The Art of Making Armour: A Craftsman's Guide to Creating Authentic Armour Reproductions [Paperback]

Rob Valentine (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 90 pages
• Publisher: American Literary Press (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156167527X
• ISBN-13: 978-1561675272
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,699,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More Company Advertisement Than Technical Work, February 13, 2002

By 

Michael Seminara (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Making Armour: A Craftsman's Guide to Creating Authentic Armour Reproductions (Paperback)

The title of Rob Valentine's work The Art of Making Armour: a Craftsman's Guide to Creating Authentic Reproductions is a bit misleading. While it does show extensive photographs of the armourer at work, it offers very little substance in the way of techniques and methods. The text, what little there is, gives the reader scant insight to the craft. For example, a section is dedicated to the fact that his armoury produces their own rivets, while this is an interesting tidbit, it has more of a feel of a company ad brochure than an instructional work.
Often the photos are not in sequence (for example, early in the work, a breastplate is shown being worked, and then suddenly on the same page photos of a chin piece) and lessen the impact of the work. Instead of teaching, the work tends more to show how his techniques offer the client quality pieces, again giving the reader a sense that this is more of an advertisement than actual scholarly intruction.

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fairly disappointed, May 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Making Armour: A Craftsman's Guide to Creating Authentic Armour Reproductions (Paperback)

On the positive side, Rob Valentine makes some phenomenal armor, and I have seen his work. It is excellent. His book also has excellent photos. On the negative, I'm afraid I was a bit disappointed with this book. I didn't learn anything. It is not a book explaining how to make armor, as I was under the impression, but a book giving a basic overview of the concept behind putting together a suit is. Whereas I wanted what tools I'd need and patterns, there are only a few sentences depicting each part of the armor. To his credit, Valentine does not claim this to be that type of book, but other sources mislead me. If you want to know how it's done but don't care to ever do it, this book is fine, but otherwise you don't need it. You can find all of the information on the internet very easily.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thin as a spiders web, but not as sticky, June 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Making Armour: A Craftsman's Guide to Creating Authentic Armour Reproductions (Paperback)

Well, I bought it, and got it and was very disapointed.
I expected more from such a great armourer as R. Valentine. Instead I found great amusement in Brian R. Price's; Techniques of midieval armour reproduction, the 14th. century.
If you want a book to show you how to make your own armour, or how it was done, buy the biggest book.

B. R. Price - 485 pages + sources !!!!

R. Valentine - 90 pages (mainly pictures)

Norwegian Armourer.