The Armour Archive

Richard Blackmoore

I am glad JT's prediction was accurate. I wish my Giants had played better in the Superbowl though. Oh well, my hat's off to Baltimore's defense, they played very well.

Richard Blackmoore

Joaquin. I understand your frustration. But many of the "somebodies" do care and wish to encourage, support and personally engage in efforts to improve the SCA. I agree many people don't care about change, but that is 1/2 the point to the armour archive, getting people together to discuss how to mak...

Richard Blackmoore

Cool helmet Sasha. What is its provenance? The only thing that looks odd, at least in the photo, is the cheekplates. Are these original or restorations? The angle seems a little steep and the portion that would lock over the gorget ridged top just seems a little off to me for some reason. There are ...

Richard Blackmoore

Hi Harold. Coherent posts, decent spelling, reasonable grammer and you didn't annoy anyone. See Gundo? No lobotomy required!

Seriously Harold, if you do find the suggested translation or do it yourself, I'd like to see it. I have not read that since I was in my teens and I'd like to get a copy.

Richard Blackmoore

Memorize Sasha's advice, it is excellent. For cuisses that are made of a large number of small horizontally overlapping lames, consider something stiffer and more dent/deformation resistant than regular mild steel. Perhaps spring steel, steel that can be hardened, stainless, etc. Use sturdy rivets a...

Richard Blackmoore

Great. Now Prince and Thorgrim have symbols instead of names. Prince has that odd black thing and Thorgrim has Frog Legs. Je suis le frogge! Merde! Seriously, though, congratulations on picking something that makes you happy (Try to be pre 1066 and your descendants may be English at least). Oh, for ...

Richard Blackmoore

I said: "...for proper interpretation and enforcement of the current standards (a face thrust should only need to be a tap if properly placed)..." So Dan said: "Actually, under the current combat standards, unless a specific change is made at an event, all helmets are considered open faced and blows...

Richard Blackmoore

Well, I E-mailed Drey days ago, no response. Perhaps someone on the archive knows Drey and could give him a call to see what is up?

Richard Blackmoore

Among other modern breeds, we used Belgian Mares between 16 and 16 1/2 hands, weighing in the 1500 to 1750 lb range. Not excessively tall, probably taller than the average war horse as Conn and others have noted, but not beyond the realm of reasonable possibility by any means. We kept them much more...

Richard Blackmoore

Hi Norman! Hi Owen! I don't think I made myself clear and I think both of you are arguing against a point I did not mean to make.. If a particular open face helmet from ANY period is to be used, you only have 2 choices that meet the current criteria for use in the SCA. 1) Add a bargrill. a) For some...

Richard Blackmoore

There is a big difference between failing in an honest reasonable effort and not making a reasonable effort in the first place. In my opinion, trying to make armour out of exposed hunks of blue plastic is by itself an automatic failure to make a reasonable attempt in the first place. Blue plastic is...

Richard Blackmoore

Lodhur quote: "I just had this big long rant, about how everyone in here is wrong, except Spike, & the fact that I want his username. IE locked up & I lost it all, & I hate repeating myself. So, in summary - you're all full of it; you're a bunch of spoon-fed ninnies who blithely think 'The Authoriti...

Richard Blackmoore

PoD quote: "Come on, let's not bullshit ourselves here - nobody wears bargrills because they're authentic." Well, hate to tell you PoD, but that is very wrong. I have wanted a late period tourney helm with the large crossing bars for years. I think they are cool and I want one specifically because i...

Richard Blackmoore

Actually Jasper, if you don't pay until the item is shipped, 60 days should be plenty of time. Some credit card companies and banks will also deal with problems after 60 days, although they may require more paperwork and waiting on your end after a certain number of days.

Richard Blackmoore

Absolutely. Yes. Correct.

No Smurfs! No Smurfs! No Smurfs!

Richard Blackmoore

What Aleric is showing you is exactly what I was referring too, just a little more modern in shape than I recall. The main problem is of course the cost.

Richard Blackmoore

Ian quote: "You people are probable also some of the ones wearing shoes and boots with heals while trying to recreate the 15th cent. -In case you don't know heals didn't appear until 1560." Strange! I thought heals went all the way back to first human attempts at healing and basic herbal medicinal r...

Richard Blackmoore

Damn. They beat me to the answers again.

