Post/Author/DateTime	Post
CrabHeart 02-28-07, 07:52 PM	im gonig on my d&d camping trip and im trying to be as realistic to medieval as possible
Edymnion 02-28-07, 08:21 PM	im gonig on my d&d camping trip and im trying to be as realistic to medieval as possibleOff the top of my head, no. But I know how you can find out. You need to get in touch with your local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA. These are the guys that like to do medieval recreation for the fun parts. As in, they do armorsmithing, they learn to fight with period weapons, but they have no qualms about wearing wrist watches and using indoor plumbing. Hence the "creative anachronism" part of their name. An anachronism, for the record, is something that should not exist in a given time, such as watching Walking With Cavemen and spotting a caveman wearing nikes. Anyway, odds are they will have somebody that hand crafts exactly this kind of leathergood. And if your local chapter doesn't have someone, they will know exactly who you can get it from, and can likely get you a good deal on it. To find your local SCA chapter, check their website: http://www.sca.org/
CrabHeart 02-28-07, 08:29 PM	was there really a caveman wearing nikes in walking with cavemen.... thatd be funny as hell...
Bullshido 02-28-07, 08:31 PM	Are you going to stay in character?
Edymnion 02-28-07, 08:55 PM	was there really a caveman wearing nikes in walking with cavemen.... thatd be funny as hell...Actually, its possible. I saw the behind the scenes stuff for that special. They basically said that the experts could not get those hides and furs to stay together using period technology, and that they finally resorted to essentially safety pinning it together. It wouldn't suprise me in the least to hear that some of the fur and hide boots they wore later on were actually street shoes that had been covered. But typically, you see anachronisms pop up in period movies and TV shows where one of the actors forgets to take off a ring, a watch, an earring, something like that, or they think it won't be visible on camera. A really good example was in the original theatrical release of Lord of the Rings here a few years ago. In one of the sweeping scenes of the Shire, you could see the reflection off a car windshield as it drove down the road behind the set. Not exactly ancient middle earth technology there. It was digitally removed from the DVDs, but if you know where you look, you can still see the scenery "jump" where they basically just copy and pasted a bit of hillside over the flash.
paladin2019 03-01-07, 12:02 AM	There's always Wilson's Leather or whatever in your local mall, if you don't want to do a lot of footwork.
MagnaSecuris 03-01-07, 12:51 AM	Or you could buy some leather at a fabric shop and make it yourself. Bags are easy. All you'd need is a really strong needle and some high quality thread.
roetroc 03-01-07, 04:12 AM	I'd hardly call fighting with duct tape covered sticks "period weapons", unless you are recreating late 20th century recreationist groups. Still they would be a pretty good bet to find someone who could make you something like that. However, I can't recall any images of medieval people using leather backpacks. Leather satchels used to carry books are probably the closest I've seen. Most back mounted carrying devices seem to be wicker baskets (sometimes with wooden lids) or nets wrapped around goods which might be contained in a piece of strong cloth. There are also cloth bags like snapsacks . And Magnasecuris is right, they are quite easy to manufacture using leather, strong thread, an appropriate needle. An awl is useful for most leathers of any thickness and a stitch marking wheel if you want to be neat. If you uswe goatskin you can poke you needle straight through as its pretty thin.
paladin2019 03-01-07, 08:51 AM	I'd hardly call fighting with duct tape covered sticks "period weapons", unless you are recreating late 20th century recreationist groups. Not to get off-topic, but foil covered wood was in used for foot tournaments, hence the etymology of the foil used in fencing.
Aberlonian 03-01-07, 12:18 PM	Try an army surplus store.
Edymnion 03-01-07, 12:57 PM	I'd hardly call fighting with duct tape covered sticks "period weapons", unless you are recreating late 20th century recreationist groups.And period knights learned to sword fight with wooden swords, whats you point? No, they're not stupid, they don't put a 3 foot long piece of steel in the hands of a newbie and tell him to go swing it at somebody. They make soft safety weapons out of dowels wrapped in foam and duct tape that are the same shape as the weapon they use, and weight it so that it's balance is the same as the real thing. They learn to use the weapon, and get to have fun sparring with each other, without risking actually killing anybody. I mean, really, would you say you're not learning to shoot gun because its using paint bullets (not paint balls, paint bullets) instead of full metal jackets...
roetroc 03-02-07, 01:39 AM	I'm not arguing that medieval people didn't learn to fight with wooden wasters (this is known from at least the 10th C) and the going back further Romans used them as well, however these were shaped as swords as surviving examples demonstrate and were certainly not round. Possibly due to such practises encouraging poor form. I cannot think of a single reference to foil covered wooden swords used in tournaments from history. I can think of a single reference for silver leaf or foil over whalebone from the late 13th century as they tried to make tournaments safer. I can think of wooden clubs used for the kolbentournier from the 15th century in Germany, and inumerable references to rebated swords including images of smiths grinding back blades to be used. Wooden swords were used between people at their homes, but the rebated sword seems to the sword of choice for the tournament. I cannot recall the use of basket hilts in medieval tournaments which of course changes the balance of your sword remarkably. On the foil, I would imagine that "foil" coming from covering cutting swords in silver leaf 500 years earlier would hardly be likely to be the origin of the modern fencing foil. Foyning sword (another name for an estoc or tuck) would be a more likely origin as at least this weapon has a thrusting basis. Anyway, back to the point, I think for a medieval bag a satchel would be a good choice.
roetroc 03-02-07, 01:42 AM	You know I just did a quick search and foudn that "foil" is the Anglised version of the French refouler which means to turn back. Learned something I did. I imagine the silver foil reference is one of those unfortunate misunderstandings that sometimes seem to right at the time.