Thanks! It definitely is lot of fun, the group fights in particular. I'm a big fan of having the armor and weapons interact with each other in more realistic ways, it really sheds light on a lot of questions that don't get talked about too much.
John, do you have any idea how happy it makes me when you upload a video? Love them, keep up your awesome work, they are very helpful and an inspiration :)
Hi John! i'm jeff and i've been watching you for a bit, love all of your videos, one day i wish to become an armorer, a tailor and someone who gets to do all of this hema stuff you do, fighting shit. i'm planning on buying my first sheet of steel tomorrow. any suggestions for something small i could make? yeah i know this comment isn't professional but i'm pretty excited just to get to talk to you since you just posted trhis
Don't make the mistake I made and start with a badass sci-fi space marine helmet as your first piece. I pulled it of with a lot of input from John, but holy smokes that was a challenge. John's suggestion of a basic skullcap is good, but i'd also suggest some gauntlets are a nice place to start too. Probably mittens, since there's less pieces and they'll be more forgiving on fit, but silly me I decided to make finger gauntlets instead. Hand protection is also an expensive necessity to fighting as well, if you can get away with making your own you'll be ahead of the game. They also have the added benefit of not requiring a huge amount of metal to make.
yeah i agree that i should start with mitten gauntlets, i'm wondering where i can find a pattern for gloves and the pieces of a gauntlet though, maybe you could help me out with that? i want to become a conscripted slightly higher class peasant, they would have a bit more armor than others due to constantly working to make as much food as they can.@@thexaviousdoesthings568
@@jennyrapp4082 ArmorArchives. Com would be a good place to start, but actually its not to hard to come up with your own pattern through experimentation. Cut up some heavy card stock paper or some light cardboard (boxes from twelve packs of pop are excellent for this) and just kind of mock up the gauntlets with that. When you come up with something you're happy with, just use those cardboard pieces as the patterns for steel. Also don't necessarily expect your first pair to be a perfect historical match, as its not real easy to replicate a source based off a couple pictures.
@@thexaviousdoesthings568 I feels it's fine if mine don't look to be replicating a specific gauntlet, because as we all know, dressing up all of your poor soldiers or your own gang, whatever would take more time, more money, more effort, i'm sure there are many, many gauntlets out there that we don't even know of that existed. so i'm all fine with making my own design, i just don't want it to somehow loose the look of the time period.
Hiiiii it’s me again. I was wondering how do you get such smooth transitions between the metal because when I weld it and sand it down it quite often will have little holes in the weld line and then I have to weld over the holes and it’s just really really annoying. What would you recommend? I’ve thought about maybe welding on the inside of the helmet as well as the outside would that maybe work? Thanks.
Hey! Apologies for the late response. What type of welder are you using? Since if it's a GMAW welder it may be an issue with the shielding gas where there isn't enough of it in the weld, which produces a sort of bubbly, holy texture. If that's the case I think you'll want to allow more gas into the weld, which could be as simple as just making sure that the valve is open all the way or getting the nozzle closer to the joint that you're welding. It could also be a issue with the settings of your welder, this was my problem on the first pieces of armor that I welded together. It might be worth it just to experiment a bit with some scrap metal and increase/decrease the wire speed/voltage just to figure out what works best for the thickness/type of joint. And of course I can't really understate the value of making sure that the two pieces that you're welding together are as flush as you can make them. This helps make a stronger weld and also generally decreases the amount that you'll burn through the metal. I hope that helps at least a little! You may want to take that advice with a grain of salt because it's been a while since I've done any welding with anything other than my little Chicago Electric welder. You may be interested in contacting someone who has a little more experience than I do, since they might be able to give you some more solid advice. Also, don't hesitate to contact me at thelivingmanuscript@gmail.com or via the Living Manuscript Facebook messenger tab. 😀
I'm trying to make similar gauntlets, been using Alan bauldrees patterns from armor archive, do you have any advice for dishing and planishing dishes? I've been having a lot of trouble with his patterns and dishing
