u/ChooseMyNameIDK

Planning a making another piece of armour using bloom iron like it was done up to the 15th century and earlier, and then doing some tests, like in arrows vs armour.
My bow isn’t that strong so I might also buy a crossbow that’s 300lb for testing or find someone strong enough to shoot a warbow, or maybe Tod Cutler will want it for arrows vs armour 4 (doubt)

I’ve attached photos of my previous project making a klappvisor from bloom iron I smelted, and photos of some professional bloom I’ve bought of ‘Lee Sauder, smelt 325’ for this project, including some sample slices I’ve cut from a section and etched to see the structure.

In my previous project my main constraint was how much iron I could produce with my largest ever bloom being 5kg and most being closer to 1-2kg which was very time consuming and limited how large my final visor was. This time I’ve supplemented my supply with 10kg of professional smelted bloom which will save me a lot of time and make it easier to scale up my ideas with my limited time.

Currently I would like to make a breastplate based of an existing 14th century one (to be chosen, I want to replicate one made from traditional bloom rather than blast furnace wrought) but this will depend on how large I can get my final sheet.

Feel free to contribute with advice or examples of armour.
I’m currently trying to read ‘the knight and the blast furnace’ which will be my main point of research for the project.

Planning a making another piece of armour using bloom iron like it was done up to the 15th century and earlier, and then doing some tests, like in arrows vs armour.

I’ve attached photos of my previous project making a klappvisor from bloom iron I smelted, and photos of some professional bloom I’ve bought of ‘Lee Sauder, smelt 325’ for this project, including some sample slices I’ve cut from a section and etched to see the structure.

In my previous project my main constraint was how much iron I could produce with my largest ever bloom being 5kg and most being closer to 1-2kg which was very time consuming and limited how large my final visor was. This time I’ve supplemented my supply with 10kg of professional smelted bloom which will save me a lot of time and make it easier to scale up my ideas with my limited time.

Currently I would like to make a breastplate based of an existing 14th century one (to be chosen, I want to replicate one made from traditional bloom rather than blast furnace wrought) but this will depend on how large I can get my final sheet.

Feel free to contribute with advice or examples of armour.
I’m currently trying to read ‘the knight and the blast furnace’ which will be my main point of research for the project.

Need it for independent research for my bloom iron armour project.

Having another go with 10kg of bloom that I’m buying from Lee Sauder so my final results will be more professional.
Made a visor last time and its final weight was only 800g so 10kg of consolidated material should make something closer to a breastplate hopefully.

Also if anyone knows anything in general about 14-15th century armour made using traditional bloomery before or during the shift to finery forged steel from blast furnaces I would rlly appreciate it.

Bonus photos of friends in their kits, and our glorious Coventry levy banner.

Made some more progress on my armour over the weekend.

Still shaping and adjustments to make but the overall look is coming along and my breastplate has now had the brocade attached.

Also practiced my gold leafing skills on my 14th century kit ready for Shrewsbury next weekend, as I might gold leaf the plate after polishing or I’ll blue it.

Plan after it’s all done is to then make some spaulders and arm harness and eventually end up with a full harness head to toe which will help me develop my armouring skills.

Made the plackart for the cuirass and fitted it onto the breastplate I’ve been working on at reenactments.

Hope to fit the faulds soon and finish work on the backplate.

Not rlly sure what I’m doing but stuff it happening, and hope to make a full gold harness and brocade the breastplate.

Am aware I’m not wearing my arming doublet, it’s not very padded so the fitting is prtty similar with and without.

Any armour advice would be appreciated.

Looking at pieces I can replicate using bloom which were made using iron at the time.

So far, all the armour I know of using bloom is the Visby coat of plates using bloom iron in some of the examples.

If anyone knows of other pieces like helmets, breastplates, counters ext, that would be very helpful.

The plan is to make more armour and do an arrows vs armour test like Todd Cutler did. (Or donate it to him to test if he would be interested)
Also for fun cuz it’s a good challenge and I always learn a lot and improve my forging skills with these projects.

Any help is much appreciated :)

Cut out all the plates for my brig and have started assembly.
All my fabric has been measured and cut now with the seems to stitch tomorrow before I start riveting.

Some mistakes have been made like not marking holes in the correct places which has forced some of the plates to not overlap as much as the one they were based off but that’s a good learning experience for next time as it’s my first attempt at making a brig.

Next time some changes I would make would be using less plates and having them much larger to make more globular chests similar to Milanese style armour for simplicity sake.

If my brig turns out well then I plan on leaning how to make more armour like arms, legs and a great bascinet for a full tournament set and possibly getting the kit to brass brush them as I think gold with the brig will look nice.

I’ll see how well my skills come along before going ahead with that idea however.

Quite like brigadines with Brocade so I’m making one as a learning project as I’m getting into making armour, and to save £2k commissioning one.

So far it’s cost me £470 total on rivets, fabric, buckles, leather, and a large sheet of 1.2mm stainless sheet which should be enough for 2.5 brigs if I want.

Also thoughts on adding brass trims to my arms and legs similar to what’s depicted in the tapestry.

Firstly, does anyone know any groups in the uk I can join, I’ve recently turned 18 and have been wanting to do Buhurt for a while, I have done 15th century reenactment so know that I enjoy fighting and wearing armour.
I’m based in the midlands Shropshire way.

Secondly does anyone know reputable sources for armour, I have already got hardened steel gauntlets I bought from a German smith a while ago, and I’m looking for a safe bascinet, preferably hardened steel aswell for the reason that I value my head quite highly and really don’t fancy cheating out on head protection.

Thirdly, do people recommend cuirass or brigandines? I see most people using brigs and from my conversations with people I have heard they dissipate the impacts better, I’ve only ever worn a brig so can’t compare.

Finally, can I make less important parts/easy pieces of the kit myself? This would be arm and leg protection aswell as a brig (mine is only 1.5mm mild steel so I’m already upgrading it by making a spring steel one) as they are reasonably easy to make and I have a blacksmiths workshop so I can use hardened steel and have the facility to quench and temper anything I make.

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks

Just started making armour using 2mm mild steel and are looking for spring and titanium to start testing with for use in a brig but can’t find any decent uk sources.

Also what guage of each is used?

Can’t afford a full buhurt set but I have reenactment armour which I am able to trace templates of to make buhurt safe gear tailored to me.

Already own some German buhurt gauntlets and can buy a decent helmet as that’s important enough that I’m not going to make it (for now, give it 5 years and maybe)

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Planning on making some late 15th tournament armour and am wondering if using this kind of fabric for brigadines is authentic?

Still have some work to do on it like straightening out the sides so that they will fit together with the back plate I will add, and finishing planishing it all.

The plan is to have a full cuirass built by the end of the reenactment season in September.

It’s all 1.6mm mild steel sheet and cold worked, and annealed on a wood fire for 20-60 minutes when I went off to battle.

Feel free to suggest any techniques or changes I should look into to make it better.