The Armour Archive

I still have to do the arms, but I used my new half armor for the first time at a demo earlier today.. The demo was part of a fundraiser for restoring a civil (American) war era fort. The local SCA chapter and Thomas Hill Blade Society (the group I do live steel with) was invited to do our thing while some bagpipers and a band took breaks.

the pics of the demo aren't devoloped yet, but I got some pics of my armor with the digital camera. I'll also post a link to pics of the demo when I get the film back.

here's the link to the pics:
http://mailmaker.tripod.com/armor/halfpics.html

I need to make another pair of holes in the shoulder straps cause right now it sits a little low and rubs on my hips too much.. the pics are kinda dark cause they were taken after the demo and it was getting late.. and cause I picked a crappy place to stand (hey, it looked good at the time)

I shouldn't have did the leather articulatio on the fauld and tassets with jiffy rivets.. one of them already popped out and if you look real close you can see it.. just makes it so one of the lames slides down a little.

the last fight we did was the most vicious, brawling, rolling on the ground kind of livesteel fight I've ever been in. it was fun.

anyways, let me know what ya think..

Looking good!

Nicely done. Might be the pics, but it look like your leg-lames might be a little flat compared to the originals, but it looks damn good.

Flat, in this case, means in the vertical aspect, not horizontal. My impression from photos is that the leg-lames are each slightly dished, rather than simply curved to fit the leg.

------------------
<B>Gundobad,
Wise Ogre Armory
Wise Ogre Pic of the Day
Wise Ogre Armory T-shirts & more</B>

Sanity is very rare. Every man almost, and every woman, has a dash of madness - R.W. Emerson

A position worth taking, is worth defending.

[This message has been edited by Gundo (edited 07-01-2001).]

Looks very nice. Definitely not a common style to see being made.

Dan

Very nice. You are past my time period for research, so maybe a dumb question here. Were the gauntlets done like that with mail in period? On both palms, or just the left to grab the opponent's blade?

------------------
Virtus vincit invidiam
"Virtue overcometh envy"

Dish the codpiece deeper. Make a statement!

And post a detailed picture of the gauntlet cuff.

Sasha

yep, the leg-lames are just curved to fit the legs.. I didn't notice any dishing in pictures of the originals, but most pictures I saw in books were from the front, so if there was dishing, I didn't notice it cause of the angle... I'll take another look at the books when I'm back in the shop again. The only armor book I have here at my house is ffoulkes' The Armourer and his Craft, I just looked through it, and no pics of this style armor, except for the fancy puff and slash one... but there is some parade armor on page 52, it's a different style of armor, but the leg-lames are slightly dished.. there's another suit on page 104, it's from a later date, and the leg-lames seem to be curved in, or dished, along the top of each lame. and another picture on page 13, similar suit to the last one I mentioned, but the lames don't seem to have any dishing, just bent to fit.

I had a page of pictures of my gauntlet, but the pics were stored at my geocities site, which seems to now be dead. I'll get new pics of it soon.

I'm not sure if maille was ever really put on the palms of gauntlets. I know there are a few examples of offhand parrying gloves that had maille on the palms, but I'm not sure if it was done to gauntlets. I got the idea from a roleplaying game (7th Sea). I figured that since I had my left handed gauntlet almost done, and since I also wanted a maille glove for grabbing blades, that I should just combine the two. and it works great, I can grab my opponent's blade or backhand it out the way, and punch.. or use the same hand to hold a buckler or dagger.

yes, I am thinking about making another codpiece.. the one in the pictures is three pieces welded together.. sort of like a little kettle hat, with two halves for the skull and another piece for the brim.. It loosed almost half an inch in apperent size because the leather articulation of the tassets, and the overlapped lames of the tassets cause it to sit back in the armor further than I had expected. when I was making it, I didn't want it to be overly large and obtrusive because I do a LOT of demos for schools, in front of 1st to 4th graders, and I didn't really want to answer their quistions about it. as it is now, it got a lot of strange looks at the demo... I could tell when people noticed it. but yes, I prolly will make a larger one.. an advertisement...

