[David Ballard]

Hi All,
I just joined and am blown away with the amazing information here. I look forward to becoming a participating member of this group. I'm going to be looking at the articles and forms here but I was hoping to get all of your expertise and advice to help me start off in the right direction.

I'm interested in recreating a soft kit. I need help knowing where to find historically accurate information (I feel like everything I see online is modern incorrect garbage), examples of the various soft kit parts, and any tips in recreating those pieces.

I'm not sure what time period I want to have my kit be from, maybe you can help me identify this. I'm wanting to carry an arming sword, buckler, pouch, Rondel dagger, and Bullock dagger (these two daggers are worn together right? The rondel for defense and the bullock for everything else?) So what time period would you see people walking around with this get up?

Where can I find examples of all the different parts of the soft kit for this time period? Oh and when it comes to suspending the sword and other components was there a way to suspend your sword by straps so you can swap out for a different sword instead of making a new belt specific for each sword scabbard? I don't want to have a different belt for each sword I want to carry if at all possible.

Thank you all so much for your advice and input.

[JG Elmslie]

Bollock Dagger, not Bullock.
One is a pair of testicles, the other is a cow. You dont see many cow-shaped daggers...

Now that out the way, I would be very wary of your bit about

[David Ballard]

Hey JG Elmslie,
Thank you for your response, very informative. I didn't realize I was typing Bollock incorrectly my bad.

I like your logic when it came to the daggers. I am a HEMA practitioner and we go through Fiore dagger plays and my instructors have taught that you would be carrying the Rondel dagger because it was good at going through the layers of wool worn when in civilian clothes so I guess I assumed that you would have both. But your logic makes sense because you can use Fiore dagger plays with both types of daggers.

In regards to this segment:
"So my suggestion there would be to really think more about the geographical area, the social standing, and the particular time period which really interests you, and to start to focus in on what appeals to you - there's such a range between Italian swordsmen in the early 16th C, and a german or english sword and buckler at the start of the 14th C, that you really should nail down your target choice, and then things like the choice of what knives (military and civilian cutlery), clothing, headwear, footwear, and the likes can be properly defined."

What books, webpages, or resources do you personally recommend I use to help me see the different types of civilian and military clothing/armor/weaponry and to learn about the details of that time period.

Once again thank you very much for replying and your help.

[Harry Marinakis]

I think you're going about it backwards - you are putting together some items and then trying to figure out what time it fits.

Instead, figure out what time period interests you and put together a well-researched kit that fits that time period. What JG said. Be specific: Exactly what year? What social standing? What job? What town? Answering these questions first makes it a lot easier to research details.

Great resources?

Illuminated manuscripts (try manuscriptminiatures online)
Archive.org (online) has old books in PDF format
Look at the BOOK link on this website (Features.Reviews.Collections.Albums.Forum.Books)

[David Ballard]

Thank you Harry for your input. I think you make a good point. And thank you very much for your resource list. I will come back once I figure out my direction.

[Jens Nordlunde]

I am collecting Indian weapons, but you can colleat whatever you want - is´t is, however, a stony way to walk.
Someone once said to me, if you buy a kilo of irone, you should also buy two kilo of books, and read them - and he is right. The books should not only be on weapons, but also on history.
So when you have say 50 kilos of iron, you can, to my oppinion start to research.
Happy research :-).

[Sean Manning]

[Gregg Sobocinski]

You also might want to reframe your thoughts about daggers. Most blade profiles on rondel daggers were also used on bollock daggers, but with greater blade variety on bollocks. The difference being more that rondel dagger handles are optimized for stabbing in a military context.

Then again, I don’t believe self defense blades lent themselves to daily tasks. If you were going to carry a military dagger, but wanted other blades handy, that’s where the byknives come in.

[Michael P. Smith]