The Armour Archive

Dan Howard

Historically, bran was used.

Dan Howard

Volume 2 of the Journal of the Mail Research Society is entirely dedicated to mail-and-scale.
https://www.erikds.com/?page_id=17

Dan Howard

Fiore was talking about the vulnerabilities that are inherent in any armour. He wasn't talking about punching through armour, he was talking about exploiting those weaknesses.

Dan Howard

Very nice job. If you want bonus points you'll have to feed it into a 3d printer and show us the results.

Dan Howard

Lower class Mongol cavalry wore felt kaftans called degel in battle. Magyars and Avars wore similar garments. They served to stop some incidental weapon strikes but I'm not sure they can be classed as an example of felt armour because their primary purpose was as clothing.

Dan Howard

Etymologically, Greek neurikos / e / on seems to have something to do with sinew or tendons (but words can change meaning over time!) I think only one military writer uses the term. Yep. It is derived from neuron , which can refer to tendons, sinew, or plant fibre. It also refers to cords or string...

Dan Howard

Thucydides is describing an attack on Spartan hoplites. There is nothing to suggest that Spartan hoplites ever wore felt caps in battle and we know that bronze pilos-style helmets were worn by hoplites during this time. So the context makes "bronze pilos" the most likely interpretation.

Dan Howard

Thucydides 4.34.3 τό τε ἔργον ἐνταῦθα χαλεπὸν τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις καθίστατο: οὔτε γὰρ οἱ πῖλοι ἔστεγον τὰ τοξεύματα, δοράτιά τε ἐναπεκέκλαστο βαλλομένων "And now the Lacedaemonians began to be sorely distressed, for their felts (piloi) did not protect them against the arrows, and the points of the ...

Dan Howard

Chris Gilman wrote:Tell Peter Wroe that.....

He is one of the best. That one was only 1:3 scale so is a lot easier to get the details right than at smaller scales. It sold at Christies for £4,000.

Dan Howard

It isn't possible to make an exact replica in miniature because some attachments and materials are simply too fragile at those scales. The best miniatures make compromises to improve durability without affecting the appearance or performance. Out of the modern makers, I like the 1:6 scale ones being...

Dan Howard

Hi Dan, Adam Mckay in Sydney did them for me. They started life as a pair of the shapeless Deepeka greaves! I bought them because they were bronze, and Adam remade them for me. Good one. Someone finally found a use for Deepeka greaves. Adam did a nice job. You need a metallurgical test to confirm t...

Dan Howard

The upper right "Frankreich 1360" seems to depict something close to the Charles de Blois pourpoint, so my hope was that the other illustrations may be based on extant artifacts. I was particularly excited that the "Westfalen 1370" illustration looks very similar to garments I've found from early-t...

Dan Howard

Who made the greaves? My guess would be Manning Imperial or Royal Oak Armoury.

Dan Howard

Are those drawings showing physical extant examples or are they extrapolated from 14th C illustrations?

Dan Howard

Anthoy's books are some of the few Osprey publications worth getting.

Dan Howard

I was under the impression that codpieces were removed when in the saddle, but now I think about it, I can't recall any solid evidence to back it up.

Dan Howard

Ah.... thank you, Dan! You are very welcome. I guess I should have made it clearer that I was looking for a name that was less vulgar, rather than more so. :oops: As such, I think we need to rule out "nad tasset", "scrote shield", "junk-shot deflector", and "nob fauld" as well. :wink: Spoil sport. ...

Dan Howard

Mac wrote:Has anybody got a better name for the type that vulgar people call a DPU?

Uh oh. You've done it now. I'll start with "goolie guard".

Dan Howard

Don't stop posting when you get the buff. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

Dan Howard

Perhaps get some elk hide and treat it with oil and lime yourself.

Dan Howard

It was thought that iron pyrite was so named because it glitters like fire but it was really so-named because it is excellent for starting fires. All the rocks named "pyrite" (πυρίτης) by the ancients could create sparks when struck. Flint and pyrite can be used to start a fire in exactly the same m...

