[Nathan Robinson]

Today's update:


Man of War: Sir George Clifford
An article by Chad Arnow


Arms & Armor Two-Ring Rapier
A hands-on review by Bill Grandy


CAS Iberia / Hanwei Practical Side Sword
A hands-on review by Bill Grandy


As always, you can see our Complete History of Updates listed right from our home page.

[Michal Plezia]

Clifford's armour is outstanding!Is there anyone today who can make such a beautiful work of art??

[Chad Arnow]

[Michal Plezia]

I didn't notice at first.Thanks.It is incredible piece of work indeed.I wish I could make such armours myself...

[Steve Grisetti]

Yet another fine job by two of the myArmoury "heavy lifting" authors. Thanks to Chad and Bill!

[Ed Toton]

Well done guys; you always have just the right touch!

[Nathan Robinson]

We tried to address the issue of a lack of variety that was raised last update so gave you something completely different this time around. It's about as different from the 100 Years War than you could get

[Max von Bargen]

Another really great update from you guys! I've recently developed a great interest in the rapier, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I also really enjoyed the article on Clifford.

Keep up the great work, gentlemen!
Max

[Allen Andrews]

While I have always enjoyed the weapon reviews (which drew me to this site in the first place) I also find the other articles extremely interesting. I would like to thank all the contributing authors for the time and effort spent to research and present the content found on this site.

[Chad Arnow]

I'm glad people like this update package. We're definitely branching out to cover more than just product reviews (though those will always be a big component of this site). The Man of War series is one such avenue. We often see weapons attributed to historical figures in books and catalogues. This series lets us explore the weapons in more detail than the blurb they'd get in a more general spotlight article. They also let us show a bit about the people behind the weapons and armour.

Since this is a hobbyist site for arms & armour enthusiasts, we try not to go overboard with in-depth biographical info on the person; that would be off-topic to this site and beyond the interest of many readers. Instead, we hope to whet the appetites of the readers so that they might want to go dig out some of their own books and start reading. That's the point of most of our articles, in fact. We know we'll never be at the cutting edge of scholarship. What we seek to do is provide some context to arms & armour and hope that we'll inspire people to want to learn more.

This series has a few more as-yet-unpublished articles and we're always looking for more. These articles aren't hard to write, and are friendly from a production standpoint, too. The initial update groups featuring articles from this series were very highly rated by poll voters, too.

The last two groups with MOW articles (this week's included) have not been as highly rated, and I encourage those who voted "Good" or "Fair" to let us know what we can do to improve our efforts. We won't chastise anyone for voting honestly. Ever. Your honest feedback is important to us, and we do monitor the poll results to guide us in future publications.

We do want people to remember that we're asking for feedback on our efforts, not necessarily on how much you like the pieces. We know that not every update will be liked by everyone, but we hope that our readers always appreciate the effort, even if the topics covered don't rock their worlds that week. We don't expect every update to thrill every member of our audience after all. That would be quite impossible.

The goal is for us to be able to see that our efforts are consistently rated as "top-notch" while we continually expand the breadth of our offerings.

[Peter Fuller]

Interesting article about George Clifford, Chad. However, he would have been mortified to be refered to as a mere knight (although he was a knight of the garter). He was Lord Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland - and would of been referred to as Lord Clifford (My Lord) rather than Sir George.

Also, while it was true that he commanded the Elizabeth Bonaventure, the more famous of his ships, and the one most synonymous with his name, was the Malice Scourge, which he owned himself and had constructed in 1594.

[Chad Arnow]

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

Chad,
Thanks for the article about Lord Clifford. I like the fact that the "sketch book" still survives. I knew about it, but it's always interesting to know a bit about the man who the armour was made for as well! I am very impressed by the replicas by Peter Fuller. It takes skill and talent to create such a masterpiece. The one time I managed to convince my wife to take me to the Higgin's Armoury, she was surprisingly impressed with the details of the decoration on the armour there. Clifford's armour is gorgeous just in photos, I can't imagine what it must look like close-up.

By the way, you're looking for more Man-of War articles, eh? Hmm...

Bill,
Thanks for the reviews. I'm not a rapier man myself (something about being a lefty and not being able to afford a custom job, and the fact that the medieval period is my main period of interest), but I'm always interested in reading about the products out there. I definitely can appreciate rapiers from an artist's perspective, and find some of them to be amazing works of art.

Oh, in case you guys were wondering, I voted "very good". The subject matter is usually interesting, even if it's not in my main area of interest. I'm a bit hard to please, though, so I rarely vote "excellent". Just like with my own writing, I always think that there is a little room for improvement. I personally think that some of the articles could benefit from a little more depth, but I understand that it's not easy to present a lot within the constraints of this format. I applaud the efforts to cover a wider range of topics, since I love to learn new things, or even new information about old topics. I also understand the efforts involved in writing, and I appreciate that this venue offers more than just a forum. I like Chad's attitude about trying to get people more interested in doing their own research; I think it's always a good thing to try to encourage people to read more about a subject. Perhaps some people wish to have all the information presented to them here, and don't yet realize the intentions of the articles. Maybe slightly larger sources lists, or a "suggested reading" list with each article might help encourage people to seek the information for themselves.

I know Chad's comments were directed more at those that voted "Good" or "Fair", but I thought I would put in my two cents worth.

Keep up the good work!