The Armour Archive

Friethjoph

Here are a couple of essential items that you may not have thought of, or perhaps underrated the importance of... --A sketch book. Get one and use it early and often. If you have an idea, sketch it out. If you think you might build something, sketch it out first. --Hearing protection. The sorts of ...

Friethjoph

Welcome to the forums! Ok, let me get one thing out first: I am more a scholar than an armorer (academic type), but there is one thing both academics and craft have in common: Start Simple I know, there is the temptation to go out and wanting to replicate that grilly blackened and gilded armor in hi...

Friethjoph

Vikings only existed until around 1066 (well, technically there were some rare vikings later still). So the best time to base this on would be 11th century. Around that time, Knights and Vikings of roughly equal wealth had little to no difference in combat gear (chainmaile, nasal helmet, swords of r...

Friethjoph

Let's assume 1066 equipment and armies instead of single fighters. The samurai (nominally under the rule of Emperor Go-Reizei) and the knights (in service for William the Bastard) come to a rough stalemate when it comes to tactic knowledge, while the vikings (under Harald Hardrada) are not known for...

Friethjoph

Erm.. the Japanese had quite the archery tradition. Yes, but so had the Vikings. A late Dane or Norwegian Law for going on Viking demanded that each bench of 2 had at least one bow and soandso much arrows. The ca 1000 to 1100 "knight" also was often a trained archer (through hunting exercise), thou...

Friethjoph

It is the norm not to hear back from professional researchers - they do often have crowded inboxes. Pestering them a bit is an annoyance for both sides, but oddly enough the norm.

Friethjoph

I know, that in Heddeby several finds of clay and clay-straw-horse excrement mixtrue molds (or rest of these) have been found in combination with equipment for casting. This however was a lost mold method. for the pure clay mold (a bell) we know that lost wax was used. I don't know from the top of m...

Friethjoph

Some Caveats: If you make the whole ground a funnel, the block you place your crucible on can't be round but has to be a polygon - a triangle, square/rectangle or hexagon should do fine - to allow the molten metal to flow out through the gaps between the block and the funnel. The floor board will ha...

Friethjoph

No, the game theory is absolute bullcrap. Please watch the numeroud video replies, especialy Metatron and his buddies.. ALL he says is bullcrap.

Friethjoph

Generally, research papers in Germany try to stick to 3rd person.

Friethjoph

relatively pure iron is useful for arming purposes, but not armoring: it is used in combination with harder steels to create dasast and durable knives that keep a keen edge.

Friethjoph

I'm studying History in my bachelor courses in Kiel. If that is sufficient, I will try to take a look at it.

Though I would like to mention for everyone: quotations and references are the bones of a historical paper, coherent analysis the fleah and a summarised conclusion at the end is the skin.

Friethjoph

Speaking of sweet Ebay finds isn't that the old Sinric (sp?) Helm from the pattern archive? Reading the sellers page, I only see red flags for not buying of him: Misspelled shop name; 6 months pro and just 17 sales; based in India; first 10 sales for 5 Indian Rupees; 5 of the last 7 sales without p...

Friethjoph

You could also read reports on bellows and blacksmithing, allowing some short introduction and reaearch about the topic, what you should expect to read in an original, before actually reading the original. Nothing ever replaces study of the originals, but looking for literature and transcriptions/tr...

Friethjoph

If you have ample supply of RRT, you can use a 50 to 100 mm piece, turn it to stand on the I-side and then drill a hole out of the thick of the track, then heat it well and use something to shape the Hardy - voila, a seperate hardy stand (which of course still needs to be welded to a mounting plate ...

Friethjoph

I got to reviseand correct myself after looking at the text extracts I class on trade again, it read: "So het er nit doerffen so ferr Gereyset han zum plattener." - plattener here is clearly a job. But checking the meaning once more: it is a barber...

Friethjoph

Just a few notes to Peter: Is it impossible to make large or even huge Blast furnances? Clearly not! Peter mentioned Agricola and the 50 to 150 kg blooms. But it is also worth mentioning, that the japanese iron sand smelting is done in all by hand with powdered charcoal and iron sand to make up to 3...

Friethjoph

Peter Spätling wrote:Actually Platener/Platner/Plattner/Blatner is just the german word for armourer[...]

Or - in some areas - the a term for any smith that made "Platten" (Sheet metal). barber.

EDIT: Corrected after revisiting the text piece.

