The Armour Archive

Richard Blackmoore

Doug, you have no idea how glad I am to see you as a contributor to the archive. I have always enjoyed your products and I miss your booth at Pennsic (I have not been able to go for a few years). I still have your shoemaking booklet and several shoes and boots Alastair made for me back when he had f...

Richard Blackmoore

Don't read this post Wulfgar, it is only for other members of the archive:

Damn. Wulfgar found us. Now we have to change the site name, again. Maybe we better stop rotating extensions on a biannual basis and simply change the whole site name. How about www.deathtosmurfs.com?

Richard Blackmoore

Harold, for what we do, a heavier helm when struck will generally transmit much less shock to your head than a light one. The type of foam or other types of padding and in some cases the manner of its arrangement (if not contiguous single layer homogeneous material) make a tremendous difference as w...

Richard Blackmoore

I've seen cow tipping before, but bear tipping?

Now that's new.

Richard Blackmoore

Cool Sarnac! Thanks for the info.

Richard Blackmoore

Brass rivets of small diameter worry me in certain places, such as visor pivots. The recent use by many of fairly small diameter screws for visors is worse. I stopped by the local SCA practice Sunday to do some teaching and ripped a visor half off a a sallet with a normal "good" flat snap, no excess...

Richard Blackmoore

Ok, I don't have definite confirmation, but my knight Sir Jehan Le Batarde (Ira Robinson) sent me this initial info, I will post more when I know for sure: "Not true. I believe a gentleman by the name of Waliran (?) the Abductor, also from Antir, a merchant, and someone who happened to bear a striki...

Richard Blackmoore

Rainald question re: my comment: "I would say that one of the most ideal builds would be that of a middle weight or slightly lighter boxer or kick boxer." You have me intrigued, please explain." Boxers and kick boxers in those weight classes tend to be superbly conditioned athletes. I feel that they...

Richard Blackmoore

If you use undiluted acetone, be careful. Not only are the vapors less than good for you, it can be absorbed through your skin. We used to use it to remove fiberglass resin from our skin. We later on found out how it is really bad for you, you have to be careful. We used to literally scrub our hands...

Richard Blackmoore

I hope its not true. I'll make a phone call discretely to check on this.

Richard Blackmoore

The "best" strength training method for a given individual can vary quite a bit, depending on your fighting style, harness and personal physical type (ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph as broad generalizations), physical limitations (injuries, age, illnesses, etc.) and goals. I personally believe t...

Richard Blackmoore

The points about leg shots not being advisable for equally matched and armed sword & shield or single sword make sense. For tournament or one on one. Not being advisable, is not the same as not being done. I don't wear greaves just because they look good. I wear them also because of the large number...

Richard Blackmoore

Thanks Dan! That is the one. I bought it as a present for a friend who gave it a good review. I only skimmed parts of it but it seemed pretty interesting.

Richard Blackmoore

The only proper use of a spear is when you are on horseback, it is couched under your arm and it is fitted with a vamplate. It is called a lance. If God had wanted us to fight on foot with the damn things, he would not have given us horses. Damn scutums. Annoying Calontir. Grrrrr. Grrrrr. Mumble, mu...

Richard Blackmoore

Gaston has a point. We English were too busy learning to fight and rule the world to spend any amount of time on home economics and cooking lessons.

I strongly suggest that you subjugate some portion of France, the food and drink is excellent.

Richard Blackmoore

Glen. Methinks Aiden be not tiny, he simply fights Giants.

Richard Blackmoore

Viva La Differance! Oh well. Another perfectly good personna migrating to our Beloved England's renegade province on the other side of our Channel. Bon voyage, mon ami. By the way, I did not know there were French Landsknechtes, gives me more respect for the French. I am sure Harold will be pleased ...

Richard Blackmoore

As much as I like SCA combat, it is extremely unrealistic in many ways, partly due to logical safety restrictions, partly because of the sport techniques that work with rattan that don't work as well with real weapons and to a degree because we just don't care enough to change some of our combat con...

