Third construction project is just under way. I'll be posting pics and narrative as the making of the armour progresses. Any comments or questions and I'll do my best to reply
www.armourdesign.dial.pipex.com/projc.htm
Making a new suit with step-by-step pics
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Armour Design
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Sean Powell
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I'll start with a question. You state:
The lower section, called a demi-placcate, arose from the waist with it's upper edge scalloped into one or more cusps. The backplate was likewise constructed from several pieces giving freedom of movement.
Now I've never seen the inside of a suit constructed in this manner but I have talked with armorers claiming that they have. I have heard accounts that the 2 pieces of the breastplate were solidly riveted together and that the mult-piece design was a construction issue. Shaping a breastplate in 2 pieces over one is similar to building a spangen helm vs raising a norman nasal.
Do you have any personal observations, or research supporting your claim or a reference to a claim by a specific author? I'm not being critical but looking for solid data one-way or the other.
Thanks,
Sean
The lower section, called a demi-placcate, arose from the waist with it's upper edge scalloped into one or more cusps. The backplate was likewise constructed from several pieces giving freedom of movement.
Now I've never seen the inside of a suit constructed in this manner but I have talked with armorers claiming that they have. I have heard accounts that the 2 pieces of the breastplate were solidly riveted together and that the mult-piece design was a construction issue. Shaping a breastplate in 2 pieces over one is similar to building a spangen helm vs raising a norman nasal.
Do you have any personal observations, or research supporting your claim or a reference to a claim by a specific author? I'm not being critical but looking for solid data one-way or the other.
Thanks,
Sean
It's a "German gothic" style harness you're making, right? I'm curious as to why you did the backplate the way you did; I've never seen one whose lames overlapped in that direction. The back looks more Italian...
"When a land rejects her legends, Sees but falsehoods in the past;
And its people view their Sires in the light of fools and liars,
'Tis a sign of its decline and its glories cannot last."
And its people view their Sires in the light of fools and liars,
'Tis a sign of its decline and its glories cannot last."
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Armour Design
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Breast plate
Hi Sean,
There are two 'cap-a-pie' suits of gothic armour in the Wallace collection in London that have breast plates constructed with a demi-placcate.
The two plates are held together with sliding or 'almayne' rivets thus allowing a degree of flexibility. Similarly the back plates are articulated in this way. The well known suit displayed mounted on a horse in the collection has a back plate of no less than 5 pieces.
The armour I am making is for display and no wear so I have not allowed for any flexibility in the riveting. The back plate is similar to one of the suits in the Wallace collection ( from which the line drawing on my site is taken ) but the lames articulate with the lower plates inside the upper in the original armour.
Ref: History of Arms and Armour by Charles Henry Ashdown ( pub. Wordsworth Editions ).
Regards, Mike
There are two 'cap-a-pie' suits of gothic armour in the Wallace collection in London that have breast plates constructed with a demi-placcate.
The two plates are held together with sliding or 'almayne' rivets thus allowing a degree of flexibility. Similarly the back plates are articulated in this way. The well known suit displayed mounted on a horse in the collection has a back plate of no less than 5 pieces.
The armour I am making is for display and no wear so I have not allowed for any flexibility in the riveting. The back plate is similar to one of the suits in the Wallace collection ( from which the line drawing on my site is taken ) but the lames articulate with the lower plates inside the upper in the original armour.
Ref: History of Arms and Armour by Charles Henry Ashdown ( pub. Wordsworth Editions ).
Regards, Mike