Long time no update.
So yeah, quite a bit has been going on lately... I went to Border Raids a few weeks ago down in Kentucky. It was really goddamn hot. I made curry for a bunch of people the night before, and ended up not getting very much sleep, so I didn't deal with the heat well at all. Oh well. I went to the Brawl at the Crooked Dragon Tavern last weekend. It was amusing.
I learned a few things about my armour recently, and have made various fixes. I've replaced one of the buckles so far on my arm harness with a much smaller one, and moved the straps around so that it stays in place better. This worked wonderfully. I have two more straps to replace on the right arm, but it's not really a high priority now, as the vambrace is rather rigid. That and I think Tim has my bag of smal buckles. ; )
My coat-of-plates is extremely near done. I have four more plates to rivet in, and a few buckles to attach, and it'll be done! I can wear it now if I keep it closed with a belt, but this isn't an optimal arrangement... the garment shifts around too much for my liking then. Even so, it's much better than the plastic breastplate I used to have in all ways except with thrusts to the stomach. I will live, hoever.
After the CoP is totally done, I'm going to work on my legs. I've been having a problem with the leather that holds on the wrap plate ripping, so I think I'm going to replace it with a series of small straps. That way, if one strap breaks, I can easily replace it. Medievally, I would have a hinge there, but I get hit in the legs so often such a thing would never survive. Unless I got stainless legs.
Speaking of getting new leg armour... a while after I get my new helm, I think I'm going to aquire/make some splinted legs. I want to do this set myself, but I'll probably be purchasing the knee cops. The full steel legs don't look right with the splinted arms, certainly not with an open-face bascinet. Really I ought to have flanged cops articualted with leathers to the uppers and lowers, as I've only seen two images that one might interperet as using a splinted defence with an articulated joint.
Check out the following funeral brasses: http://users.vnet.net/burts/brassscans/brasses.html.
The splinted style was more of a German/Northern Italian thing, but obviously it migrated to England at least for the leg defence. I have been told that the greaves Sir Miles de Stapleton wears are *not* splinted, but I'm not sure why.
Of course I really ought to be wearing maille under all of this.
So yeah, quite a bit has been going on lately... I went to Border Raids a few weeks ago down in Kentucky. It was really goddamn hot. I made curry for a bunch of people the night before, and ended up not getting very much sleep, so I didn't deal with the heat well at all. Oh well. I went to the Brawl at the Crooked Dragon Tavern last weekend. It was amusing.
I learned a few things about my armour recently, and have made various fixes. I've replaced one of the buckles so far on my arm harness with a much smaller one, and moved the straps around so that it stays in place better. This worked wonderfully. I have two more straps to replace on the right arm, but it's not really a high priority now, as the vambrace is rather rigid. That and I think Tim has my bag of smal buckles. ; )
My coat-of-plates is extremely near done. I have four more plates to rivet in, and a few buckles to attach, and it'll be done! I can wear it now if I keep it closed with a belt, but this isn't an optimal arrangement... the garment shifts around too much for my liking then. Even so, it's much better than the plastic breastplate I used to have in all ways except with thrusts to the stomach. I will live, hoever.
After the CoP is totally done, I'm going to work on my legs. I've been having a problem with the leather that holds on the wrap plate ripping, so I think I'm going to replace it with a series of small straps. That way, if one strap breaks, I can easily replace it. Medievally, I would have a hinge there, but I get hit in the legs so often such a thing would never survive. Unless I got stainless legs.
Speaking of getting new leg armour... a while after I get my new helm, I think I'm going to aquire/make some splinted legs. I want to do this set myself, but I'll probably be purchasing the knee cops. The full steel legs don't look right with the splinted arms, certainly not with an open-face bascinet. Really I ought to have flanged cops articualted with leathers to the uppers and lowers, as I've only seen two images that one might interperet as using a splinted defence with an articulated joint.
Check out the following funeral brasses: http://users.vnet.net/burts/brassscans/brasses.html.
The splinted style was more of a German/Northern Italian thing, but obviously it migrated to England at least for the leg defence. I have been told that the greaves Sir Miles de Stapleton wears are *not* splinted, but I'm not sure why.
Of course I really ought to be wearing maille under all of this.
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you're armor
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Re: you're (I am?) armor