The Armour Archive

I've been searching for quite a while now, and I'm having a tough time coming across any solid info on how various peices of armor in a suit are held together. Most of what I did find involves things like spaulder/pauldron lames being connected by a strap of leather running down the length of the "line" that the rivets of each lame form, but little on how pauldrons would connect to a gorget or breastplate/harness even. Does it follow the same idea of riveting straps of leather to each part? Are they even truly connected? If not, then how?

that's a big can of worms. there are lots of ways of holding pieces of armor together. Some armors use internal leathers, as you mentioned, but spaulders/pauldrons can be attached in many ways. One common method is by attaching to arming "points" on the shoulders of the gambeson, the padded garmet worn under the armor. arms and legs are also "pointed" to the gambeson in similar fashions. some bits of armor have hinges and pins that fit together like puzzle pieces to hold bits together. There are also buckled leather straps and many other attachment methods. There are some "putting on the armor" photos series that i've seen here which show people getting into their armor.

If you have a particular suit or era or style in mind, that would make some of these answers easier. you have quite the open ended question.

Well, I have half-baked plans to make a suit BASED on bits and pieces from relatively close time periods and fairly close geographic reigons. This will not be an anal-retentive reproduction by any stretch of the imagination, more of a compilation of the aforementioned. From what I've gathered, 15t cent. German gothic tends to catch my eye the most, but I have no delusions of making anything so flutey and I have no compunctions with avoiding specific pieces of suits typical of that area/time and adopting others in order to fit my level of experience.

I do have a set of spaulders ready for the punching and riveting (1st project BTW, used Sinric's pattern - RIP) which I hope to incorporate into a setup very similar to this:
http://www.ageofarmour.com/instock/imag ... icarms.jpg

The connections there all seem to be laces tied to things unseen from the angle the photo was taken at. I don't think it'd be hard to figure out where they go, but any tiny things I can do to keep this somewhere near the realm of "authenticity" are gladly welcomed. (i.e. specific location/method of attaching laces to the gambeson or other undergarment)

Here are some of the variations:

Tied on with points.

Straps and buckles from the pauldrons to the gorget.

Pauldrons mount onto a hinge, which goes over a locking post on the gorget. This is mostly 16thC.

well for spaulders when mounting to a gambeson (or other foundation garment) be sure to place the poun just a little too high up. so closer up the slope of the shoulders. this is because the weight of them and your own movement will be pulling them down a bit. also if you're pointing your own gambeson (or other foundation garment) be sure to reeinforce the back of the poins with a patch of leather. this is so it will not tear through your garment.

Hope this helps,

Aaron

Armoured Air Bear wrote:...be sure to place the poun just a little too high up. so closer up the slope of the shoulders.
[snip]
... reeinforce the back of the poins with a patch of leather...

"poun" = "point"?
"poins" = "points"?