Equipping The SCA Man At Arms, from BoTH

[Konstantin the Red]

With ref to this thread in Design & Construction which began with bearpaw gaunts and now is exploring cheap/affordable newbie-gear of every sort.

I have been going on so long and so much about this unjustly neglected old article on gearing new fighters up for SCA rattan-play (Palmiludes? Bastiludes?) that I think it's time its text appeared in the Archive. So I'm going to transcribe it, as I don't think it's around the Net anywhere (I'd love to be mistaken (don't see any BoTH e-books either)) and I think it is a valuable reference even now. I'll input the complete text as is, then add any modifications to it that the art has advanced since those long-ago times, as appendix items, noting these as I go along with an asterisk to just indicate "see appendices." The original The Hammer article intended to include some sort of pattern for each of the pieces, but as these patterns may now be found in many places, and their patterns never arrived by press time if at all, we'll just rely on Aaron Tomen's prose.


Bit the First:
EQUIPPING THE SCA MAN AT ARMS
By Master Valerius Pencalvous, OL (Aaron Toman)

There are two basic aims of this article. The first is to equip a new fighter with basic, period armour which will meet the [M]arshallate requirements. This armor is relatively simple to construct and is both period and aesthetically pleasing. The second goal is to provide the reader the basic techniques and skills with which other, more elaborate pieces may be constructed.

One of the most effective types of armour for SCA combat which can be simply built with available tools is cuirbouilli, leather armour. The basic suit includes elbows, knees, cuisses, gorget, and a belt from which to suspend the cuisses and knees (the belt will also serve as kidney protection). Each of these will be constructed from sole leather. The elbows and knees are made in sections, sewn together and impregnated with wax.*

Each piece demonstrates one or more different techniques of leather armour fabrication. The construction of the cuisses involves the basic of layout, design, forming, and the practical limits that a single piece of armour can be expected to cover. The construction of the elbows and knees involves fabricating compound curves and wax impregnation. Additionally, the gorget and the hardware on the cuisses accustoms the reader to working with straps and buckles, many of which are necessary for any armour.

The armour described in this article dates from the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It formed one step in the transition from mail armour of the tenth through the thirteenth centuries to the metal plate of the late fourteenth. First employed to add rigidity to the armour covering the vulnerable parts of the body, leather was used because of its ease of manufacture, relatively low cost, and lightness.

The first pieces constructed are the cuisses. The best shape provides maximum protection with free movement. To this end, it is cut out at the crotch, behind the knee, and for the buttocks (fig. 2). Cut the leather following the template, altering it to fit where necessary. Next, soak it in water. This softens the leather so that it can be easily formed to the shape of the leg. The cuisse will dry stiffer and harder than it was before soaking. (Editor's note: Soak it in cold water or lukewarm. Do not soak it in hot water or boil it. You may take too much of the natural oils out of it and cause it to crack easily later on. Further, soak it only long enough to make it pliable. It isn't as if you are soaking untanned rawhide.) [Ed note is in original text]

Next construct and attach the belt and straps which support and hold on the cuisse. The belt is 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide and 4 to 6 inches longer than your waist measurement. Use a heavy, 2-inch buckle. The 1-inch straps can be cut at the same time as the waist belt. The end of the strap attached to the buckle is doubled over roughly 1 to 1 1/2 inches. Cut a slot through which the pin [tongue] of the buckle will pass. This slot must be centered in the strap and be long enough to provide adequate movement. Holes must be punched for the rivet which will secure the buckle (fig. 3). The straps attached to the buckles are relatively short (3-4 inches).

[There follows illustration of the assembled cuisse w/articulated leather cop, and dimensions of the 1" strap with its buckle, centering the buckle-tongue slot at 1 1/4" from the strap end, symmetrically flanked by the rivet holes.]

Editor's note: The templates mentioned in this article did not accompany it and did not arrive in time for publication. However, we felt that the article possessed enough merits on its own to warrant publishing it without the templates. Based upon the illustrations in the article, you should be able to devise templates for use with his instructions. [note in original]

Continued in Bit the Second.

[Konstantin the Red]

Equipping The SCA Man At Arms, cont'd
Bit the Second

The strap and buckle assemblies are needed for each cuisse. Two assemblies are used to secure the cuisse around the thigh, one at the widest point of the cuisse and one just above the knee. The third assembly must be long enough to connect the cuisse to the suspension belt. Each of the tongues must be sufficiently long enough to underlap the cuisse (for riveting) and pass through the buckle.

