Posts: 425 Location: Cincinnati OH
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 9:49 am
Re: Thanks for the replies so far
| Bob Burns wrote: |
| At By The Sword, there is a particular section Arms and Armour NEW where they sell pole arms such as gaives, halberds, prices run aprox $290 to $450. Anyone familiar with this? |
Bob
I was asking about this stuff in an earlier thread here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=4492&highlight=
Finally found the manufacturer's english website here: http://www.outfit4events.com
Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 9:53 am
Allan;
Any web site for the Steel Source so we can see what he has available ? Curious, but I have to take it easy on spending for a while. ( Maybe you know why. :p :lol: ) ( Prato Kettle Hat, Espauliers, 14th century Gorget, Wisby Gauntlets, Ring
maille Shirt.
;) :lol: )
Posts: 1,244 Location: New Glarus, WI
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 10:14 am
| Jean Thibodeau wrote: |
| Any web site for the Steel Source so we can see what he has available ? |
Website is here: The Steel Source
Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 10:30 am
Aaron;
Thanks, I just added it to my bookmarks.
Nice to seeing you posting regularly again ( Posting a lot ) ! Must mean that life is starting to get back to something resembling " Normal " after those two hurricanes.
Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 1:24 pm
As someone increasingly interested in polearms, including peasant weapons, I'd like to see MRL offer a sack of ten or twenty crude, short, triangular spikes with square
cross-section and screw bases. Then you could just slap those suckers on a 6' piece of pine and have a convincing 15th c. morgenstern. Or you could make a fantasy piece. Or you could mount them on your Bigwheel, Doc Martens or Macintosh G5 CPU.
Posts: 1,082 Location: Finland
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 1:30 pm
| Sean Flynt wrote: |
| As someone increasingly interested in polearms, including peasant weapons, I'd like to see MRL offer a sack of ten or twenty crude, short, triangular spikes with square cross-section and screw bases. Then you could just slap those suckers on a 6' piece of pine and have a convincing 15th c. morgenstern. |
Or a whole bunch of goedendags...
| Quote: |
| Or you could make a fantasy piece. Or you could mount them on your Bigwheel, Doc Martens or Macintosh G5 CPU. |
Better keep 'em away from my goth little sister, though... she'd give "dressed to kill" a whole new meaning with those things. :eek:
Posts: 5,739 Location: Wichita, Kansas
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 1:52 pm
| Russ wrote: |
Hey Patrick,
Have you ever done any cutting with your Danish Axe? Mine just showed up yesterday and I'm very tempted to try it...
|
Not yet. I don't have a suitable target handy, but rest assured I am looking. :evil:
Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 2:09 pm
| Russ Ellis wrote: |
| You've been reading the Waldeman book haven't you? I've been poring through my copy. I'm definitely going to order that glaive from Art now and if ONLY that Italian Bill head from A&A would come in... I've got the wood, I've got the tools I just don't have the heads! |
You guessed it. Aren't those just the coolest things? Some are surprisingly elaborate but most are just 6' of crude, inexpensive brutality.
So, are you going to get a glaive or a Couteau de Breche/Kuse? Thanks to Waldeman, I now know the difference!
On a related subject–After trying to discipline myself after the purchase of both Waldeman's book and The Great Warbow, I broke down last week and bought Mazansky's book on British basket hilts. I found it for $60 (down from $90) and just couldn't stand the thought seeing it go out of print and doubling in price. I notice that Amazon has now dropped its price as well. I buy books like most folks buy stocks, see. Of course, I never sell.... :D
Posts: 2,608
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 9:05 pm
Bloody heck, you must be further along in the book then I am (or I missed that name somewhere). I don't know what a Couteau de Breche/Kuse is yet. I JUST finished the section on glaives. I wish the study of them had been as exhaustive as the one on haldberds but I must say I've got a whole new respect for the haldberd thanks to this book. Cheap they may have been (relatively) but shoddy many of them were not. The details on construction were VERY impressive. I can't imagine why in the world the boys at A&A haven't gotten around to making a haldberd? Weird...
Posts: 8,310 Location: Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 9:53 pm
Russ;
Well if more people commissioned custom polearms A & A might start making more models available as standard catalogue items.
I think they are currently working on a few polearms at the moment: I think Craig said that fresh research ( New book ??? ) is being taken advantage of to make the construction more accurate in design and construction.
Posts: 1,019 Location: South Indianapolis IN
Thu 06 Oct, 2005 10:13 pm
Windlass Steelcraft Biter from The Steel Source
I was especially surprised at the quality of this particular item, much more so than the Foot Soldiers War Hammer. I took the Biter to my bench sander then finished it up with a 1,000 and a 5,000 grit wet stone. I got it very sharp, put it to work on some boards and various things going into the garbage, not one nick in the blade.
For $109.00, I'd very much recommend buying the Windlass Steelcraft Biter, you can find it at The Steel Source. It is a very hefty bludgeon / impact weapon and like I said, is a whole lot better quality than what I expected.
