[MR] armor links (Fwd: Aoife-Links Digest, Vol 9, Issue 1)

[SNSpies at aol.com]

More links from Aiofe.
Ingvild
 

Greetings, My Faithful Readers!

Tourney season is upon us. To be  fair, for those who are martially inclined, 
it never really left us. While  many of the intrepid tourney and melee 
participants will want to buy their  armor ready-made, there is another 
option: home-made.

Not everyone  can be a master metalsmith. But many armor projects are do-able 
at home.  That is the aim of this list: to show what a normally talented 
person with  some time on their hands can produce if given enough inspiration 
an a  handy selection of hand tools. Just as the arrival of early tourney 
season  is heralded with the scattering of rivets across my garage floor, so 
too  is the season escorted in by the many links found within the sites 
below.  Please explore each of these sites, as they have much to offer in the 
way  of experience and wisdom. There's no need to re-invent the wheel as each 
 
new armorer appears with drill in hand, ready to risk a Sunday Morning in  
order to achieve that most beneficial of items: comfortable armor. In that  
spirit, please share these links wherever they will find a ready  audience.

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos  Mon
m/k/a Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt
Riverouge
Aethelmearc
Endless  Hills

Pictorial Glossary of Armor  Terms
http://home.messiah.edu/~gdaub/armor/picgloss.htm
(Site Excerpt)  This glossary is based heavily on the glossary in Arms and 
Armor of the  Medieval Knight by David Edge and John M Paddock, published by 
Crescent  Books. This is an excellent book covering European weapons and 
armor from  the eleventh century to the sixteenth century

The Apprentice Armorer's  Illustrated Handbook For Making Mail
A Clear Systematic Guide for the  Do-It-Yourselfer
http://realbeer.com/jjpalmer/HowtoChain.html
(Site  Excerpt) Are you the kind of person who can recite an entire episode 
of  Gilligan's Island? Have you mastered all of the Nintendoª games and are  
looking for something new? Does bungee jumping no longer hold any thrills  
for you? Have you macrometed all the plant hangers your family and friends  
can stand?! Well, if you are the kind of person that's really hurting for  a 
new hobby, then become an Apprentice Armorer! Making mail is easier than  
pulling your own teeth, more time consuming than Differential Calculus,  and 
more fun than doing the dishes. (Seriously.)

Coat of Plates  Pattern
http://www.dayton.net/~lawson/coatofplates.html
(Site Excerpt)  The patern is available in CAD (Computer Aided Design) 
formats .DXF and  AutoCAD r12 .DWG as well as a Windows Meta File and a MS 
Word 7 .DOC  file.  I recomend using the CAD files for a number of reasons. 
They  are fully editable, infinitely zoomable and scaleable, and may be 
printed  with infinite detail on any size paper or plotting (dependand upon 
the  printer) and they are accurate at a MINIMUM of 6 decimal places.

A  Guide to Making Bartholomew's SCA  Armor
http://www.cs.usu.edu/~watson/bartholomew/barmor.htm
(Site  Excerpt) My goal is to describe in as much detail as possible the way 
I  put armor together. I've never had the benefit of working with other  
armorers, and I tend to spend a lot of time in hardware stores wondering  how 
I might use the interesting things found therein for the most noble of  
purposes; making SCA armor.

The Perfect Armor Improved: Water  Hardened  Leather
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Articles/Perfect_Armor_Improved.htm
(Site  Excerpt) Some years ago, I wrote an article on how to make hardened  
leather armor, using beeswax. Since then, I have concluded that although  the 
method I described works reasonably well for SCA purposes--I have  fought in 
my wax hardened klibanion for a good many years now--it is quite  unlikely 
that it is the method used in period for armor.I reached that  conclusion for 
three reasons: 1. Beeswax is a lubricant. Furthermore,  stiffening the 
leather makes it easier to cut, just as it is easier to  slice meat if it is 
half frozen. So although wax hardened leather provides  protection against 
the sort of blunt weapons we fight with, it would be of  very limited 
usefulness against sharp swords, arrows, and the  like....

SCA Armor Craft (a yahoo  group)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA_Armor_Craft/
(Site Excerpt)  This is for anyone who can offer/or needs advice and/or help 
on building  armor for use in the SCA. as well as anything else to do with 
armor to be  used in SCA fighting.