Next attach the strap assemblies to cuisses and suspension belt. The buckles are attached to the inside edge of the cuisse and at the hip. The straps from the belt should be positioned so that they hang directly over the outside seam of your pants. The reason for this positioning is that at this point the distance between the belt and the cuisse changes the least during movement of the leg. Rivet the straps and buckles to the cuisses and waist belt.

[Un-numbered figure showing that a cross section of a cop, constructed of two halves meeting at its centerline, is a gothic arch, two smooth curves meeting with a point.]

The knee cop is constructed of two pieces of leather, laced together. The leather pieces are cut and punched following template 2. The inside of the curved edge of each piece is bevelled so that the edges will fit closely. The pieces are soaked in water to soften them. Next, the two pieces are laced together with leather thong. The ends of the lace must be tucked under the inside stitches, and the lacing must be tight. Curl the cop to shape before it dries.

The elbows are constructed in the same way as the knee cops. Both the elbows and the knees are wax impregnated. This stiffens the cop and makes it weatherproof.*

This is accomplished through the application of molten wax to the surface of the heated leather. The wax is melted in a double boiler (do not melt the wax directly over flame or electric burner, as it will burst into flames). An old tin can placed in a pan half full of boiling water works well. The leather is heated in the oven set no higher than 200 or a [W]arm setting. Using a disposable brush, apply the melted wax quickly and evenly to both surfaces of the leather. Return the piece to the oven until all of the wax soaks into the leather (the surface will appear dry). Repeat this procedure until the leather will not absorb any more wax. Do not overheat the leather as it will disintegrate. While still warm, the piece is somewhat flexible and can be gently adjusted to fit. Allow the pieces to cool thoroughly.

This technique may be used on any piece of leather to be hardened. These include cuisses, vambraces, body armour, schynbalds and shields. The knee cops are suspended from the cuisses by three, 1-inch straps with one at each side and one in the center (fig.5). The side straps support the cop, while the center while the center strap prevents the cop from gapping at the knee when the leg is bent. These straps should be made of belt-weight leather.

Cut the three 6-inch straps per leg and rivet them to the cop as indicated on the templates. With the cuisse in position on your leg and your knee bent, pivot the cop until it almost gaps (leave 1/4" overlap). Make sure that the central strap is taut, mark the hole, and rivet the strap to the cuisse.* An additional strap and buckle around the back of the knee helps to keep the cop in position (this strap should be no wider than 1/2").

[Konstantin the Red]

Equipping the SCA Man At Arms, cont'd
Bit the Third

The simplest and most effective method of suspending the elbow cops is to lace them to the sleeves of a gambeson. It is also a simple matter to

[Here is line-art three gambesons, one with a fanless cop only upon an elbow, a second with a fanless cop overlapping a strapped-in half vambrace of leather (entertainingly, this man seems to be armed with a banana; eat the banana and he is disarmed) and a third with an enclosed vambrace below the cop and a half-rerebrace (triceps only) above, also strapped in. No lames; pivoting directly off the cop using internal leathers.]

build leather vambraces and rerebraces, connecting them to the cop with straps much as the knee was joined to the cuisse.*

The last piece of armour described in this article is the gorget. The pieces for the gorget are cut out following templates 4-6. These are designed for a 15-16 inch neck. If your neck is significantly larger or smaller than that, adjust the templates accordingly. Punch holes as marked on the templates. Lace the upright piece to the lower two sections using leather thong (fig. 8). Two sets of straps and buckles are attached at the opening. [Apparently of the neckband] These straps are 1/2" wide and of lighter leather (6 oz.). The buckles are attached to the back edge, straps on the front edge. Finally, some form of padding must be glued, sewn or rivetted into the upright portion of the gorget.*

[Lineart showing a partial view of this 3-piece leather gorget being thonged together. The End.]

The asterisks shall point to bodies of further remark I'd make reflecting advances on the art since the day around 35 years ago when this was written. So, trying for noting in the order encountered, from Bit the First on:

*Appendices*
*Aaron Tomenan was then devoted to leather, and wax-impregnated at that like anyone else then. He was writing in a day when commercially available steel cops from armourers and armour suppliers were unknown. Now for elbow and knee protection, commercial steel cops are a better deal. Water-hardened leather on these joints may be sought for the appeal of their craftsmanship and be highly protective if hardened from 12-14oz vege-tanned leather that has been decoratively tooled.

