Hi all,
I've put together a compilation of posts I've made on another forum, chronicling the production of a mid-late 15th century Cuirass and Great Bascinet I've been working on recently. I've got the dates from the "diary entries" at the top of each section, so you can have context on the progress. We had the last fitting yesterday and the customer is delighted, I'm pleased to say. He's been pretty much the perfect client- available for fittings, flexible with design considerations allowing me the creative freedom to make the project all it can be, -and- he's got a shape that really makes the armour look like what it should, in the proportions that are the hallmark of mid-late 15th century armour.

Jan 4, 09
Here's a project we're working on for a client now. We're training him to joust at Knight School. It's a 1460-70 Italian (Milanese) Cuirass made in spring steel.

We'll be making a spring steel great bascinet with a frog mouth jousting visor and an interchangeable melee/foot combat visor also.

The source pieces for this project are the Frederich the Victorious helm in Vienna and various cuirasses from Berne, Swizterland, Mantua and Churburg. The goal here is to produce an original work that's not an exact copy of an extant piece, but one that works stylistically within the period aesthetic and would fit in amongst survivals. I like doing that on most of my pieces, so a client gets something unique but still historically accurate in form and function.

Here are the pictures from the fitting yesterday-
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I'll be posting more photos as there are still some details to add to the cuirass and I didn't shoot the tassets in these photos. I also have the rolls done now. The straps shown in the above pics are just temps for the fitting. I'll be starting the helm this week too, so that should be interesting to see as it progresses.

For those who are interested, we are accepting commissions for spring steel pieces! The standard 14th c stuff is up (the stuff people have fought over when used pieces come up for sale...:shock:), so take a look on the HE website. We're very much open to custom historical pieces too-- Just drop me a line and inquire. jeffrey @ historicenterprises.com

Jan 8, 09
The cuirass is basically ready to heat treat. Did up the rolls, hinges and trimmed some plates since the last photos. Also did a little hot-work on the culet plate. It's come together nicely, and the afternoon I'll be patterning the great bascinet.

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A couple of other views, since you can't see all the shape in the ones above...
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Feb 6, 09
I've gotten a lot of hard work done on the great bascinet that goes with this cuirass, so thought folks here would like to see.

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Here's the album with more photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77300&a...=554676085

Mar 5, 09
I've gotten further along on the helmet, so here's a couple more photos:
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I'm working on the two visors now, one for tilting and one for melee, and will post more pics when those are a little further along in a day or so.

Hope you likeee. :P

Mar 6, 09
The Tourney visor...
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...and the Tilting visor...
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Overall I'm pretty pleased with it, and I'm hoping the client will be too. :o

Mar 7, 09
Successful fitting for sight position and approval of visors. Client is ecstatic.

...Next stop.........final planishing, then visor hinges, heat treatment and polishing.

Jeff,

Thanks very much for sharing this with us.

Its very cool to see things moving along the process.

-Joe

Very nice...........


Love the duct-tape fastening method, btw :lol: :lol: :lol: