Thursday, June 23, 2005
So, Roz, just what *have* you been doing???
Well, lets see, where did I leave off?
Teri and Vickie came up to the Bryn Madoc fighter practice, to off-load some of Carlwyn's armour. I am now the proud owner of an almost complete 14th century harness. I will post pictures as soon as I get them taken.
From Teri:
A Pig Face Basinet. The helmet was just about covered in stickers (and I did not get before pictures). It is very nice Stainless, with an optional bar visor. Getting the stickers off was a bear, and in the interest of ongoing maintenance, I put a brushed finish on it, using a green Scotch Bright pad, and some mink oil I had in the leather box. I want to try and pick up a riveted camail for it at Pennsic, but that is just about at the bottom of my priorities at this point.
Complete Leg Harness. The legs are a very nice set of stainless/aluminum. The knees themselves are Stainless, but the demi-greaves and the cuisses (is that right?) are aluminum. They were pretty banged up and scratched, so I have put the brush finish on them also.
A nice aluminum heater shield. It has Carlwyn's arms on it (which I cannot bear to paint over), so I am making a cover for it, which I will paint with my own arms. Gwyd had some light weight hose, which I am using to replace the old green hose. It is a bear to slide on. There are some bad spots on the edge that I need to bang out, so that the hose will go on the rest of it.
From Vickie:
A pair of mild steel half gauntlets. These were also showing wear and tear, so they were also brush finished. They needed the leather straps replaced (they had stretched), and some of the brass rivets are ready to blow, but should get me through the Tourney. I will make sure I also have my repair kit on hand.
Kidney protection. A pretty substantial belt, made of black drum plastic. It has the attachments for the legs, but in truth it is still a bit small for me. While I have lost 40 pounds since Gulf Wars, I may not have lost enough weight by the tourney for it to fit. I will more than likely have to make a C-belt.
Leather arms. These are a bit short, and need work to make them wearable for me. I may go with a quilted gambeson, with arming points rather than these arms. Only time will tell.
A gorget. The cuibolli gorget died (shattered/broke in half while demonstrating how sturdy it was), and this stainless one saves the day. Just a bit tight, but if I re-do the padding it should work quite well (it is quite thick).
You will notice that chest protection is conspicuous by its absence. I have the plastic lamellar (I unfortunately need another 200 plates) but that is totally unsuited for the rest of the armour. The pile of Baronial loaner gear ended up at my house when our tenant moved out (I did not even know, it was down in the lower shed). I spoke with the Baron, and he said to pull out whatever I can use. Aside from the ton of pads with plastic guards, most of the stuff is in pretty bad shape. There are some plastic chiropractic braces (chest and back) that might do for breast protection. One set is just about the right size. There is also a coat of plates, that the material has totally rotted. This I am remaking into a coat for myself. It was not large enough (I am seeing a trend here), but I have some aluminum plates that I can augment with, to make it large enough.
I think that is it. A complete kit. YAH!!!
Teri and Vickie came up to the Bryn Madoc fighter practice, to off-load some of Carlwyn's armour. I am now the proud owner of an almost complete 14th century harness. I will post pictures as soon as I get them taken.
From Teri:
A Pig Face Basinet. The helmet was just about covered in stickers (and I did not get before pictures). It is very nice Stainless, with an optional bar visor. Getting the stickers off was a bear, and in the interest of ongoing maintenance, I put a brushed finish on it, using a green Scotch Bright pad, and some mink oil I had in the leather box. I want to try and pick up a riveted camail for it at Pennsic, but that is just about at the bottom of my priorities at this point.
Complete Leg Harness. The legs are a very nice set of stainless/aluminum. The knees themselves are Stainless, but the demi-greaves and the cuisses (is that right?) are aluminum. They were pretty banged up and scratched, so I have put the brush finish on them also.A nice aluminum heater shield. It has Carlwyn's arms on it (which I cannot bear to paint over), so I am making a cover for it, which I will paint with my own arms. Gwyd had some light weight hose, which I am using to replace the old green hose. It is a bear to slide on. There are some bad spots on the edge that I need to bang out, so that the hose will go on the rest of it.
From Vickie:
A pair of mild steel half gauntlets. These were also showing wear and tear, so they were also brush finished. They needed the leather straps replaced (they had stretched), and some of the brass rivets are ready to blow, but should get me through the Tourney. I will make sure I also have my repair kit on hand.Kidney protection. A pretty substantial belt, made of black drum plastic. It has the attachments for the legs, but in truth it is still a bit small for me. While I have lost 40 pounds since Gulf Wars, I may not have lost enough weight by the tourney for it to fit. I will more than likely have to make a C-belt.
Leather arms. These are a bit short, and need work to make them wearable for me. I may go with a quilted gambeson, with arming points rather than these arms. Only time will tell.
A gorget. The cuibolli gorget died (shattered/broke in half while demonstrating how sturdy it was), and this stainless one saves the day. Just a bit tight, but if I re-do the padding it should work quite well (it is quite thick).You will notice that chest protection is conspicuous by its absence. I have the plastic lamellar (I unfortunately need another 200 plates) but that is totally unsuited for the rest of the armour. The pile of Baronial loaner gear ended up at my house when our tenant moved out (I did not even know, it was down in the lower shed). I spoke with the Baron, and he said to pull out whatever I can use. Aside from the ton of pads with plastic guards, most of the stuff is in pretty bad shape. There are some plastic chiropractic braces (chest and back) that might do for breast protection. One set is just about the right size. There is also a coat of plates, that the material has totally rotted. This I am remaking into a coat for myself. It was not large enough (I am seeing a trend here), but I have some aluminum plates that I can augment with, to make it large enough.
I think that is it. A complete kit. YAH!!!
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Roz was a bad girl, again….
I will get better about posting, I promise.
Lets see…. I finally started my helmet with Ingelri. Let me start off by saying that Ingelri has been very helpful in getting in my quest for the Coppergate style helm. He even ordered the really cool book on the find. That book has scale drawings of the original, plus a plethora of other pretty spiff (and sure to turn heads…) helmets.
So, on Sunday the 11th I finally got into the shop. Ingelri already had a pattern made, to his head, so we just added a bit (OK, no comments from the peanut gallery, but my head is and inch and a half bigger than his…) to accommodate my noggin. Unfortunately, that was not enough, not to be able to get any padding in too…. So, the first piece of loner gear I will be donating will be done soon…
Wonder why I never published this, or the other posts? Who knows?
Lets see…. I finally started my helmet with Ingelri. Let me start off by saying that Ingelri has been very helpful in getting in my quest for the Coppergate style helm. He even ordered the really cool book on the find. That book has scale drawings of the original, plus a plethora of other pretty spiff (and sure to turn heads…) helmets.
So, on Sunday the 11th I finally got into the shop. Ingelri already had a pattern made, to his head, so we just added a bit (OK, no comments from the peanut gallery, but my head is and inch and a half bigger than his…) to accommodate my noggin. Unfortunately, that was not enough, not to be able to get any padding in too…. So, the first piece of loner gear I will be donating will be done soon…
Wonder why I never published this, or the other posts? Who knows?
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Playing catch up......
Oh, good golly!!! From the looks of this blog, I haven’t been doing a thing for three weeks, and nothing could be further than the truth….
The week of May16th, I concentrated mostly on woodworking projects. What does wood have to do with armoring? Well, not a whole lot, to be honest. I built my pell out behind the shop, and I hauled out the camping gear to repair/refurbish anything that needed it. Being cheap, for the pell, I used scrounged materials. Since I was working on the tent poles (I made a couple new ones, and re-painted everything else) I ended up with several 2x4s extra. I laminated them together (ok, I just screwed them together, but the screws weigh almost as much as the wood….), and sunk the whole thing into a two-foot deep hole. I just happened to have all of these bags of Quick-crete (note to self: when you start buying stuff for a project, make sure you can get all of the stuff you need to do the project. I have always wanted to do the cobblestone path thing, using concrete and a form – which is not sold any more, at least not here in Athens….). Anyway, I now have a 7-foot tall post in my yard, wrapped in a ton of insulation that was laying in the storage shed, then finished off with carpet. Not very elegant, but hey--- it works.
Well, I guess it will work. I still haven’t been able to get up with Loric to learn some basic moves. I am reluctant to start hitting the thing, because I do not want to use bad form. I think it would be bad if I practice something a lot, only to find out it is a bad habit…..
The week of the 23rd I was preparing for TMT – Trimarian Memorial Tourney. I was not too keen of the idea of going to an event in another kingdom by myself, but I am very glad that I did. I highly recommend visiting neighboring kingdoms if it is at all possible from where you live. It was very interesting comparing and contrasting the way things are done between my home and Trimaris. Sometimes it is very subtle, sometimes not at all. I also got the chance to witness their HUGE Crown List (HE Yoan was fighting--- ostensibly, this was the reason I was going in the first place). I also had volunteered to cook for Count Yoan and Countess Eorann’s household. (Her Excellency is Caitlin’s sister, whom I have enjoyed hanging out with at Gulf Wars). They weren’t expecting too many folks from their household, and I already had lamb for 20 people. So, I invited Duchess Elena and several of her guests, too. I met some really great people --- my thanks to Her Excellency and Her Grace for introducing me around --- and I plan to go back and visit again very soon (Trimarian XXth Year is Labor Day weekend). The Crown List was awesome! HRM had not required letters of intent; and I don’t know if that was a factor, but they had over 35 fighters in the List!! I have never witnessed such a large Crown List. The fighting was very clean, and there were many acts of chivalry on the field that day. I also managed to lace up two rows of lamellar backwards, which I was not going to change/fix, but did anyway….
