The Armour Archive

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have punched tens of thousands of holes with my #5 Juniors, and only very rarely have to drill anything. The real #5s will go through 0.080" inch thick steel with the smaller sizes, up to 3/16". You will rarely need a bigger hole than that for accurately made armour. Be sure and oil the punches an...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Spoiler alert; the effects of synclastic curvatures on the basic principles so far illustrated.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have made a fair amount of stainless stuff, such as this harness, which was for SCA combat. http://jamesarlen.com/15th_Century_Ital ... otion.html

James Arlen Gillaspie

Wade Allen wrote: Some knife makers have suggested he try the wavy edge belts like: https://popsknife.supplies/collections/ ... 312-j-flex Wow! I didn't know those had been invented. The J-Flex belts I bought years ago are already incredibly flexible and, with my soft contact wheel (stacked tightly ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Thanks, Martijn! I was hoping something of the sort was the case.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Hello, Martijn, the publisher says the book is out of stock. Do you know if any more will be printed soon? Thanks, James

James Arlen Gillaspie

A pity the detail is so lacking in accuracy. If he was going to go to so much trouble to make something supposed to be A 62 KMW, he could have actually looked at it and taken some photos. He certainly didn't improve it.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I started out by case-hardening armour, mislead by Helmut Nickel. :wink: I used the powders found at welding shops. blending two brands together to get a better result than I could with each by itself. I only had the work carburizing for no more than ten minutes on the thinner stuff, and maybe twent...

James Arlen Gillaspie

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm selling my copy of Freydal, Maximilian I's tournament book, for $100. I think it is the largest book I have ever owned, and I have some big'uns. It is going for $130 on Amazon used, and I have been very careful to keep mine in utterly pristine condition. Paypal is fine. https://www.amazon.com/Fr...

James Arlen Gillaspie

SOLD.

James Arlen Gillaspie

SOLD.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Price drop to $80.

James Arlen Gillaspie

I am selling my copy of Dufty's book, European Swords and Daggers in the Tower of London, for $60 plus shipping. It's this one. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0116705728?ta ... th=1&psc=1

James Arlen Gillaspie

I was looking at Amazon this morning to see how much Dr. Capwell's book on the Wallace Collection was going for, and I was surprised by the publication date. 😃 This Amazon ad is for one in this condition; Fair+ condition. PAGES- doodles written on first/last pages, no other writing; medium smudges (...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I'm thinking they chiseled the edge of the punch. That might explain why the circle punch is only irregular on the outside. They are going for a sharper edge on their punches, too. Considering that few of the hinges and latten bits other than the borders of A 62 are original (for example, the hinges...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Thanks for the heads-up. Fortunately for me, somebody bought it off FB.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Ironically, in order to buy Toby Capwell's book on English Armour 1450-1500, I have to sell this fellow. Actual brass rubbing, done with soft brass, made back when you could actually rub the brasses in UK churches, and comes from Isleham, Cambridgeshire. This is Sir Thomas Peyton, from the time of t...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Despite steel mail being mentioned in this inventory and other places, precious little of the mail tested so far has been steel. If little of the very fine mail mail made in the 16th century proves to be made of steel (which seems to be the case), it argues that steel mail wasn't worth the hassle of...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Real flutes often taper in width, and so do the incised lines, which often have long mis-strikes on one side or the other. I have worked on a great deal of real 'Maximilian' stuff, but I have never seen fluting consistent with such a tool.

James Arlen Gillaspie

That's why I have such a mania for saving everything I run across that is of interest, and put it on two different machines. Still that massive solar flare to worry about, though if I can figure out how to open the large safe in the basement, that is where it will live. It should make an excellent F...

James Arlen Gillaspie

SOLD!

James Arlen Gillaspie

I am selling my gently used (only read once through) copy of Surviving Examples of Early Plate Armour 1300 -1430 Vol. I Bacinets by Doug Strong for $100 plus shipping.

James Arlen Gillaspie

You have done an excellent job of nuancing the form! Well done!

