The Armour Archive

Red Simon

Posted this in another thread - the effigy of an unnamed member of the Drakenborgh family in the central museum of Utrecht clearly shows a loose standard coming out from under his jupon. It is of a gusseted contruction with the seam in the mail also visible. Unfortunately I do not have a clearer pic...

Red Simon

There's an effigy in the Central Museum of Utrecht, mid-14th century member of the Drakenborg family. He's got full armour on, with mail coat, splinted arm defenses, what appears to be cuir boillie greaves (laced on the inside of the leg), sabatons and a standard. The edge of which can be seen peeki...

Red Simon

Only eight more weeks? Urk. So much left to do! Traders to hassle, volunteers to kit out, showers to arrange.. Anyway, Jehan, if you could send me or Joram an e-mail, we might be able to arrange something for your visit. Reduced entry price, chat with the jousters, stuff like that. Our e-mails: hass...

Red Simon

I got a riveted maille shirt with a huge neck-opening myself. I just threaded a leather thong through the edge that I use to pull it a bit tighter. Works for me, makes it a sight more comfortable to wear too.

Marc.

Red Simon

I can't seem to find the rivets that should be holding the fingers onto the metacarpal (I can find the two holding the thumb in place). Are they attached to the knuckle rider plate? Jiri, care to share your secret?

Marc.

Red Simon

Not too long ago, I ran across an article on the subject of height in the middle ages - specifically in the Netherlands, 14th and 15th century. Turns out the average height for males was around 1.70 meters, for women 1.60. Both about 10 cm shorter than is the national average over here today (we're ...

Red Simon

Mac is a really nice guy, by the way. The moment I mentioned that I did a bit of armouring myself, his reaction was: "You make armour? Show me, did you bring it? Where is it? Show me!" In the evening, there'd be a place near the fire where all the armour enthousiasts would be hanging off his lips as...

Red Simon

As far as I know, Tobias is a museum curator and part-time jouster. That's how he makes his daily living and that's how he saved up for a nice suit of armour. It is indeed, Mac holding the helm. He came to the event to make sure the armour and saddle (which he also made, his first I understand) work...

Red Simon

Thought you might enjoy this: (from m under Foto's - Ridders van de Haar 2005) [img]http://www.midfan.nl/Images/rvdh2005/rvdh43.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.midfan.nl/Images/rvdh2005/rvdh40.jpg[/img] <a href="http://www.midfan.nl/Images/rvdh2005/rvdh62.jpg" target=_new><img src="http://www.midfan.nl/Im...

Red Simon

Not too long ago, our group was at an event in Italy. We had great fun and enjoyed a good battle, good food and good company. At a certain moment, I saw one of our members hand-sewing a new linnen undershirt, which I applauded. I also saw he was using modern, colorful pins to hold it together as he ...

Red Simon

I'm not giving up on people like Sir Mord - you earned that title, didn't you, sir? I assume it's important to you and you hold yourself to certain standards - whether moral or martial - in order to keep it. You hold others to those same standards, your group even has rules to make sure people follo...

Red Simon

Oh, oh! I've got one: running around in your underwear when the temperature rises even mildly. There are a very small amount of miniatures from period that show this sort of behaviour, on peasants doing very intensive and hot work in the fields. Everybody else should be fine in their wools and linne...

Red Simon

I'll have a crack at the persuasion thing. First I'll establish what this argument seems to be about - To me, it seems to be on allowing someone to play who needs modern means to compensate a disability (I'm talking about someone who is nearly blind without glasses and is medically unable to wear co...

Red Simon

Doing rebated steel fights, I once got hit in the forearm hard enough to make me yelp, through an inch of gambeson padding. Kept fighting, left an interesting-looking bruise. Lots of good solid hits, but nothing so far to knock me out. I'm a wuss that way. Most damage done would have to be during an...

Red Simon

I am very interested in the Wisby gauntlets as well. I am finishing up my second interpretation of the first type, as well as working on a pair of #3 gauntlets for myself.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Red Simon

This sort of thing isn't limited to the SCA. Many viking/Frankish LH / re-enactment groups around here also have many folk sporting a pair of leather bracers as forearm protection. I've had to explain to a couple of friends how they're basically modern safety gear, just like the leather-reinforced g...

Red Simon

Now, I'm not trying to come off as an asshole with this post, but from all of the pictures I've seen (which included some BEAUTIFUL examples of armour, whether period or fantasy), a large majority of the people playing the SCA game seem to settle for a rusty, duct-tape-covered version of chivalry. T...