His article does not discuss cutting out this standalone gambeson, which is not that frightful a lacuna: the cut of this component will vary across the centuries.

• 13th century on back -- a tunic, the hem somewhere about or upon the kneecap for length; you shall need complete long sleeves, of some type/arrangement. It is these that hold your cops up and on.
  
  14th century -- begins with a tunic, likely growing somewhat higher in the hem; c.1350, the gamby looks more and more like a cotehardie and may have sleeves à grandes-assiètes as the Charles de Blois. Snug, short, sometimes heraldic jupon comes to the fore.
  
  15th century -- tailoring in quarters and becoming a doublet. Quarters are left half torso, right half torso, left half skirt, right half skirt, these dividing at the natural waist, near the elbow's height. All this tailoring and shaping are accomplished by curving the seams where the quarters meet -- they didn't take darts. Both front and back of the garment are so quartered. Particolored begins now, but is hardly necessary.
  
  16th -- doublet tailoring, in quarters, continues, in the more extreme 16th-c. form and fashion. Stuffed jacks, cut in this style, come into use about the Scottish Border at least, perhaps generally over the British Isles.

Sewing machines and scissors being common around the house, he evidently reckoned he'd stick to his last and let the sewing-mavens handle the details of cutting cloth and quilting it. Much on it can be found onsite. Long sleeves and standing collars are desirable in the design of these.


*He built leather cuisses, but splint-reinforced gamboised cuisses work every bit as well and you've already gotten a lot of cloth. For loaners to new fighters, adjustability is king. Lace the gamboised cuisses to their supporting C-belt -- not a plain trouser belt -- which is also made of the same cloth as the cuisses, perhaps reinforced with canvas inside, eyeletted to take adjustable lace or cord. This C-belt is dedicated to its piece of harness, and the whole is climbed into like a pair of shorts and cinched. Length adjustment up at the top end of the gamboised cuisse will be wanted. For loaners, also expect to need very short sizes and extra-long ones -- each with their adjustable thong ties. Long, flat shoelace is really about right for this work.

A one-man tailored gamboised cuisse wouldn't need to open on the medial side of the thigh, at the inseam and can be made closed like the leg of a pair of shorts. Loaner gamboised cuisses will want adjustability there, by lacing. Laces are easier to repair than straps and buckles and are cheaper to get. Tie off the laces down by the suspended knees where the thigh is smallest around, and you can leave the laces in, loosened.

*Knees off the bottom ends of cuisses: the state of the art here has much advanced, beyond this just-functional model. The earliest plate cops were floaters, attached to a stout, rectangular pad for the knee, strapped in over the patella with the rectangular pad protruding above and below the cop. The pad is flexible, and all articulation motion is taken care of by thonging the pad's upper edge onto the bottom end of the gamboised cuisse.

*Below those knees, laminated canvas all-around safety-greaves pretending to be cuirbouilli cut molded and shaped, become an option. 2nd priority, though; many of your newbies are going to fight in steeltoed Army boots or work boots at first. This gives some protection to the ankle and a lot to the toes.

Nowadays, we'd try and use points entirely to suspend a cop, variously pointing to a sleeve or a cuisse, or to other leather or steel hard components of the limb.

[wcallen]

His name is Aaron Toman. I could include his other names, but no one knows them anyway. That would have been around the time we worked together - mostly 1978-1987.
BoTH took me a while - Best of the Hammer. A compilation of articles from "The Hammer" - the journal of the Middle Kingdom Armourer's guild put out by Brian Flax (Sir Polidor) back in the day... at least the 1970's and 80's. He put a lot of work into that thing, I expect it was what finally drove him away. To much work, to few people helping. There wasn't an internet, or even email at the time. Everything was really done on paper (I remember doing real live cut and paste - paper and glue - for an article or two for the Hammer and to layout our catalogue).

That is a very low-brow article based on what was really easy back then. Using pre-made cops would be much easier these days. And for anyone really looking to go that low-end plastic covered in leather or cloth would be a cheaper substitute for the heavy leather. Since it won't actually look any different in the end, and this isn't really armour based on anything specific, I don't see any reason to spend the extra money.

