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Author Topic: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page  (Read 9002 times)

Sir James A

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A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« on: 2012-08-27, 19:48:33 »
While getting ready for an event with Sir Edward and Sir Brian, my dad took some photos of me getting "dressed". I put them together into a page that shows the basics of wearing a full harness:

http://james-anderson-iii.com/tutorials/pages/how-a-man-shall-be-armed

There's no photos of the arms being pointed, since my dad was also helping do that - but it's functional enough to show what the process is. Hope it's helpful to anybody wondering!
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Allan Senefelder

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #1 on: 2012-08-27, 20:03:04 »
Perhaps this might be a public service ad pertaining to the need for squires.

Sir Edward

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #2 on: 2012-08-27, 20:42:12 »

I wanted to click "like", but the forum doesn't have that. :)
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Sir James A

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #3 on: 2012-08-27, 21:08:37 »
Perhaps this might be a public service ad pertaining to the need for squires.

Squires are a solution to oh-so-many problems. I agree!

I wanted to click "like", but the forum doesn't have that. :)

I'm not sure if you meant forum as the page I linked to with comments posting, or here, but, I added like buttons on all my pages. It was surprisingly easy. I *think* it's working. Works for me, anyway, and seems to tag the like to the specific page. Let me know if it doesn't work - if it is working, we can add it to the Order pages easily, too.
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Lord Dane

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #4 on: 2012-08-28, 03:27:16 »
Perhaps this might be a public service ad pertaining to the need for squires.

Squires are a solution to oh-so-many problems. I agree!

I wanted to click "like", but the forum doesn't have that. :)

I'm not sure if you meant forum as the page I linked to with comments posting, or here, but, I added like buttons on all my pages. It was surprisingly easy. I *think* it's working. Works for me, anyway, and seems to tag the like to the specific page. Let me know if it doesn't work - if it is working, we can add it to the Order pages easily, too.

Squires. Lackeys. Call them what you want. We all know it's what our children were meant for. Either help me with the armor & have fun, or suffer in misery doing your mom's chores. :) LOL
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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #5 on: 2012-08-29, 13:23:59 »

I'm not sure if you meant forum as the page I linked to with comments posting, or here, but, I added like buttons on all my pages. It was surprisingly easy. I *think* it's working. Works for me, anyway, and seems to tag the like to the specific page. Let me know if it doesn't work - if it is working, we can add it to the Order pages easily, too.

Yeah, I meant that the forum doesn't have a facebook-style "like" feature.
Sir Ed T. Toton III
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Lord Dane

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #6 on: 2012-08-29, 16:25:57 »
Yes I know. :)
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Sir William

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #7 on: 2012-08-29, 18:11:19 »
Nicely done, Sir James.  I think any prospective knight should have to squire for us for at least one full year before they can be a candidate for knighthood!  lol

I especially like the fauld suspension...similar to what another member (his name escapes me, I know it starts with a 'S' though) did for his chausses.  He'd mentioned just using a belt caused it to dig into his hips so he created leather suspenders and never looked back.  Who is to say no one's done that before?  I thought it was a great idea.
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Sir James A

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #8 on: 2012-08-29, 20:23:03 »
Nicely done, Sir James.  I think any prospective knight should have to squire for us for at least one full year before they can be a candidate for knighthood!  lol

I especially like the fauld suspension...similar to what another member (his name escapes me, I know it starts with a 'S' though) did for his chausses.  He'd mentioned just using a belt caused it to dig into his hips so he created leather suspenders and never looked back.  Who is to say no one's done that before?  I thought it was a great idea.

Thank you, Sir William. The fauld is certainly a "cheat" of sorts, and period evidence shows it would have been attached to the arming clothes. Crossing the straps, I took from the early 14th century armor with just a breastplate, where the straps in the back would be crossed to keep it from shuffling around.

In my case, it works great because I can hike it up "Urkel Style" for wearing it with just a breast/back 14th century style, or let it sit lower so it is below the breast/back and hangs with the tassets in later styles. Plus, I can get it on and off by myself, without the "haubergeon dance" of mail. :) The rest ... no so much! 8)
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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #9 on: 2012-08-30, 14:05:22 »

Yeah, that looked like a pretty good solution. For mine, I just have a cord laced through the upper row of links, and tied it nice and tight around my waist so it doesn't slip down. I don't have it pointed or anything.
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Sir James A

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #10 on: 2012-08-30, 15:17:03 »

Yeah, that looked like a pretty good solution. For mine, I just have a cord laced through the upper row of links, and tied it nice and tight around my waist so it doesn't slip down. I don't have it pointed or anything.