Patterns can only get you so far, especially when they don't come with instructions on what to do with them which is the case with Alan's. There are a few tools on the market out there specifically made for dishing, though they tend not to be specific to armor. I would recommend utilizing pieces of wood, since they can be obtained pretty easily and it's easy to make them into your own custom dishing forms. I've seen some armorers use sandbags, but I haven't any experience with those unfortunately. Additionally, be sure not to discount some light raising for certain pieces! The learning curve is a little different from dishing, but even just forming small pieces around a railroad stake can offer a lot of control that is harder to get with dishing. A combination of both is very useful too :)
@@LivingManuscript it also appears that although his (limited) instructions on the patters were to dish just the knuckle portions at the joints the more research i do the more it appears it was meant to be a more conventional clamshell gauntlet. Perhaps you could take a look and give me your judgement? i already dished the knuckle portions and it just does not seem to work, i might have to undish it to make the clamshells. www.armourarchive.org/patterns/gauntlet_ab/
Looking back at the pattern, it looks a little more similar to the ones I made than I had originally thought. so I can definitely see how the finger setup is supposed to be in the same setup as some historical ones, not unlike the ones that I made some time ago. It's a little hard to say what isn't working on yours without seeing them. One thing that I've seen on a lot of originals is that the pivot points on either side of the hand tend to be parallel with each other, maybe that's the problem? If you'd like to reach me and share some pictures my email here is thelivingmanuscript@gmail.com and also on facebook and instagram :)
Yes! One accessible method is to rivet several pieces together. This doesn't give the same effect of appearing to be made in one piece, like welding achieves. Another historical way, which mostly superceded the Former method, is to raise the piece; heating and hammering the steel using some special stakes and hammers till it is the shape you want. The extent of raising I've done is mostly limited to shallow pieces, and usually without actually heating the steel either, which isn't so viable for raising an entire gauntlet or helmet skull without another method of joining them together like riveting or welding, but for raising something big requires a way to heat the steel like a forge or gas torch setup. For seeing how raising us done though, I would look to Eric Dube, Armourysmith, and Albert Collins, all here on youtube :)
@@LivingManuscript Thanks man, i will be starting to make armour too later, i just gotta get steel. But when buying steel (atleast on the websites i found in my country" they are very confusing if you arent very into steel, like there are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mnay options and stuff. The only thing i've heard is that mild steel if good for starting out
@@TheAdmiral8799 I understand your pain, but once you know what to look for the steel sites are much more bearable :) . Mild steel is definitely a good place to start since it's cheaper than carbon steels and is forgiving to work with (it's nice that the actual makeup of the steel isn't so far off from a lot of historical steels, just more consistent). If there are any machine shops nearby you, they can be a good source of big sheets of steel, and will usually be willing to trim then down if you need that. It should be said, my experience with them has been overwhelmingly in person and over the phone since their online footprint isn't typically their main priority.
cool, asymetry in armour is quite interesting stuff ....how do those gloves feel when hitting with fist , like if you were to fist some one while wielding helbard or an axe (the gauntlet getting the brunt of the blow insted of the crossguard or some other peace of a weapon)?
Thanks! I also appreciate a little asymmetry. Unfortunately, haven't used these gauntlets in particularly intense fighting since I don't trust the thumbs and fingers to protect as well as I'd like. Though I've never had any problems getting hit anywhere else on the gauntlet.
Hi! I was just wondering if your old video how to make a Bascinet (which I loved and I have since made my own) you had this really cool visor. I was wondering if that is a historically accurate design or your own design. If it is historical, could you maybe point out where I might find some reference photos? Or if it’s your own design then could you possibly do a build video on it one day? thank you.
Hello! It's very cool to hear that you've made your own 😀. The visor is _sort of_ historical, there is a particular handful of manuscript illustrations that it resembles pretty strongly, though most other depictions of bascinet visors from the same time period differ in a few ways. A lot of my inspiration came from a lot of these miniatures: manuscriptminiatures.com/search/?tags=%22early%20visored%20bascinet%22 I'm actually going to be making a bascinet with an early visor like some of these for someone very soon, and I'll definitely be making a video about it. I'll try to make a point to go more into the history and details about some of those visors!
