The Armour Archive

16g stainless, this is my first piece and I intend to use them for SCA heavy. What are the pro's and cons of leather strap assembly vs steel to steel rivets. I prefer functionality over period accuracy.

PS it was starting to rain when I pulled out the camera, so the are a couple drops of water.

Do you think that you can improve the functionality over people who wore these when their life depended on it?

You can put these on leather straps, 2 or 3 depending on how you want to do it, or sliding rivets to the rear, and two straps, center and front.

for that style of shoulder you get functionality and accuracy using leathers.
If you wanted to get some steel to steel in there then I'd say put sliding rivets up the back edge and use leathers for the rest.

what you don't want to do is just put pivoting or solid rivets in the lames since they wont be able to compress at all then. The compression you get from leathers really helps when you raise your arms.

I do believe you can certainly improve on a design made to prevent even a steleto from entering the body, if you are aiming for SCA combat.

I can see the advantage to sliding rivets on the back edge, thanks for the tips guys.

Well done for a first effort. And strainless no less. That certainmly ups the hassle factor of any project.

By the early 15C such shoulder defenses would typically feature slide rivits along the back edge (steel to steel) and internal leathers along the front edge and perhaps down the center. The slide rivits help hold the lames tight against eachother. I have never seen a good reference for slide rivits earlier than that and have just assumed that the 14C defenses used leather articulation exclusively.

The "Churburg arms" had them...c1380???

Here is a set based on them:
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... p?id=32280

Thanks for the encouraging words, I am really please how well they turned out. I was attempting some italian mitten gaunts for my first project, and switched to these due to a lack of tools and skill.

When I make the slots for the sliding rivets, should I have the leather straps attached already to get an idea of the slight arc it will slide on? or the other way around using the sliders to secure the lames inplace so the leather can sit perfectly strait?

Here is what I used, on that note, my stake is low carbon and dents easily. I am having trouble finding old bearings of ball stake proportions, any advice?

Don't bother; the motion will be pretty much sliding straight, parallel to the back edge. The necessary clearance to let the sliding rivets move at all will provide enough room for any slight swiveling. If you're worried, open 'em a skosh wider. The slots will be about 1cm long each, and the overlapping lames will likely cover almost their entire length.

The simplest way is 3 vertical leathers, running down both front and back edges and down the midline. Next simplest is articulation rivets front edge and 2 vertical leathers, center and back. The advanced model has the sliders down the back edge and a central leather.