James Arlen Gillaspie

See if you can get Craig Nadler to weigh in, but I would NOT heat the steel any higher than the dullest red in a dimly lit room. In fact, heating it past blue to dull grey (we are not talking about a glow, but the usual colours seen in tempering. That should do you about as good as it can get. I wou...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Drat! I forgot completely about antiscaling compounds! https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/metal-prep-coloring/heat-treating-accessories/anti-scale-coating-prod23076.aspx Most armour ever made of medium carbon steel was air cooled. Then there is a lot of slack quenched stuff during the...

James Arlen Gillaspie

We need Craig Nadler in on this discussion. A simple normalizing process won't work on 4130, as it has a tendency to air quench. I do think, however, that it would ameliorate any potential problems with a weld. The reason we like 4130 is that it is very forgiving of sloppy heat treating, bad cross s...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I think this tells us that it is as Sean said, that Geoffroi de Charney is talking about those who are built like fireplugs, which is quite common; "... they want to pretend that they have not and never have had one and everyone knows the opposite is true." There has never been a shortage of women t...

James Arlen Gillaspie

That was... odd. Try again. Worked in preview. WILL WORK if cut and pasted. Oh, and the style isn't French; it's Italian and Spanish. French have huge cuffs too, with large picadills, but pointier. Sorry about that.
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9207 ... s-unknown/

James Arlen Gillaspie

Sorry, image size limits. This link should do. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9207 ... known/[url][/url]

James Arlen Gillaspie

There are some very belled-out cuffs in the 17th century, such as the Spanish pair dated 1614 in the V&A. Some of the French ones were quite spectacular.

James Arlen Gillaspie

The helmet of the famous "Siegmund gothic' in Vienna lies so flat on a table that you would think Lorenz Helmschmid had used a truing plate. This is not normal; most of them that lie fairly flat are not trying that hard. Many are what I call 'rockers', like this fellow. The RA example looks to be a ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

Speaking of Witz, this is in the Hungarian National Museum. This would be how I would handle the problem, along with a good deep gorget. It may look enormous in the photos, but keep in mind how the real ones fit, so they look too small to modern eyes, when they see them 'in the flesh', so to speak. ...

James Arlen Gillaspie

I have had hands-on with the armour in Vienna that is your reference, and I do not believe the pins that attache the sabatons to the greaves are original.

James Arlen Gillaspie

Augusto could probably drown us in images of black North Italian armour; I have seen a fair amount of artwork that shows this, and it cannot all be explained by tarnished silver, as is the case with the 'Rout of San Romano' cycle of paintings. There is that splendid half harness in Torino, but I do ...

Re: What do you use to punch holes in your plates?

Re: Articulation

Re: Looking to Commission First Armor, Advice Sought

Re: Mac's blog

Re: New book: European Mail Armour

Re: New book: European Mail Armour

Re: Miniature Armoured figures, Anyone know who made these?

Re: Experment: Case Hardening Mild Steel

Re: Freydal, Maximilian I's tournament book , for sale

Freydal, Maximilian I's tournament book , for sale

Re: European Swords & Daggers in the Tower of London

Re: Capwell's 'Masterpieces of A&A in the Wallace Collection

Re: Capwell's 'Masterpieces of A&A in the Wallace Collection

European Swords & Daggers in the Tower of London

Capwell's 'Masterpieces of A&A in the Wallace Collection

Re: Mac's blog

Re: War of the Roses era brass rubbing

War of the Roses era brass rubbing SOLD

Re: Document: 1316 King Louis X of France

Re: Maximillian Fluting by Hammered Tooling

Re: Arms and Armour Forum gone?

Re: Doug Strong's book on bacinets 1300 - 1430

Doug Strong's book on bacinets 1300 - 1430

Re: 15c breastplate

Re: How long should Cuises when used with floating knees?

Re: What NOT to do with 4130

Re: What NOT to do with 4130

Re: Is there a treatise on waistlines?

Re: Even moar 3D armours?

Re: Even moar 3D armours?

Re: Even moar 3D armours?

Re: Carter's Blog

Re: Brainstorming a harness for a woman with a large bust

Re: Kastenbrust project (old title: I made(am making) a thing.)

Re: Milanese Armour - Blackened?