Thanks! I haven't used them for too much intense sparring because I'm a little weary of the thumbs and fingers, so mostly just lighter stuff. Although, I've been hit pretty hard on the back of the hand where all the plates are articulated and it definitely does it's job pretty well, I didn't really feel it all that much. As for weight, it's slightly noticeable but certainly nothing I can't get used to in a few minutes of wearing them.
Haven't watched all of your videos yet, but I was wondering what you make all your armor out of, regarding type of steel? Mild or some sort of carbon steel?
Hello, sorry for the late response, I hope this still finds it's way to you. Most of what I've done so far has been with mild steel, since it's the easiest for me to get my hands on and is good to learn with, I find. More recently I've been doing work with stainless, though in the future I would like to get into spring steel some more.
Try to look either for 1. Big metal selling stores (that's where I got mine) or 2. Roof supply stores (Those often have massive selection of copper,steel,aluminum,brass etc. sheets)
by the way, i know that you work much more on later plate pieces, or at least i think that's what a majority of your stuff is, on the stop of my head, but would you mind covering making cheaper, cruder armor, stuff that levy's/local malitias may have worn, farmers who made a good profit, gangs of criminals that had some armor and daggers, you know, less professional mercenary, more conscription munition and homemade grade stuff. best regards, Jeff Jeff
Hello Jeff! I'll just cover both of your comments here for efficiency's sake haha. First of all, best of luck on becoming all that! They are all very fulfilling activities and I hope that works out for you 😀. I had a similar question asked a while ago, and I recommended trying to replicate a skullcap like this: www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=76957&partId=1 I recommended this in particular because historically it's usually the first piece of armor that would be obtained, and skullcaps like it were extremely common. But in addition to that, it's a useful piece of armor that you can use immediately, it teaches you a lot about the craft of armoring, and it's a very simple and fundamental piece that gives a great foundation for future projects. (Many of my helmets are made from several pieces welded together, one of the pieces usually resembles a skull cap like this very closely). In fact, once you have the shape of the skullcap done, it wouldn't take much more to add a few extra plates and make it into a more developed sallet or something similar. Of course, in some cases you'll be limited by your tools. For example the gentleman who asked earlier was able to weld the pieces together. But if you're lacking that then perhaps you could simply make it in three pieces (two halves and a connecting strip down the middle) and rivet it together instead. Regarding covering armor that was more available to less wealthy individuals, I've actually been planning to do more of that! There are so many interesting and unique pieces of armor that are very rarely reproduced, many of which would be intended for those who could afford not much else. I love these particularly because it really shows off some of the medieval mind's way of problem solving when given situations unique to them. Things like scale helmets and arrangements of armor components. In that way, some of the simple pieces are just as fascinating as the armor made for kings. In October of this year I'll be organizing a 15th century reenactment once again, and I'm definitely hoping to make some of these sorts of armors since they are not portrayed very often. As always, I would love to help out more if I can! You can reach me at thelivingmanuscript@gmail.com or just via the Living Manuscript Facebook page if that works better. In either case, good luck! You're beginning a very fascinating journey 😊
oh my god thank you! that skull cap is like a cervelliere, i will make this, and i hope you are sleeping well by the way! I don't have a welder, so i just have to rivet with bands or some other way. I saw your scale helmet video, and that was actually on my mind too. I think that may be easier to make but I dunno gimmie a suggestion. Oh, would you ever mind a video showing the process of riveting a helmet together, instead of welding, just to teach how? An improved version of the scale helmet how to, the video was fine i'm just talking about the helmet would be cool. I know i'm nerding out, I just don't really get the chance to speak to people who like medieval stuff often@@LivingManuscript
Haha no worries man, it's always exciting to speak to someone else with the same interests! Depending on how you make the scale helmet it could definitely be on the simpler side of things, since there's only marginal shaping that needs to be done on each piece as opposed to a helmet with fewer pieces. Even withing scale helmets there are several construction methods I think, like on some depictions it looks like the scales are connected to a foundation like how I did mine earlier. But on others it appears that all the scales are riveted to each other. I think I'll be reproducing the latter one of those eventually. Sometime down the road I'd like to make another riveted helmet with three pieces, since I know that sort of construction is much more available to many people. I just can't guarantee when that'll happen haha.
