heavy. I never paid it much attention until recently when I worked on a side project that might require a bascinet. So I duste...

tiredWeasel

They put horse manure on top of the dowels. Comments suggested that this was not universal practice and may be the reason that the stump was rotten - sometimes coal slag / coal dust was used. Both make sense, I guess - coal slag is a pretty efficient vapor barrier but the ammoniac in the manure make...

tiredWeasel

Soo... remember the one time I said, I will continue the project in january? Ha, we all laughed. Fun times where had by all. :D Turns out I resumed the project in Oktober of 2019 and just finished it. I'll update a complete description but for now a quick staged picture of the end result. I'm happy ...

tiredWeasel

My shirt is made of panels 70cm (27,5") wide, the arms have a circumference of 50cm (19,7") with square gores 10cm (4") wide - "The Medieval Tailors Assistant" advises panels with "half chest + 15cm or more" and that's pretty much what I did (chest = 110cm). It still could be wider, but I guess that...

tiredWeasel

You already have on picture from the Karlsruhe Passion - but this one is also good for shirt related studies. I focus mostly on the time around 1460 but in a HRE-context there are mostly two types of neck openings: the classic keyhole and a simple slit wide enough for the head to pass through and th...

tiredWeasel

What do you guys think? Sheepskin or fur lined fabric? https://i.ibb.co/t43qqnT/Lyversberg-Passion-Gei-elung-Sheepskin.jpg (Lyversberg Passion, ca. 1465) Klick for hi-res version. Yes - that is the guy with the open leg seam at his hosen. https://i.ibb.co/DLnyBwk/Master-of-the-Karlsruhe-Passion-Nail...

tiredWeasel

We did not lose interest - most people just read without commenting.

tiredWeasel

Given that even Christ-tormenting lowlifes are wearing tight fitting hosen I find it hard to believe that it was normal to be sewn into ones hosen. You need servants for this and some of these people aren't even meant to have friends. :D It seems to be a modern idea. Not saying that it wasn't used o...

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