Bill's Harness

[Das Bill]

Well, I guess its time I actually posted pictures of my harness, particularly since Pamela took pictures at practice this past Wednesday.

This piece is going for a mid-15th century gothic style. Underneath the harness is an arming doublet by Revival Clothing, and it is *wonderful*.


The cuirass is a heat treated spring steel piece by John Gruber (who no longer armours due to a shoulder injury). It was a fully custom piece, and fits perfectly. It is also incredibly light. I believe the steel is either 20 or 22 guage, but you can jump up and down on it and it will always spring back into shape.

The mail fauld is a wedge rivetted piece from Historic Enterprises from several years ago, and I believe its from GDFB, though I'm not totally certain.

The helmet is the GDFB celeta. It fits surprisingly well, and looks great. I was incredibly impressed with it for the price.

Pauldrons, arms and gauntlets are Museum Replicas. The arms are decent, though the elbows are pretty ridiculously big. The pauldrons and gauntlets, when they first arrived, were pretty terrible. They had almost no articulation. Thankfully, Peter Fuller contacted me about this, and we worked out a deal for him to do some customization. The man is a miracle worker: The pauldrons are now excellent, and the gauntlets are reasonably functional (though there was only so much he could do short of making a completely new pair). So the entire shoulder-arm-hand pieces look excellent, and thanks to Peter, function decently.

The legs are the GDFB Milanese legs. 14 gauge steel, so a little on the heavy side when compared to historical pieces, but not too bad. The wings at the knees stick out a little too far for some reason, but with some work I think I can bend them into place eventually.

[Das Bill]

What I still need:

-Greaves. I've ordered the Revival Martial Arts legs, which come with frontal greaves that I know fit me. I have no idea when those will be in stock, though.

-Neck protection. I'd gotten a bevor to go with my old sallet, but it didn't fit very comfortably under the cuirass, and sat a little dangerously close to my face. I've decided I like the open faced celeta more, anyway, so I've instead ordered a mail standard from Ice Falcon. Again, I have no idea when that will be in stock.

What I need in the long run:

-New shoulders. The MRL pauldrons are slightly large. They fit really well, except when I make certain movements, where the corners poke me in the neck. The mail standard will hopefully negate that (the bevor certainly did), but in the long run I may move to articulated spaulders with besagews. They're more my style.

-New gauntlets. The MRL ones, even after Peter Fuller's work, still don't allow perfect movement. The wrist does not float, so they only articulate forward and backwards. The articulation for the fingers allows me to grip a sword reasonably well, but not as well as I'd like. And if I put the thumb on the flat of a blade, the thumb plate lifts up in a very vulnerable way. For actual fighting, I can cheat and use my Lewis Moore hourglass gauntlets, which are wonderful, but they don't match the time period of the harness, so I don't use them for demos.

-New arms. The MRL arms are okay, but the elbow piece is just gigantic, leaving a huge opening at that joint.

-Mail voiders. At the moment I can live without them, but in the long run I'd like to get a set.

[Das Bill]

And here's a shot of the back. The photo isn't great, but there's a lot of really nice fluting that Gruber did on the cuirass, and the fluting on the MRL pauldrons are surpisingly really pretty. There also some really gorgeous piercework on the MRL pieces that you can't see from these photos... I'm amazed at the amount of detail they produced, and yet didn't make them very functional. It goes to show the level of metal working skill that Windlass potentially has, and at the same time how you can't reproduce armour without having an intimate understanding of how it works.

By the way, the mail fauld does cover me all around, but in this photo the points came loose, so that's why it's hanging open.

[Sir Edward]

Your kit is really looking good! I envy your close-fitting and lightweight cuirass (lol, the spellchecker suggested "jurassic" as a possibility for what I might have meant by "cuirass"). Yes, I guess it's the velociraptor harness...

It's really coming together nicely! I'm glad the rust-cleanup on the mail worked too.

Yeah, that MRL stuff is very pretty. At one time I was tempted to snag the whole set from MRL when I had the opportunity to do so very cheaply. The photos make it look gorgeous, but of course, if the functionality just isn't there, it can be more trouble than it's worth.

I know we mentioned this already with regards to Pamela's stuff, but since we all need gaunts, let me know if you're doing an order overseas. I'm still cheating with crappy hourglass gaunts, and need something a lot nicer.