Red Simon

To me, it's mostly that the modern eye for beauty and esthetics is vastly different than the medieval one. Something we consider pretty, inspired by books, tv, movies, comics, etc, is not the same as what someone in the 14th or 15th c. would find attractive. This is something I've had to come to ter...

Red Simon

Since I'm working on assembling my own 14th century kit, I'll jump in and ask; what about all those mid-century effigies and illuminations that show gambesons (or arming doublet, or whatever you want to call it) peeking out from under mail shirts? Some reach to just above the knee, which is what I'm...

Red Simon

Is it me, or is the transitional mail shirt inside-out?
Very nice pictures, overall. Lots to look at!

Red Simon

I have, in the past, pointed my padded cuisses to the inside of my gambeson buttonholes just about waist-level. Thread the arming points through from the inside out, tie off, done. Now I'm pretty slim, so they were very comfortable to me, but the gambeson did tend to pull at the front and move aroun...

Red Simon

Looks like those gauntlets are perfectly capable of left-to-right movement. You can just see the slot for the sliding rivet on some of the photo's. Beautiful work and looks plenty functional.

Marc van Hasselt.

Red Simon

Great tip Hal, thanks! We use a piece of 2x4 clamped to the edge of a table for drilling on, but you can't always get it all the way into a helmet, for instance. This tip should cut down on my sanding/polishing time quite a bit.

Thanks!

Marc.

Red Simon

Something for the online gamers amoungst us;

[img]http://home.wanadoo.nl/hasselt/kill.jpg[/img]

Red Simon

Joram van Essen, because he has seemingly infinite patience with me and tries to teach me how to armour well, despite all my screwups and mistakes.

Marc.

Red Simon

Hello all, I've been planning a pair of Wisby nr. 3 gauntlets for a little while and would like to hear your advice (and general comments). So far, this is what I've come up with; The plates are riveted on the inside and outside of a backing, with most of the smaller plates (on the back of the hand ...

Red Simon

Actually, it appears I was misinformed about the castle. Yes, it was built in the 19th century, but was built on the foundations of a 15th century castle and follows the style of medieval French examples. My bad. Also, your list of dedicated medieval re-enactment groups in Europe is a bit on the sho...

Red Simon

Hey now, can't we all just get along? On the subject of getting this event together; Tobias Capwell is one of the jouster, who came across from England for it. On a plane. With his armour. So the jousters included two Dutchmen, one American living in England and one New Zealander living in Holland. ...

Red Simon

Funny little tidbit; the castle's a 'fake'. It was built in the 19th century by an enthusiast and isn't a replica of any medieval castle. Looks very pretty though.

Marc.

Red Simon

I was one of the visitors to the event and I can safely say that the photo's don't do it justice (though they come very very close indeed!). The joust and knight games were quite spectacular and the rest of the entertainment was top-notch. And I agree the site itself is a joy to browse through. I'm ...

Red Simon

I've recently started working as an apprentice to a professional armourer ( m ) and have found that he inspires confidence in his customers by only accepting payment (any payment) on delivery of the item. Joram has also been known to completely remake an item if he's unhappy with it. Compared to ite...

Red Simon

From what I know of brigandines (which was told to me by the man I'm apprenticed to who has handled extant examples in the Royal Armouries), brigandine nails were riveted the same way other rivets are. They are a bit smaller than most rivets I've seen and worked with, but the nails we use peen just ...

Red Simon

Uhr.. Thankee for advice. Is good. Me happy. That is the CoP I was talking about, yes. Quite the long-term project, I expect. Actually, we might have some brigandine nails lying around. The thing I would be worried about is them pulling through the fabric because the heads are rather small. In a bri...

Red Simon

Hello all, I've been planning on making a reproduction of the number 24 CoP from the battle of Wisby. From what I've seen in AftBoW, I'll need about 1000 rivets to hold all the plates in place. I've been looking for as authentic a solution as possible and while hand-forging 1000 nails could be done,...

Red Simon

Well I suggest trying what works for you. We tried using a lead block, but the rivets would just sink in and make peening them nigh impossible. Experiment on scrap, etc.

Good luck, in any case!

Marc.

Mr. Capwell's armour, by Mac

Planning to build a pair of Wisby type #3 gauntlets.

Arming Nayles for a CoP (or other foundation armour)