A central place to talk about weapons and armour, as it relates to your kit. This is where you show it of or talk about making it. Discussing the relative merits of types of weapons goes in the WMA section.
Okay, so it's been way too cold to get outside and work in the forge. I've always intended to move into armouring one day. Well, the day has arrived. I've been talking about this over on Facebook for those of you who are friends with me there (for the new folks, look me up, I'm Eric Cartrette over there). So anyway, I thought I'd show what I have for a little more than three days worth of work - not steady work mind you.
These are the shoulder pieces for the pattern that I looked up on the net. I've linked together a few more rings, but ended up taking apart much of the work for things that got missed.
And NO, I won't be selling any armour any time soon. I'm really only a beginner at this.
Ichthean Forge (pronounced Ick thee an). Maker of knives, and primitive camping gear.
Hopefully I can sit back down to it this afternoon. but I will probably be working on a vest for my wife that is near completion. I'll have to post it too.
Ichthean Forge (pronounced Ick thee an). Maker of knives, and primitive camping gear.
Just for curiosity, what are you using for the wire? and how big of a ring are you using?
Looks good.
Still round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate and though I oft have passed them by a day will come at last when I shall take the hidden paths that run west of the moon, east of the sun.
Looking great, Eric! Now, it looks flattened from here, but I can't tell. Are you planning on riveting, or keeping it as is?
I've been thinking about it some more, and have decided that I'm gonna get a giant spool of wire and get to maille-ing again...flat riveted, this time. My original butted project was fun, but it's coming apart sporadically, and has zero functionality for what I need, so perhaps the year+ worth of work will be worth it.
Glad to see you're expanding out from bladesmithing! You'll have a full armory coming out of your shop in no time!
Greg, the rings are round. They will be butted. I'm starting out slow for once in my life and learning on something more basic. I'm hoping to avoid the three-year learning curve I ran into with knives because of my stubbornness. Also, I need to appropriate the proper tools for riveted flat rings. But it's in the future.
Dailir: it is going to be as is. But I've got to ask around about what garment should be worn under it to protect myself and my clothing from the rings.
Also, welcome to the boards. Why not start a thread and tell us a bit about yourself? We like meeting new rangers.
Ichthean Forge (pronounced Ick thee an). Maker of knives, and primitive camping gear.
“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.â€
Eric:
Looking good so far. I tried my hand at it a long time ago but I just don't have the patience. My brother Mike has made a shirt, a complete riding hauberk, a bishop's mantle and one of the arm protection sleeves you sometimes see in old gladiator movies.
A simple shirt and maybe some light padding where the weight lays is the way to go. If heading into a known battle then another light layer underneath and heavier padding over ( on the outside). Check out some pics of warriors getting dressed. The ones you wear the most padding underneath are those wearing plate and that would presumably be for chaffing not blunt force or protection as that's what the plate armor is for.
Admitedly I havn't worn plate but I've worn maille on many oc.assions
Romans (speculatively) used a garment called a subarmalis under their armor. Some ideas how this might have been made can be found here: http://www.larp.com/legioxx/subarm.html
Gambesons really come into play late, but a couple of layers of linen with some padding is usually what the guys in the SCA wear under maille. I know we aren't the most historically accurate group, but we do understand blunt force trauma.
Still round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate and though I oft have passed them by a day will come at last when I shall take the hidden paths that run west of the moon, east of the sun.
If I'm armouring up for the full 15th c harness, its a linen shirt followed by a leather jerkin, followed by the mail with the padded jack on top of everything. The leather jerkins sometimes have a bit of padding in the shoulders, but I've never known it to make much difference. If the leather is good, 4-5 oz, then it won't rub on your shoulders anyway and if the mail is made and worn right, most of the weight should be on your hips, so padding in the shoulders doesn't help much.
