The Armour Archive

Roland Ansbacher

I'm only familiar with glass bottles, with only passing familiarity with earthenware, but I suspect the closure apply across the board. Records of cork as a stopper started showing up in England in the early 16th century, with wired on corks, like in champagne bottles around 1700. Previous to that, ...

Roland Ansbacher

The amount of fine tuning that goes into this is astonishing. One wonders how consistent the originals are as far as thickness, etc, and how they achieved it from observation and experience alone. Impressive. Overall, how do you feel about the results? Other then the flash, how much cleanup do you p...

Roland Ansbacher

I would hazard that the handles are wood, rather then brass, but it's hard to tell from the video. Every time I watch it, I change my mind on the material! I'd assume that the clamp isn't permanently attached, as that would make storage inconvenient. Though I have plenty of useful tools that are ann...

Roland Ansbacher

To echo John's comment on the thermometer, how reflective the object is affects the reading. Even glossy paint makes a difference! It's just a function of the way infrared thermometers work. If the sensitivity is not adjustable, I've had decent results by using high heat paint, tape, and even white-...

Roland Ansbacher

Mac, thanks for the answers! Galileo re-framed my "prepping" question nicely, my sleep addled brain decided "prepping" was a synonym of "creating" for some reason. The dual handle arrangement looks like its a bit awkward for one person to handle. I know I've seen a sort of wooden clamp for spoons so...

Roland Ansbacher

Amazing progress! I'm loving the way the mold is looking. As per usual, I have tons questions! Are you "sooting" between casts? Any idea how hot the mold is getting? How are you clamping it? Any plans to add wooden handles? What sort of issues are you encountering cleaning up the mold? At this point...

Roland Ansbacher

Fantastic! I'm curious to see what methods you use to get into the nooks and crannies, and preserve the sharp angles. I've used riffler files to get into some weird shapes, but nothing too crazy. The brass doesn't appear to have any surface voids or dips, so that's good! Is surface matching enough t...

Roland Ansbacher

Mac, that's an interesting observation re: 18th century English vs. French. I'm doing a lot of "faking it" to get through, and once in a while, I somehow manage to understand what's being said. Part of me wishes Google translate could do archaic forms... but then where would all the fun be? Couple o...

Roland Ansbacher

That's super exciting to see! I can't wait to see how it comes out! I've been going through Salmon, and it has some great stuff, but it's been slow going, mostly due to my bad French. I also got distracted by a deep dive into the Mendel Hausbuchs. It's really an amazing resource, and seeing the reco...

Roland Ansbacher

I've been going through Pierre Salmon's "Art du potier d'étain", but my last French was in High School, so it's going slow. Fascinating stuff, does anyone know of a decent English translation? I'd even take German, if that's all there is. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1067608c/f11.plancheco...

Roland Ansbacher

Random thought dump oncoming. I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole last night, and it lead somewhere unexpected. The most exciting bit I came across was in the Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London. There is an interesting entry in Book K, Folio 49, dated August 10th 1427. schedule ...

Roland Ansbacher

So there is a review of "Pigeon Cotes and Dove Houses in Essex" by Donald Smith... the first line is "The book is not a comprehensive list of Essex dovecotes." Hah! I once tried to cast wax into a stone mold as an experiment. It was a mess. The wax would not release from the stone. Well, there goes ...

Roland Ansbacher

As an interesting side note, the red color on the pewter molds seems to be red rouge (ferric oxide) and egg whites, used as a mold release. Mac, that is an amazing article! I love how crazy specific and passionate some folks are about things! One of my favorite books like that is "Early Anglo Saxon ...

Roland Ansbacher

Great response, and it leads me down another trail of crumbs, of course! I'm trying to put together a case where all the relevant technology was in place for the use of bronze molds, and if what evidence there is to support that in the objects. At the end of the day, I think there were more than one...

Roland Ansbacher

A couple of (possibly) stupid questions, but this is not quite my area. Obviously, a can could be built from strips, and soldered together, with applied handle, etc... but that seems really labor intensive. Was there much in the way of "sheet tin" use or heavily built up objects like this made from ...

Roland Ansbacher

I wish I had the lasts handy. They're packed away... somewhere. I'll try to look for them, I can't seem to find any pictures, either. I'll walk through my prototyping process, and hope that helps, then circle back to the design of the last. I used spray adhesive to glue the foam layers together, and...

Roland Ansbacher

When prototyping, I recommend using the softest wood practical. Mostly because as soft wood is far easier to shape then say... the hat block I made from maple. I spent 10x longer on that damn thing then I needed to. Smoothing out the facets was a nightmare. Balsa may be a bit too soft if you plan on...

Roland Ansbacher

Agreed, after watching a few more videos, it looks like it was any old shape of wood that was used to apply leverage.

