Affixing Spaulders

[Brynjolfr Hrafnsson]

I am in the process of finishing up my first set of SCA harness. It is not as period as I would like it to be, and will get there as time and money allow (9th Century Norse Viking).

Anyway, long story short, as a new fighter I want to protect my shoulders (my arms are vital to my profession and a serious shoulder injury could hose me big time) so for now I have made a set of steel spaulders from the pattern for 'simple spaulders' here on the archive. They are the three lame spaulders with the two holes marked for mounting.

Being in a new upstart land, we are all pretty much new to armoring. Our fighting mentors who have come up to train us and help us out are a lot of minimum armor guys, and I keep forgetting to ask them how to mount these spaulders.

My chest harness is a simple leather lamellar chest and back with heavy 15 oz leather shoulder straps. The straps are wide and strong, do I rivet the spaulders to this strap via a leather tab? Or punch holes and lace them together with leather or parachute cord? Or something else entirely?

This is only temporary (I want a mail hauberk with hidden armor eventually, but need the money first) so I am open to solutions of any kind, I just dont want them falling apart at my initial authorization in a week and a half.

Thanks

[Mad Matt]

Hey you can run a strap from the top of your spaulders to your shoulder strap. Don't bother with a buckle it makes it easier to put on and take off if you just leave it attached.

The better solution though is if you've got a gambeson to lace your spaulders directly to the gambeson. When you get your maille you can lace them to the maille. They'll stay in place the best this way.

[Dierick]

Try this:



strap around the upper arm, with the top tied to your foundation garment/maille/lamellar.