The Armour Archive

Clinker

Met my future wife at Pennsic X. Don't need a new wife, and it is too far to go.

Clinker

You want the black foam that is used on air conditioner refrigerant lines. It is sometimes called Arma Flex. The gray foam sold to cover hot water lines is not suitable, it t is not really as good as the old blue camp pad foam. The nice thing about the refrigerant line foam is that you can usually f...

Clinker

Birchwood-Casey makes a liquid named "Aluminum Black". Findable at Gun shops.

Leather or canvas will look better though, and bring up the weight of the shield to match medieval materials.

Clinker

Birchwood-Casey makes a liquid named "Aluminum Black". Findable at Gun shops.

Leather or canvas will look better though, and bring up the weight of the shield to match medieval materials.

Clinker

So I can, for example, use the name "Freiherr Edgar von Speigel von und zu Peckelsheim" with complete confidence as a mid-12C Hessen Baronial family name?

And what does "von und zu" MEAN anyway, as a family name?

Clinker

Readings I have seen indicate bascinet thicknesses at 14 to 16 gauge, but about twice as thick at the front.

Clinker

it seems to me that Carolingian cavalry troopers are often depicted wearing kettle hat/morion-like helmets in period illustrations.

Clinker

The Period answer for a cheap metal boss is a bent cone riveted together, and flared to make a lip to nail onto the shield. Cut 16 gauge steel into a 10"-12"diameter disc. Cut just less than a 1/4 wedge from it. Bend it over a pipe or something until you have a cone overlapping less than an inch. Ri...

Clinker

Your best bet is to save your pennies. Sword forging is a fairly specific skill. If your smith cannot properly heat treat a very long blade, you will have a soft and bendy/ hard and broken blade perhaps in the length of the same blade. The Tinker blades are also shaped to give proper balance, not ju...

Clinker

[quote][Chef Wrote: Red Oak is specifically prone to splintering or bursting under stress ('brast'). I'd use any wood other than red oak. Ash has a long straight grain, and is readily obtainable, some bowyers use the material for making cheap self-bows for longbow reproductions./quote] Red Oak is re...

Clinker

The Skane notch lock crossbow used yew for the prod. About 36" long, 1.5" wide, and 1" thick , about an 11" draw. Pull weight of replicas about 120lb. http://armborst.forum24.se/armborst-about42.html Gives about all the information for an early simple crossbow you need. You can practice building pro...

Clinker

You don't have to have a full plate leg protection, just the outside of the thigh and knee. Eight inch wide curved metal plate will do, and it supports the knee cop. Easier to cover or integrate into the "unarmored" look. Not full protection, but covers the most likely shots. I once saw a period pai...

Clinker

I used sole leather and the above mentioned 5/8" (or 1/2" for arms) x 1/8" splints for upper and lower limb armor for years, and did not need any padding at all. Very protective, and very colorful when dyed or painted. Do pad your elbows and knees though. For sole leather, roofing nails work just fi...

Clinker

I remember reading that the Portuguese experience in Japan was that the double-kill was rather common. The 'portagee' died immediately from a deep cut, the samurai died the next day from a thrust thru the heart, lung, liver etc.

Clinker

When people write about "Pickle barrels", do they mean the 55 or so gallon plastic drums or 5 gallon buckets, or something else? Never quite got that.

Clinker

Home Depot sells Copper-plated roofing nails, just a thought.

Clinker

Just paint them. It isn't that big a decision. They will look much better, and you can color code them by function (tent, awning,etc), or just to look different from the neighbor's. Use milk-paint if you want the authenticity thing (probably want a varnish topcoat), acrylic works fine otherwise. Old...

Clinker

The military rifle collectors try to use the original finishes on their 19th-20thC gunstocks. Apparently the most common European finish besides just dunking the stocks into a hot vat of Boiled Linseed oil (American armoury method) is a mix of 1/3 each Beeswax, Turpentine and Boiled Linseed Oil. It ...

Clinker

Try "Belgian Blue" from Brownell's (the Gunsmith supply people). http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7604/Product/BELGIAN-BLUE One bottle of bluing and a pot big enough to submerge your armour pieces will blue all your armour and a couple friends's too. Takes an afternoon to do a helmet. A very nice ...

Clinker

Making a hip (or shoulder)protection lamellar requires rather more flexibility than torso armor. The age -old way to make lamellar hip armor is to lace horizontal rows together in panels and overlap these rows vertically thru lacing holes set about the center or higher of the plates above. There is ...

Clinker

I have read that Goat Grease was good. Seriously you only HAVE a choice of Lanolin, Animal fat or vegetable oil in Period. The type is up to what is available in your area. You can mix beeswax and olive oil in various ratios which was a popular pre-industrial all purpose lubricant and skin emolient ...

Clinker

QUOTE; "I have to limit my self because they are not being safe- not that I am being unsafe, but because I feel that their gear doesn't protect their "forearm" right, and I have to throw light because I don't want to hurt them- then of course they don't take it because you hit it too light" Naw, if ...

Clinker

The "Cohesive Persona" direction is to keep people like JMcbrayer from exploring all their garb and equipment interests AT THE SAME TIME. That leads directly to Katana weilding Celts with High Gothic leg armor. In other words incoherent anarchy. Do us all a favor and go "occupy" a downtown area; bri...

Clinker

So we had to go to rebated steel because of the Great Rattan Shortage of 2014.

And "Armor Counts" in a very real and palpable way.

I'm strangely good with that.

Benefit: It will get the USA competitive in the Battle of the Nations in East Europe.

Clinker

The GOOD pipe insulation for padding is called ARMAFLEX, and is NOT the grey stuff you see for hot water pipes. It is used mostly to insulate Air conditioning refrigerant piping, and is a black foam that is far more resilient than blue foam type padding. You can get it at HVAC supply shops. The bigg...

Clinker

Learn Foil. Epee may be "freeform" but it does not really teach you to survive the fight. Double kills are still a kill on you. Taking a sliding forearm while your opponent hits you in the lungs loses you the match. Epee actually gives you the reflexes that will get you killed. There is no light to ...

Clinker

Trappers often boil their traps with logwood chips. It sorta browns the metal, and gets smells off it so as not to warn the animals. Not a sealant as we would need.

Clinker

That would explain a lot! I shaved down the contour of my shield so it's about 3/4" at the edge, but it's a whopping 1 1/4" in the center!

Plane off another 1/2". yes another 1/2", and you will be down to the thickness of a period shield. Even covered in leather and rawhide rim, it is expendable.

Clinker

Use elk skin for the belt. It is quite a bit heavier than (american) deer skin. ( Don't use splits.) European "Deer" include animals that we americans would consider Elk. Elkskin will make you happy, deerskin will leave you wishing you had used something heavier. You ARE hanging a big sword on this ...

Clinker

Stripping galvanising with vinegar is no big deal, it is cheap and non toxic. Throw the maille in a five gallon plastic bucket. Put it on your back patio. Pour a couple gallons or so of vinegar on it until it is fully submerged. It will bubble a bit. Don't BBQ next to it or throw cigarettes in the b...

Clinker

This is actually a common question, there should be a sticky. Use your search-fu on the archives and you will find several articles with diagrams.

Clinker

Cut the last couple inches off a railroad spike. Drill a loose-fit rivet diameter hole in center of end of spike. You have a rivet set. Use Dremel grinding head of appropriate diameter and shape to make a rivet=head shaped dimple in center of end of spike.You have a rivet head set. Did I mention san...

Clinker

Knitebee about covers it. If you want a blue coloring, polish and heat. Easier but nastier is burnt-on oil. A gunsmith can give your POLISHED helmet a very nice gun-metal blue, if he has a tank big enough. Unpolished bluing looks so much like black spraypaint that you might as well use spraypaint. F...

Clinker

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/pilum.html Why not go to the experts in thrown missiles? Legio XX is the Cat's pajamas in Roman recreation. Look at "Cheapy chuckers" down the page a bit. No reason NOT to use a spike bayonet as well, as long as they are cheap. I've made some of these. They work great. Pu...

Clinker

So an aluminum shield with canvas on both sides and snaplock and/or rawhide rim is about the weight of a period wooden shield?

Re: So who isn't going to Pennsic and why?

Re: Padding the Helm

Re: darkening aluminum (shield)

Re: darkening aluminum (shield)

Re: 14th Century German Surnames

Re: Original bascinet thickness/gauge?

Re: Earliest date to which we can document kettle helmets?

Re: Viking Shield Construction Question

Re: Need help trying to have a sword done - or buying one

Re: Wooden crossbow prod

Re: Wooden crossbow prod

Re: Recreating the unarmored thigh/ archer's knee look SCA

Re: Metal splints for splinted arms and legs

Re: Effectiveness of a rapier

Re: Cheap Metal/Leather armor

Re: Luap's Polarbear Forge Brigandine Kit Project

Re: Finishing tent poles

Re: Finishing a 6 board chest?

Re: anyone use black oxide ? or a better way to blacken.

Re: Lamellar-divided war skirt

Re: armour lubrication

Re: SCA Heavy Combat's Inherent Problem

Re: Is there a "NO PLASTIC. PERIOD" Movement in the SCA?

Re: Elephant rattan

EX

Re: SCA rapier Vs. sports fencing vs. historical fencing

Re: Stripping a galvy hauberk

Re: Fir and Pine for shields

Re: Need pattern to do a 13th sword belt and scabbard

Re: Stripping a galvy hauberk

Re: Need pattern to do a 13th sword belt and scabbard

Re: Tips on where to find a good all around rivet setter

Re: Blackening/Blueing Helm

Re: Bayonet throwing spear