[Al Muckart]

I'm curious as to what people who fight regularly in high-quality reproduction armour are using for arming points since it's one of these details that doesn't seem to get a lot of attention.

I haven't exactly been exposed to a lot of people using seriously high quality armour (Having just moved to the vicinity, I managed to be out of town for the jousing at Harcourt Park this year, darn it!) so everyone I've seen (including people wearing seriously high quality reproduction 15th century civilian dress) was using modern machine-produced cord as far as I could see.

How a man shall be armed says:

[Kel Rekuta]

Al,

That is awesome! Exactly what is it and how did you found your linen? I'm in the shoe supplies industry and can get just about any commercial linen thread combination. Everything I have on hand is right or left twist 3 to 8 cord #18. I have some "hand flax" as the old guys call it, for twisting up your own thread. Is that what you call 8/1?

As to what we use on our kit? I like waxed cotton dress laces. They don't seem to wear out. Take off the plastic shrink aiglette and add a metal cone aiglette and they're good to go. I've given tons of different types of shoe laces to the boys for their kit. Soft braided ones seem to last longer that hard "boot" laces. Waxing makes them stay tied better. I got some German hand thread wax, pretty sticky stuff. (Gnomenvax)

The one thing that makes points last longer is leather lacing tabs. Most munition armour has lacing holes through the metal at every point. Some items have to be this way but most do not. Its a small thing but usually overlooked.

I'm sure you've already tried or found most of this if you are to the level of hand braiding your own laces. However, someone else may not have so I mention it. I'd love to see some progress photos of this project. I am absolutely fascinated by this kind of detail. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

Kel

[Martin Forrester]

This company do hard to find linnen threads
http://www.zsag.ch/
I am told that if you want to get it spot on, anyone who could afford good armour would use silk points. They last too, though they aren't cheap. If you know someone who has any linnen ones for sale, give me a shout cos i can't make them for toffee either.

[Merv Cannon]

Hi Al......... As far as I know the main thread used for Historic Crossbows was and still is is Hemp ! I am told that hemp is so strong that its around 30 times stronger than modern Nylon rope of the same diameter. It's also waterproof which is why it has been used since ancient times for Anchor ropes. Not only waterproof but almost rot-proof and fungus resistant, salt resistant, acid-resistant, etc...this is what I've been told. Heres the link of a company here in Oz that sells it in four sizes... http://www.hempwa.com/category/index.php?categoryId=18 ....its hard to get here in Australia because folks here tend to immediately stop using anything they consider 'old' as soon as a new thing comes along, even if the new is not as good as the old !
I have squired for some of our combatants on occasion and have noticed every type of wierd points being used from leather strands (Army boot laces) to good plain old modern shoelaces !! They are always breaking ( which is why they carry spare shoelaces ! )....so good for you, Al for doing it properly ! Even though they break during combat, they still keep on using the thin shoelaces.....go figure !
While Im on a roll, the other thing that bugs me is that the harness leather straps are usually made of leather thats too thin, and again we get breakage. With the points, I have at least one reference from peroid art that shows the use of 'Particolour' points. Three colours in fact, platted together to form a very strong lacing point.
Good luck and thanks for the info.
Cheers.

[Merv Cannon]

[Al Muckart]

[Al Muckart]

[Al Muckart]

Hi Merv,