The Armour Archive

Joe Skeesick

chiroeurope wrote:
The white in that historical look is highly polished brass that is riveted or for the truly rich gold wash or plating over the area you wish to have white. It is very interesting finding the things our ancestors knew that we think they didn't.

Micheal

uh, er... what?

Joe Skeesick

that's the very best a sword can do to a helm.

...if your at knee level, if you brace yourself equivelent to a stump, if you don't move, if you wait for it ....

yes

Joe Skeesick

100%? I'm not sure there is much of anything in this area that can be said with 100% surety but from what I've seen, certainly some of them were working life repairs. I've seen many patches some of which showed many tell-tale signs of being of similar age to the helm. Things like delaminated metal a...

Joe Skeesick

Seen plenty .... internal patch rivited in place is the most common.

J

Joe Skeesick

Yup. Turned linen into "fiberglass". Very strong and light stuff. We made a section made up of about 5 layers of linen fabric and rabbit glue.

J

Joe Skeesick

Here is a purpled anime breast that I helped on while workin in Dobson's shop back in the UK

[img]http://www.skeesick.com/images/anime%20after.jpg[/img]

I'm sure some of you have seen it before.... pardon the repeat if you have.

J

Joe Skeesick

Thanks for the nod on my old kit. I did like it but I'm not sure I'd put it tops of any list, but I am really glad to hear people even remember it much less put it at the top of thier list. (there must be a better pic around here some where... I'll look) I've been awfully partial to Adam's latest ki...

Joe Skeesick

and here I thought it was obvious. Good call, it was the whole super alloy, aluminum, yeah if they had it they'd a used it 'cause it's smokin' cool silliness that proceeded my post (not just the one post... but the whole long ridiculous discussion).

J

Joe Skeesick

Not sure I'm buying that for a helm. I bet it's more iconography to depict that person being a certain type of individual either social, trade or economically based (which granted is much the same for the period depicted). Looks exactly like a bee skep to me. There is another individual with woven g...

Joe Skeesick

This ....

This is the kind of silly shit I would change about the SCA.

J

Joe Skeesick

The correct term is bifurcated ... there are a number of historical examples of this sort of gauntlet (though obviously not in leather) so, no need for the TMNT references in the future.

J

Joe Skeesick

No, it was a recent job. The perpetrator was known.. or I should say assumed. The job wasn't completed either. There certainly were a large number of armours changed in thier working lifetime. (we saw plenty come through the shop) but this most certainly wasn't one of them. Sadly I wasn't there for ...

Joe Skeesick

The smart forgers, the ones that make a living doing it (and there are a few) don't try for the big kill. They put out rare, but not unique items, they use period materials on the more high end things and make it believable. They don't try to make hinges from the door of the arc, they just make a se...

Joe Skeesick

Can't tell you how many Frankenstein pieces came into the shop in England. 15th cent skulls with 17th cent visors and 19th century funerary garbage clapped on ... I suspect the skull on the visored helm to be something, but that visor is a fistful of ass. As for science being the end all on these th...

Joe Skeesick

Russ Mitchell is your man. I'm sure he will see this shortly and weigh in. In the meantime you can go to his site http://www.scholarsvoices.com/ and download the free paper on Jan Zizka that he wrote (college thesis if I remember correctly) Should give you some good background info on things.

J

Joe Skeesick

Erik D. Schmid wrote:I have met ...

Well I worked with him for the better part of a year and viewed his work right next to extant pieces, being able to make direct comparisons between his work and those pieces, I'd have to disagree.

But everyone is free to have thier own opinions.

J

Joe Skeesick

Though there is probably good reason for him not being mentioned previously on this list (as he is hard as hell to get on his list and his work is focused on restoration at this point) but Chris Dobson is certainly as capable as any. It's a shame he doesn't do more from scratch work but he's a busin...

Joe Skeesick

Master of Sparks - ZZ top

Joe Skeesick

Sorry had to.

