Ed's Mid 14th C. kit

[Sir Edward]

wow awesome, and that is just that i can actually see carpet hahaha what a huge bare spot on the floor! hehehe jkjkjkj
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that kit rocks dude. do not split the bottom. most effigies show a straight hem line on mail in the 14thc. wow it just looks great dude.

about the surcoat, are you gonna have it waft in at the waist? this is done by having from the waist to teh armpits open and then they are tied together so it is tight against teh wearer. other wise you can't get the bloody thing on over the armour hehehe.

also, don't forget to wear your belt lower around the hips. its all the rage in 14thc

what about greaves? gotta have those. cased greaves are all the rage in mid to late 14th.

Greaves will come later. I'll have to think on that one.

Yeah, this is just a temporary surcoat until Marie makes the good one. I'm going to make some more adjustments to it, but it's not going to be great, since I'm just not going to put the time into it.

As for the splits, they didn't add any expansion or anything, so right now it's hard to sit down with the mail pulling taught. Ideally I'd need to add some expansion areas. Hopefulyl someday KoA will get me those loose rings I ordered. Maybe the material I'll remove to taper the sleeves could be re-added at the bottom. I hope.

I'm already starting to do damage to the points on the pourpoint, so I'm going to look into reinforcing it too.

in this picture. what is with the white diamond in the middle of your chest/belly under the mail? heheheh snicker

That would be the pourpoint not closing over the gut. Thanks for noticing, dude.

[Das Bill]

Wow, Ed, that looks excellent! Are you going 15th or 14th century for harnisfechten in class tomorrow?

[Sir William]

Lookin good Sir Edward...I'd split the haubergeon just for comfort's sake...besides, if you ever got to get up on a horse, not having the split will make the mail ride up over your hips.

[Sir Edward]

Wow, Ed, that looks excellent! Are you going 15th or 14th century for harnisfechten in class tomorrow?

Probably 15th since I'm still working out the bugs from the 14th. Though I must say, this new kit is a lot lighter and more well distributed.

[Sir Wolf]

ya u need some triangles in the front and back. talk to james barker about what he did. they maybe on the side, i cant remember.

hey, u want me to bring some tools next saturday to work on some of the bugs? i'll try to bring some thick leather as well to put on teh inside of the arming coat to help distribute the pull on the point holes.

hehehe nice diamond hahahahhaha sorry ehhehe

[Das Bill]

While a COP would certainly be good, I personally think it would look great with a simple globose breastplate. Nothing fancy, just a single formed piece of steel with no rivets or articulations, like this one:


http://www.james-anderson-iii.com/_content/thearmory/pages/europeanarmor/large/128.jpg

[Das Bill]

Speaking of breastplates, I've always been very fond of the cuir boulli breastplate shown on the attached illustration from the Osprey book Italian Medieval Armies 1300-1500. The book labels him as a Central Italian Horseman of the early 14th century. I don't know what sources they used, but I've always thought it looked great. I don't like most modern made leather armour because I think it tends to look very modern and far more fantasy than historical, but I've often thought about attempting to make a leather breastplate like this. I think it would look really good with your kit, particularly if you decided to also do leather greaves that matched.

[Sir Rodney]

While a COP would certainly be good, I personally think it would look great with a simple globose breastplate. Nothing fancy, just a single formed piece of steel with no rivets or articulations, like this one:

I agree wholeheartedly.  I don't have any pictures of my new globose breastplate in action (replacing my COP), but I do have a photo fresh out of the box.  It's made by an armourer well know to this community who has very low pricing, high quality and excellent customer relationships.

Hint: Rhymes with mercy nary sailor.

[Das Bill]

i'll try to bring some thick leather as well to put on teh inside of the arming coat to help distribute the pull on the point holes.

That's how my Revival Clothing arming cotte is done. In fact, Ed, I just helped David Rowe do this to his new pourpoint (not because of damage, but because he needed higher ones in order for his legs to sit right). It's really easy to do.

[Das Bill]

I don't have any pictures of my new globose breastplate in action (replacing my COP), but I do have a photo fresh out of the box.  It's made by an armourer well know to this community who has very low pricing, high quality and excellent customer relationships.

Hint: Rhymes with mercy nary sailor.

I love that you guys have the besagews. Not a lot of people do that for 14th century kits, and I think that's a shame. They look great.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, I really like the look of some of that ornate leather as well. However I'll probably go with the breastplate at some point, I just need to pick who to get it from, etc.  And of course solve the gauntlet issue as well.  And greaves.

i'll try to bring some thick leather as well to put on teh inside of the arming coat to help distribute the pull on the point holes.

That's how my Revival Clothing arming cotte is done. In fact, Ed, I just helped David Rowe do this to his new pourpoint (not because of damage, but because he needed higher ones in order for his legs to sit right). It's really easy to do.

Yeah, I've done some attachment of thin leather on my arming cotte to add new points for my 15th C kit, but they're not really that strong either. I really want to see what everyone is doing with thicker leather.

ya u need some triangles in the front and back. talk to james barker about what he did. they maybe on the side, i cant remember.

I added triangular sections into the sides on my aluminum set. That's probably the best place to add them. But of course, I still don't have the loose rings and rivets from KOA yet, just the riveting tool. So I don't know how I want to handle this. I could always put splits on the sides of the armor to accommodate sitting and moving a little better, and insert material there later when I get the rings. Dunno.

hey, u want me to bring some tools next saturday to work on some of the bugs? i'll try to bring some thick leather as well to put on teh inside of the arming coat to help distribute the pull on the point holes.

Yep, bring what you've got. I still have some leather left over from working on my chausses, but I'm not sure how it compares to what you have. We'll play around with it.

hehehe nice diamond hahahahhaha sorry ehhehe

I see how it is... you lose weight, and then make fun of everyone else.

[Sir Edward]

Oh, I forgot to report on my impression of the GDFB mail. At about 18 pounds, it's heavier than my aluminum, but not by a lot. The weight distributes well and is pretty comfortable.

It's much more difficult to put on than I'm used to, due to a combination of the sizing and the rivets catching on fabric, etc. The flat rings make the mail slightly less flexible and compressible than my aluminum set, so it tends to get really rigid and bind up on itself when trying to put it on, whereas my aluminum just slides itself into place with just gravity.

In terms of the sizing aspect, on the website they say 50" chest, and on the phone they said 48". The rule of thumb is to leave at least 4" over your actual measurement, but this technically leaves me more like 7" (I measure about 41"). Even so, it has less give than my aluminum set which is also tailored for a close fit.

It's stainless, but has a black finish. The black is flaking off all over my floor, so I'm assuming it'll wear down and be less black over time.

They didn't taper the sleeves, or have a widened base, so these are things I need to work on myself. At some point... someday when the loose links/rivets actually ship to me. In the meantime I can still taper the sleeves and just use butt-links to close the seam.

Even with the plate components and steel mail, I think this is my lightest harness so far.

[Sir Wolf]

nice

[Sir William]

What's amazing is how heavy it all gets when you add on this or that...anyone try running in their harness yet?

[Sir Edward]

What's amazing is how heavy it all gets when you add on this or that...anyone try running in their harness yet?

I've gotten up to a light jog in my kits. It's doable, I just don't like how a lot of it flops around. If I were really going to war with it, I think the mail would have to be tied down in a lot more places. And I'd just have to accept that the tassets on my plate armor would just be bouncing all over the place.