Thong to lace the gorget together? Hmm. I don't remember ever actually doing that... We did have some two piece things that we sewed together. Jay and Chuck did those things more (Carlisle and Cadwallen). I expect this was more of a thought experiment than reality. We used steel, it was cheaper than leather for us.

I expect back then actually printing out the patterns was a lot more trouble and something didn't quite happen.

What else... I did a version of that idea (different details) a few years ago. "Cheap SCA armour". I never did write it up. Using some pre-fab cops would have made it really easy (I raised the elbows and welded the knees). I did more 1320's... fake gamboised cuisses made from leather covered plastic with floating cops, simple "gutter" outer arms with elbow and shoulder cops. That part all worked out pretty well, and should be well within the range of most normal people to make. I even used (horrors of all horrors) commercial buckles just to keep the "easy" idea going. They didn't look to bad.

If anyone cares, we never actually laced the elbows onto the gambeson. Aaron probably spent 20 years (maybe a lot more) fighting with a cop that was only held on by a leather strap and buckle around the inside of the elbow. At least his first one had some quilted padding glued into the cop which probably helped keep it from slipping a little bit. I did the same thing for a while.

Wade

[Konstantin the Red]

Yeah, a strapped cop full of glued in padding was pretty reliable; every bit as good as strapping one on over an elastic volleyball pad that would stay up by itself.

The illustrations that were included give some idea that thonging and pointing might be used, perhaps more so than Aaron's text, especially the three-gambesons illo, the one that includes the banana. And a halberd and a crosshilt sword, but they're less fun than the banana. However good they'd be for extorting free bananas.

I just remarked in PM to John S. that Aaron sure partook of that 70's-80's penchant for straps and buckles, leather fasteners this and leather fasteners that. Proper points seem to have come into acceptance -- even celebration -- in a later time.

Durn right steel's cheaper than leather -- as a material. We know where the relative investments are for working in leather and working in steel, and that knowledge for plastic is a given. This forum concentrates more on steel working because it demands more, technically, from the metalbender. So we mull it over and spend many 'trons discussing.

But we try not to neglect our apartment-dwelling buddies ("Oh Mudda Fadda, I promise I won't make noise"), our bosom friends who never took metal shop in high school (eh, junior high shop for me and I got bad grades). So here we are, working the lower-end munition part of the whole for a thread or two; "low-brow" and really easy. A good thing, I think; it allows us to press for "make it stylish" too -- showing how to take the desired functionality and make it historical looking with no more effort than not making it historical looking. That's particularly valuable even now. If there is a difference, I'd suppose it's in what we might opt to spend on materials.

I'll bet Aaron figured thonging the gorget pieces together was easiest to explain in words and by a small margin involving getting the fewest tools -- thonging chisel rather than mini- or maxi-punch sets and rivet and burr setters. For the more effortful craftsman willing to take more time, there's running saddle stitches around the gorget to assemble, and he wants his CS Osborne 529 skiving/taxidermy knife, his Barge cement, artificial sinew and harness awl or other holemaker.

You know what this really impresses upon me -- this is REMARKABLY easy. Easy equals cheap, for household men-at-arms and for the loaner duffel.

[Konstantin the Red]

Elsewhere in BoTH Vol.3, we see a developed SCA-Engineered-school gambeson, in the Knight Of The Month Willem Wenemaer (c.1325) segment -- hardly an article, as it is really a graphic like all of Sir Bruno's KOTMs.

Technically, it's interesting. This try at a gamby features fitting closed-cell or neoprene foam pieces about three inches wide by up to eleven inches tall or so, in various strategic spots (shoulders and hips), and extensively buttonholed armpit gussets, with other buttonholing across the gamby optional. The inner lining and inmost layer was of off-the-roll mattress padding, or salvaged mattress padding. Basically, it's an inner gamby as a hidden-armor carrier, as its internal pocketing could contain anything from stainless or aluminum to blue-barrel to garden hose bent in a U and stuffed in. The lengthiest pockets and panels were arrayed in the skirt, vertically. That'd work for closed cell foam/Smurf blubber but less well for something more rigid -- then the pockets should run horizontally and somewhat shorter overall. Oh, and they thought it might be a good idea to end the sleeves in knit or elasticized cuffs -- guess they didn't think much of the SCA Populace's ability to fit a sleeve close then. (This was many years before TI ran the Charles de Blois pattern and how-to article.)

