What every girl wants... !

Posted by: Reiki

What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 04:06 PM

For your viewing pleasure, yes it's my bright and shiny new 14th C jousting armour!

Custom built by our master armourers to fit me [and only me], it's made of mild steel plate approx 2mm thick. It is polished and needs constant and careful attention to prevent surface rusting. It weighs approx 35kg.

Maille fauld [skirt] is handmade by me.

I'm officially the expert in making maille now. Its made of approx 10,000 butted mild steel links and has the brass decorative edging tomake it look fancy.

My armour is almost finished, I have just got the leg harnesses and am waiting on the helm to be completed, they have modified the SCA helm I had and replaced the klapvisor with a pigfaced bascinet visor which suits the armour better. I'm waiting for the aventail to be bolted on and the padding to go inside the helm so I can wear it.

We have yet to start on the greaves for the lower leg, and they'll take a while as they are made to hug the calves.

I have just done a deal with an Aussie jouster who makes armour, he is making me some fancy 14th C hourglass gauntlets [with brass trim to match the maille skirt] and a manifer for arm protection in exchange for my Portuguese Bullfighting saddle. A pretty good trade for both of us!

All up cost so far - a frightening $4500+++

Jousting is definitely not a poor man's sport, when you take into consideration the other costs involved!

horse [mine are valued at $15K or more EACH] $15K
saddle $4k
sundry horse gear - bridles etc $1k
truck $35k
display kit $2K this is the jousters gambeson [arming jacket] & horse caparisons and other decorative things we wear such as 14th C boots etc
sword $500
dagger $300
lance $150
spear $250
training gear $1K or thereabouts

The list just keeps on going and going and the upkeep on the horses is pretty steep too.

But its great fun!

Posted by: harlan

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 04:07 PM

Geez! And I was complaining about coughing up $150 for a pair of sai!

The chain mail certainly beautiful. Gives me an idea for the upcoming office Halloween party!

Posted by: Zombie Zero

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 04:11 PM

See you at the RennFest!

Posted by: Reiki

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 04:14 PM

Quote:

Geez! And I was complaining about coughing up $150 for a pair of sai!

The chain mail certainly beautiful. Gives me an idea for the upcoming office Halloween party!

thankyou! its very heavy too.

I have to make up a special leather belt for it yet, so havent worn it with the rest of the armour because it keeps slipping below the breastplate.

The aventail for my helm is rivetted maille, for strength and it weighs more. We nearly had a bad accident the other week at training because one of the guys didn't put on his neck protection and he got hit in the throat

Lucky for him it didnt get his windpipe - missed by a mere 2mm... he has a nasty scar there now.

Posted by: MattJ

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 04:16 PM

And I was vaccillating over a $35.00 rash guard.

Posted by: laf7773

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 05:05 PM

Something about women in chain maille.

Can't wait till Renfest next month.

Looks great Reiki.

Posted by: Ed_Morris

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 05:50 PM

damn! and all these years I've been giving jewelry and flowers.

Posted by: Reiki

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 11:11 PM

Jewellery is quite acceptable too! Especially something that's got a large diamond in it.

I like flowers [mainly the ones that have fragrance] but prefer them on the plants rather than inside the house.

Posted by: Reiki

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/19/06 11:22 PM

Quote:

Something about women in chain maille.

Can't wait till Renfest next month.

Looks great Reiki.

Lane, I'm shocked and stunned! <just kidding!>

I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and can hardly wait to get my new gauntlets & manifer.

Wish we had Renfests here, the main outings I get with my flash kit are to our displays and tournaments, mind you these are on the increase so I'm out quite a bit now.

Horse number 2 is off to visit the stallion in the next week or so, now I have to get horse number 3 up and running so that I have a jousting mount ready for the international tourney in Feb in case horse 2 is out of commission in her pregnancy. Horse 1 died a few months ago and its been hard work getting the others coming up to speed after all the work I'd put into him.

I can borrow one of our older jousting horses and might still do so for the tourney however it'd be nice to offer him to some of the international riders too!

I won our monthly skill at arms tourney on him a couple of weeks ago, trouncing the blokes very soundly with my lance work on the 2 quintains and a fab spear throw and some good moors head work with the sword. It's good to have something quiet and dependable to ride while I'm learning how hard it is to balance and ride in armour!

Posted by: ButterflyPalm

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/20/06 12:50 AM

If you can also somehow electrify it (perhaps with some Reiki 'tunings') it should make it to the 'Best Rape Prevention' category

Posted by: laf7773

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/20/06 02:02 AM

Quote:

Lane, I'm shocked and stunned! <just kidding!>

What did you expect? I'm a sailor not a choir boy.

Posted by: mark

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/20/06 04:37 AM

Reiki,

That’s just great!! I have been to loads of Knights, jousting. castle siege re-enactments in the UK.

Always looked great fun to me, except when the archers come out in force……

I had a go at making chain maille, it is so very laborious, but your patience has paid off, it looks great.

BTW, what got you interested in the European middle ages? Don’t say Joan of Arc…

Regards

Mark

Posted by: Reiki

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/20/06 10:40 PM

Quote:

BTW, what got you interested in the European middle ages? Don’t say Joan of Arc…

Regards

Mark

I have horses, I do martial arts, I like working with swords and sticks, need I say anymore!

It combines all 3 of those and is very exciting as well.

Plus the armour is great and I like the challenge of training my hot exciteable horses to put up with the scary clanky stuff, and it gives me the chance to do lots of sword work outside the dojo with different types of swords.

Posted by: JKogas

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/20/06 11:21 PM

Quote:

And I was vaccillating over a $35.00 rash guard.

GET the rash guard.

-John

Posted by: 5353

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/22/06 12:46 AM

do you wear underwear under that?

Posted by: ButterflyPalm

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/22/06 02:52 AM

Quote:

do you wear underwear under that?

Take a wild guess, please.

Posted by: 5353

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/22/06 06:49 PM

no and ouch!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Dereck

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/22/06 06:55 PM

What every girl wants? I thought it was this????

I think my wife would have killed me if I bought her some armour.

Posted by: Stormdragon

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/22/06 09:38 PM

Oooooh baby I'm in love! (With the armor)

Posted by: jc4199

Re: What every girl wants... ! - 10/23/06 12:54 AM

WOW WOW WOW WOW that is nice.
making mail is great fun
Why just a skirt and not a full hauberk?
Was it hand hammerd or machine hammerd. Both are hard to do.
The rolls look awesome vary hard to do.
Are you going to pad or cover the aventail so you do not mark up your steel.
would love to see pics of the whole rig.

Posted by: Reiki

What every girl wants... ! [version 2 & 3] - 10/23/06 05:10 PM

Here we are with the leg harnesses now finished.

The armour is all hand made, ie hammered by hand.

I have a fauld [skirt] rather than a hauberk to reduce weight on the upper body as I have to get my COG lower for effective riding otherwise its all too easy to tip off..

I already have an aventail going on the helm which will add more weight to the top so I had to think about reducing it.

Yet to come is the helm [its almost finished!] and the greaves which havent been started yet. Plus I have some really nice gauntlets and a manifer being made in Aust for me.