The Armour Archive

Russ Mitchell

Sean, fyi, coats of this type were actual issue for Hungarian soldiers in the mid-late 15th century. And the way the arms fold is also consistent with similar material back in Italian wall-paintings -- you can take one look at the stress-pattern in the sleeve as the arm folds and tell that's sheepsk...

Russ Mitchell

Dude, that looks dead right.

Russ Mitchell

Suggest that it's using flatter straps rather than rings, what about a slot rather than a hole and a flat ribbon of metal, leather, or cloth?

Russ Mitchell

Great. What's *right?*

Russ Mitchell

PM sent.
Played with the principle to make a pretty crude layered-paper arm guard, going to see how close I can get to the shell of an compression-articulation rig with it next.

Russ Mitchell

This is fabulous, gentlemen. I had to stop doing a lot of leatherwork due to tendonitis, and am now just HELLA CURIOUS what I could achieve in leather using the same principles.

::wild applause::

Russ Mitchell

I promised Pitbull a review, and this isn't it. I'm wearing it out to a charity fight this weekend and will get some photos taken there and write something up. That said, I have to say that this really lives up as advertised. If you're on the fence I would really give these a go.

Russ Mitchell

I've sewn a mail shirt to a leather caftan, but what I've found is that it's shockingly tricky to do right and not lose tons of mobility. Were I doing it over I'd get rectangular swatches of mail and sew it to the fabric at construction.

Russ Mitchell

It's from Translyvania early-to-mid 14th century. Village of Karacsonyfalva, wallpainting at the now-Unitarian church. http://www.homorodkaracsonyfalva.eu/szentlaszlolegendaja.html http://www.warfare.altervista.org/15/St-Ladislaus.htm There's LOTS of commonality between Venetian and Hungarian arms -...

Russ Mitchell

^Seconded. I used to play blunt steel with nothing but sports pads on the back of the hand during fencing demonstrations, and we repeatedly whacked each other -- not shooting for the fences but not holding off, either-- with no trouble at all. I wouldn't *dare* pull that with hardwood or rattan.

Russ Mitchell

Randall, the type XVI/XVIII "crazy two-part job" is also extant in the Kingdom of Hungary. I'm currently playing with cheap layered-paper versions of it for my sabre students as a basic arm harness to see how it would best have been pointed. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l9lCemDueCU/TNwoUgZaUTI/AAAAAAAA...

Russ Mitchell

Have not seen a PM response to funds sent. Pls. confirm.

Russ Mitchell

PM sent.

Russ Mitchell

Yup, still in, quantity depending on cost (just making sure I've got the right product at the right dollar figure). I also have a pattern that may interest you based on an old wallpainting, could be interesting on a hidden-armor basis.

Russ Mitchell

(NP, waiting on PM and doing other stuff mean-time. Absolutely no rush here.)

Russ Mitchell

Filip, I am very interested in that padded collar. It is precisely what I need for a very specific kit.

Russ Mitchell

Assembled would be nice, Pitbull. I'm poorly set up to muck with rivets right now. Or, if they can be double-tapped for lacing, I can lace-assemble them easily, but ground and prepped would be a definitely either way.

Russ Mitchell

I'll recommend it to him.

Russ Mitchell

Yeah, with the pics having changed I"m not sure what's what, but for my students having a couple of breast/back/cuirass would be handy as hell. When you get back, Pitbull, I'm definitely interested.

Russ Mitchell

Man. I'm impressed. Those are nice lines.

Russ Mitchell

Hey folks.
Haven't been around in a while. I have an old bud asking for a friend. Guy's in Houston and has no idea where to start. Anybody got a general contact I could point a dude to?

Thanks,

Russ

Russ Mitchell

National Museum is neat. Castle of Visegrad is nice. If you write ahead to the Military Museum you can probably get a short peek at some old sabres, if you're polite about it.

Russ Mitchell

Without hot-stuffing it shapes like a dream. With, much much less so.

Russ Mitchell

I'm going to be making my yearly alum buy soon, if anybody is DEFINITELY interested in piggybacking on my labors. Would require up-front commitment and labor on my part, so not for anybody who's going to flake.

Russ Mitchell

Armor forum, the mega-thread on the St. George statue.

Russ Mitchell

Yeah, I'd like to see a cheap and affordable thin two-hole non-roman sort so I can make scale sleeves a la St. George of Prague, now that it's been demonstrated that they'll work. But it always comes down to cost...

Russ Mitchell

I heat the stuffing liquid, never the leather, and I just rub it in. Hard. A lot. Usually I break the hide before doing so by manhandling, sometimes after. Before gives me better results, but I'm going for flexibility in my hides. Takes a cheap-ass $40 alum hide and turns it into something you can u...

Russ Mitchell

You can hot-stuff anything. I find it works best with alum and chrome, but veg also works. Make sure the hide is moist. I prefer using grease solids such as lard becuase once cooled it returns to a semi-solid and doesn't aerate out. (Had a very long day). Heat it until liquid, work it into the hide....

Russ Mitchell

Dan Howard wrote:Sounds about right. With leather sleeves it would have been over 20 lbs.

Definitely. Mine still has the grain (heavily-bated and oil-tanned) but is easily as heavy as a mail shirt, and just as tiring to bounce around in.

Russ Mitchell

RenJunkie - would have to be made. Though I'm always willing to make some later on this fall -- I intend to half-tan some leather for armor anyway.

Russ Mitchell

I don't make that. I make hungary-tan, which is alum-tawed leather, hot-stuffed with lard and worked soft. It is, obviously appropriate for the hungarian context in which I work, and has some real advantages (less expensive and completely immune to bad weather and most importantly horse sweat), but...

Russ Mitchell

Would anybody be able to tell by looking at it, Russ? I mean assuming you weren't an ECW expert or something... Which is tougher? In my experience they're quite comparable, though they can have somewhat-different handling depending on how much they're worked -- we're talking about a LOT of minor di...

Russ Mitchell

Define "proper." The Buff-coat enthusiasts tend to only use it in its English context. In that case you're looking for an oil-tanned hide worked really, really soft, and possibly sueded. I don't make that. I make hungary-tan, which is alum-tawed leather, hot-stuffed with lard and worked soft. It is,...

Russ Mitchell

(Sean, it's an idea, but I'm going to consider it outside Gustovic's thread -- I think he's doing something VERY worthwhile, and don't want to engage in anything which could possibly pose a de-rail of any sort.)

Russ Mitchell

(Sean, bear in mind, though, that some of that "oriental" art is merely out-of-region. The "easterners" in a lot of late-XIVc Italian wall-paintings are recognizably Cuman auxiliaries for the Hungarians for the most part, which would be completely non-controversial had the Neapolitan Succession War ...

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