For what looks like good quality glaives, halberds, etc. Go to By the Sword, click online catalog, then click Arms and Armour NEW. This particular link will take you to their premium quality stuff, instead of the cheap stuff that you will find using the other link. The various pole arms in this particular section run from approx. $290 to $450. Actually I am wondering if these are Lutels?
Happy Collecting,
Bob
Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Fri 07 Oct, 2005 6:25 am
| Russ Ellis wrote: |
| Bloody heck, you must be further along in the book then I am (or I missed that name somewhere). I don't know what a Couteau de Breche/Kuse is yet. I JUST finished the section on glaives. |
I had two international flights to finish it :lol: On glaives, the socket is centered on the blade and the blade seems to be larger, typically. The Couteau de Breche/Kuse/Couse is what I had always called a glaive. It's the knife-on-a-stick we know and love. Offset socket, somewhat smaller. The piece I made was a Kuse (which I suppose would be pronounced "KOO-zeh" ).
Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Fri 07 Oct, 2005 8:26 am
| Russ Ellis wrote: |
| Oddly in the section on glaives they didn't really talk to much about what that weird little projection is on the back of the blade... |
Later glaives developed very ornate (useless?) projections. The plain early projections must have served some practical purpose-hooking, etc. I like the relatively clean lines of the halberd, Kuse, and English bill. The Italian bill (and some other Italian polearms), welsh hook, etc. are just too...much for my tastes.
I guess we've sort of hijacked this thread. I'll redeem us by suggesting that MRL is still our best bet for widely-affordable polearms. With the Waldeman book out and growing interest in poelarms, maybe they'll decide that they can make some dough with a few new basic items. I'd suggest a munition-grade 15th-16th c halberd, 16th-17th c. English bill and a lochaber axe based on a documented original rather than on a photo of CASI's version. Maybe an ahlspiess, just to shake things up a bit. Why those? Because those are relatively simple pieces that would be more difficult to get wrong than, say, something like MRL's current German halberd, which looks great until you compare it with existing examples in both form and construction (I know, I know...it's based on an original weapon once in Hank R.'s collection). That's just too complex a piece to get right for $140.
MRL also should bring back their Swiss Axe (which I fell in lust with after a single handling) and an improved version of their "glaive".
Here's my open letter to MRL. If it sounds condescending or smug, that's due to frustration at seeing Windlass turn out inaccurate pieces that could have been made better and more accurately for less expense (don't nickel-plate the hilt, don't add decorative rivets to the helmet, etc). Y'all know the feeling, I'm sure.
Dear Windlass/MRL R&D:
Please purchase Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe as well as Culloden: The Swords and The Sorrows. Pick your four favorite fighting polearms from those books (read and understand the text-don't just send the pictures to your shop), put them into production with hafts of historically accurate length and section, if not wood-type, and give customers the option of buying head-only. However, please don't do us any "favors" by creating a standard round 1.25" socket for every piece, even if that streamlines production and brings down the price. Stick to the original socket form and charge more as appropriate. If we're competent enough to taper a dowell and mount a head with a round socket, we're competent enough to trim and taper the haft stock to fit a square, rectangular or triangular socket. It might take us, and your workers, very slightly longer to do this, but it's worth it to those of us most likely to buy a polearm. Charge us $225-250 for a plain, solid and aesthetically accurate complete weapon or $125 for head only. Ignore those who sneer and say, "So the stick is worth $125?". If you get a good response to these munitions-grade pieces, offer reproductions of a few finer quality polearms (a poleaxe? an improved version of your German Halberd?) for, say, $300-325. In this price range, the field seems to be largely open. At your best you offer great value (Towton, Arbedo, Falchion, Scottish Backsword, Sallet, Swiss Axe, etc.). Don't stop now! Break out the polearms!
Posts: 2,608
Fri 07 Oct, 2005 10:58 am
I like the way you are thinking Sean... :)
Posts: 5,981 Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Fri 07 Oct, 2005 11:54 am
| Russ Ellis wrote: |
| I like the way you are thinking Sean... :) |
Must be the Alabama connection. Actually, one historian has suggested that our region's attraction to war, dueling, feuds and general mayhem migrated with us from the Scottish Highlands and Anglo-Scottish Borders. In his view, Highland charge = rebel charge, rebel yell and all. Sounds a little master-raceish to me, although I confess that the 16th c. Flynts were Scots borderers, and my blood does seem to cry out for a Jeddart staff, basket hilt sword and longbow. :lol:
Posts: 410 Location: Washington and Yokohama
Fri 07 Oct, 2005 6:13 pm
I have the Albion Warhammer head. I love it. It was a great price! The casting is a little rough and has some pits and uneveness, but that makes it all the more real looking.
The second from the bottom axe is a Windlass axe, and, after shaving the block handle edges to a nice octagon shape, it handles very nice. The botom is, I belive, a Vince Evans (?) axe taht MRL used to sell.
I also have a windlass flail that is "the poo" at parties. :D I removed one of the ball and chains from it to lighten it up.
(top left.) (one of their maces top right also)
Posts: 2,608
Sun 09 Oct, 2005 7:38 pm
That's a nice setup you have there Alex. Are those copper
shields? Also who hafted that war hammer?
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