From: helm@jade.ucdavis.edu (Catie Helm)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Expensive Armour
Date: 1 Oct 92 04:06:38 GMT
Reply-To: helm@jade.ucdavis.edu
Organization: Geology Department, University of California, Davis


>Twcs, I hope that your US$ (i assume) 150 helm is real
>pretty 

boy, you better believe it is.  Steve Norham made it for the armour-for-sale
display at the DeYoung Museum shop (when the Graz Armoury exhibit from
Austia was here in the Bay area).  It was part of an entire gothic suit
of the maxmillian style - and some person bought the suit but didn't
want the helmet (he bought a Thomas Edmound of Ryeslip helm instead to
go with the suit, a helm which didn't match...go figure...)  So Steve
was stuck with this beautiful reproduction sallet.  He added a grill
under the chin to make it SCA legal (it's practically invisible), but
had a horrible time trying to sell it since it was too small for most
people.  Lucky for me, I have a small head ;-> and got it at a price
much less than what it was tagged for at the DeYoung - but it still
wasn't cheap.  If you are not familiar with Steve Norham's work, let me
assure you - it's not just a helm, it's a piece of art.

>(not that I can really talk - I'm swopping my Popeye-forearms boyfriend
>a helm for a gambeson and arming cap : I can't shift 12g and he's afraid of
>sewing machines.

yep, done the barter bit myself on occassion.  I currently have a standing
offer to do a piece of leather in a 13th century style in exchange for
a whole suit...  The problem is finding the 6 months to do the piece of
leather.  :-(  

>But seriously - does _everyone_ buy their armour or is it just a large portion
>who have the money to do so?

When I had a salary and good cash flow, I bought armour when I didn't have
the time to do barter.  Unfortunately for me, the sorts of things I do for
barter (artwork, leather) are very time consuming.  (If you don't think
that leather is time consuming, you haven't seen my leatherwork...  I fall
into the compulsively authentic school of leather working - every decorative
motif I use these days is based on something I've documented from period.
I've made my own tools, because you can't buy the right sorts of tools to
do period style decoration on leather otherwise.  Too bad New Zealand is
too far to visit, or I'd come and show off - and I love to show off  ;-)

Now that I'm back in grad school, I will be spending no money on armour.

Incidentally, when I was working on my master's degree, I didn't have
the means to get armour.  I had no money.  I didn't have a reputation in
the arts back in those days, so I didn't have the leverage to barter.
And back in those days when I was living in Caid, the local SCA culture
was adverse to helping women get into fighting, so I had no where to go
to try to make my own stuff.  :-(

On top of it all, I started chirurgeoning when I lived in Caid.  During
my first year of chirurgeoning, I packaged up four (yes, four!) boxer
fractures of meta-carpals (broken hands) for people wearing hockey gloves.
Don't get me going on how great hockey gloves are as inexpensive hand
protection, becuase my experience as a chirurgeon argues otherwise.
I have never seen a hockey glove that can protect a hand from a "boxer
fracture" (ie, compression fracture).  A hockey glove alone is not
sufficient protection in my opinion (and when I do armour inspection,
I will flunk unaltered hockey gloves - and everyone who has appealed
my decisions concerning their hockey gloves have had their appeals
overturned.  It's one of my pet peeves, I do confess.)

Being both a fighter and chirurgeon has given me some very strong ideas
about what constitutes safe armour, just in case anyone missed that small
fact...   ;-)   I have a little notebook full of cases of where armour
or the lack of it abetted an injury.

*end of rant*   

Yo, where did this soapbox come from?  Must have been
hiding in among the boxes I haven't unpacked yet from moving...

>Cheers, Eleonora van den Bogaerde, Southron Gaard, Caid.
>Simone Hindin, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Twcs, simple country pondscum, Windymedes in Cynagua, 'da West
Regna?  Quae Alia Regna?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Catie Helm, internet: helm@geology.ucdavis
Stable Isotope Lab, Geology Dept.
University of California, Davis