This SCA gambeson is primarily designed not to be seen, contrasting with the standy-gamby, which as a general idea is to be exposed, visible protection/coverage. It makes no effort to include kidney plates within it, as the SCA at large seemed to think of kidney belts as entirely separate articles, to be put on over such a gambeson as this. The Hammer was quite a proponent of ventilation holes in mandatory kidney belts whenever possible. Might've worked, so long as you didn't get too crazy with the holes and weaken your belt. Kidney belt materials tough and resistant to cracking would be wanted.

A garment of this kind would be very convenient slipped under a Lentner, hence used as a foundation garment for c.1385 harness if you don't think you're up to a Charles de Blois -- yes, this is one of those armyng-pourpoints by now. With tightness about the waist and hips, it could point up plate legharness while still being extremely lightweight, concentrating the weight of your metal on your limbs and in your helm. Its particular advantage is that here you're not thinking strictly in terms of a loading-belt with suspenders, but as a carrier of hidden armor cinched in enough at the waist to support legharness too.

[Konstantin the Red]

Now for Bit the Second.

The current state of the art has this whole bit obsoleted as written, unless water hardened leather is resorted to, and to my mind this would be primarily for exhibiting leather tooling and carving craftsmanship in viable armour form; vegetable tanned art leather's expensive enough to justify it. Make the effort to make it pretty, and they'll happily put it on. Make the effort to make it medievally pretty, and they'll learn something of the high Middle Ages artistic sense too, and are helped not to go astray like adding Celtic interlace to something fifteenth century. Or fourteenth. That is, they'll learn this if you did your part and managed not to run a strapwork border around a hardened leather cuisse. Thus for craft opportunity. (This is not without its risks in loaner gear, of course. A careful Canton, College, and Shire policy of both "give the dang loaners back you don't get to keep them" combined with "get the leather, tool and construct a set of (whatever) for your very very own" may help. Does mean everybody in the Canton is called on to put in labor, one effort or another, to maintain that loaner armoury and keep its pieces from growing legs. Shire Device as exterior ornament and "Return To [Shire Name]" written on the inside are other helps. How well do hours spent now return on not having to replace the odd piece in the future? Getting artsy-craftsy becomes an anti-hassle measure.)

But the other shorter answer than that is that for anyone obliged to work in plastic for any reason, the Easybake cops method comes to the rescue for the loaner-gear equipper, who needs a capacity to generate multiple copies easily and cheaply. Easybake shines at that. With the molded Easybake cop, replace the leather cuisse of the original with a much less expensive gamboised cuisse. The gamboised cuisse may be low-profile, but it need not even then be utterly plain -- patterned stitchlines to the gamboising are little more effort than a serried rank of vertical stitchlines only.

Again, for Bit the 2nd, I'd say let's not rivet your cuisse suspensions into a belt, but thong the cuisse onto it, adjustably, both in sideways location and in length of cuisse. The cuisse apex doesn't need a belt loop about the belt that suspends it, but it could have one, with an anchoring lacing to fix it in place on the belt so you don't have to bother readjusting it every time you put it on; you set it and you forget it, until you transfer it to another new fighter with a different waist size -- then he sets it and forgets it.

Building armor so you just wear it should be paramount. Having to fight your gear as well as your opponent is simply tedious, and wholly avoidable without an unconscionable effort, at least if the new fighter is a willing hand at helping to equip himself -- this is a crucial quality if we aren't forever to be mired with the wannabes and the saytheywannabes.

*Might as well not bother with the three-strap hanging of the cop off a cuisse if you use a gamboised cuisse: a floating Easybake cop on a thonged-on knee pad should answer all needs and would be a period method well known to the readership here, and that's important to making all this worth doing.

*Waxing the cop should now be a surface weatherproofing coating, rubbed in pretty much cold. Every bit as effective on water hardened leather components like artfully tooled cops would be warmed Sno-Seal, or your favored leather sealer.

Replace strap and buckling of any cuisse but a metal one with adjustable laces and eyelets. Metal cuisse, you'd mostly rather have the buckle.

On Bit the Third I'll just look at the state of the gorget art. While everything about it's commonsensical, I'd like to sweep it all into a single pile, easy to look up.

