Do folks out there have experience with Forth Armory? Here's a link: http://www.forth-armoury.com/.

Jouster/forum member Lloyd Clark had this to say:

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If you want a tough pig-face, and don't care for authenticity, Forth Armory has SS ones for $250 (in 14ga!). They also have SS Sugarloafs and Great Helms as well. Very good helms for "live" steel practice and jousting.

Anyone else have experience with them?

I plan on purchasing some maille supplies from them when they're back in stock. The only experience I've had thus far has been through e-mail, but the responses have been prompt and curteous. Not much to add I'm afraid.

I purchased a houndskull bascinet from Forth Armoury. Excellent value for the price; not suitable for Living History, but well made. Steve's supply of goods is variable, so if there is something you have in mind, I would go for it. Service was entirely satisfactory (except for the trouble he has keeping stuff in stock!).

Felix Wang wrote:

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...not suitable for Living History...

By this do you mean "it is not period-accurate enough for living history" or do you mean "it is not suitable for stage combat"?

Just curious :) .

My helmet is stainless steel, so period accuracy is sacrificed. On the other hand, for stage combat it would probably be eminently suitable, being tough and needing little maintenance.

Dang, everything's out of stock! :surprised: I wonder if he's okay... Here's hoping that Christmas buisness was good to him and he's just temporarily sold out of stock .

The helmets are for the SCA -as you can tell, they're in stainless or an overly-heavy guage for period repros. I have no idea if he makes his helmets or has them made for him, and I have no idea what their quality is.

I *do* know that, at least until recently, his primary buisness was his maille. And I also know that Steve's maille is second to none in the production world, and only a handfull of maille makers in the custom world can exceed the quality of his work. It is emminently suitable for living history. He's the go-to guy for earlier-period armor needs. If there's a flaw with his work, it's that it's too perfect to be perfectly authentic. Eric Schmidt can go into this far better than I, if he happens to run across this thread.
You cannot go wrong with Steve's work -not the maille, anyway.

bah, for a maillemaker who -at the time- seemed to get into selling helms only because he was able to sell more aventails that way, he's "out of stock." :p

Thanks for the info, everyone. Stainless steel aside, how historically accurate is the design of the hounskull bascinet?

The eyeslits are listed as .375". Are the proportions of that and the rest of the helm historically plausible?

You can buy very similar maile from http://www.gdfb.co.uk/acatalog/index.html
They are based in england,but are cheaper than Fourth.
I own a hauberk from Fourth, which I'm quite happy with... It need some customization, though, especialy on the sleeves, which are very wide.
BDFB also sells lose pannels of riveted chain mail....

And, oh, I belive they are in stock ;)

Yours
Elling

One thing to remember is that, here in the USA, we live on the other side of the planet from GDFB. I just shipped a 28 pound hauberk off to the northwest part of this country and the shipping was considerable. Dealing direct with a vendor, and avoiding the retailer, may save you some money in many cases. However, in the case of international shipping of heavy and/or large products and perceived savings can be eaten up pretty quickly.

I just purchased the pair of scaled gauntlets. Steven's response was immediate and the service was very good. As for the quality we shall have to see what we have to see.