Hey Johno, I have some questions. First off, could you think about maybe making something like this? It's another brigandine/corazzina, Italian and it looks much more exotic than the english ones. made in sixteenth century. i.pinimg.com/originals/54/38/b3/5438b3718013c33fcf5ade9c41a369b0.jpg Seeing you try to research historical leather armor, and making some of that, boiled leather would be pretty cool too. Also to my third question, do you know anything about Ian Laspina? I haven't seen him posting in a while, wondering if he's okay
i like your group's mixture of Hema and more armoured combat. it's interesting to see how you guys do and it looks like tons of fun!
Thanks! It definitely is lot of fun, the group fights in particular. I'm a big fan of having the armor and weapons interact with each other in more realistic ways, it really sheds light on a lot of questions that don't get talked about too much.
@@LivingManuscript yea I can agree with you there!
You have inspired me too start my own build of a bascinet, just bought some mild steel. This channel is really cool keep the videos coming!
That's fantastic! I love being able to inspire 😊.
He inspired me to make a helmet too! Man was it a doozy.
I need to make a video of that soon.
Excellent works, always glad to get the notification from your channel.
Thank you! That means a lot 😁
Is that Bernard from Megamind!?!
John, do you have any idea how happy it makes me when you upload a video?
Love them, keep up your awesome work, they are very helpful and an inspiration :)
That brings a big smile to my face 😁. I'm really glad that I can be inspirational and helpful!
Hi John! i'm jeff and i've been watching you for a bit, love all of your videos, one day i wish to become an armorer, a tailor and someone who gets to do all of this hema stuff you do, fighting shit. i'm planning on buying my first sheet of steel tomorrow. any suggestions for something small i could make? yeah i know this comment isn't professional but i'm pretty excited just to get to talk to you since you just posted trhis
Don't make the mistake I made and start with a badass sci-fi space marine helmet as your first piece. I pulled it of with a lot of input from John, but holy smokes that was a challenge.
John's suggestion of a basic skullcap is good, but i'd also suggest some gauntlets are a nice place to start too. Probably mittens, since there's less pieces and they'll be more forgiving on fit, but silly me I decided to make finger gauntlets instead.
Hand protection is also an expensive necessity to fighting as well, if you can get away with making your own you'll be ahead of the game. They also have the added benefit of not requiring a huge amount of metal to make.
yeah i agree that i should start with mitten gauntlets, i'm wondering where i can find a pattern for gloves and the pieces of a gauntlet though, maybe you could help me out with that? i want to become a conscripted slightly higher class peasant, they would have a bit more armor than others due to constantly working to make as much food as they can.@@thexaviousdoesthings568
@@jennyrapp4082 ArmorArchives. Com would be a good place to start, but actually its not to hard to come up with your own pattern through experimentation. Cut up some heavy card stock paper or some light cardboard (boxes from twelve packs of pop are excellent for this) and just kind of mock up the gauntlets with that. When you come up with something you're happy with, just use those cardboard pieces as the patterns for steel. Also don't necessarily expect your first pair to be a perfect historical match, as its not real easy to replicate a source based off a couple pictures.
@@thexaviousdoesthings568 I feels it's fine if mine don't look to be replicating a specific gauntlet, because as we all know, dressing up all of your poor soldiers or your own gang, whatever would take more time, more money, more effort, i'm sure there are many, many gauntlets out there that we don't even know of that existed. so i'm all fine with making my own design, i just don't want it to somehow loose the look of the time period.
Hi there, great video, is there a pattern for these gauntlets by chance? If its available that would be amazing. thank you
Damn you're amazing at your work, you make it all looks so easy too lol
Thanks! I just edit out when it doesn't work 😉
Great work, Thanks for the video!
Thank you! It is my pleasure 😁
0:37 can anyone help me find that hood the red guy is wearing I want to use that for my costume so much
I have seen some horrific armor failures from weld failings, how do you avoid these weld fails in a direct hit?
