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An Introduction
by Ryan King, 11/16/04
Greetings!
For the uninitiated or uninterested, the hobby of dressing up like a warrior from the middle ages and prancing around like a B-grade actor usually has one questioning the reenactor's sanity. Truth be told, there are certainly some crazy folks who are into this subject matter. But there are also quite a few relatively normal folks too. Because of the vast range of personality types you are likely to see in this field, blanket statements and generalizations utterly fail at classifying the folks who do it. Even amongst a given organization, you will see the standard array of cool characters and total jackasses. A person's enjoyment of this craft is very closely related to his or her surroundings...i.e., surrounding yourself with the RIGHT people for your tastes.
Here is a brief story of how I came to be at this point:
My
journey really seems like a strange one, but I have a feeling it is
somewhat typical for those of us in this community. Certainly, interest in all
things medieval was sparked by playing AD&D for years in my
youth...but it was in 1997 during a college internship when an old
AD&D friend's neighbor starting blabbering on about how he was hanging
out with a bunch of folks who dressed up like knights and pounded the crap
of each other. It wasn't SCA...it was more of a local SCA knock-off,
with a high jackass factor and low maturity factor. Their one
redeeming feature is that their fighting system rewarded 'armor-as-worn',
so there were a couple folks who had bits and pieces of butted maille.
This neighbor got us intrigued in the maille enough that my friend and
I thought "hey - we aren't doing anything else this summer" and
so we went and searched for some wire and clumsily put together a
ring-making apparatus based on a few snippets of a 14-year-old's hearsay
and some experimentation. Silly as it seems now, we truly never even
thought to look on the internet for maille-making techniques back then,
and so we actually came up with whole crank/dowel thing on our own (truly
by dumb luck I'm sure)...only to learn a year later that everybody used that technique
and it was common knowledge.
Anyway, we had just grabbed a dowel my friend's dad (a certified
blacksmith) had lying around and didn't pay much attention to it.
Well it was 7/16", and our wire was 14 GA galv. So off we went,
without shirt or coif patterns or any research, and just knocked out our
own kits (going off of what we had seen in a couple of fantasy mags, I'm
sure). It seems sad now that so much effort went into this task
without any pre-thought or planning, but the maille turned out nice enough
and actually looking back we did a damned nice job considering: tapered
full sleeves, and a nice coif with mantle.
Granted, the rings were a bit big (more costume than armor) but given that
I have had two serious back surgeries in the last 10 years...I am letting
that slide.
As the end of college came and marriage and a new job awaited, these
interests took a back burner. But in early 2000 I got the bug for a
complete kit, solely for the purpose of renaissance faire use. I
still was based on AD&D principles at this time, so I went fully
"paladin". We helped my friend's dad make us steel shields, and we conned my poor patient
mother into sewing all these outstanding (if not historically based) soft
kit items. The cloak is really a thing of beauty - it is
double-layered with an exquisite open-weave to it. Almost all the
materials used were muslin, so
it's not like I was walking around in lycra or rayon. Still, a
person has to start somewhere I guess....
Around that time is when I discovered the Armour Archive and Arador.
I hadn't realized how many people had an active interest in this stuff,
and I certainly was shocked to see that people made their livelihood
making armour! So my next plan was plate. I was beginning to
be a bit more educated, but even so I still had a particular look in mind
for my next kit that was not of a direct historical basis. I was
still taking baby steps, so I went with the cheapest armourer I could find
(above the Armor Store...but I did start with them) and put together an
almost complete harness piece-by-piece. I went with Westlig Stjerne
(now named ArmorWorks), although by this time I had done enough research
to be able to construct a crude arming doublet. My ability to make butted
maille was handy though, and I made the skirt and gussets for my suit.
Ever since then I have been accumulating books, doing research (when I
have time) and all the while growing restless with how inaccurate my kits
were. So much so, in fact, that I sold my plate harness. I
ended up ordering a custom-fit and inordinately expensive Earl of Warwick
/ Richard Beachamp harness
by Valentine Armories. The price tag is over FIVE times as much
as my first plate harness! (I guess I'm serious now...and a lot better off
at work too) The armour I purchased is shown on the c.1430 page.
In the meantime, I have joined the Viking reenactment group Skjaldborg,
who had been asking for a couple years for me to join them. I
finally did, even though initially I had nothing but a passing interest in
all things Viking. They have a pretty simple requirement: they'll work
their show around me and interests, whatever time I am representing, so
long as I am accurate, have researched my harness
and background, and I contribute something to the group. Their fun
and festive website (lots of video goodness) is linked to the left.
Much
to my surprise, the Viking era ended up holding much more interest for me than I
expected. This is probably for two primary reasons: 1) the people in the
group are great folks, who nurture a supportive family atmosphere, and 2)
I got to fight! This was unexpectedly fun!
My current project is to get a 1265-1280 outfit, based mostly off Andy Goddard's
website, up to snuff for rebated steel combat with the group. So
that has been my push. I spent a month or two developing my personal
coat-of-arms, and am building an earlier English knight off that.
The main modern convenience I will have (aside from the butted maille and
some of the actual textiles) is that I have re-engineered the padded
cuisse/maille legging combination with comfort and my back in mind.
My design requires the services (once again) of my poor mother, but I am
excited about the final appearance. The design is historically
accurate with the exception of the method for hanging the
leggings and cuisses...I am not a fan of the simple tying off to a belt,
etc. I basically am making quilted "capris" pants/shorts,
with an inner strip of leather at mid thigh that hangs the maille.
My friend already has maille leggings and attachment has been the biggest
source of heartache, since maille sags. I'm going to put together a sketch explaining my
concept and I will put it up on this website eventually. [editors note:
this method didn't work as well as the historical method and I am currently
re-working my cuisses]
If you want to check out my mostly-done English Knight kid, follow the
link to the c.1265 page at the left.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ryan
If you have any questions, dead links to report, or anything else to request, feel free to email me at:
Last Updated: 11.16.04 (new host!)
Date Created: 04.20.03
Warrior's Hall of Honor:
John
Varangian Guard
Mike
The Anglo-Dane
Shawn
The Rus Trader
Ian
The Hersir
Ryan
The English Knight
Dan
The Thing Man