I'd be curious to see what your entire harness weighs. Without the helmet or gauntlets, but including the incomplete fauld I have, mine came in at about 48 pounds, but it's also heavy-gauge SCA gear.

[Das Bill]

I know we mentioned this already with regards to Pamela's stuff, but since we all need gaunts, let me know if you're doing an order overseas. I'm still cheating with crappy hourglass gaunts, and need something a lot nicer.

Will do. One of my concerns with this is the tanking US dollar: Places such as BestArmour don't want you to pay until they are able to actually start... I've heard they have a year waiting list. If that's true, I have no idea what the exchange rate will be, but its quite possible that the gauntlets will be more expensive by the time we have to pay.

I'd be curious to see what your entire harness weighs.

Now that you mention it, I'm curious too. I remember when Gruber first formed the cuirass, before heat treat, polish, or adding the faulds. He sent it to me just to make sure it fit before he did all of the other things. I had him send the box to VAF, and Deb ended up receiving it. She told me there was a box for me, and when I said it was my armour, she raised an eyebrow and said it felt like an empty cardboard box. She said it was impossible that it was armour.

Sometime I'll have to weigh myself with the armour on and off to see the weight.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, I've had a few pieces come that way too... That albion sword box felt empty when my Landgraf came, as well.

What I did to weigh my armor was weight myself without it, then just hoist the armor bag (it's actually a hockey gear bag) up onto my shoulder and weigh myself again. A lot easier than suiting up.

The weight of the GDFB legs didn't surprise me, since it's similar to what mine weigh. Actually the revival.us legs struck me as very lightweight, but I'm just used to the beastly stuff I have.

[Sir Wolf]

i would like some pics of the legs please  

great stuff man great stuff.

i did get an email on the sword forum about the MRL legs, the guy said he loved them and they were super nice and moved etc like they should.

Best Armour will not do your greaves without custom fitting. a guy in our group had to fly over there twice for a first round fitting and then a follow up.

Drew from MD can do your greaves for you. he quoted me 290 or something for 4 piece welded greaves. he said u couldnt tell form teh outside they were made that way.

voiders, check out ice falcon, mine should be here in april/may date is what they said.

arms: i would email will from age of armour and get the full arms with spaulders. i believe spaulders are more of a foot soldiers armour anyways

[Das Bill]

My camera has been recovered, so I'll definatley try to get you some pictures soon.

Best Armour will not do your greaves without custom fitting. a guy in our group had to fly over there twice for a first round fitting and then a follow up.

Drew from MD can do your greaves for you. he quoted me 290 or something for 4 piece welded greaves. he said u couldnt tell form teh outside they were made that way.

Oh, yeah, I would definately be going with Drew, not Best Armour. Drew quoted me $500 for forged greaves, which right now I can't afford (looking into buying my own place). I never asked about the welded greaves, though... that price sounds promising...

Since I've already paid for the Revival Martial Arts legs, though, I'll probably stick with the frontal greaves for a while.

voiders, check out ice falcon, mine should be here in april/may date is what they said.

Yep, that's who I'm planning on going with when the time comes. That's where my standard is coming from.

arms: i would email will from age of armour and get the full arms with spaulders. i believe spaulders are more of a foot soldiers armour anyways

I was definately tempted when you first posted them! At the moment I can't afford it, though, but it certainly looks worth it.

[Das Bill]

i would like some pics of the legs please  

Done. I e-mailed you some pics.

[Sir Wolf]

sweet thanks bill. if the fan was more historical i might jump on them. but they are more like a spade and less like a clover if that makes any sense.  http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Nephtys/Medieval%20European%20Armour/Milanese_armour_terms.jpg  they are close though.

[Das Bill]

Oh, I know exactly what you mean. Quite honestly, I'm on the fence as to whether they are really worth the full retail price.

[Sir Wolf]

i am looking at a picture of a pair of Mac legs right now.  there is just a little bit of difference in the fan. its mainly a fluting/raising area where the center of the fan goes back inwards towards the back of the knee area.  I am wondering if I can fix this if I too get a pair.... hmmmmmmmmm

[Das Bill]

I need to save my money right now, but I'm incredibly tempted to buy these:


http://www.englyshe-plate-armourie.co.uk/images/ArmourForSale/German%20Gauntlets.htm

475 euros.

[Sir Edward]

Those look really nice... *drool*

Are you sure on the price? That looks like pounds to me. Ouch.

[Sir Brian]

Now those are sexy! The brass fingernails are an especially cool touch!