Its also worth saying that if you have more time but less money, standing in front of a polishing wheel can be rewarding :)

I'll be making a separate post later this week but I wanted to go ahead and chime in again. I just got my MT breast and fauld. What a bargain! Not only did Allan nail the design brief I gave him, he also managed to fit me perfectly based on a few key measures. There are very nice little details here that I never would have expected from sub-$200 kit. Perfect fit and articulation in the fauld, good weight, properly rolled edges (even on the fauld) sliding rivets, stout straps, painted interior....

The finish is excellent. As others have noted above, historical finishes vary greatly. What I have here is an almost perfect surface with what I'd classify as a medium polish. There are what I guess are rotary polish marks over the whole surface, and I think that's what makes these pieces hard to photograph well. If you want to do serious living history I think you'd want to lightly finish the surface by hand with a sanding sponge or something to remove those, but very few folks will be bothered by the finish as-is. For just under $200 I have functional, made-to-measure armour that gives me the option of leaving it as-is or doing any amount of further refinement to suit my taste, usage and collection.

My dilemma now is whether to pair it with my (bright) GDFB sallet project or go all-in, disassembling, polishing, bluing and re-assembling to match my north Italian/Austrian sallet. The brass buckles and rivets would look mighty nice on a blued surface...maybe over a red jack or livery coat. :D

I too can vouche for the quality of Allan's armor. I use his legs, greaves, and integrated arms with a bascinet, breastplate, besagews, and from Wild Armoury. As can be seen, it is not all rough from the hammer in finish, and the articulation is smooth as could be asked for. The armor certainly achieves what it is designed to do.

I like a bright finish--because I wear my harness in all weathers and the higher the polish is, the more it resists rust. This is not an old wives tale...

However, while I know very little about how Medieval armour was maintained, I know a bit about swords and guns in the mid-late 18th c. and most of those were kept bright by burnishing. I burnish my armour with a polished chain mail palm (US Navy issue 1925).

A side story--a few years ago, I purchased an original, bright burnished British flintlock military pistorl (about 1760) in very nice condition. --on the way to an event. I arrived, a biddy of mine asked to see it, I handed it to him, and then went off to be the captain... next thing I knew, I was packing up on Sunday, and to everyone's chagrin found my original horse pistol in the wet grass. It had lain there Thursday night until Sunday... in rain and freezing cold.

No rust at all. Not a speck. In find original blades doing the same thing, although I try to avoid quite the same level of testing...

My conclusion is that regular burnishing knocks the burs down so that there are few points for an H2O molecule to attach. I'd be delighted for a metalsmith professional to tell me if there's any science to back the observation.

In the meantime, I like burnishing....

Allan, my grandfather told me that the cavalry used it on their sabers--that's the US cavalry in WWI. Certainly was the US Navy's tool of choice for polishing steel in 1925...

BTW, since this is a thread devoted to the subject, I LOVE the finish on the Merc Tailor stuff. And suddenly there's quite a lot of it around.... :)

Great kit Robert!

Cole

Let me echo Cole, Robert. excellent look!

Christian, you might actually know the woodworker, its a local guy's shoppe Wendell Castle http://www.wendellcastlecollection.com/index...._furniture . He was in Scottville for years. The reason they called me out was to make some maille squares for them for burnishing wood.

If you ever snap a pic of the maille polishing glove i'd dig seeing what it looks like.

Thank you kindly, gentlemen!

Here's the finish on mine. More here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=213877#213877

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