Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A book that cannot be used as a reference book. While the basic steps for making armour are touched on, it is more a collection of pictures taken during the manufacturing of a harness of armour.

Although it's illustration(via photographs) deserves five stars for thorough, step by step visual aid, I give this guide four stars over all. If it is to be a step by step guide some steps need more detailed explanation where, although the photographs might show it, further written clarification is needed and some terms are used but not defined. In some cases more photos would have been useful, but not nessessary if there were text to detail the process, which was merely mentioned briefly. Beginner craftsmen need that extra instruction as to how to achieve a certain effect or finnish. Perhaps even a list and better explanation of the various basic tools one would need would have been an asset. It is very informative despite the great difficulty the author must have had in his efforts to revive an almost lost art. He has obviously learned the craft well and though he admits in the introduction that it is not be considered a conclusive manual, his years of personal experience earns him the title of master artisan and is quite inspirational. It can be a great resource for anyone interested in armour making.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!! BY ALEX PRICE'S BOOK IT HAS SO MUCH MORE IN IT!!!!!!! this book (or overpriced pamphlet) had absolutley no usefull information in it. You would be much better served bying Alex Price's book Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction.

This book tells very little about making armor. It is a collection of shots of a harness as it is made. The pictures are of little use without some explanations. It is like seeing pictures of someone driving a car, looks good but really doesn't tell you how to do it. There are much better books out there, such as Price's Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction; buy that instead.

With all due credit to master armourer Rob Valentine and his work, this isn't "A Craftsman's Guide to Creating Authentic Armour Reproductions", as promised in the title. Contrary to the impression I received from the review claiming this to be "A Formadible Guide to An Almost Lost Art (sic)", this is the farthest thing from a how-to guide imaginable. It's filled with very nice pictures, yes, but the detail on the "how to" is completely non-existent. I was expecting something more informative, much like Jim Hrisoualis's excellent books on bladesmithing. Unfortunately, what you get here is more a large advertising flyer for Valentine Armories (which no longer produces for general purchase), this basically being the "How we make the armor" section at the very back. Paying close to $20 for an advertising piece for Valentine's work with the absolute minimum in technique described is kind of annoying, to say the least.

After purchasing this book and taking the time to find Valentine's shop we were very disappointed. My son was interested in purchasing some armour and we drove all over Calgary looking for his shop. His shop is no longer open to the public and we did not get a private invitation to view his work. We were parked right in front of his home when we phoned which appears to be his shop now. His book may appear to be advertising but don't try and buy his work, he isn't interested.
I guess all he wants to do is sell his book.

Great book, The photo's were very informative. The writing was simple to understand. If you want to make better armour then this is the book for you.