ModernChivalry.org
Main => The Armoury => Topic started by: Sir William on 2010-11-03, 15:57:57
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Hail, Knights! Do any of you have any hands-on experience with this man's wares? I've noticed him on eBay years ago and his work tended to look better made than a lot of what was available at the time (like Dark Victory) - he was making armor kits out of pickle barrel plastic but it looked really well done. Since then, he's segued into steel (he used to offer pieces like bracers but now he's doing full suits too) and it looks good, was just wondering if anyone had any of his work.
http://www.pitbullarmory.com/index.html
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Some of his most recent work posted on The Armor Archive has looked quite good. He's progressed a great deal in a little over a year. He has a very nice set of 14th century legs that he just did that he put upto show off.
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Last time I saw his site, he was working almost exclusively in the HDPE armor...I just happened upon a link to his and was like wow, this guy HAS come a long way. That you should think so as well is high praise indeed, man.
He used to make some really cool looking vambraces, slotted so you could slide your thumb thru and sorta mold'm to your arms a little...they didn't suit me at the time but I always remembered them.
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ya his stuff is improving a lot. those new legs of his are great. he seems to have good re-pore on the archive
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Nice, he does horse armor too. His stuff does look pretty good! I've added it to the links page.
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he's like made a vow to try to make armour more historical looking/working so that will improve the overall look and shaping
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He's come a long way...I remember his first offerings and one thing I'll say is that I never saw a piece from him that looked cheap or poorly made. Might have to get a few pieces to try them out.
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He's come a long way since the barrel plastic armor, and if you look through his site you can almost pick out the pictures from a year or two ago. I haven't handled any of his work in person, but he is a very helpful person on the armor archive and seems to almost always have some feedback or advice for up-and-coming armorers, too.
A few things look a bit "off" to me, such as the haut guards/great pauldrons, and the breastplate/fauld intersection, but to my roughly-armor-competent eye, it would make excellent combat armor, acceptable "general appearance of a knight" armor, and needs a bit more work to be truly authentic in style. Those items may be some of his older work, though.
His articulation is excellent, though. That's something you don't see in many pictures, and he actually posted a thread that showed how long his leg armor could hold water in it, with the knees fully flexed. Lots of the "sport" armor I've seen will articulate fine for movement, but leaves large, unsightly gaps when flexed. Pitbull dishes his lames as well as cops, and that gives some great articulation, both in authenticity for higher-end armor, and a better look to the way it functions and moves in general.
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So if I were looking to put together an authentic suit, I shouldn't use him...but if I'm not, he's all to the good. Good stuff, there. It was the articulating pieces that caught my eye...and I didn't know about how solid they were, just that they looked better than others I've seen.
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Well, some of his stuff looks a lot better than a lot of the SCA armorers. Authenticity is a relative thing. Very few armorers really get things completely right, and justifiably so, otherwise the costs would be enormous.
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it almost seems like the European guys have it right more than the Americans. they have that looks about there stuff that is just i dunno, better isn't the word, maybe it's mroe in key or something.
I would like to see more pieces come out of his camp. he is getting a lot better and WANTS TO LEARN and get better. hehe seems like a good guy
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I've chatted w/him on a few occasions over some of his eBay wares and he's just a nice guy; seemed to know his stuff but again, I'm not an armorer so take that w/a grain of salt. Always liked the look of his stuff, though.
Sir Wolf, I agree...or maybe its just that we know that's where the medieval style of armor originated so perhaps they would have a better handle on things than their American counterparts, but this is not always the case. I put forth Albion as the leader of the production sword market- with prices to go along with that standing. I'd put an Albion against any other swordmaker's piece from Europe and a hefty wager that the Albion would NOT be disgraced; as we all know, Albion is American born-and-bred, but they do have the advantage of someone like Peter Johnsson who has an eye for detail and an amazing ability to render a 2d hand-drawn image, complete with notes and specs of a period piece he's handled and turn it into something we all love.
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it almost seems like the European guys have it right more than the Americans. they have that looks about there stuff that is just i dunno, better isn't the word, maybe it's mroe in key or something.
I think in part this is because in the states there are more production armories than custom armouries, and there has been more focus on SCA geared armour due to its popularity here. In Europe especially the new Eastern European wave thats come up they are almost all custom armourers and Europes production has been geared twords LH rather than having to blend LH/SCA like stateside where the SCA has been and will continue to be a large customer base. While the SCA does have a European presence the majority of European armour use is far and away LH geared.
I would like to see more pieces come out of his camp. he is getting a lot better and WANTS TO LEARN and get better. hehe seems like a good guy
He may be onto something with his recent offering of both V shaped stop ribs and lance rests. I've been asked about both in the past and we just didn't/don't have the time. I just shot Andy an email about his stop ribs for a project. I like the idea of armourers combining thier skills on a job. Andy seems from all his postings i've read to be a genuinly nice guy with a real enthusiasm about his job that one doesn't see to much no matter what the job is.
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If what you say is true, Allan, then I see it as great news...collaborative efforts in things medieval have been successful in the past, at least in the sword community- Hanwei and Tinker worked well, Valiant Armory and Angus Trim as well. To have armorers collaborate would be an awesome way to bring more light to this area of the medieval community.
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This is a late post to this thread but I bought a couple of heater shields off this guy. Pitbull does make some good stuff. His heater shields are good quality. I have one lightweight & one heavy-guage from him. Haven't seen much of his stuff online as of late though.
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This is a late post to this thread but I bought a couple of heater shields off this guy. Pitbull does make some good stuff. His heater shields are good quality. I have one lightweight & one heavy-guage from him. Haven't seen much of his stuff online as of late though.
Yeah, it's a shame. Like Stonekeep, he quit taking "made to spec" orders a while back. Now he only makes off the rack / in stock stuff now, and doesn't seem to stock much of it.
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I noticed that too...my guess is he's trying to keep his overhead low by not keeping much stock. He still makes stuff when he needs money; he's got a thread going over at AA now with a list of things he's got or can make relatively quickly. Nothing I need, unfortunately.