Announcing my new project - need suggestions

[William of Stonebridge]

I have decided to jump in with both feet and I am announcing my goal of constructing a mid/late 14th century (c.1370's) complete harness for the Armour of the Month this Dec 2007. I will soon be putting in an order for my steel to the sheet metal supplier, but before I do, I wanted some suggestions from all of you.

First, this is what I plan to make:

Highpoint Bascinet with Pigface visor
Churburg #14 style breastplate
Hourglass fingered gauntlets
Vambraces
Greaves
Sabatons
Cuisses
Need to do more research on knees and elbows for style - suggestions appreciated

I have a butted mail hauberk

This harness will hopefully see some SCA fighting, so it will be built accordingly. I already have 13(?) gauge steel to make the helmet and plan to use 16 gauge (0.625") for the visor, breastplate, elbows, vambraces, cuisses, and knees. However, should I use 16 gauge for the gauntlets, sabatons and greaves, or go 18 gauge, or thinner?

Do you think a 4 x 10 foot sheet of 0.625" be a good amount for this project? I realize that may be a difficult question to answer. If I have left over I will probably use it eventually. I just don't want to over spend and risk invoking the wrath of my bookkeeper(wife). However, since the supplier is 90 miles away, I don't want to have to make more than one trip to buy more and thus risk invoking the wrath of said bookkeeper a second time.

All suggestions, recommedations, critiques, and corrections are very welcome.

[Armoured Air Bear]

First of all great choice of century

-what kind of bascinet are you making? a klappvisor, or sidemounted?
-elbows/rerbrace/vambrace- look at the Churburg 13/18 for the arms. you can use the basic pattern for it and modify it to suit your needs. many of the 14th cent arm harnesses you see on the feild derived from these two. you can change the fan plate too. (the last link is a repo made by Mr. Hurt)

http://www.mallet-argent.com/images/chu ... arness.jpg

http://www.mallet-argent.com/images/churburg_s18.jpg

http://www.ageofarmour.com/instock/arms ... ition.html

Also for shoulders- look up spaulders.
-gauntlets- if they are fingered some (if not all) kingdoms require the use of "finger bucklers" with them.

-for ze legs- http://www.ageofarmour.com/instock/stainlesslegs.html
Add some sabaton and you're good to go.

of course some nice arming clothes always help, and if you can upgrade to riveted maille- gotta do that myself.

as for the visor- I would make it out of 14 gauge as well.

breastplate- Churburg 14 (good choice) although if you want something a little different from the "norm" than you can add a hooped fauld to it. like in the Pistoia alterpiece. it would be freakin awesome. also you could cloth cover it as well.

now for some details that make the good armours stand out from the great ones-
-shape the vambrace-not just a tube, add some curves to it, same for the greaves-especially the greaves!
-add a listre' De Arret (stop rib) and lance rest to the BP
-add brass decoration (if desired)
-roll the edge of you armour (if you roll the edge on the inside of your elbow on the vambrace it acts as a stop rib.
-add some nice shaping to the skull of the bascinet.

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll probably post some more later.

I don't know how much armouring expeirience you have or how much you know about the one true century,but a little research never hurts (neither does a lot )


Hope this helps,

Aaron

BTW- do a search on the archive for 14th cent armour, or "transitional" armour and narrow that down and see what you get. also look into period manuscripts/illuminations and other artwork, they help out a lot.

[William of Stonebridge]

-what kind of bascinet are you making? a klappvisor, or sidemounted?

I prefer the look of the sidemounted and of the few examples that I have seen, the "pigface" appears to me to be more commonly mounted this way. However, I am guessing the klappvisor may be easier to mount, especially if I buy the hinge from HE.

-elbows/rerbrace/vambrace- look at the Churburg 13/18 for the arms. ...you can change the fan plate too.

Looking at the funeral brasses and effigies of that time, most of the fans appear much smaller than most of those used in the SCA.

[Baron Alejandro]

William, don't forget the soft goods. shirt, chausses, all that stuff. It's nearly as hard as the hard stuff.

[William of Stonebridge]

Also for shoulders- look up spaulders.