It's what came to mind when I saw Irish's alteration. I agree with his sentiment however. The helm and visor is nice, the grill doesn't do it for me. ('course it's not mine so it doesn't have to)

J

Joe Skeesick

We did a couple hardenened linen experiments in the shop. We used multiple layers of linen coated in ........ come on, say it with me now ...... rabbit glue.

Worked a treat. Very hard and very light. The didn't do any shapping with the product, just small samples pieces.

j

Joe Skeesick

I am inclined to believe that the skull is very much authentic to an Innsbruck armour presented to Henry VIII by the Emperor Maximilian. I'm definitely in agreement there. The skull is very much in keeping with the provenance of said helm. That said, there are so many inconsistencies in constructio...

Joe Skeesick

"most likely" First and foremost this isn't my research so I can't go into all the specifics since I both do not have a right to do so, nor do I have all the reference to defend it. However, with that said, the attachment of the horns is inconsistent with the other elements of the skull indicating t...

Joe Skeesick

Nope james. I've inspected it and seen copious internal photos. It is not an original piece. It is a construct. The skull appears to be a single piece but the visor and horns were added later. The horns are most likely from a chamfron. The visor doesn't even fit the face properly. It's one of the RA...

Joe Skeesick

Now is the helmet above period? Yes it is. Actually, no it's not, at least as it sits there. It's made of "period" components but it is a construct of disparate pieces. However, your point remains. There are many historic armours that were extremely varied in form and function, many of which had fa...

Joe Skeesick

Out of curiosity .... is Dobson participating in the ARS?

J

Joe Skeesick

I'll have to read the article again but I don't think the specific bracer in question was said to have gesso. As Ivo states there are a number of examples that do still show gesso. The one that comes to mind quickest is the "great pumpkin" tourney helm (ugly as sin but the back half of the cage is a...

Joe Skeesick

sorry Ivo.. wasn't arguing with you... was building on what you said to address other points. Your post was fine. I wasn't clear why I was quoting you...

Joe Skeesick

if no complex shapes have to be made... The problem is exacerbated when you have complex shapes. Basic shapes can be formed to some degree by hand but the final shape can not be completely predictable. You can "dish" leather but if you have any tooling exactly how are you going to preserve the tool...

Joe Skeesick

Well I don't know about the tannic acid problems but I find it difficult to believe that a fully dried last that has a wet piece of leather nailed to it and immediately baked would end up leaching much into the leather. Again, not my area of expertise but aren't these same tannins used to preserve l...

Joe Skeesick

Just to clarify the rabbit glue was applied rather continuously during the directional heat firing (as if set in front of an oven, or central fire... we used a paraffin heater) We maintained a rather constant application of glue until the leather wouldn't take up any more. We then wiped off any exce...

Joe Skeesick

Those are sort of interesting for what you are going for Tim. What if you were to take some old cues from model painting and apply a permanent wash to the "metal" plates. Scuff them up and apply an enamel wash of the appropriate color and you might well get away from the overly clean, luminous look ...

Joe Skeesick

Must be an auction photo, as I do believe that is the same burg we had in the shop last summer. It was a pretty little thing. Sadly I left before we put the new cheek pieces on it. Would of looked quite nice after that and a cleanup.

J

Joe Skeesick

English Civil War with no real question. The neck is functional. As Thomas pointed out the "lames" are embossed faux lames. I don't see anything that makes me think that it isn't an actual ECW piece. I have worked on in the neighborhood of 10 of these helms over the last year and this one seems very...

Joe Skeesick

While not exactly the same, we did some work on an anime breastplate last spring. (here are before and after pics) [img]http://masterarmourer.com/images/Anime_before.JPG[/img] [img]http://masterarmourer.com/images/Anime_after.JPG[/img] The breastplate, which was held together with sliding rivets alo...

Joe Skeesick

Very fun stuff. Just imagine what he could do if he had a shop he could actually turn around in. Regardless of whether Ugo is going for period inspired or completely fantasy you can't deny that the fellow has an artistic eye for form and function. Can't wait to see the finished "bat wing" kit. J

Re: Black and white