Hiiiii it’s me again. I was wondering how do you get such smooth transitions between the metal because when I weld it and sand it down it quite often will have little holes in the weld line and then I have to weld over the holes and it’s just really really annoying. What would you recommend? I’ve thought about maybe welding on the inside of the helmet as well as the outside would that maybe work? Thanks.
Hey! Apologies for the late response. What type of welder are you using? Since if it's a GMAW welder it may be an issue with the shielding gas where there isn't enough of it in the weld, which produces a sort of bubbly, holy texture. If that's the case I think you'll want to allow more gas into the weld, which could be as simple as just making sure that the valve is open all the way or getting the nozzle closer to the joint that you're welding.
It could also be a issue with the settings of your welder, this was my problem on the first pieces of armor that I welded together. It might be worth it just to experiment a bit with some scrap metal and increase/decrease the wire speed/voltage just to figure out what works best for the thickness/type of joint.
And of course I can't really understate the value of making sure that the two pieces that you're welding together are as flush as you can make them. This helps make a stronger weld and also generally decreases the amount that you'll burn through the metal.
I hope that helps at least a little! You may want to take that advice with a grain of salt because it's been a while since I've done any welding with anything other than my little Chicago Electric welder. You may be interested in contacting someone who has a little more experience than I do, since they might be able to give you some more solid advice. Also, don't hesitate to contact me at thelivingmanuscript@gmail.com or via the Living Manuscript Facebook messenger tab. 😀
Living Manuscript thanks so much! Also yeah I think it’s just that the metal wasn’t flush enough so I’ll try to improve on that next time 😋
I'm trying to make similar gauntlets, been using Alan bauldrees patterns from armor archive, do you have any advice for dishing and planishing dishes? I've been having a lot of trouble with his patterns and dishing
Patterns can only get you so far, especially when they don't come with instructions on what to do with them which is the case with Alan's. There are a few tools on the market out there specifically made for dishing, though they tend not to be specific to armor. I would recommend utilizing pieces of wood, since they can be obtained pretty easily and it's easy to make them into your own custom dishing forms. I've seen some armorers use sandbags, but I haven't any experience with those unfortunately.
Additionally, be sure not to discount some light raising for certain pieces! The learning curve is a little different from dishing, but even just forming small pieces around a railroad stake can offer a lot of control that is harder to get with dishing. A combination of both is very useful too :)
@@LivingManuscript it also appears that although his (limited) instructions on the patters were to dish just the knuckle portions at the joints the more research i do the more it appears it was meant to be a more conventional clamshell gauntlet. Perhaps you could take a look and give me your judgement? i already dished the knuckle portions and it just does not seem to work, i might have to undish it to make the clamshells.
www.armourarchive.org/patterns/gauntlet_ab/
Looking back at the pattern, it looks a little more similar to the ones I made than I had originally thought. so I can definitely see how the finger setup is supposed to be in the same setup as some historical ones, not unlike the ones that I made some time ago. It's a little hard to say what isn't working on yours without seeing them. One thing that I've seen on a lot of originals is that the pivot points on either side of the hand tend to be parallel with each other, maybe that's the problem? If you'd like to reach me and share some pictures my email here is thelivingmanuscript@gmail.com and also on facebook and instagram :)
@@LivingManuscript totally! Thank you so so much
@@calvinhuddleston576 I'll be looking forward to hearing from you :)
I am planning to make some armor stuff, and i wonder, are there any alternatives to welding? (like on here or on a helmet skull) that works as good
Yes! One accessible method is to rivet several pieces together. This doesn't give the same effect of appearing to be made in one piece, like welding achieves. Another historical way, which mostly superceded the Former method, is to raise the piece; heating and hammering the steel using some special stakes and hammers till it is the shape you want.