[Konstantin the Red]

Uilleag's method for pounding leather into shape. I think the 120-degree oven temp is a misprint. Shaped his leather with a mallet.

If you prefer water hardening, here is the technique I use.

step 1. Case the leather in water. (submerge the leather in room temp. water, for a count of 20) The idea is to get the leather plyable not to get it soaked.

step 2. Shape the leather. I use a dead blow rubber mallet and metal dishing forms. I then "dish the leather", very mush like the method used for shaping metal. (this technique work hardens the leather by compressing it. You don't want to pound the leather so hard that it tears, just hard enough for it to take the shape you want).

step 3. Place in the oven. Use a wooden cutting board to place the leather on. (this keeps it from getting scoarched by the metal racks). You want to use a very low heat, 120 degrees [?]. check your piece every 5 to 10 minutes and reshape as necessary.

step 4. When your piece is fairly dry, (dry to the touch) pull it out of the oven and allow to finish air drying over night.

Step 5. Finish the piece. Either dye it or oil/condition it, essemble/ strap it etc...

[Konstantin the Red]

For Bit the Third:

The last piece of armour described in this article is the gorget. The pieces for the gorget are cut out following templates 4-6. These are designed for a 15-16 inch neck. If your neck is significantly larger or smaller than that, adjust the templates accordingly. Punch holes as marked on the templates. Lace the upright piece to the lower two sections using leather thong (fig. 8). Two sets of straps and buckles are attached at the opening. [Apparently of the neckband] These straps are 1/2" wide and of lighter leather (6 oz.). The buckles are attached to the back edge, straps on the front edge. Finally, some form of padding must be glued, sewn or rivetted into the upright portion of the gorget.*

And ah yes, gorgets. Safety gorgets is what I call the type intended to be completely concealed or unobtrusive in wear. I don't stretch the phrase to include the gorget-reinforced mail standard on the grounds the mail standard is supposed to be out there and seen. The safety gorget I figure as an add-on, for throat and spinal safety in harness that didn't necessarily have it in the original.

So many types: hardened leather ones like in Equipping, the quite flexible brigandine type, the spine-surgery-looking Klingon Collar, the mere dogcollar -- unless it's pretty tall I'm somewhat suspicious of it -- the plateharness steel articulated gorget, fitting closely about the throat and spreading down and out upon chest, back and shoulders; the platypus-bill. I bet I've left a few distinct types out.

So many materials, all with merit: the steel and steel-combo; the hardened leather; the sole-bend leather, bent plastic, molded plastic -- and like enough though not much experience with it yet, laminated canvas construction. Steel-necked gorgets are easy for the Marshal to spot, which he likes; laminate-canvas composite is likely to take the cake as lowest-profile and value-for-dollar outlay.

I'd like to stress the platypus-bill as a particularly safe variant. The bill part is like the under-chin portion of a bevor, and gives any desired degree of cover to underneath the jaw. Having a visor or a grill tuck in there about your chin is a big help, but this does necessarily have its limits, and a gorget that includes a shelf for a double chin to rest on seems to have great protective virtue. Though the bill itself has its limits also; it can't be too broad nor stick out too far forward or you get trouble turning your head freely.

If the gorget isn't intended to be an articulated design, there's a lot to be said for its front and its back halves being as integral, as completely one-piece, as you can get them -- no weak zones at all.

Everybody understands affixing the shoulder frill, or superhumeral, to the neckband using copper rivets, and leather tabs up from the frill for the copper rivets. All leather and leather-plus-plate-reinforced gorgets can sew together with running stitches, attaching frill to neckband at its bottom edge and platypus bill to the top front. Many understand that at least the bottom edge of the neckband, and often the entire band, should feature a shallow S bend to fit the collar better to how your trapezius muscles rise into not only your neck, but distinctly into the back half of your neck.

Everybody knows what all-metal, deep-dipping non-articulating gorgets are like -- very suited to sixteenth century harness of any type that had a gorget in it, or could at option.

The munion or Almain collar I'd put outside the scope of this discussion for now. It's an interesting large variant of the articulated gorget but such an outlier and so far from SCA-level man-at-arms gear that I'd rather study on it elsewhere.