Roland Ansbacher

Here is a fun tidbit I found following the links from the above video:

https://youtu.be/VK5QwqXW_BY?t=988

It resembles the "polishing" sticks from another thread. I'll see if I can find that thread in a bit.

Roland Ansbacher

I love those Pathe videos, its wild to see how much, and how little, some things have changed. Little things, like the in hilt assembly room, in 1965, it has a fresh coat of paint, and is better lit, but everything else, including the vise, is the same. It even looks like the fire extinguisher is th...

Roland Ansbacher

Looks great! I rather like how the stop rib looks with the visor up. The smooth line is broken up just enough to keep it from looking like a "Rocket Man" helmet, and really makes it look like armor. Do you have another gambeson or some such in a contrasting color? As it is, it's hard for me to see t...

Roland Ansbacher

Does it necessarily have to be a fusible metal? I wonder if pitch of some sort may have been used, if it was punched rather then drilled. On the drilling of metal. I've drilled fairly thick brass (1/16, I think) with a pump drill, with no bolster on the back side. I used a flat drill bit, which look...

Roland Ansbacher

I did one of my lamellars the same way, with the coreless cord. I never noticed the knots, except when I was building it, even when only wearing a linen shirt below it.

Roland Ansbacher

With my last few SCA helmets, mostly sallets, I've made what I call a "hybrid" liner. I make a fabric suspension liner, usually using the 4 triangles method. I use a layer of "smurf blubber", with a layer of cotton batting on the head side, sandwich that between two layers of linen, and then quilt t...

Roland Ansbacher

Looks fantastic! The little details like the nail heads really add to the overall effect! Don't neglect oiling or conditioning the inside of the leather as well. I've noticed that if I'm careful not to over oil the inside, and use a rub of beeswax, sweat and such doesn't tend to penetrate the leathe...

Roland Ansbacher

Like all things, it depends. I fight a lot of great sword and bastard sword, and I very rarely get hit on the shoulder in a way that left any marks. However, in war, I would end up with lots of random bruises from jostling other people in a fight, or from slamming into people, checking shields, etc....

Roland Ansbacher

Just keep in mind, any pitting and such on the striking surface will get transferred to whatever you are hammering on it. I keep most of my hammers anywhere from somewhat shiny to mirror polished. Anvils and tooling, I just keep smooth, it saves a lot of polishing and grinding later.

Roland Ansbacher

The grain on that last one looks fantastic! How long did you leave the paste on for?

Roland Ansbacher

Here is a fun, if a tad toxic way to do a quick rust finish. The fumes are nasty, and don't taste good. Get some Muratic acid, and a cheap spray bottle. Put some bits of copper into the acid till they corrode, or mix some copper sulfate (Algae killer), water and acid. I use roughly 20 parts water, 1...

Roland Ansbacher

I'm an antiques appraiser, and I mostly focus on construction details on pieces I can't immediately date. I find that often those details can tell a lot more about a piece then the artistry. At first anyway! In this case, I'd defer to others, like Mac, who have a more focused eye on the style of the...

Roland Ansbacher

To elaborate on what Mac just said about the "Zurich", most small panels like that in period seem to be heraldic, perhaps from the patron or some such. There is a tradition of civil panels in Switzerland, called Standesscheibe. They were first popular around 1500, and stated showing up again in the ...

Roland Ansbacher

I suspect it's a 19th century piece, but it's details are better then 99% of the other revival pieces! The red and black background looks a lot like Lukas Zeiner, but the quality of the faces in yours is far superior. The shapes are amazing, as is the color. I like it a lot! Overall, it's the condit...

Roland Ansbacher

As an aside, I wonder how shoes were maintained, as far as the owners were concerned. Is there any evidence of shoe polish or similar substances? I haven't found any specific mentions of such things. There are a few modern mentions of "dubbin" being used in period, but I've yet to find any period re...

Roland Ansbacher

That is awesome! Good work!

Roland Ansbacher

For straight lines or simple curves, use wood chisels. I also used some old spade drill bits to try to make a zig-zag bit. I used a file, and while it worked, the zags weren't terribly wide, and didn't work all that well for wool. On satin, they worked fine. You can also try http://www.brianbrownarm...

Re: "Flippie" bottles

Re: Pewter stuff...

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Re: 2-Piece Shoe Last

Re: 2-Piece Shoe Last

Re: Trip hammer video

Re: Trip hammer video

Re: Sword making videos

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: preventing large knots under lamellar?

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Late 14th Century Hungarian Splinted Armour

Re: These-Days Combat Question

Re: Railroad Track Armouring Anvil

Re: Greenwich Buckhurst armour

Re: Patina - Corrosion

Re: stained glass: is this piece authentic?

Re: stained glass: is this piece authentic?

Re: stained glass: is this piece authentic?

Re: Fourteenth-Century Shoes

Re: The Complete Catalogue of Extant XIVth Century Armour

Re: ISO Pinking Stamps/Punches