Dan Howard

I have nothing to contribute that isn't already here but I'm enjoying this immensely. Looking forward to reading your paper, Sean.

Dan Howard

Indianer wrote:This then would be an example of a supposedly armor-piercing specimen?
Royal Armouries Military M16 type

Yep.

Dan Howard

So what arrowheads were used on these arrows?

Dan Howard

I couldn't find it in the above link to Smythe but this is the original quote I have: "a sheafe of arrows in noumber xxiv whearof I wishe viii of them more flighter then the reste to gall and annoy the enimyes farder of then the usuall custom of the sheafe arrowes, whose sharpe hallshot may not be i...

Dan Howard

Do we know that the bodkin arrowheads in use were the same weight as the military broadhead in common use? The experiment was to simply confirm which design is more aerodynamic. Flight arrows would be lighter than armour piercers. A lighter arrow combined with the most aerodynamic arrowhead, produc...

Dan Howard

Tod's test should have included type 16 arrowheads, not just type 10s. This is cut and pasted from an earlier thread. Consider the following: 1. In order for an arrow to have even a small chance of penetrating armour it has to be heavy and shot at short range with a powerful bow. 2. Many sources ack...

Dan Howard

Galileo wrote:Could the hammer be used on the tongs to "set" the rivet?

Not really. It doesn't make much effort to simply squeeze the peening pliers. The hammer would only be needed to do something to the link itself.

Dan Howard

Dan Howard has researched the story about Midias. The earliest source is Pliny the Elder but I don't know whether Jost Amman's poem came from Pliny or whether there was a separate tradition that also claimed that Midias invented mail. It would be nice to have two independent sources. Could the hamm...

Dan Howard

Anyone tried sea sponge? Pliny reckons that the Romans used it for helmet liners.

Dan Howard

Apparently I wasn't clear enough. In this specific battle, incapacitated french soldiers were killed. A baseball bat to the gut is likely sufficient to take someone out of the fight. Whether they were trampled into the mud and asphyxiated, or finished off by the English, in this specific battle, th...

Dan Howard

I'll look forward to crossbow testing of armour, since crossbosw with square heads were explicitly banned by the church for use against Christians suggesting that they were effective. Crossbows were never banned. The injunction forbade crossbowMEN from shooting Christians. The distinction is import...

Dan Howard

The armour wasn't hardened. The steel consisted of 0.5% C and was heated to annealing temperature and allowed to air cool, so not only was it not quench-hardened, but there was no work-hardening either. We have a century of ballistics data telling us that the energy in even the heaviest longbow cann...

Dan Howard

Dan Howard wrote:The main problem is that they are hammered way too thin. It might make it easier to pierce a hole but it seriously compromises its strength. Were the holes done with a punch or drift? Punched holes compromise the strength even more.

And punched holes with corners are even worse still.

Dan Howard

Shaving your head had specific connotations in the Medieval period. It wasn't done to be fashionable. Usually it was meant as a sign of humility or grief.

Re: How to clean a mail shirt

Re: lorica squamata

Re: A&A Daggers vs. Jack Test

Re: Even moar 3D armours?

Re: Felt Armour

Re: Felt Armour

Re: Felt Armour

Re: Felt Armour

Re: Miniature Victorian Gothic Armour Makers?

Re: Miniature Victorian Gothic Armour Makers?

Re: Ancient Greek/Scythian Equipment.

Re: Source Identification - German Book on Textile Armor

Re: Ancient Greek/Scythian Equipment.

Re: Source Identification - German Book on Textile Armor

Re: free e-book: Samurai 1550-1600 by Anthony J Bryant

Re: Codpieces

Re: Codpieces

Re: Codpieces

Re: Buff Leather redux

Re: Buff Leather redux

Re: The Antiquity of Firesteels

Re: Written Sources for Gambesons/Aketons/Pourpoints 1100-13

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Mail makers and their tools

Re: Mail makers and their tools

Re: What's the latest best helmet padding available?

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Shaved Heads in the 14th Century