The Armour Archive

I couldn't find the topic where you mentioned the sliding rivets. I looked in Norman Vesey's A&A and have a supposition.
The lance rest is on the plate connected to the central plate. I'm thinking that the sliding rivets were put in to help spread the shock to more of the armor, and keep the leather from getting ripped out. Is that what you and Mac came up with?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Alcyoneus:
<B>I couldn't find the topic where you mentioned the sliding rivets. I looked in Norman Vesey's A&A and have a supposition.
The lance rest is on the plate connected to the central plate. I'm thinking that the sliding rivets were put in to help spread the shock to more of the armor, and keep the leather from getting ripped out. Is that what you and Mac came up with?</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, Mac came up with it with Zanetto, not with me; I was just lucky enough to get to discuss it with him.

I got the sense that the sliding rivets were there to hold the center plate to the two side plates in a more rigid configuration than the leather could. Most of the #13 copies I've seen gap between those plates, and the sliding rivets would stop that while still allowing some compression of the front of the breastplate. I know that in a fight, I'd be halfswording like crazy and trying to get my sword between those plates for an easy thrust through the leather. You may be right, however, that these rivets would also help to support the breastplate in the case of a heavy lance hit. Who knows why they chose to do it that way, however: Any way you slice it (no pun intended), this is a weird piece of armor.

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Hugh Knight
"Welcome to the Church of the Open Field, let us 'prey': Hunt hard, kill swiftly, waste nothing, make no apologies"