The Armour Archive

Ok, Finally getting around to this.Last week I received my new late 14th cent.arm and leg harness from Jeffery Hedgecock.I purchased this to replace 16 gauge mild armour from Christian Fletcher.The arms and legs from Christian F.weighed in at a whopping 50+ lbs.including gauntlets.The new arms and legs only weigh about 22-23lbs as close as I can figure. Going to be a GREAT relief on my poor crippled old back.I liked the sring steel stock legs HE carries, but wanted full greaves and sollerets,also smaller wings on the poleyns (knee cops).Jeffery said he would do this for me basing it on the Chartres childs harness.The results were fantastic!I had to send him thin plaster casts of my lower legs and feet for a good fit.He supplied the plaster bandages and instructions,my teenage daughter made the casts,I stood there,supplied my legs and drank beer.The casts were damaged however on the way back to him,due to poor packing on my part,and he had to reconstruct them.The sollerets,and greaves are 18 gauge mild,to keep the cost down.The sollerets he made are very funtional,beautiful and a perfect fit.He included a hinged heel plate,lacking on the original.Hinged on the outside,with a leather strap and buckle closure to the inside.The lames are articulated on leather straps on the inside,providing very smooth articulation.He included pairs of holes for the arming points on the heel plate,and at the toe.The originals also had a pair of points close to the ankle on the top,but he omited these. They arnt really needed,with the points on the heel.These sollerets have some very fine subtle shaping than really has to be looked at in person to appreciate.Grade on the shoes on a scale of one to ten (10)The greaves fit very well, a little large at the top,but just enough extra room for the blanket around the knee.He put the hinges on the outside of the greave,with the straps to the inside.The original at Chartres was the opposite,with hinges on the inside,and spring pins on the outside. I like Jefferys arrangement better.Easier to get on and off,The strap and buckle being more secure than the spring pins, and the straps being protected by being located on the inside of the leg.The greaves are fantastic sculpture in steel.Each piece raised from a single piece of steel,the left a mirror image of the right.It could have been just a tad bigger around the ankle,BUT not much.If the cast wouldnt have been broken up, Im sure the fit would have been absolutley perfect .Its "still" pretty darn good!not off enough to fool with.grade (10)(edited) to Upgraded that to a ten.After wearing them some more I believe they are a perfect fit. The spring steel cuisses are a perfect fit, with a generous wrap plate,smaller fan than his stock armour,and cut straight across the demi greave with a hole for the locating pins on the greaves.Excellent articulation on the poleyn,more movement than I expected.Fine central crease,running from the top of the cuise to the tip of the toe.I would have liked the fan just a tad bigger(not much!) on the poleyn,but I never told him exactly how big to make it.So if its a little small its my fault!grade (9.5)Next the spaulders ,spring steel,just like his stock examples.Articulated on internal leathers.perfect fit grade (10).Arm harness spring steel,the elbow cops are a little more pointed than on his stock examples, better matching the knee cops . I like that.The tulip shape of the vambrace(lower cannon)is a slightly more exagerated than his stock examples.The arm harness is just oversized enough for a gambeson.And seems to be a perfect fit.grade(10)All pieces are struck once with his fantastic mark,he used nice heavy black leather,with period white bronze buckles.The polish and hammerwork are superb.The lines excellent.He answered emails and finished the work in a very timely manner.Overall I'd rate my experience at a 10! Any minor problems I might have are my own fault.The date the initial order for custom leg harness was placed 2-3-03.With the order for the arm harness placed about 7 weeks ago.Date everything shipped out 6-18-03.So a total turnaround time of about 4 1/2 months.Not bad for a custom order.It also should be considered that he had to wait a couple of weeks before his order for bandages came in,he had to send em to me, i had to make the casts, and send them to him.Theres about 5 weeks right there.Plus he was in England for 2 weeks.Overall I'm very pleased to say the least, and look forward to the next commision..Thanks Jeffery! ...Otto [img]http://www.members.aol.com/ottokits/IMG_0042.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.members.aol.com/ottokits/IMG_0043.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.members.aol.com/ottokits/IMG_0044.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.members.aol.com/ottokits/IMG_0045.jpg[/img]

[This message has been edited by Otto von Teich (edited 06-28-2003).]

ahhhhhhh, the legs are pictured under Leg harness eye candy post on an earlier thread. Also I wanted to mention that I was a little concerned about the thickness of the spring steel.I never did inquire about this to Jeffery. On Jefferys website,he gave the thickness in decimals of thickness of an inch.I thought it sounded very thin.After examining the pieces they appear to be very close to 18 gauge.Plenty thick enough.This stuff should be as tough as 16-14 mild I would think.(probably closer to 14 gauge)Also, Jeffery, do you know the exact weight? The total including the boxes and packing was 27lb. I think the packing material and boxes were about 3-5 lb. giving a total of about 22-24 for the armour.Does this sound about right?......Otto

Otto/James,

Wow, thanks for the great review! I'm very glad you liked everything. You were a very pleasant client to deal with, which of course makes our lives easier here.

The buckles were actually steel, we had to fabricate them in house, since our bronze buckle order didn't make it here in time for your armour. We'd thought the brass buckles were lost in transit, and we didn't want to hold up your armour because of it, so we just bit the bullet and made 'em. They should be a little stronger anyway. And as Murphy's law would have it, the buckle order showed up two days after we shipped your pieces. [img]http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/confused.gif[/img]

The steel is a little thicker than we usually use for those plates, since we had run out of the .035" which we usually use for cuisses and lames. the entire arm harness and cuisses are made of .045" instead, but I didn't think you'd mind and figured you'd appreciate the extra durability. The weight trade off is only maybe 2-3 pounds total, and the strength is probably comparable to 12 guage mild. I'd be pretty surprised if they ever dent. Again, I didn't want to hold you up until we received the new steel order, considering the supplier was behind schedule, so we used the thicker material.

Your weight estimate sounds about right, but you could always put them on a scale to be sure. I would be very interested to know the weight of each should you be so inclined to post them sometime.

Thanks again James! Good doing business with you.

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Cheers,

Jeffrey Hedgecock,
Armourer, Historic Arms & Armour
http://www.historicenterprises.com
Maitre of The Red Company-1471
http://www.theredcompany-1471.org

Nice work, Jeff. Saw you on Mail Call with the archers. That must have been a kick. Tell us about it if you don't mind!

So, I got thicker steel to boot at no extra charge! Thanks again,Jeffery, you went above and beyond the call of duty.Sounds like this stuff will be incredibly strong. Even the slightly thiner gauge spring steel would probably be as strong as 14 gauge.This is the closest material you can get to the original stuff.I'll take some pieces to work and try and get the exact weights.I'm guess ing about 4-4 1/2 lbs per arm,and 7-7 1/2 lbs.per leg.I 'll try and weigh each individual piece.The degree of springyness is identical to the few 16th cent pieces I've handled.From what I've observed with my great helm by Mac Its more rust resistant ,like the originals, than mild.I owned some original pieces for 15-20 years that were handled often,only polished and waxed once every year or two,and never developed more than a couple of small pinpoints of rust.And then it would only appear on one or two pieces out of 18 or so pieces.The mild repro armour I own gets handled little,polished and waxed often and I still have a hard time keeping up with the rust.I sold off most of the original armour bits to finance the reproductions....Otto