[thewhaleshark]

What's your opinion on the dog collar gorget? I've been looking to get something lighter and lower-profile. My current gorget is this kind of thing: http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog ... orers3.jpg

It's pretty bulky and uncomfortable overall. I'm looking for something a bit easier on the neck, and without that stupid front articulation.

[Konstantin the Red]

It's like somebody articulated and dished a Klingon collar or something. And it's convex where 16th-c/17th-c. articulated plate gorgets for armets and burgonets are shallow-concave.

Designed for the seriously no-necked? Doesn't look like any attempt to lay it upon the trapezius muscles was contemplated, either.

So far I think that shallow S-bend that I mention so often (it's only about 1/2") so as to follow your actual contours down the front of your traps muscles is expressed in the neckband itself -- and your gorget piece properly speaking hasn't a neck-band at all. It seems impossible to wear easily without a lot of gambeson, with a standing band-collar at that, underneath it. If you don't have that there, no wonder you'd feel discomfort.

So, yeah -- maybe a more conventional standing-collar-w/frill below design is wanted. Including good padding in there is a must so you can enjoy wearing it. Padding the neckband with a couple layers of terrycloth has good report as cheap, strong, easy, and a good sweatcatcher. I figure to have a comfortable small gorget calls for the neckband and a frill to meet up in a radiused form of _|....|_ with the bottom frill of course sloping.

Your shop can do the neckband using an all-around spring-open single plastic band, with the S-bend in it. Either manage a concealer layer, get black sheet plastic to do it in, or if you've a yen for a standard-of-mail with hidden reinforcer... what kind of helmet are we trying to mesh with? I don't recall you mentioning your helmet type.

Articulating plates to a gorget with that feature that isn't a stack of nesting lames upon six vertical leathers -- the articulating lame would go up on top. Such a construction is simple in a brigandine-style gorget of a flexible outer shell sustaining overlapped interior plates and some arrangement for padding inside of these, about the neck -- not so much need upon your shoulders, your upper spine, and the notch between your collarbones.

Any style of gorget can be pretty comprehensive front and back in the frill, if desired. It should stay rather narrow at right and left, though, to keep the shoulder free. The sternum armors the centerline front of you pretty well; many think that running an array of flexng scales 3"-4" wide down the spine a ways to be a very good thing if there's nothing else back there already. Certainly it's an option for those in minimum, airy armor.

[thewhaleshark]

Currently, I'm using a giant-ass spangenhelm sort of thing that was passed down to me by a member of my household (would say apprentice-brother, but he went and got Laureled before I signed on as an apprentice). It's big, heavy, and ugly - but it's a tank.

It's doing its job for now, but the eventual plan is to grab a Valsgarde helm kit - while it's earlier and in the wrong place for my persona (I'm early 11th-century Iceland), it looks bad-ass so I don't care.

There's a two-piece gorget pattern in the archive that I was thinking about rendering in water-hardened leather:

http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/gorget_rainald/

The fixed vertebrae plate is a little annoying, so I may put a stout hinge or something on it.

[Konstantin the Red]

Yeah, something like a broad leather tongue down there and lightly dished overlapping scales on it -- 16 or 18 gauge. Sorta making a dragon-back, for however long you'd like it. Or only make that rear extension long enough to cover your cervical bump back there, which I think is that rear extension's primary purpose. Anyway with a brief flexible tail with scales, it's still protective, with ease to it.

I'm sure I'd get all creative and affix more to the front half too, while I'm at it. Probably nothing more than stout leather, spreading about a bit upon sternum and collarbones.

Since we can bet none o' them Valsgardians were equipped with safety gorgets, building this one as near to your neck size as works with suitable padding and as low-profile as your skill will allow seems an important goal.

So, some future day and ninety-five dollars and shipping later...

[Konstantin the Red]

. . . none o' them Valsgardians were equipped with safety gorgets, building this one as near to your neck size as works with suitable padding and as low-profile as your skill will allow seems an important goal.

Get the terrycloth you're going to use first (or terry laid over closed cell if you want). Fit the padding around your neck to your satisfaction, then take your tailors' tape measure and measure the padding with it around your neck. This, plus 2-3" added for overlap/rejiggering, is how big your neckband has to be in circumference. From this base measure you can do your calculating.

I'm getting eager to try out making laminated-canvas low-pro gorgets myself, as Myron may be doing by now over in south Atlantia.