Friethjoph

Calligraphy is nice, but I can't do it with a TV running - too much concentration for the perfect lines and strokes needed for me.

only small investments, not too loud, portable... this rules out most large projects.

Ow about pottery?

Friethjoph

"Barbaricum" refers to anything east of rhine & north of Helvetia - and mainly pre middle ages: "römischen Kaiser- und Völkerwanderungszeit" is "the time of the roman emperors and Migration period". So the target are mainly Germanic and Slavic tribes. Paragraphs and groups are titled: 19 - introduct...

Friethjoph

Pictures of the 雑兵物語 (Zohyo Monogatari), one of them seems to be an extract:

http://webarchives.tnm.jp/imgsearch/show/C0046153
http://webarchives.tnm.jp/imgsearch/show/C0023427

Friethjoph

MDF is the solution for cheap but dense lasercutting, if you believe the Tabletop terrain manufacturers... and its surface is smooth and can be sealed easily.

Friethjoph

The Goal is in sight! Go on withyour gorgeous work!

Friethjoph

Dotted "studs" on the chest, scales, all in all the oranginsh color so unlike metal... I am leadto believe, that the indicated soldier might wear a brigandine with a scaled skirting. The arms seem to be outfitted with extra elbow pieces and gauntlets. If there are leather arms or it is just a long s...

Friethjoph

I think you underly a little misconception: Brigandine is not the armor of Men-at-Arms at all. Men-at-Arms are heavy armored mercenaries and knights wielding anti-armor and anti-cavalry weapons. Note the heavy armored part, that is plate armor, not brigandine. So, Either on horseback or not, they wo...

Friethjoph

Which part of the 100 years war? Which side? Because of the sheer length and techni calchanges, the styles and patterns change a lot, depending on which side you are fighting on and when.

Friethjoph

Musashi is supposed to have killed several people with Bokuto, and at least one person with a blade cut from an oar or the actual oar. None of these opponents wore armor, and supposedly, he struck them to the head. It is not solveable if those implements had a 'cutting edge' or if it were just blunt...

Friethjoph

I agree, that some of the black spots indeed are in positions, that would be very well for rivets, especially on the sides of the knees, or the skirt or elbows. On the other hand, some rivets like those just above the knee look a bit strange to me, seemingly fusing the legs into a single piece, unle...

Friethjoph

16th century Luggage.... You might ask the "Museum of Bags and Purses" in Hendrikje, they have bags dating back to about 1500 - but seemingly mostly small ones. A bit of their collection can be found http://tassenmuseum.nl/en/collection-exhibitions/collection/ Dated 1648, we find this cut https://co...

Friethjoph

I am not sure where it falls within the topic, but aren't there two different handlings of steel used in the production of japanese blades to gain a high and a low carbon steel from the same (2 ton) ballot?

Friethjoph

There are like... a dozen different "center grip oval shields" I can think about. Do you have a time reference?

The Roman late scutum of ovaloid shape found at Kasr el-Harit is not only the best conserved shield of roman origin, we also have dimensions: 1280 x 635 mm

Friethjoph

What I believe he wanted was the composition, because in Germany, steels are often coded by composition to a degree. The basic pattern for low alloyed steel composition is made like 30NiCrMo12-6 is 0.3% Carbon, and Nickle making up 12/4, Chrome 6/4 percent, some tiny ammount of Molybdene. For High A...

Friethjoph

Oh... the question is: do you want to handquilt or Machine quilt? Because you could totally just stuff it... and then use a heavy duty sewing machine to stomp over it to do the quilting.

Friethjoph

Finding the correct terms to look for is always the hardest part of research - then comes the most tedious of actually looking up all the places and books and gathering... The road to knowledge is littered with the dead husks of dropped and halfheartly done research projects! As you research thickne...

Friethjoph

If you need a bit help with German: the proper term is "Spielkarte" (playing card, plural: Spielkarten) - as opposed to "Geländekarte(n)" (map(s)). Card Game(s) translates to Kartenspiel(e). The (german) "International Bibliography of Paper-history" lists a few (numbers 15918 to 15984) books or maga...

Re: How do I start making armor?

Re: How do I start making armor?

Re: Game Theory: Who Would Win -- Samurai, Knight, or Viking

Re: Game Theory: Who Would Win -- Samurai, Knight, or Viking

Re: Game Theory: Who Would Win -- Samurai, Knight, or Viking

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Re: Game Theory: Who Would Win -- Samurai, Knight, or Viking

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Re: Paper Thickness