The Armour Archive

Gunvaldis

"Simple" (sure, it is simple untill you try making one yourself

) yet elegant lines, thanks for sharing!

Gunvaldis

Very nice work!

Gunvaldis

That is one seriously awesome looking helmet there... also good to see a less-often made item.

Gunvaldis

Well, nice work on the shield, however, to my knowledge, there is no evidence to full metal shield-rims on the Viking period shields. Which is not surprising, as considering the usuall size of the shield-finds (from the 80 cm diameter and up) such a rim would make shield too heavy to be easilly used...

Gunvaldis

Considering that arrows were expendable and were required in stupid huge quantities, it would not have been worth anyone's time or money to forge weld them or even to make them particularly nice. Just butt the ends, I think. As long as they're pointy and will fly, that's what matters. And that they...

Gunvaldis

1350? What about a DeStaunton Greathelm? Pretty much different from all other greathelms and it has a round top. http://www.aurorahistoryboutique.com/products/A000032_L.jpg http://www.flickr.com/photos/13316415@N05/page3/ There was a guy on here a couple of months ago selling a Forth Castle one (th...

Gunvaldis

Looks fantastic!

Gunvaldis

I dount you can get an actual pattern for those - the shape of the bowl is formed by working the metal, not determined by the pattern of the flat peace of metal you started with. So I would say your best bet is to try and get the bowl right - which will not be easy task, as originals are made of bro...

Gunvaldis

Erm, what sort of "greek helm"? There has been plenty of variations among the helmets used in Ancient Greece.

Gunvaldis

Certainly looks impressive, although, to be honest, I doubt it would be very comfortable to use in combat - horns might get in the way of certain movements, not to menthion the possibility of them beeing damaged
in fighting.

Gunvaldis

Sadly, at the time I did not took more detailed pics - and now the armour would require a bit of renewing to be photogeinic once more as it has spent something like 4 years in the workshop corner. Admitedly, when I made the set I was rather restricted by time - made it for Heloween night so I did th...

Gunvaldis

When LOTR movies went out I decided to give a go at making some of elven stuf out of steel - and in the end got a set that was comfortable enough to wear and if used on top of the mail shirt would have been a nice additional protection, although on it's own it does leave certain vital areas not quit...

Gunvaldis

I wonder why this has not been menthioned here yet, but in all questions regarding knife/sword blades and their making, Jim Hrisoulas is one of the most knowledgable persons you can find. You can check out his site, but prepare some towels to protect your keybord after you see some of his work :) ht...

Gunvaldis

I have the coppy of the book and must agree wih the previous poster about the book - luckilly I'm fluent in Russian too, so I learned quite a bit from it and would reccomend it to those who are starting out on making 15. century peaces.

Gunvaldis

Recived my coppy today, after DHL managed to ship it to two different countries before finaly finding the correct one... although I'm more than a slightly mad at the DHL causing the delay, I must admit that book more than exceeded my expectations. Just as previous posters have indicated, the level o...

Gunvaldis

Well, accordingly to tracking mine is in Milano atm...

Gunvaldis

As far as any hard archaeologial evidence goes, it is all make belive. And, in most cases, especially in the movies, it is of the sort that belongs into sado-mazo shop rather than in warriors outfit. There is a famous menthion about armour made from the reindeer hides, used by Lappi people in one of...

Gunvaldis

There is some evidence of bandoleer usage among Balts during late Iron age (up untill end of 13 century). I can try to digg out the pictures.

Gunvaldis

Guys, just think of the gauntlets and the rest of the arm/leg protection that would mach that helmet!

Gunvaldis

I guess that only thing I could say is to repeate others - damn fine job!
Did you made visor and jaw as one-peace constructions or they are wielded somewhere?

Gunvaldis

And a plethora of head wounds, don't forget them; lots of axe hits to the head, and sometimes as many as 3 or 4 arrows driven through their skull while still standing... I would wager that the headwounds came after the lower leg wounds. Fellow lying on the ground makes an easy target for a nice gol...

Gunvaldis

Heh, sorry :oops: The thing that always confused me with the LOTR Movie armor is the lack of rivets. All you see in close ups is stitching. So it always made me wonder if it was infact metal covered with leather. in reality it probably wasnt. In movie they used brass as a base for Theodens quirass ...

Gunvaldis

Started to do some armourwork when I was 24, and now, 6 years later do it as a part-time job.

Gunvaldis

Additionally, there is a week long Medieval festival in Visby each year in August. I am still considering if I have the time to go there this year. I have been in the town several times before and it has a very "meadievalesque" feeling to it - city wall that encircles the old town and general style ...

Gunvaldis

Most of those armours are on display in the museum in Visby (not the city museum but one dedicated to battle of Visby), which is not large but very nice for any interesent in armur of this time period. Certainly worth a visit if you happen to be in Visby...

Gunvaldis

A front-opening COP was found in Visby - goes by the number 24 and belongs to subtype V it consists of a large ammount of smaller plates and is closer to later brigandines. Thordemans book contains a wealth of info on those armours, you might want to look it up through interlibrary exchange if you d...

Gunvaldis

Patrick, do you do the mail for aventail yourself or is it ordered from someone else? BTW, the helmet looks fantastic!

Gunvaldis

TBH I do not think that downward overlapping lamellar would be practical to use - such construction would practically negate the main positive elemnt of lamellar armour - ease of movement in it, as the lamellae in upper rows would press the lover ones against your body and it would be much harder to...

Gunvaldis

Charles, that pic is total fantasy...

As about the ideas for an "iconic Hollywood knight" I'd say go for Knights Tale look. And don't forget to carry a massive two-hander strapped to your back

Gunvaldis

It is deffinitelly not imported from Balts - designs on it are nothign alike what were used by Balts o that time period, besides, style of the pouch is quite different from what have been recovered from lands inhabited by Balts back then. Not sure about Slavs though, I'm no expert in Slav archaeolog...

Gunvaldis

There will be - splints spread the force of the impact over the larger area, while mail is more flexiable and does not do that. That is why they used splinted defenses both on arms and legs (like ones recovered in Valsgarde) - they are not too hard to craft and offer quite good level of preotection.

Gunvaldis

Sword, the armour on the pic is deffinitelly neither a brigandine nor COP, it is some sort of purely fictional peace of work. It would not be a very good armour either - if you get hit byt a thrust it can easilly enough go right through the seams between the plates - that is why in COPs and brigs th...

Gunvaldis

Thx, just wanted to know what method you used/planed to use.

Gunvaldis

Very nicely done! Edging must have been a royal pain to do that clean..
Do you have any sort of internal padding or hanging system inside the helmet?

Gunvaldis

Napjalitj to napjalish, no manjovrennostj rezko uhudsitsja... :) OK, then it is understandiable about swords, still, armour seems to be a way too heavy when compared to historical analogues, besides, most of people who wear full harneses I know got ones that weight around 30kg not more... and have s...