The extent of raising I've done is mostly limited to shallow pieces, and usually without actually heating the steel either, which isn't so viable for raising an entire gauntlet or helmet skull without another method of joining them together like riveting or welding, but for raising something big requires a way to heat the steel like a forge or gas torch setup. For seeing how raising us done though, I would look to Eric Dube, Armourysmith, and Albert Collins, all here on youtube :)
@@LivingManuscript Thanks man, i will be starting to make armour too later, i just gotta get steel. But when buying steel (atleast on the websites i found in my country" they are very confusing if you arent very into steel, like there are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mnay options and stuff. The only thing i've heard is that mild steel if good for starting out
@@TheAdmiral8799 I understand your pain, but once you know what to look for the steel sites are much more bearable :) . Mild steel is definitely a good place to start since it's cheaper than carbon steels and is forgiving to work with (it's nice that the actual makeup of the steel isn't so far off from a lot of historical steels, just more consistent). If there are any machine shops nearby you, they can be a good source of big sheets of steel, and will usually be willing to trim then down if you need that. It should be said, my experience with them has been overwhelmingly in person and over the phone since their online footprint isn't typically their main priority.
Great Video as always😁
Thank you 😁
Living Manuscript i wish i could meet you but i live in germany 😔
Rpg_Time I'd love to return to Germany again sometime so maybe we can arrange something when that happens 😀
Living Manuscript yeah cool 😁btw i know some places you could stay if where in my area
@@flowingsyrupproductions8874 Good to know!
cool, asymetry in armour is quite interesting stuff
....how do those gloves feel when hitting with fist , like if you were to fist some one while wielding helbard or an axe (the gauntlet getting the brunt of the blow insted of the crossguard or some other peace of a weapon)?
Thanks! I also appreciate a little asymmetry. Unfortunately, haven't used these gauntlets in particularly intense fighting since I don't trust the thumbs and fingers to protect as well as I'd like. Though I've never had any problems getting hit anywhere else on the gauntlet.
Hi! I was just wondering if your old video how to make a Bascinet (which I loved and I have since made my own) you had this really cool visor. I was wondering if that is a historically accurate design or your own design. If it is historical, could you maybe point out where I might find some reference photos? Or if it’s your own design then could you possibly do a build video on it one day? thank you.
Hello! It's very cool to hear that you've made your own 😀. The visor is _sort of_ historical, there is a particular handful of manuscript illustrations that it resembles pretty strongly, though most other depictions of bascinet visors from the same time period differ in a few ways. A lot of my inspiration came from a lot of these miniatures: manuscriptminiatures.com/search/?tags=%22early%20visored%20bascinet%22
I'm actually going to be making a bascinet with an early visor like some of these for someone very soon, and I'll definitely be making a video about it. I'll try to make a point to go more into the history and details about some of those visors!
Oh cool! Thank you very much, I look forward to seeing that 😄.
Great Video as always!
How is the Impact resistance compared to normal HEMA gloves?
And does the additional weighht impare yyou when Fighting?
Thanks! I haven't used them for too much intense sparring because I'm a little weary of the thumbs and fingers, so mostly just lighter stuff. Although, I've been hit pretty hard on the back of the hand where all the plates are articulated and it definitely does it's job pretty well, I didn't really feel it all that much. As for weight, it's slightly noticeable but certainly nothing I can't get used to in a few minutes of wearing them.
Haven't watched all of your videos yet, but I was wondering what you make all your armor out of, regarding type of steel? Mild or some sort of carbon steel?
Hello, sorry for the late response, I hope this still finds it's way to you. Most of what I've done so far has been with mild steel, since it's the easiest for me to get my hands on and is good to learn with, I find. More recently I've been doing work with stainless, though in the future I would like to get into spring steel some more.
Hey anyone have any recommendations on where to get sheet steel online? No hardware stores near me sell it
Try to look either for 1. Big metal selling stores (that's where I got mine) or 2. Roof supply stores (Those often have massive selection of copper,steel,aluminum,brass etc. sheets)
@@IlGonfaloniere I've been getting mine from metalsdepot online, it's the best price I can find online but I feel like there's better out there
@@calvinhuddleston576 I don't know, cause I'm czech, that's the reason I was so general, but thank you nevertheless, cheers!