Gentlemen of 'well rounded' shape such as myself can't do that. ;) I do have a cord laced through the top lacing on the leather strip to tighten it with, but it won't stay in place on it's own like that.
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Sir Wolf

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #11 on: 2012-08-31, 20:08:05 »
:)
 a few things if you will permit me. your chausis need to be a little tighter to the skin. the skirt should maybe be a lil lower? its hard to tell since i wasn't there :) i do like your suspension method, but what about pointing the skirt to the arming jacket? also, you should move to a standard instead of a coif. coif's were out of fashion with the sallet. and then lets get you some voiders to sew onto your arming jacket to cover up those holes. and then... let spend more of your money ;) hehehe your kit does look awesome man. just some helpful hints?

Sir James A

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #12 on: 2012-08-31, 22:01:19 »
:)
 a few things if you will permit me. your chausis need to be a little tighter to the skin. the skirt should maybe be a lil lower? its hard to tell since i wasn't there :) i do like your suspension method, but what about pointing the skirt to the arming jacket? also, you should move to a standard instead of a coif. coif's were out of fashion with the sallet. and then lets get you some voiders to sew onto your arming jacket to cover up those holes. and then... let spend more of your money ;) hehehe your kit does look awesome man. just some helpful hints?

Feedback is always good! I'll see if I can cover things. :)

The chausses are actually just 'standard' pants from Revival, and not chausses. I haven't had time to sew up any padding, so I wore them over a pair of jeans - definitely a hack job, but it was functional and didn't leave me bruised up from the welded pins on the greaves like VARF did (I still have those bruises, still dark, months later). :) I do have a set of chausses and braies, but they looked very diaper-like with armor when I tried them:



I'll be borrowing an idea from Sir Brian and dying them black, when time permits, and see how they look after.

The coif was an "at least wear something" so that the sallet didn't look so bare, and to keep the helm from flopping around so much like it did at VARF too (it's quite big on me). Ideally, I would have worn a haubergeon instead of the fauld and coif, since it's appropriate for 14th century, but ... I don't have one, and I fudged the accuracy in favor of letting the kids see somebody in "more covered armor that's less historically matched" than "less armor coverage, but all historically matched". I don't even think the german styled sallet is appropriate with the rest of the kit being english styled, but it went over well with the kids. :)

Between tailoring a full-sleeve hauberk, and eventually the voiders, and a previous butted haubergeon I had - the thought of tailoring ANOTHER set of mail sleeves makes me twitch.

Most of the photos of early 14th century armor seems to have the coif over top of the plate, but the noise at every little movement drove me batty just testing it around the house. :o I'd like to make a standard when I get done with the other mail projects I've got going, since I should have enough "leftovers" to do it easily.

Good observation - the skirt is indeed high, but that's due to the backplate - it doesn't have any faulds, so I have the skirt sit just high enough that the bottom of the backplate covers the leather strip at the top. When I get a cuirass with faulds in front and back from Allan, I'll have the skirt sit lower - that's where the adjustable "X belt" comes in handy for height adjustments! 8) It's the main reasons I don't want to point it to the arming jacket - flexibility of how high or low I wear it, since I use it with multiple kits (including a simple breast/back with no faulds).

Voiders ... well, yep, that's a rough spot for me. :) I have a thread on here a little while back about trying to remove the blackening from the stainless with muriatic acid, and how it destroyed tons of the rivets. I'm waiting on replacement rivets from IceFalcon, and once I get the voiders fixed up & tailored, they'll be attached to the arming coat. I've still got a hauberk I'm halfway through tailoring, so it'll probably be 2013 before I get anywhere with the voiders. :'(

Thanks for the feedback!
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Sir William

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Re: A quick-n-dirty "Putting on Armor" page
« Reply #13 on: 2012-09-04, 15:35:17 »
It was Sir Sylvanus...I remembered his name over the weekend.  He'd done the same thing with his maille chausses.
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