The Arador Armor  Library
http://www.arador.com/main/index.html
(Site Excerpt) . while  many people have an interest in arms and armour in 
general, most who build  or purchase armour are reenactors who use the armour 
for its actual  defensive qualities while engaging in various combat forms, 
both  historical and modern. This differentiates armour from other 
collectibles,  and makes function a primary concern. Unfortunately, 
appearances and  authenticity are often needlessly sacrificed in an ironic 
twist- the  reenactment and role-playing communities are the very place where 
there is  the most interest, and sadly the most misinformation.

Late 13th Century  Armour Adapted for SCA  Combat
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/4213/thirteenth.html
(Site  Excerpt) Though the 14th century is usually associated with the  
'transitional' period in European armour study there are several examples  
that show armourers were beginning to experiment with rudimentary plate  
defenses from even the beginning of the 13th century. Most notably plate  
appeared at the knee and elbow joints and on the front of the shin. The  
knees appear to have been developed first and show up in the early decades  
of the century. This is probably due to the fact that knees are very  
vulnerable joint since it takes very little pressure to break the knee cap  
and incapacitate a fighter.

Armorers and Armor  Patterns
http://sabletower.homestead.com/files/armors.html
A SERIOUSLY  LONG list of links

Armor for  Women
http://www.geocities.com/lyanna96/warmor.html
(Site Excerpt) Now  when you look at this and visualize what is (more of what 
ISN'T) covered,  you may wince to yourself (particularly if, like me, you 
come from a hard  hitting shire). But these are only the required pieces of 
armor. Mostly,  I'll only be covering the more difficult pieces to be found 
for women,  namely the breastplate and the groin protection.

SIR HILARY OF  SERENDIP'S ORTHOPEDIC CUISSE AND  KNEE
http://www.butte.cc.ca.us/~daniel/hilary/hilaryortholeg.html
(Site  Excerpt) Designed after knee surgery with the help of an orthopedic  
appliance specialist, this rig performs the functions of a commercial knee  
brace well enough to have averted knee problems on the field since 1987.  The 
original armor (built long before surgery) consists of a 14-gauge  stainless 
cuisse and a 16-gauge stainless knee. It already provided  forward-and-back 
stabilization, as the lames of the knee lock when open  and will not extend 
beyond a straight line with the cuisse. Additions of  18-gauge stainless, 
leather, and padding provide side-to-side  stabilization and keep the 
apparatus in place.

The Armor  Archive
http://www.armourarchive.org/
(Site Excerpt) Welcome to The  Armour Archive! The Archive is an on-line 
Journal devoted to teaching  people how to make armour. I try to gather as 
much armouring information  as I can to help beginner armourers avoid 
reinventing the wheel, and to  help advanced armourers grasp the finer points 
of armouring.

Basic  Armouring: A Practical Introduction to Armour Making
by Paul  Blackwell
http://www.brighthelm.org/armour/
A manual on armor making, in  PDF format. 116 pages.

LORICA  SEGMENTATA   "CORBRIDGE"   TYPE -  B
http://www.legionxxiv.org/corbridgbenlrg/
SEE ALSO:
LORICA   SEGMENTATA  "CORBRIDGE"   TYPE -  A
http://www.legionxxiv.org/corbridgaenlrg/

The Red Kaganate: Armor  of the Steppes Nomads and related  peoples
http://www.geocities.com/kaganate/armour.html
A short list of  links to articles on the subject and related topics

The Way of the  Warrior
by Lord Sylvanus Perrin
M.K.A. Brian J.  Pfeifer
http://sabletower.homestead.com/files/
A list of articles on a  variety of subjects including how to make and 
improve  armor.

MEDIEVAL ARMOUR
An ongoing site with articles and links on  armour as it applies to
the Middle Ages, the SCA and to SCA  combat.
http://www2.kumc.edu/itc/staff/rknight/Armour.htm
A Very Long  list of links to many articles, including how-to's and  patterns.

Chronique
http://www.chronique.com/
Everything  historical there is to know about Knighthood, Chivalry and 
armored combat,  in one place.