@@IlGonfaloniere cheers and most roofing supply stores here don't offer non galvanized sheet steel besides 22 gauge which isn't ideal for armor
what type of rivets do you use ?
These are just solid steel round head rivets, 3/16 inch diameter shanks
Very nice 👍🏼
Awesome😄😄😄
by the way, i know that you work much more on later plate pieces, or at least i think that's what a majority of your stuff is, on the stop of my head, but would you mind covering making cheaper, cruder armor, stuff that levy's/local malitias may have worn, farmers who made a good profit, gangs of criminals that had some armor and daggers, you know, less professional mercenary, more conscription munition and homemade grade stuff. best regards, Jeff Jeff
Hello Jeff! I'll just cover both of your comments here for efficiency's sake haha. First of all, best of luck on becoming all that! They are all very fulfilling activities and I hope that works out for you 😀. I had a similar question asked a while ago, and I recommended trying to replicate a skullcap like this: www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=76957&partId=1
I recommended this in particular because historically it's usually the first piece of armor that would be obtained, and skullcaps like it were extremely common. But in addition to that, it's a useful piece of armor that you can use immediately, it teaches you a lot about the craft of armoring, and it's a very simple and fundamental piece that gives a great foundation for future projects. (Many of my helmets are made from several pieces welded together, one of the pieces usually resembles a skull cap like this very closely). In fact, once you have the shape of the skullcap done, it wouldn't take much more to add a few extra plates and make it into a more developed sallet or something similar. Of course, in some cases you'll be limited by your tools. For example the gentleman who asked earlier was able to weld the pieces together. But if you're lacking that then perhaps you could simply make it in three pieces (two halves and a connecting strip down the middle) and rivet it together instead.
Regarding covering armor that was more available to less wealthy individuals, I've actually been planning to do more of that! There are so many interesting and unique pieces of armor that are very rarely reproduced, many of which would be intended for those who could afford not much else. I love these particularly because it really shows off some of the medieval mind's way of problem solving when given situations unique to them. Things like scale helmets and arrangements of armor components. In that way, some of the simple pieces are just as fascinating as the armor made for kings. In October of this year I'll be organizing a 15th century reenactment once again, and I'm definitely hoping to make some of these sorts of armors since they are not portrayed very often.
As always, I would love to help out more if I can! You can reach me at thelivingmanuscript@gmail.com or just via the Living Manuscript Facebook page if that works better. In either case, good luck! You're beginning a very fascinating journey 😊
oh my god thank you! that skull cap is like a cervelliere, i will make this, and i hope you are sleeping well by the way! I don't have a welder, so i just have to rivet with bands or some other way. I saw your scale helmet video, and that was actually on my mind too. I think that may be easier to make but I dunno gimmie a suggestion. Oh, would you ever mind a video showing the process of riveting a helmet together, instead of welding, just to teach how? An improved version of the scale helmet how to, the video was fine i'm just talking about the helmet would be cool. I know i'm nerding out, I just don't really get the chance to speak to people who like medieval stuff often@@LivingManuscript
Haha no worries man, it's always exciting to speak to someone else with the same interests! Depending on how you make the scale helmet it could definitely be on the simpler side of things, since there's only marginal shaping that needs to be done on each piece as opposed to a helmet with fewer pieces. Even withing scale helmets there are several construction methods I think, like on some depictions it looks like the scales are connected to a foundation like how I did mine earlier. But on others it appears that all the scales are riveted to each other. I think I'll be reproducing the latter one of those eventually. Sometime down the road I'd like to make another riveted helmet with three pieces, since I know that sort of construction is much more available to many people. I just can't guarantee when that'll happen haha.
Hey Johno, I have some questions. First off, could you think about maybe making something like this? It's another brigandine/corazzina, Italian and it looks much more exotic than the english ones. made in sixteenth century. i.pinimg.com/originals/54/38/b3/5438b3718013c33fcf5ade9c41a369b0.jpg Seeing you try to research historical leather armor, and making some of that, boiled leather would be pretty cool too. Also to my third question, do you know anything about Ian Laspina? I haven't seen him posting in a while, wondering if he's okay
Cool