Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: LtHans on April 12, 2002, 06:59:42 AM
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My twin brother and I have a fairly...unusual hobby. We've taken up making armor. Our first suit is a Japanese Yokinoshita-Do out of heavy stainless steel.
What do you think so far?
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More pics
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Hey thats a cool hobby, looks nice, just think how cool a collection would look.
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And the combat stance. Incidentally we've reverse engineered Kendo (Japanese swordsmanship) with this photo. In Kendo you often use overhead attacks with the sword, and not much sideways slashing. Why? The armor you wear into battle is somewhat restrictive. You can't take either arm much past straight out from your body. The chestplate stops you. The only really powerful two handed attack you can make is a downwards chop from above.
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Um.....I know the fella who made all the suits of armour for the film "A knights tale"
I'd ask him for tips for ya but he only works with latex.
(http://www.swoop.com/images/logo_small.jpg)
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"In Kendo you often use overhead attacks with the sword"
All attacks in Kendo are lethal; which is why you charge foreward through the opponant, he's not there, you just killed him.
All attacks are full strength attacks, begining from behind the head, cutting through the target synchronised with a scream, and moving forward right foot first through the opponants space. Failing to complete that specific sequence will invalidate the cut and you score no perkies! There is no fencing, merely full cuts, stabbing (to throat and thorax) or jabbing with the reversed sword handle to throat or thorax. As you've already found out, you cant fence in full armour any way.
The best sword fighting you'll see on film is an old Bob Mitchum film called "Yacuzza". Really good.
The nearest you get to a "slashing attack" are a down ward cut to the left side of the opponants hip, twisting the blade to cut him in half at the hips, or a down ward cut to the oppoants right side, relaxing your grip and disembowling him as he runs forward.
You may always cut off his right hand, and his left too if it's above head hieght.
There are only eight targets in Kendo:
The sides and centre of the head
Throat and thorax
The Hips
The wrists.
Remember, Kendo isn't "Japanese sword fighting"; it's a Japanese sport using swords. (Nothing with "Do" on the end is Japaneese fighting, but a Japanese sport, that's a post war, post MacArthur invention)
Here's a conundrum for you - every one knows Samurai have two swords - but any Kendo master will go ballistic if he catches you practising with two Shin ai (I made of couple of short ones for friends), I've never found out why.
Ia, if you can find a teacher, is closer to what your looking for, it's best described as "the art of the quick draw"; very elegant and often done with live blades.
Remember that swords were expensive and rare, the halberd (sword on a stick, can't remember the oriental name) is an older and more common weapon, and the one Samaurai women were trained with too. Tie some long ribbons to the blade/stick join, it looks great when you're practising.
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I'm a blacksmith, not a warrior. You won't find me on the practice mat. I only want to build the stuff.
Incidentally, the next project will be a European Gothic plate armor, similar to this
THIS IS NOT MY WORK, just my inspiration.
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And for weaponry, memory serves that the primary weapon of the Samurai is the bow and arrow, as they are mostly mounted archers. A little trick they learned from the Mongolians during their first invasion of Japan.
Also, same goes for the European Knights. They're swordsman SECOND, mounted spearmen first (the Lance).
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Make my cod piece extra large :)
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just don't go near the mailbox on recycling days :)
cool stuff though, the Renaissance fair is is in town this weekeknd, just not my cup of tea
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Nice work LtHans (and twin) :)
Is all your metal work done in a forge?
I've used English wheels for making chestplates etc. but have never had the opportunity for forge work. Right now I'm working on chainmail..a long and tedious process. :)
I would love to see some more pics if you have any. Close-ups would be nice. :)
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That looks pretty sweet Hans.
Good luck with the medieval armor, let us know how it turned out.
I was never into armor, but I did use to collect swords. Cas Iberia, Toledo, etc. I love them, some of the most beautiful works of arts in swordsmanship.
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Awesome hans! take a look at this link for samurai armour names: http://www.samuraisword.com/armor.htm
"And for weaponry, memory serves that the primary weapon of the Samurai is the bow and arrow, as they are mostly mounted archers. A little trick they learned from the Mongolians during their first invasion of Japan"
Its the other way around. When the the Khan tried to invade Japan, the Japanese fought mainly with bow and arrow, using straight edged swords as a secondary means of fighting. Also, they "fought" by challenging another opponent by ID'ing themselves and their lineage and accomplishments until they found someone "in their level" to duel to the death.
Now here come the Khan's armies and face the Samurai (mainly from the Hojo clan)...and they are dumbstruck as the Japanese warriors come to them screaming stuff and making individual combat challenge gestures. Of course, the mongols laughed their butts off and charged them as a unit, slaughtering the samurai in the majority of the battles they had. Then the Kamikaze storms washed the mongol army away.
After that the Samurai changed their tactics drastically, dropping the straight-edged sword they had adopted from the chinese and instead took up the curved blade used by the original natives of the isles.. which would later become the Katana sword. Since the mongols fought as a unit rather than in individual duels, the samurai took the sword and spear as their main weapon of combat and developed cavalry and tactics to fight as a unit rather than as an individual.
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Boy, and people make fun of my RoboCop suit I paid big bucks for!
"Drop it, creep"
:)
When I was doing tech support for an Internet Firm, we had a guy who, while on the phone, with hammer, pliers and such, was making chain-mail armor. He brought it two broadswords one day and we duked it out in a mock sword fight with those. Wholly heavy! Sparks, CLANG CLANG....we had a ball...
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seems like a remeber that japanese armor of the time was really not designed for sword combat . it was decended from chinese archer armor . reference was one of the disovery armor shows , it had a guy wearing a suit in the british armory . light but not very efective and as i remeber it was not metal . but laqer.
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(http://home1.stofanet.dk/stsanta/kite.jpg)
This is a cool hobby :)
Kite surfing. Gonna take it up this summer. Denmark is perfect for it; lots of extremely long beaches, plenty of wind, very near to the sea :).
And, it's not even an expensive sport.
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Nice work LtHans (and twin). Is all your metal work done in a forge?
No forge was used. All the work was done in 16 gauge stainless steel cold, mostly using both a sheet metal roller and the old fashioned way....2# sledge hammer with the edges ground off (to prevent maring the surface) while beating the metal over an anvil, a ball trailer hitch set sideways in a vice and supported by an airplane jack, and a shot bag. We also used a Rotex punch quite a bit, as drillng holes is alot slower than punching them.
I've used English wheels for making chestplates etc. but have never had the opportunity for forge work. Right now I'm working on chainmail..a long and tedious process. I would love to see some more pics if you have any. Close-ups would be nice.
We have an English wheel available at our hanger, but only really used it to take out dents. We don't have a small enough roller to do the work we need.
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hans, I can't help it but.....
After seeing that 1st picture all I could think of was that duel scene from The Holy Grail..hehe
Serioulsy though, good work. I've collected swords over the years and studied hard how to use them :) But I have to profess some ignorance on armor as I find it too restrictive to fight worth a dam..hehe.
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That is beautiful work LtHans. Your armor making is a labor of love without question. How did you do the dragon design on the breastplate? It looks like it's etched or sandblasted in the steel.
Les
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The symbol is done with a bead blaster.