Research and Discussion Forums

Let me again say that all of the tests done in the "Weapons that Made Britain" series should be taken with a grain of salt. Cost cutting and time constraints prevented the tests from being any better than others done previously. With regards to the power generated by a lance being used by ...

It may just be Chris in his old suit, but I do know that there will be a rather tall individual with a landschnect harness on. He is one of the guys who helps out at the MN booth every year.

It is at the Minneapolis Art Institute.

I thought I would post this here in case anyone is interested. Brave Hearts and Martial Arts Sunday, February 19, 2006 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM museum-wide Free and open to the public. Meet a true knight in shining armor. Try on armor and feel the weight of the metal plates that protected a knight in batt...

I need not to say that mail has absolutelly no chance to resist an arrow! Then that would put you at odds with almost every serious scholar of armour I know. Blanket statements like that are what drives the myths we all wish would go away. Rather than reinvent the wheel here, do a search on the Arm...

Philippe is correct. Those tests left much to be desired. Money and time are always the deciding factors in whether or not tests of this sort are able to give accurate information. Unfortunately as is often the case, the TV folks want to save money so they cut corners and only get enough material wi...

Szabolcs Waldmann, I think that colouring of armour was more common than most think. However, much of that is personal opinion however. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> With regards to your assertion that blackening armour is not historical, what would say about ...

Do you have pictures of the mail used? Can you give us more specifics on it? What type of period mail was it patterned after?

Steven, Thank you for the response. I notice that your first book was originally published almost thirty years ago. Is the book footnoted? What references does he give for his assertions? I may come across as very nitpicky, but I have read far too many books whose authors claim to have the best answ...

Quite a few of the armourers switched to making spring driven clocks...more money in it sometimes (these were the status high tech of the time), the potential of diplomatic recognition, and etc. So by the 1450's or so, many armourers apprentices may have been working for, or aspiring to masters wit...

Mail was fairly easy to churn out in vast quantities due to the manufacturing setup of the time. Plate was as well for the same reasons. You have to remember that not all plate was made specifically for one person. A good deal of it was pumped out for the masses. A good deal of the information being...

Depends on what time period you are thinking of. Certain plate armourers were much more advanced than their mail making counterparts, but these were few and far between. Most plate shops only produced on or two different pieces rather than a full harness.

A good question though.

No, edge testing was not done. However, previous tests conducted by Craig Johnson of A&amp;A showed that mail held up to slashing and chopping attacks with a blade quite well. The mail tested during those tests was not as accurate as that tested recently though.

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Hello George, Good to be back. To you and I it may indeed take quite a few hours to construct something of this nature. However, with the manufacturing capabilities of the Roman industrial machine, it may have not been as bad as we imagine. The use of both iron and bronze sclaes could have been pure...

Jeanry, I just got back from the UK a few days ago. While there I did a thorough analysis of the plumata sample from the Newstead find. The piece is in the National Museum of Scotland. The scales used on it are approximately 7.5mm wide and 13mm long with a thickness of about 1mm. It would seem that ...