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "Hell... most of the exposed plastic wearer in my area already have thier damn dice bags and charactor sheets with them at practice so it wouldnt be any extra effort for them." Arghhhh! Anyway, I don't really have a problem with plastic for practice reasons, I hate plastic at events, in tourn...

Richard Blackmoore

Hi Sarnac. I do not mind people using what I post here provided that it is used constructively. No apologies are necessary. I don't know which post you mean, but I hope it was helpful and that Dag and company won't get mad and try to stuff my Dragon's Teeth medallion down my throat at the next Penns...

Richard Blackmoore

Hmmm. I will speak of knighthood in the SCA context. Should my humble and brief essay be judged victorious, I would ask that the prize be awarded to whomever the judges deem would benefit from it most. Perhaps someone enthusiastic about the learning process like PoD, Harold, Colleen or Fearghus. Whe...

Richard Blackmoore

Yeah, but I still like the image of Owen On Ice. You have to understand, he is a master brewer. I like the idea of opening my fridge and having Owen hand me a homebrew. Kind of like the refrigerator on that Dinosaur Sitcom where they would open the fridge and the live food would pass out other food ...

Richard Blackmoore

Many of us go out of our way to help and encourage others. I agree this is one of the best methods for improving the overall armour level. My squire used to open his old metal fabrication shop to members of the local barony and people they vouched for, on a once or twice a month basis. It gave SCA'e...

Richard Blackmoore

I do not expect an armourer to pay for freight for minor defects or failures that pop up after the item has been in use for a while. If the defect was truly the fault of the armourer or it was a major failure that should not have occurred under normal use, some armourers will eat the freight entirel...

Richard Blackmoore

Having had to deal with Chanfron's and Crinet's fitting nightmares when I was involved in jousting and parades, I guarantee that it is a pain to fit these comfortably. I assumed you were talking about plate pieces BTW.

Richard Blackmoore

Quote: "...It reminds me a lot of the proposed Midrealm siege artillery rules, in the end you need a spread sheet and two 20 sided dice to figure out what happened. I believe that the simplicity of SCA combat is what makes it work, one shot one result." Eureka! What a great idea. Whenever a fighter ...

Richard Blackmoore

Owen quote: "As for plastic- I prefer it covered, but I don't want it banned outright, nor even required to be covered. I like laughing at the smurfs. As for you who want it banned, the SCA never will...bwoo-ha-ha-ha!!...Oh, I'm sorry, the Evil Laugh(tm) is supposed to be silent" Ok, you just lost m...

Richard Blackmoore

I can't say with a certainty, but with what little documentation I have seen that even remotely deals with the topic, it appears that horse armour was sometimes made "off the rack" in varying degrees of quality, but that chanfrons and crenets in particular may often have been individually fitted on ...

Richard Blackmoore

You might also consider dental alginate (sp?) or variations on it, often easier to deal with that plaster by most accounts. I got some from Tengu's Forge before the owner lost his mind and became totally unreliable. I have not had the time to use it yet, but for hands and complex body parts it is su...

Richard Blackmoore

Garridan. I feel that your response was insensitive at best. I hope you were just attempting to be funny. If something should happen to the youth in question, you will probably regret your words. I agree that going to the police (or possibly the superintendant of schools if that person is a realist)...

Richard Blackmoore

Just an opinion: 1) Late 15th century harness of full plate, such as Sigusmund's German Gothic or a Misaglia Italianate harness, work great for jousting, foot combat with bastard swords, two handed swords, polearms, axes and spears. You can use them with shields, but that is not their strong suit (p...

Richard Blackmoore

Hi Sasha. Um, I was not talking about Cariodoc or questioning the authenticity of of wax hardened leather. That was DanNV and I was questioning his comment on the leather as I had never heard it challenged before. As far as the butted mail, I am familiar with the Negroli. I know it was used in parad...

Richard Blackmoore

There are not many truly stupid questions, but there are tons of stupid answers.

Yours were answered well above already, don't be afraid to ask, we are here to help.

We save most of our stupid answers for PoD now anyway.

[This message has been edited by Richard Blackmoore (edited 01-21-2001).]

Richard Blackmoore

Young Logan quote :"Richard. I believe he was saying he would ignore thrusts from that side because there was no eyeslot on that side." Let me get this straight. The fighter lost an eye. So he had a helm made with only one eyeslot? I would pay to see a marshall doing that inspection. "Um.... Your uh...

Richard Blackmoore

You know Sarnac, I used to like you. Hey, this silly stick looks like a, a ... A MADU! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!