The Armour Archive

New Armour-er here.

I made the obligatory first project spaulders.

Actually, my zero-eth project was a Buckler (made from an old Pizza pan). See, my lad and I went to a local Ren-fest, and he wore my chainmail outfit (we saw only three others wearing chainmail). Afterwards he said, essentially, that he needed to accessorize, and that a buckler would be right. So I made the buckler and decided that I could graduate into platemail.

OK, back on topic.

Seeing that I needed to join the spaulder segments together, I went down to the local Salvation Army store and bought a leather belt for a buck, which I sliced in half to make 1-in straps. I used those to join the segments with roofing nails-converted to rivets.

It seems to work, but a beautiful picture of some fabulous 14th centruy spauders seems to use leather that is more flexible (thinner?) than belt leather.

Is belt leather the wrong thing to use to join spaulders?

Welcome to the Asylum! We all love pictures here so you should post them often and frequently! If you've got a Tandy Leather store in your area I highly suggest going there and shopping for leather goods. They've got a wide variety of virtually anything you could need. Belts are on average a little bit too thick for articulations like pauldrons so I would use actual strapping leather. Like I said above if you have a camera and are able to post pictures it will also help your plight as this will enable us to more accurately help you out. Good luck in your future armoring endeavors and never be afraid to ask questions!

Yeah, actually IMO belt leather is way too thick.
I think typically belts that aren't doubled up are just really thick leather, like 8-10oz.
You're probably better off with something more like 4 ounce.
If you're having trouble finding leather, you might be able to substitute with nylon webbing, since there are sewing stores everywhere. The disadvantage is that you need to melt the ends, and that you can't put them where you can see them. But the advantage is that you might not have to punch holes, if you can just wedge the roofing nail between fibers.

All leather is not equil thickness and how the hide is processed can effect the flexibility of the straps.
You might have luck going to a shop that specialized in leather crafts and look at the available options.
Or hunt the local second hand shops and find a belt or purse strap the may work better.

How the plates rest in relation to each other can also have an effect on the articulation of the spaulders ajusting the spaceing on the plates might also solve the problem.

When I had to re-strap my spaulders, I used puppy collars. They worked a treat.

Welcome and well come, McCuistion.

Do drop the gamer term "platemail" as soon as may be; plate is plate, mail is mail, and they do very different things and have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to warding your hide from incoming. Such a word, while its occurrence among Victorian antiquarian writers is well traced and well understood, says "dilettante" to us armor students. Since you've done your set of spaudlers, you're no dilettante now.

In western Europe in the fourteenth century, they had not quite invented the independent spaudler yet. They were close, but the spaudleroid articulation at the top of arm-harness was permanently affixed there, probably by three vertical leathers forward, midline, and aft. In the fifteenth century, it became an independent piece, growing some more length, a more acute V shape to the lames, and often as not another lame or two added in. Helped for overlapping coverage over the rerebrace and doubtless improved mobility too.

After a considerable span of time, the spauds' rear margins got sliding rivets installed, with slots' lengths running from a quarter to a half inch. A late-model spaud can teach the new guy three different ways of articulation, the articulating rivet on the front margin, the riveted vertical leather down the midline, and the sliding rivet at the rear.

If you are on a budget and used leather belts sound like they are cheap at $1 each, just get a cheap Super Skiver tool from Tandy and trim any leather to what ever thickness you need. I use mine all the time when strapping armour.

mongrel wrote:Welcome to the Asylum! We all love pictures here

During my Astronomy Hobby phase, I thought about making my own telescope. That involves grinding your own mirror. Of course, bigger is better. I read that the way to grind a 6" mirror is to grind a 4" mirror, throw it away, and then grind a 6" mirror. The joke is of course that you learn on the 4", and make all the mistakes there quickly. Then you move to the 6". And you'll finish it quicker than if you just start on the 6"



So, these were my first spaulders. I patterned them after the great instructions (thank you Eric!) described here: http://www.arador.com/construction/spaulders.html. Yes, I know. Dish them more!!! Hey, first sets are just that.

Then, I tried a more ambitious 2nd set. Here, I've formed and edge-rolled them and given them a first sanding 120 grit. I'll probably get some 4oz leather rather than trimming my belt leather, but it was a good idea at the time, I thought. Although a cheap tool is a good way and Belts are yardsales and Thrift stores are almost always available for $1.

I want to figure out adding brass trimming. That makes them look so nice!



Finally, I am so appreciative of the words of encouragement and support I receive here. I'm a Scoutmaster, and have spent many an evening around a campfire doing just that to my scouts. So being on the receiving end is very much appreciated.

The random ramblings of a new-comer.