Last summer, 2004, Ruel A Macaraeg visited the workshop of Armour Class, in Glasgow,Scotland !

The reasons for his visit was twofold ....
Firstly, to purchase one of their fine claidheamh dà làimh (which is a beautiful recreation of a classic 16th century two-hander) and secondly, to meet some of the talented craftspeople behind the hammers, while getting a firsthand look at the workshop where these fine products are made!

Ruel snapped the following 11 images ..... I will let him fill in the details, or answer any questions concerning them !

Alba gu brath, Mac

continued .....

This only makes me want to have my Armourclass Cup and Ring baskethilt even more. :D

Great to see the workshops where all their swords are made. Very nice.

*sigh* Only a few more weeks........ :)

This is an interesting pic, as it shows their construction method on a few different basket-hilt types !
Looks like they cut out a pattern ( or it's punched out ?) and basically fold it up and weld, rather than assemble alot of sperate components !

Mac

Hi Chad

Thanks for that, I'd forgotten !

I guess I never really got a grasp of their process until I saw that photo ..... interesting !
I know Donnie Shearer said he had a sheet pattern for a Drury regimental style hilt, perhaps he does something similar to what AC is doing on that one ?

Thanks again, Mac

Chad Arnow wrote:

Mac, That's true. I outlined the process a bit in my AC Cup and Ring basket hilt review.

Mac,

Thanks a bunch fo posting these! To see the birth-place of "my precious" is grand. and come to think of it, if these were taken "last summer", one of those Mort. hilts on the bottom shelf ,could've been mine in the making. One-day, when we get back over there, this is one place I must stop-into to view for myself.

That two-hander is quite brilliant as well!

Bill

Thanks for the "inside scoop", Mac and Ruel!

I have a couple AC swords myself -- a Stirling-style "Wave-Hilt" backsword and a Stirling-style "Diamond-hilt" broadsword. They are not as finely detailed as a Vince Evans or Eljay Erickson, but they are very nice swords -- probably the best production (or more accurately, semi-production) Scottish basket hilts on the market currently.
My "Wave" hilt is a bit hefty for what it is, but it is very finely balanced, with a feel I'd describe as "precise". The Diamond hilt is better in terms of weight and in just very sweet to handle.

Thanks Mac for getting the pix up -- and for your constant enthusiasm! -- and for everyone else's kind words. Let's see if we can make some sense of these shots; I'll try to put them in order as I took them.

The Armour Class workshop is in an industrial park on the western outskirts of Glasgow; you'd never find it if you didn't know exactly where to go! I suppose craftsmen need that kind of solitude to work. This is Ian, who showed me around the shop. Here he's demonstrating the flexibility of a newly tempered blade:
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The blades get dunked in these three vats. I believe one is water, one is an oil quench, and the last for cryogenic tempering:
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I can't recall what this is, but hopefully one of our resident makers will recognize it:
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As noted above, these are templates for Scottish baskethilts.
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Baskethilts and other complex hilts including clamshells and pappenheimers awaiting their cutlers:
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Blade blanks. Ian said that most of their orders actually go to various live steel groups in the UK, some of whom even do sharpened sparring. According to him, Armour Class doesn't encourage this, but simply accepts it as the state of the market and adjusts production accordingly.
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Some assembled swords: Clam/cuphilt rapier, shortsword mounted as a cuphilt, swepthilt rapier, Viking sword, main gauche, another clamshell with its main gauche, and a baskethilt (spadroon?). All handled nicely.
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More finished swords; the Gilling at the end was particularly nice.
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The one on the right is actually a saber with a shallow curve. This was probably the most interesting piece I handled there; too bad its not listed on the AC website because, given the fad for Euro-sabers currently taking hold, I'm sure it'd be on many short lists!
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Sporrans and other tooled leatherwork. The baskethilts in front have a browned finish that looks pretty nice.
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I forgot I had this picture! This is my claymore, held by a fine Scottish gentleman who's the managing technician for several buildings on the Glasgow University campus. He's probably about 5'9", to give some frame of reference. Despite my best efforts to hide it, the box was too big not to attract the notice of my fellow conference delegates and I had to let them all have a few swings with the sword. :)
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OK! Hopefully more to come from the Hunterian Museum. Thanks for letting me share, if a little late.

Hi Ruel

Thanks for letting us know the scoop on those photos .... much appreciated !
(I will add them to the Album section, unless you wish to ?)

Okay, next I will attach some of the photos Ruel took at the Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery , Glasgow .

Again, I'll let Ruel comment on what he shot !

* I do recognize that targe, though .....
It is know as the earliest dated targe, MacKay, which has '1623' engraved on its brass boss .

Mac

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Here are a couple extra. These were acquired during the Captain Cook voyages. As you may know, Joseph Banks, the independently wealthy science officer on one of the expeditions who provided much of the financing, later fell out with the Royal Society. Instead of giving his acquisitions to them, he distributed them among his friends, one of whom was the eponymous Hunter (then of the Royal College of Physicians). These form the backbone of the Hunterian's historical and biological collections.

These two are Maori, from New Zealand: a maripi 'human skinner' fleshing knife/weapon with lashed shark's teeth, and a taiaha fighting staff.


This is a Haida whalebone club (NWCoast Indians):

These are Eskimo knives of walrus ivory.


Finally, a lorica segmentata. The captions on this weren't up, so I don't know if it's an original, a restored original, or a replica.