Ed's other kit, 15th century

[Sword Chick]

I guess it's a private gallery right? Otherwise we could post a link.

Public link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110128&l=5b169&id=561845509

Fixed link.

[Das Bill]

And that has pics of David's brand new messer that had just arrived that day, too. Man, that thing is sweet. I offered to hang on to it for him, that way he didn't have to worry about it taking up space at his place, but he declined. That guy just doesn't know what's best for him.

[Sir Edward]

I think this is exactly why you see so many pictures with the visor up during combat.


Or why many period painting show men at arms wearing a sallet without a bevor, which allows excellent protection from above, but still allows good visibility from below.

The visor could always be lowered if necessary (a hailstorm of arrows coming in, for instance), but can be lifted for combat where higher visibility and air ventilation is necessary.

That makes a lot of sense. It seems to me to be foolish to sacrifice that much visibility when fighting at that range. Now I need to add those spring pins we talked about, so I can flip it up and have it stay there.

[Das Bill]

That makes a lot of sense. It seems to me to be foolish to sacrifice that much visibility when fighting at that range.

Of course, on the flip side, there are a lot of images of fighting with the helm closed, so we know some people would have chosen to do so as well. Those types of images seem to be more rare than those of fighting with the visor up, though.

[Sir Edward]

I'll need to adjust the helmet's suspension a little in any case, since it was resting on my glasses the whole time, and sat perhaps a little low anyway. If I were to try fighting without glasses, I'd be even more blind.

I tightened it up, and it seemed to resolve the glasses issue. I hadn't played with the suspension at first, and the knot was loose, so it was sliding down onto my glasses. I cinched it in and re-knotted the tie, and I think it'll work better now. Probably need to add some holes in the chin strap though.

[Sir Wolf]

when i get my new one ehhehe i'm gonna put a different liner in it.  the leather stretched some due to the type.  that should hlp with about 95% of it.

[Sword Chick]

Ed voguing:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2788561&l=1ea31&id=561845509

[Sir Edward]

Well, on Saturday, I got to test-drive my armor at faire for the first time since Sir Wolf and I made some adjustments, and after buying the Revival Clothing arming doublet, joined hose, and the Historic Enterprises fauld.

I didn't get a chance to try to attach the voiders.

(clicky)

Here's how it turned out...

The fauld worked well, but the way I attached it was a last-minute hack that morning. I fashioned four hooks to hang it from a waist belt like my old one. What I should have done is make this complete loops, and have more of them. I had a "malfunction" where two hooks (the ones in the rear) came off, letting the top edge slip down over my butt, while I was headed to the car in the parking lot to get something. It's quite difficult to reach up under your own back-plate, but somehow I managed to put it back together myself. Ugh. Must make sure that doesn't happen again.

The pauldrons gave me some minor trouble, but mostly because I'm just learning how to work with them with the points on the arming doublet. I think I see what I need to do differently to make them comfortable. You'll see in the picture they're not sitting the same as each other. One kept shifting too low, and getting caught on the cuirass. This is fixable by tying them differently.

The new tassets and extra lame worked great!

The new pointing for the legs worked really nicely. One of them untied itself over the course of the day, but the other three held, and it remained comfortable, and moved with me better than the old straps did.

I never got around to adding points for the arms, which I clearly need to do. The arms never used to move around on my or slide down, just due to the thickness of my old (crappy) gambeson. The arming doublet is thinner and smoother, so now it's become necessary. Even so, the right arm stayed comfortable and didn't really move on me. I had a slight issue with the left.

And then there's the cuirass itself... what a pain, literally. Before we adjusted the angle of the plackart/breastplate, it used to sit unnaturally on the corners of the pelvis (thus causing blisters there, since it has rivets right at that spot). Now, it contours to my shape much better. Why is this bad? Well, it's designed to be too long in the torso. With it sitting lower, the spots that used to squeeze the corners of the pelvis now squeeze the muscle directly beneath. I could hardly walk by the end of the day. Total trade-off. I could try tightening up the shoulder straps, but I don't think that'll gain me much due to the shape and curvature of the metal up there. The thing is just too long. The only fix may be an eventual replacement of the whole thing.

... and of course I forgot my hat.

So... still a work in progress.

[Sir Wolf]

me sad we can try to put it back to where it was before. its just 3 rivets.  but i would have to say you may need to find a more shapely breast and back. one that is better made for you.

[Sir Edward]

me sad we can try to put it back to where it was before. its just 3 rivets.  but i would have to say you may need to find a more shapely breast and back. one that is better made for you.

Man, you did some fine work, but ArmourWorks simply had some design flaws. :-/

[Allan Senefelder]

Ed, how up on your metal working skills are you? It sounds like you need to remove material lenght from the bottom of the breast and back plates as they are sitting to low. They should be more around the bottom of you rib cage or a bit lower, the pelvis shouldn't be involved at all. Can you send me pics of just the B&b plates on you? We may be able to rework this for you.

[Sir Edward]

No metal skills at all, unfortunately. Sir Wolf was kind enough to help me out with it one afternoon, and we adjusted the angle between the plackart and breastplate to contour it better (it definitely looks better). I think this made it slightly longer too, when it was already too long (the pic I posted above is clickable, and if you look, you'll see a rivet above the top center point of the plackart, which is where it used to be riveted before we re-angled it). The rivet that holds the top lame on the side is what sticks into my hip on the pelvis.

It's possible that the plackart could be raised up, with it and the breast overlapping more and reshaped slightly so it extends to the proper length with the right curve. The back would definitely require material removal.

If this can be reworked, that would be wonderful! I'll see if I can get some pics of it by itself. We may even have one already in another thread from our armouring day over at Wolf's place.

[Sir Edward]

Here's the thread with the pics we took when we reworked it a bit. They're not the B&B by themselves, but pretty close a little ways down in the thread:

http://modernchivalry.org/forum/index.php/topic,177.0.html

On Saturday, it felt like it was sitting lower than it looks in this shot:

(clicky)

[Allan Senefelder]

Yeah your way to long. The question I guess is how comfortable are you with losing some of the fluting ( length ) on the front? In order to raise the waist line i'd have to clip from the bottom of the breast plate which will remove some of the length of the flutes, and probably re create flange to take you fauld plate. Raising the plackard higher would take care of some of the issue but i'm not sure if it sill take care of all. What do you think?

[Sir Wolf]

hi Allen. from a professional point of view i did what i could with what i had.  the breastplate is not dished at all for the stomach. it is simply rolled from 1 side to the other.  the angle is not there in the breast/back to allow the belly to be out while the chest comes in close. same to be said to allow room at the hips. of course Sir Ed has gained a lil bit since he bought the armour   we could cut some of the bnb bottom and raise the faulds up further or just put it in its old holes, all depends on what ed wants to do. i'm game for anything heheheh ARMOUR ARMOUR!!