Ed's c.1250-1300 kit(s)

[Sir Edward]

Check out the recent progress on my kit....

My new shield blanks arrived:



The one on the left is an aluminum shield blank intended for SCA combat. The one on the right is a Windlass shield, made of wood and pre-strapped, and canvas-covered.

I also recently worked on my mail chauses:

[Sir Edward]

I'm not going for complete historical accuracy in my 13th Century kit, but rather I'm doing whatever I can to keep it comfortable, inexpensive, and easy to get in and out of in the renfaire's parking lot without the aid of another person.

To this end, the mail is all aluminum (with some steel reinforcement in key places), and I wear comfortable water-proof boots that look reasonably good to anyone who doesn't know better, but are clearly out of period. I often cheat with a t-shirt under the mail, even though I've been making the surcoats out of linen, and in one case wool. It's all a trade-off based on how visible each component will be, how practical it is, and so on.

Here are some pictures:

[Sir Wolf]

sexy

[Sword Chick]

sexy

Gotta agree!    

[Sir Wolf]

sexy

Gotta agree!    

HAHAAHA

[Sir Edward]

New regalia items... prick spurs and a white leather belt:



The downside of the spurs is that they're small enough that I'll only be able to use them with turnshoes or something similar, since they won't fit over my regular boots. I can bend them out a little, but they'd still have to be re-strapped to work that way. The rowel spurs I already have fit on the boots just fine, but I have a feeling I'll break them quickly if I start using them:



(heh, this post was #50, so the forum considers me a "knight" now)

[Sir Edward]

Made attachments for the new spaulders, though I still need lower straps to keep them in place:

[Sir Brian]

Wow! They look great! I use the simple leather lace tie down method too!
I like to keep it simple whenever possible. 

Have you found the straps and buckles you need yet or
are you still looking?

I have a couple of sites book marked but I haven't bought anything yet to
replace the lowest strap of my leg harness.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, I wanted it to be easy for me to take on and off (I got sick of getting in and out of the mail with the spaulders more permanently attached). I should take a close-up shot of the spaulders; what you can't see is that I tied them onto a short leather strap (from a bag of cheap remnants from Michael's), to which I affixed a metal hook that I made from some 14g wire. That way I can just hook it to the "collar" of the mail. Still very simple.

I haven't found buckles etc yet. I know Wolf recommended dog collars, though I didn't see any I liked at Petsmart. If they were long enough, they had really big buckles, etc. Maybe I'll look at Walmart and see if I can find anything better.

[Sir Edward]

Took a close-up of the spaulders. I made the straps a lot longer than you see here, having made several rows of holes so I could adjust where they sit. It just turns out that the shortest position is what works best.


(this one is clickable)

[Das Bill]

Hey Ed,
I'm just curious: Why did you choose the spaulders for your 13th c. kit? I don't know so much about 13th c. armour. I was looking through some books today, though, and I didn't see any examples. Most either wore the mail as-is, or in some cases they are wearing the square aillettes. Do you know of examples? Or did you just like the look with the spaulders? Just curious.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah I think I'm taking a minor liberty since they started to appear in the early 14th, whereas most of the rest of what I'm doing is around 1270-1295 as far as I can tell. I think they were briefly used in this way right before more extensive plate was introduced.

[Sir Edward]

Well, since we ended up adjusting our weekend plans, I actually had some time tonight to do some of the work on my mail that I needed to do before the weekend.

Ignore the silly posing, it's awkward trying to stand on the stepladder to get high enough to show the chauses, and still hold the camera steady without a tripod and without the flash.



I've been doing some much needed preparation... the armpits over time pulled apart a good 4 inches or so on each side, and the hauberk is finally long enough to justify the front and back splits. Otherwise this is my first test of wearing it together with the chauses and new spaulders and new linen shirt.

[Sir Brian]

Excellent! It really came together for you Ed! I am very impressed!

You know if we all manage to get together @ the MDRF with our different
period kits, we would present quite an interesting timeline for armor during
a good part of the transitional period.

I think there will be lots of photo ops for us all then!
oh and yet another good thing about the great helms...
You don't have to wear out your facial muscles as you pose for
those pictures...who's going know if you're not smiling?

[Sir Edward]

Well, another option is to scowl menacingly for every other photo so as to not asymmetrically exercise your face.

I got some new pics while at NCRF. Here's some choice photos (all clicky):



Of course, the first time you take new items to an event, you discover things you hadn't taken into account. I never test-fitted the mail chauses with the boots (and I definitely wanted these boots this weekend with all the mud!), and found that I can only just barely fit it together. But it worked!

The new leather strap I installed on the shield worked well. I was able to hoist it high up so that it was comfortable and not crashing into things in various vendor booths. The only downside is that the strap practically goes through my armpit, though it's not uncomfortable.