I will save that for last. I have already made some spaulders, but I may replace them since the lames are a larger than what was shown in the effigies/brasses. (see attachment below)

-gauntlets- if they are fingered some (if not all) kingdoms require the use of "finger bucklers" with them.

What do you mean by "finger bucklers"? and what gauge metal should be used?

[William of Stonebridge]

William, don't forget the soft goods. shirt, chausses, all that stuff. It's nearly as hard as the hard stuff.

I have already made a linen St Louis shirt, and braies. I have purchased a wonderful pair of wool chausses and ankle boot turnshoes from HE. I am also currently researching the Charles de Blois doublet as a basis for an arming garment with a grande aisette sleeve.

[Konstantin the Red]

When looking for a stop-rib en français, try for lisière d'arrêt.

(Edited 'cos I left out a circumflex)
(Edited again to fix corrupted characters)

[Gethin]

Let me second the suggestion of using 14 gauge. It is quite possible that you could recieve a severe dent the first time you wear it!

[William of Stonebridge]

Let me second the suggestion of using 14 gauge. It is quite possible that you could recieve a severe dent the first time you wear it!

You are meaning for the visor, correct?

[iaenmor]

Yes they are talking about the visor. SCA armour sometimes seems like it was designed by German engineers. Way to heavy and thick compared to the actual pieces. We build it to take a constant and long time of beatings.

Finger bucklers are exactly what they sound like. Small bucklers that cover the fingers when wearing guantlets with seperate fingers. No they are not required in most kingdoms. Properly designed and padded finger gauntlets work fine on their own. The bucklers do help when fighting with polearms, keeps your fingers from getting moved in the wrong way. Make sure you make them with a riveted thumb and the chances of dislocating it will lessen. Check out the patterns in the pattern page and you will find the right one. http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/w ... ntlet_cad/ Note the thumb and its construction.

[Armoured Air Bear]

When looking for a stop-rib en français, try for lisière d'arret.

Ahh, that's how it's spelled.

I can't spell for beans .

for the finger bucklers (which may or may not be accurate) you can spiff em up by adding brass pattern cut outs riveted to the steel. or like what I'm doing- gonna roll the edge of the buckler, and I suggest you do the same, as it adds a lot more overall strength. then I'm going to cover it in red velvet (except for the roll) then going to rivet some brass cutout patterns to it, and add a row of rivets going all the way around the edge. now that's some 14th cent bling


Good luck with your project,

Aaron

[Konstantin the Red]

Aaron, it occurred to me some hours after I posted that arrêt needs its circumflex. Fixed now.

[William of Stonebridge]

Look at the knees and elbows below on the Pistioa altar. Do they appear to articulate with the armour above and below them or are they separate? Is the knee all one peice, or just a plate covering the kneecap and then two other plates covering each side of the knee?

Also check out the very simple dished/raised rondel shaped spaulder covering the point of the shoulder. Interesting.

Armoured Air Bear- Is this the hooped fauld you were speaking of? I may consider it, but the "nad tasset" (as someone in the past has coined the phrase) I may need to think about for a while.

[Armoured Air Bear]

yes that was the one.

If you have time during the process, take some progress photos. we all like to see them. hope your project all goes well,

Aaron

[William of Stonebridge]

I will try to post pics as I go.

Does anyone have an opinion on how thick the metal for the gauntlets, greaves and sabatons should be?

[brookswift]

greaves/sabatons - 18 or 20 ga is best, because you're not going to be hit there often, if at all (it'll probably be all slop) and you don't want the extra weight. For the gauntlets, it really depends on what material you're working with. I assume you're doing everything out of mild, which would mean a 16 ga reccomendation (though with the finger bucklers, you might want to go down to 18ga). If you're doing stainless, add 2 to the ga of every part you're working with (except the helmet, which needs the mass). Also, spring steel is a different story too (and light as a feather), but then, I don't think you're making this out of spring steel.

[Magnus The Black]

18 ga on greeves & sabatons
16 on everything else except the visor & helm those I would do 14 or perhaps 12 ga

[sha-ul]

william where were you planning on getting the metal at?

[William of Stonebridge]

Wichita Sheet Metal. My brother-in-law works there.