Last week, the week of the 30th was a short week. Monday was a travel day from Trimaris (only 7 hours if you were wondering). As I said, I finished off the lamellar plates that I had in my possesion (although that wasn’t until Sunday). I did my research on the tunic I am going to use for fighting, drafted my pattern, and got it cut out and partially assembled. I am trying to decide if I want to do any embellishments on it or not. It is white linen (so that I can bleach it as needed), and I am not sure if I want to spend the time doing the decorative stuff on it in any case. Have I mentioned that I hate sewing? I also carved a Viking pommel out of wood, to use as a master for sand-casting. I am afraid the thing is going to weigh a ton (especially once I get the cross-guard done, too), but considering the dimensional requirements for being able to use it on the field….. I do think it is going to look to cool though.
If you made it through this post, I am amazed. I have been trying to keep the entries down to a paragraph or two, and kind of blew it when I went and didn’t post for so long. I will try to be better….. ;-p
The week of May16th, I concentrated mostly on woodworking projects. What does wood have to do with armoring? Well, not a whole lot, to be honest. I built my pell out behind the shop, and I hauled out the camping gear to repair/refurbish anything that needed it. Being cheap, for the pell, I used scrounged materials. Since I was working on the tent poles (I made a couple new ones, and re-painted everything else) I ended up with several 2x4s extra. I laminated them together (ok, I just screwed them together, but the screws weigh almost as much as the wood….), and sunk the whole thing into a two-foot deep hole. I just happened to have all of these bags of Quick-crete (note to self: when you start buying stuff for a project, make sure you can get all of the stuff you need to do the project. I have always wanted to do the cobblestone path thing, using concrete and a form – which is not sold any more, at least not here in Athens….). Anyway, I now have a 7-foot tall post in my yard, wrapped in a ton of insulation that was laying in the storage shed, then finished off with carpet. Not very elegant, but hey--- it works.
Well, I guess it will work. I still haven’t been able to get up with Loric to learn some basic moves. I am reluctant to start hitting the thing, because I do not want to use bad form. I think it would be bad if I practice something a lot, only to find out it is a bad habit…..
The week of the 23rd I was preparing for TMT – Trimarian Memorial Tourney. I was not too keen of the idea of going to an event in another kingdom by myself, but I am very glad that I did. I highly recommend visiting neighboring kingdoms if it is at all possible from where you live. It was very interesting comparing and contrasting the way things are done between my home and Trimaris. Sometimes it is very subtle, sometimes not at all. I also got the chance to witness their HUGE Crown List (HE Yoan was fighting--- ostensibly, this was the reason I was going in the first place). I also had volunteered to cook for Count Yoan and Countess Eorann’s household. (Her Excellency is Caitlin’s sister, whom I have enjoyed hanging out with at Gulf Wars). They weren’t expecting too many folks from their household, and I already had lamb for 20 people. So, I invited Duchess Elena and several of her guests, too. I met some really great people --- my thanks to Her Excellency and Her Grace for introducing me around --- and I plan to go back and visit again very soon (Trimarian XXth Year is Labor Day weekend). The Crown List was awesome! HRM had not required letters of intent; and I don’t know if that was a factor, but they had over 35 fighters in the List!! I have never witnessed such a large Crown List. The fighting was very clean, and there were many acts of chivalry on the field that day. I also managed to lace up two rows of lamellar backwards, which I was not going to change/fix, but did anyway….
Last week, the week of the 30th was a short week. Monday was a travel day from Trimaris (only 7 hours if you were wondering). As I said, I finished off the lamellar plates that I had in my possesion (although that wasn’t until Sunday). I did my research on the tunic I am going to use for fighting, drafted my pattern, and got it cut out and partially assembled. I am trying to decide if I want to do any embellishments on it or not. It is white linen (so that I can bleach it as needed), and I am not sure if I want to spend the time doing the decorative stuff on it in any case. Have I mentioned that I hate sewing? I also carved a Viking pommel out of wood, to use as a master for sand-casting. I am afraid the thing is going to weigh a ton (especially once I get the cross-guard done, too), but considering the dimensional requirements for being able to use it on the field….. I do think it is going to look to cool though.
If you made it through this post, I am amazed. I have been trying to keep the entries down to a paragraph or two, and kind of blew it when I went and didn’t post for so long. I will try to be better….. ;-p
