The Armour Archive

I thought I'd post a couple of pics of my new encranche from Historic Enterprises. This was a fun project. I used materials I had on hand. First I glued linen on the back of the shield with carpenters wood glue using an old linen dishtowel from the rag bin. I left enough material around the edges to overlap the sides and cover about an inch of the front edge. Then I covered this with acryilic gesso. Then I covered the front of the sheild with some supple leather ( an old skirt of the wifes) using the same procedure.I fell a bit short in places with the leather overlap, getting only about 1/4" inch on the backside in places. This was then covered with gesso, then the device drawn on with pencil. Next I painted the backside black, and the design on the front. I thought about painting the full achievment IE Shield, helm, mantle crest and a supporter, but decided it would date the shield to the second half of the century,and I wanted to be able to use it with my circa 1400 harness as well. After this I sprayed several coats of sealer on the front and back. Next, I added the straps and buckles. The straps I had were all to thick or to thin, or to short. So I opted for the to thin of a strap, and used brass screws and washers to secure them. These will be peplaced with a thicker leather and mounted with roofing nails inserted from the front and peened on the back at a later date. The buckles are from Talbot, and were extras from when I replaced the buckles on my gothic armour. These were moulded after original armour buckles of the early 16th century. They look GREAT on the armour, but maybe a tad small on the shield? I'm thinking of replacing them with a larger buckle at a later date. I still need to do a little touch on the paint up here and there. All in all I thought it turned out pretty well, I'm going to work on a heater next, though I may have to go out and buy materials, as the scrap bin is getting sparse.....Otto [img]http://members.aol.com/ottokits/sheild003.jpg[/img] [img]http://members.aol.com/ottokits/sheild004.jpg[/img]

Ok, I cant get the pic to post, what did I do wrong? Besides misspell shield? But thats the way I spelled it in my file. ( must be a bit dislexic)
http://members.aol.com/ottokits/sheild003
http://members.aol.com/ottokits/sheild004

Otto, I believe it is because your links do not end in a image link format, such as .IMG, .BMP, .GIF, or .JPG/.JPEG. This means you are trying to show a web page instead of an image. If you can, link directly to your picture instead of the page your picture is on, or change the link on the webpage to include this formatting.

As for the shield, well done. The lines are very good, as is the center on the charges. Good eye!

-Ramius/Ben

Thanks Ramius, I thought I was missing something. Its been awhile since I posted pictures. But now it looks like a broken link. I'll keep tinkering with it....AHHHHAAAA, got it,Thanks again Ben

That is a beautiful shield! You have done a very nice job with it. I must say I particularly like the buckles.

Thanks Doug, These are some of the finest buckles on the market ! Just realized how out of focus the back of the shield is.

Looks Great, James!

Now we just need to get you out there on a horse, man!

Wow, The last time I was on a horse was about 35 years ago! I did like to ride, but never was that good at it. At least I never fell off a horse, but I jumped off one a couple of times....LOL..It sure would be nice to try again.....Otto

One note... if you ever use this for jousting....

Have the gauge strap and an upper arm strap instead of a lower arm strap. This will leave your lower arm available to move and steer the horse.

Also, have all buckles on the left side of the shield so it's easy for your squires to adjust it

Very sexy!

I find just the opposite to be true.

I have a relatively loose horizontal strap around my left lower arm/gauntlet cuff, which keeps the bottom of the shield close in, and the upper edge out, preventing so many lance strikes from being funneled up the shield into the face. The key is to keep the strap loose.

Also, I like my adjustments toward my right side so -I- can adjust them myself with my right hand. Often I want something adjusted on the field and there just isn't time to ride over to a squire and have them fumble around with it. Better to be able to do it myself, and it's not even a problem with my frogmouthed Great Bascinet.

Each to his own.

I kind of agree with Jeff, I like to have access to all my buckles, but I rarely ever had assistance with putting on my armour and adjusting gear.Seems like with the strap around the forearm loose, I can control the angle and location of the shield and still have the hand free enough to control the reins, but as I havnt tried riding with it, I cant be sure ..Otto

If it *does* need adjusting for whatever reason, i've never had any problem from the ground...



Trusty squire
Thomas

Thomas,

I'm hoping you didn't think I was referring to you, my apologies if it seemed so. Of course, you are trained and experienced, so you know what to do, 'specially after the rush-rush at Dehaar.

I was primarily referring to my recent trip to NZ, where only one person there had ever before helped me with my armour or shield, and I found it best to be able to do it myself. The help can have the best intentions in the world, but I like making it easy on everybody, so sometimes it's just easiest if I make small adjustments myself, wherever possible.

There's also historical evidence for the nail pattern on a shield as in "striking between the four nails", and over the years I've tried to arrange my ecranche strapping to mimic that nail pattern. The guige needs to go in a very particular place to have the angle right on presentation, the other strap(s) are somewhat open to debate, but with my arrangement they orient with the nails according to the evidence.



I don't know the specific reference to the nails, as Toby told me about it a long time ago, but he should know his stuff, as much of a jousting freak as he is.

Jeffrey Hedgecock wrote:I don't know the specific reference to the nails, as Toby told me about it a long time ago, but he should know his stuff, as much of a jousting freak as he is.

I am pretty sure it is an earlier period reference. Dating, from memory, to the late 12th- maybe 13th century and relates to the use of the heater type shields used at that period.

The larger heater shields are also hung from a guige and a variety of enarme setups. I have been playing around with these lately and if set up correctly the heater can be quite comfortable and easy to use whilst on horse,,,,, bearing in mind that it should act as another layer of defensive armour.