Knowledge gleaned from books

History of  armour.
         When was it used.  What distinquishes a Gothic Plate from a Viking Haubergeon.
Names of the types of armour...where they were made and  their uses.
Names of the components which make up an armour.
          What is a cuisse, a ventaille, or a coultre?
Armourers were also called harness makers.  They did a lot of leather work as well as steel work.
        You should know what kinds of leather was used back then, and what is equivalent nowadays.
        What is an integral keeper, a strap end, or an aiglette?

Knowledge from work experence

You should already know:
        how to use a file, a hacksaw, a jig saw, a hand drill, a drill press, bench grinder and a bench vise.
        gauge sizes of metal and where they are used.
        how to identify hot rolled, cold rolled, annealed, work hardened or reworked steel
        how to attach a buckle to a belt.
        peen a rivet
        the metric system, the awg system, the sae system, and standard fastening systems.
        the use of safety equipment...eye, ear, fire fighting
        how to lay out a template efficiently
       
Knowledge you would learn on the job here

     dishing and raising of steel
     using an english wheel
     tuck pointing
     edge rolling
     anvil work of all kinds
     light welding
     rivet spacing and choices
     aesthetic finishing
     electro plating
     buffing, wire wheel finishing

The above list is nowhere near complete.

An employee would come in here knowing all the above things, and plenty more besides.   Though it sounds nice and romanic (yeah...I make real battle ready medieval body armour, what do you do?) the fact remains is that the novelty of pounding a recalcitrant piece of heavy steel into a sandbag wears thin pretty quickly!  This job is a lot of real back breaking work!  I never put an employee to a single job all day...that would be cruel, but there is usually plenty of variety.  I believe in concurrent activities...(Make buckles.  Cut scales.  Sweep the floor,)  and I don't object to proving time in the day for personal projects so long as it doesn't interfear with my operation.  An employee starts at minimum wage, bonuses can be earned. 

A student would pay ME for the knowledge.   You would do best to schedule a series of one day seminars rather than looking for a  long term programme.  Pick and choose items from the above list to customize your needs, and we'll stick to it.  This is personal, one-on-one tutoring, and it is not cheap.  So maximize your experience with basic knowledge first.

An apprentice would pay me for the knowledge in kind...that is to say, rather than drawing a paycheque, he or she would work a certain number of days in order to "pay" for a day's instruction.  Sounds good on paper, but the problem is "how do you afford to live" while you are doing all that work?   So there has to be an income from somewhere.  As you can imagine, this gets complicated really fast!  It rarely lasts past a week or so, though there are never any hard feelings...its just that reality bites, and you gotta eat!
       
South Tower Saturdays....are essentially free. These are days where people drop in to my shop and work on a personal project.  I'll make sure you don't  break any of my tools, and you can learn a lot by just doing. This might be the best thing if all you want is  a hobby, or to make an armour so you can get fighting.  I would suggest bringing burgers and beer....
 

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