Richard Blackmoore

Bascot, he threw in a clarification that he is considering Landsknecht, so the later info still applies. But if he wants to be cool, why saddle him with the burden of trying to be French, aren't the two mutually exclusive?

Richard Blackmoore

Ok, if we must have a badge or symbol.

Argent, a burning smurf proper.

Richard Blackmoore

Rhia quote: "Guys, with all due respect--Templars COULD NOT participate in tournaments!"

Um. Who said that they could in the first place? I must have missed something. Unless you are referring to my comment about the possible original use of the term "blackmail".

Richard Blackmoore

Hand and a half swords were available throughout virtually the entire medieval period in Western Europe where maille or plate was worn. At least in what we know call France, England and at least parts of Germany (Not sure about Spain, but if it was used in the aforementioned, Spain usually ended up ...

Richard Blackmoore

I suggest you talk to the knight if you have not already. Explain that you just authorized and have a concern about calibration in the one area due to the overlap. Be polite and most knights will be glad to tell you if they thought there was a problem, they will usually be happy to work with you. By...

Richard Blackmoore

The helmet should be ok as it appears to be a basic "bucket" style Helm of early design. Hard to tell from a photo what the exact contruction pattern is, but the look is fine. As far as the paint goes, I have not tried to document early painting on helms, but I would not be so certain that that is w...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "It has been my impression from reading a little of the history of the Templers that the charges of heresy were just a convenient excuse the king of France used to destroy the Templers in order to get at money/land held by the order and break their political power." Yes, you are correct. Ther...

Richard Blackmoore

Hi Glen. While I always found fencing interesting, modern fencing had little medieval flavor as far as I was concerned. Little skinny fast guys moving in a straight line, whippy swords, mostly point work (few sabre fighters) and you could not hit in the face. Odd. Then I found out that earlier rapie...

Richard Blackmoore

Owen. Relative effects of catapult damage on SCA combattants:

1) Normal fighter in good armour. Ow. Good.

2) Bad fighter in minimal armour. OWWWW. Damn. Good.

3) Numb fighter in minimal amour. OWWWW. Damn. Light my Lord.

4) Numb fighter in good amour. Ow. Wrong Geometry.

Richard Blackmoore

Harold, name of the book and if possible the name of author are often enough. Don't worry about ISBN if it is not available, many older books were pre-ISBN anyway. Once again, just because you read something, does not mean that it is true. If it were, President Gore would be talking about how many y...

Richard Blackmoore

CBA "I've been looking for a copy for 12, count them 12 years,( Since I first read Red Storm Rising) Can you direct me to a link where I can just buy one?" I bought mine about 1 1/2 years ago from Borders (the book store). It is not the digitally remastered version. I think they have an online store...

Richard Blackmoore

Olaf quote: "I am a sport fighter. I fight to win. I hear people say that one should fight for renown, honor, the dream... Renown is gained by wins. Sagas were not written about how many holmgangs were lost." Really? Perhaps you should check out the Song of Roland, Chandos, Beowulf, any recounting o...

Richard Blackmoore

Glen: "It is, Andre. Harold has simply quoted a line from A&E's "Ivanhoe", taking TV as history rather than backing up anything with documentation. I've been wanting to point it out for a while, but I figured that _I_ would simply be called a mean petty person for pointing out Mr. The Bear's grammat...

Richard Blackmoore

Harold. Shut up about Glen. Don't comment. Don't say a word. Please. Do me a favor, give me a call, I would like to discuss the topic of sources; the good, the bad and the ugly. I have no illusions that I am an expert on Roman siege weapons, but you lost me when you referenced the Atilla/USA Network...

Richard Blackmoore

Thank you for the information CDC. I was not aware of the recent posts you mentioned. I will check them out and speak with Harold as appropriate. I was not aware of Harold causing any new problems or the misinformation issue you brought up, thank you for bringing these to my attention. I did not und...

Richard Blackmoore

Quote Chef: "I don't know why I am bothering to write this, as I am sure our efant terrible will ignore this good advice as he has done all other. People with crusader personas - be prepared to be viewed in the worst possible light (if it is indeed possible to be viewed any worse in modern America) ...

Richard Blackmoore

Perfect.