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Leather jerkin is okay until someone smashes a spear in to your shoulder joint, which it doesn't protect.

Half a dozen layers of linen would work or less of wool.

And clans will have the chance to play an 3D simulation against each other, ie to play a wargame: “* And face it, this is the coolest part by far: Visiting Clans groups will be able to interactively battle each other in a 3-D simulation of the battle that does not have a set outcome.” I can imagine ...

Like Biro said. Going from memory you have to take 2 rows out at a time- one in each direction. Where the rows are taken out the first link on either side will be joined to 3 links and going in the same direction. These are both interlinked so that they now are joined to 4 in total. The next row on ...

I think the Indians might have been able to make zinc a lot earlier than any commercial process in the West. However, pure zinc is useless in a medieval environment. It is softer than iron or bronze and harder to cast with than tin or lead. If you mess abut with it, you might get poisoned. General r...

If you are working any heat treatable steel to make armour you will have to do it hot. Do it cold then it will work harden and crack. That is why most reenactment armour is mild steel. It is just made thicker. Heat treating armour is very difficult. The curves go in various directons so the metal de...

A 1200 archer would be armed with a bendy stick and some feathered twigs. He wouldn't want to fight proper infantry and would avoid cavalry like the plague. There is no "dead arise" on a real battlefield.

Up close and against infantry or cavalry with shields, armour and spears archers, who have none of these things, all die. The bast option is to run away or hide behind better equipped soldiers. A dagger or an axe is not going to help you.

I named one of my swords "Precious" as it had silver fittings.

Since you come from Hartleypool... Monkey Spanker

Which would be something like Apa Beatan (although the second word probably needs chaging a bit)

Holy Helmet Orb of Antioch!

Some say feudalism was mostly killed by labour shortages following the black death, hundreds of years before the 17th century. The remaining peasants found they had a choice of working for their landlords or working for someone else for more money. Cash won and the landlords went broke.

There are better plastics out there than HDPE but they are a lot more expensive than blue barrels. I doubt you need 4mm thick material. In terms of cost, steel will be cheaper. If you want really cheap steel then chop up a domestic appliance like a washing machine. You should be able to get a broken...

Some people spent a lot of time and money trying to make an Egyptian one. It was on the telly. They thought the timbers would swell and fill the gaps. The timbers didn’t and it sunk. Then they caulked it and it floated.

A Keltic one, passed down through time by word of mouth. Channelling the force of the wyld wood and woad: I don’t know but it’s been said Roman skirts are gurly red Stuck in barracks they’ve got time To polish helmets ‘till they’re blind Romans go home, Romans GO HOME! A traditional English one, cha...

Get “Highland Swordsmanship: Techniques of the Scottish Swordmasters” for McBane’s account of how he learned to fight. There is some stuff about waving swords about in there to.

You would probably find the SCA are most welcoming as they don't seem to do specific dates and places for theis events.

They might have had moors turning up on the South coast as far back as the 14th century but they were only there for cream teas and slaves.

If the army was provided with standard arows by the king. Would a weaker bow be able to shoot them far enough?

I thnk that better and cheaper metal probably drove better armour more than bows. No evidence for this though.

Didn't the rest of the world prefer crossbows anyway? Greater range and no need for constant practice.

Cloudy, You must be shooting mystykal keltic arrows as they seem to be breaking several laws of thermodynamics. Normal arrows will always have more energy flat shot at 10 yards than at maximum range unless they are being fired(!) downhill. They follow a ballistic path, just like a bullet but slower ...

Measuring velocity is easy. I can bring a chronograph to an event if I am there. Most people know the draw weights of ther bows and measuring distance is easy to. So all we need is some arrows (or arrow specs because making them only takes a couple of hours). A graph of maximum range against velocit...

Surely the focus on draw weights is not the important thing. I doubt bows were categorised by draw weights in the 15th century. We should know how far they could shoot and what the arrows are like. Why not just make a bow that will reliably shoot a reproduction arrow that far. (Made to an authentic ...

Parafin ir diesel oil.

Soak liberally and apply match. Lovely and warm. Don't sit downwind as yew probably doesn't have nice smoke.

Doesn't one of the societies (the MCS?) have a website with a huge album of pictures on it?

18" bladed long knife is a general purpose tool used across the world in agricultural societies. They are all pretty much the same because that is what works as a heavy cutting tool. They come in 1 and 2 handed varieties. They are sometimes used as weapons (eg by Filipinos in WW2) but they are usual...

The brass theory won't work. Iron/steel in contact with brass and an electrolyte (sweat) corrodes. The steel protects the brass so the edges will stay pretty. At the point where the two metals touch the iron will rust fast.

Try Chaucer.

I've no pictures but there are several huge wheel locks in the armoury of the Madrid Royal Palace. They were 2-3m long and about an inch bore. The guns were on little carrages. They don't allow the public to use cameras but you could try contacting them for details/pics.

How about crudite? I think they mine it in French crud mines.

You can buy the steel bits to make one from Alchem in the states but would need to make the stock and nut. Draw weights range from 80 to 250lb but the higher powered ones trash quarrels and go through archery nets.

Hijacking the thread to talk about mail... The only period butted mail I have heard of/seen are some early Celtic shirts (royal armouries magazine article), some Islamic stuff (eg Wallace collection) and some small hole repairs on a super fine rivetted 16th century shirt. The first stuff had to be m...