A Commonplace Book

Tapered rattan spears offer several advantages when simulating armored spear combat within the Society for Creative Anachronism . Medieval s...

When two men at arms consented to face each other in a limited and controlled deed of arms on foot in the 14th or 15th century, how far were...

It’s been reported that Prince Harry will not be going to Iraq. I can appreciate the reasons for that, particularly the risk the presence of...

The best way to deal with the Frank Miller graphic novel 300 and the movie based on it is to forget about historical Greece. Instead suppos...

In recent years a number of merchants have outsourced the tedious manual labor of building riveted mail to India, where wages are low, and c...

The Halfswording and Mortschlag rules I suggest are similar to but more restrictive in how blows may be struck than current SCA experimenta...

There are a limited number of ways an edge blow can be effective against plate armor, and an account of a deed of arms at Noseroy in 1519 , ...

Some very nice pictures of the effigy of Philip the Bold (d. 1404, but the effigy may be somewhat later) in Dijon are posted on the Schola G...

Based on this 14th c. record of contributions to ransoms , a decent rule of thumb for a gentleman’s ransom might be one to two year’s income...

Earlier , I discussed the metallurgy of 48 pieces of 14th c. armor analyzed by Alan Williams in The Knight and the Blast Furnace . These inc...