Dweezle,fantastic work.
About your older pics of your gauntlet,I saved a bunch of them on my computer,if you want them and can explain how I would go about sending them,your welcome to them.


I think I figured it out and went ahead and sent them to you.

[This message has been edited by Pathfinder (edited 07-01-2001).]

Hi Dweezle,

Cool Harness! I especialy like how you got the depth of breastplate. Constructive criticisim - the pot looks more like a late 16th century/early 17th century pikemans pot, and the rest of your kit looks 1520's - 1540's. I think an early burgonet, a simple skullcap, or even a late sallet would be more in spirit with the rest of the harness. You obviously have the tallent to make whatever you want, so you might consider one of these options for the future.

Your kit is looking very nice, but it would look ever-more spiffy with correct shoes (hint-hint-). You ought to try your hand at making cow-mouthed shoes. . Keep up the good work.

------------------
Bob R.

thanks pathfinder,
those are pics from a part of my site that I didn't think of checking.. not the one's I was thinking of, but one of them has a nice pic of the gauntlet's cuff

here's a link to that picture.. it shows the right handed gauntlet sitting next to what I had done on the left handed one. might have to copy and paste the URL into the address bar or something...
http://members.tripod.com/~mailmaker/gauntlet1/day-3a.jpg


and if that does not work, here's a link to the page that has a link to the picture... scroll down to Day 3, and it's the first link that says Picture.
http://members.tripod.com/~mailmaker/gauntlet1/gauntlet1.html

it's a little rough... one of my first serious attempts at plate armor.

thanks everyone for the good words and helpfull criticism

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by chef de chambre:
<B>Hi Dweezle,

Cool Harness! I especialy like how you got the depth of breastplate. Constructive criticisim - the pot looks more like a late 16th century/early 17th century pikemans pot, and the rest of your kit looks 1520's - 1540's. I think an early burgonet, a simple skullcap, or even a late sallet would be more in spirit with the rest of the harness. You obviously have the tallent to make whatever you want, so you might consider one of these options for the future.
</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

thanks chef
the helm was originaly going to be a burgonet but one of my friends got a pikeman's pot like the one's MRL use to sell. I always liked the look of those, and since what I had done on my bergonet (had the skull and the comb done) just happened to be the same size and shape as my friend's pikeman's pot, I decided to try making one of those. when it was done, I didn't think it looked quite right, the brim did not seem to be angled down on the sides enough.. and in some ways, I think it looks as much like a kettle hat in Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight (not sure what page it is, but it's the one with a comb and really big rivits) as it looks like some of the pikeman's pots I have seen.

when I started on the helm, I hadn't given much thought about what kind of armor, if any, I was going to make to go with it. I wanted to make a skullcap that I could wear a hat over, but I couldn't think of a good way to have a faceplate attach (need one for the fighting I do) and I wasn't sure what I would do to protect the back and sides of my head. then I decided a steel cap with a faceplate would look silly.. I'm not entirely happy with the way the pikepot looks with it's faceplate, so I'm thinking about trying another bergonet with a falling buf or a close helm


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"><B>
Your kit is looking very nice, but it would look ever-more spiffy with correct shoes (hint-hint-). You ought to try your hand at making cow-mouthed shoes. . Keep up the good work.

</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
yeah, those shoes are crap.. but they are better than they were the night before. They use to be some of those calf-high moccasins that lace up the front and all the renn fair people seem to have them... then I realized that I couldn't bring myself to wear them with this armor. but the only other thing I had was combat boots or modern sandles, so I decided to try making them go with it just a little better cutting the tops of them off.

I've never made shoes before, or done much serious leather work, but I agree that I should have something on my feet that goes better with the armor.
Do you know of a place online that has patterns for cow-mouthed shoes, or tips on making them?
thanks,
Dweezle

Nice work!

You give me the inspiration to continue whit my plans to create a persona from the early 16th century. I will use your pages as an inspiration and reference when I build it.