Hello there...it's been a while.

After my last post came the rush to get ready for Gulf War, then to get ready for Lysts, then to get my house on the market...so I've only gotten back to armouring fairly recently.

Failure to Blog
I've hosted sessions for Marita to work on a new shield, Martel to make a helm liner, Jens to collect and begin strapping some donated gear that would only fit him, Katrina and Artorius to assemble 3 boffer-legal rattan-core swords, Alfred to help sort out some donated loaner gear and work on his curie (leather breast-and-back plate), and Nicola to refurbish a borrowed helm and begin work on a 14th cent. curie for his early 14th century Italian kit. I've taught a class at Tuesday fighter practice on making linen helm liners and at least one student has finished one. Thanks Tivar! I also went over to Rachel's place for a war company surcoat/tunic sewing session that included Helene, Nicola and Artorius as well.

Current Events
Last night Avery came over to work on a helm liner for his new spring-steel 16th cent. Burgeonet for cut-and-thrust fighting. He got the pattern made and the fabric cut out, and took a bag of wool with him so that he can finish it at home.

Nicola worked on beveling the edges of his curie and also cut out a helm liner using fabric I had available. Buying all those "doggie bag" specials from http://fabrics-store.com has really paid off!


Josh also came over to discuss an armour plan (mid-14th cent. Welsh) and get started on a coat of plates. Again I was able to provide materials from what I had on hand. His CoP shell will be a sturdy blue cotton velvet with a heavy white linen lining, The plates will be white plastic barrel or "faux horn" riveted on with roofing nails. We got a pattern drafted, linen cut, and plates cut out. It will be very similar to the ones Helene and Rachel made previously.

Hrethric and his daughter Caitlin came over to work on an 11th century Saxon armour and hang out with my son Artorius, respectively. :) Hrethric bought himself a strap end cutter and brought along a 10-12oz. hide which he is cutting into 1 5/8" wide strips and then 2 5/8" long scales. We will glue-soak and bake the scales after they are all cut and the edges burnished.

Artorius removed some broken straps from his gauntlets and worked with me on plans to re-strap them and keep his fingers safer, but then he seemed to get distracted for some reason. He will need to finish them up this weekend if he wants to use them next Tuesday.

This weekend I hope to straighten up my work areas, put the rawhide edging on a linen-covered birch shield for Duke Kein, wax-seal a pair of light leather vambraces for me so that they are ready for me to rivet on the spring steel splints, and post some pictures of all of this to this blog.