15th century plate arms

These are based off a pair of arms found at Chalkis Castle and now kept in the Metropolitan Museum. as always they will be somewhat stylized and made with some modifications.

Piece which the rest of the arm is built of called the couter was test built out of card stock to pattern it.

The flat plate was marked for raising then dished with a rubber mallet.

To keep the lines visible after heating the lines were marked with soapstone.

The couters took two passes of raising each and I added a crease in the middle

One of the hardest parts of shell articulation is creating lanes that will open and close while leaving minimal gaps the entire time.

I needed two lames per side for the joint to articulate from 180 to about 60 degrees.

The edge of the lower cannon, or vambrace, was rolled before bending and the rear was slightly dished to allow for a few more degrees of flex.

Hole placement is crucial when creating arms. 1/16 of an inch can mean the difference between good articulation and none at all.

The same process as creating the lower cannon was used in the upper cannon, or rerebrace . Bothe the under portions of the upper and lower cannon were creased as well as all the lames.

To open and close the cannons I used two long hinges for the lower cannon and two short for the upper.

The couter fan was given a saddle curve then creased on both the curve and the edges.

One final assembly was done before polishing.

This is an arming point used the lace the arm harness to the arming jacket. Straps were also cut for the upper and lower cannon and the inside of the elbow.

The plates were polished with a tiger polishing pad and then given the satin finish with a wire wheel on a pedestal grinder. 

The completed arms open and closed.

15th Century Spaulders

Unlike most of the pieces I make, these have no one particular inspiration, but are instead a stylization based on several pieces all from around the beginning of the 15th century.

To start with, I made a half pattern for the largest plate which all the other plates are built off.

The plates were cut from 16 gauge mild steel, which seems to be the optimal thickness for arms and legs. I  dished it as much a I could using a rubber mallet, then switched to a broad ball pin hammer.

The nest step I called planishing. Here I positioned the plate over a ball stake and flattened all the hammer marks, leaving the piece round and smooth

The upper plate and the lames were cut from metal of the same thickness. The smallest plate allows for the arms to move up and down more freely, while the lower two lames allow the arm to move back and forth while covering the upper arm.

The upper plate and lames were lightly dished, just enough to make the spaulders plates transition smoothly from one to the other. It is important to keep checking and re-checking the sizing and shape.

The next step is preparing to suspend the plates. While I had already drilled holes in the upper and lower plates, I saved the largest for last to make the sizing more precise, something I should have done with the lower plates as well as the outer holes are too close to the edge in the picture above.

To connect them to my arming jacket, I drilled two holes in the top plate of both spaulders. Now that the plates are forms and smoothed the next step is polishing. To do this, I used I tiger abrasive wheel. I then took a scotch-brite wheel to smooth it out. To get the satin finish, I ran over it several time with a wire wheel.

On the back side of the spaulders, I very loosely riveted the back of the plates together. The plates are connected loosely enough that they can move freely but not pull apart from each other.

The final step in assembly was taking straps of leather and riveting them to the plates, suspending them to move freely. To have them move with my arm, I put a strap on the lowest lame that wraps around and buckles so that I can resize it as needed.

These are the patterns I made for the spaulders. They were drawn on 8.5x11 graph paper but the graphing lines didn't scan. 

Medieval Turnshoes

I made these shoes to be able to be worn with case greaves and sabatons, so I was limited in the style and height which the shoes could be. The design I chose was based on the Hedeby type 6 shoes from the Hedeby archaeological site in Germany.

The first step was creating the sole. To make the sole, I traced my foot over a piece of cardboard and added some extra room in the toe. I then cut it out of a piece of 9oz veg-tan leather and mirrored it for the other foot.

The vamp and quarter were the most difficult pieces. To make them, I placed the sole under my foot and wrapped it in plastic wrap and then covered it with duct tape. I cut my foot out and used it for the pattern. 

One mistake I made that I would recommend others not do is have a curve that will cause the leather to pull back. On the photo above, the far right seam of the quarter is curved....leave it straight! The leather will stretch and conform to the shape of the foot.

I backstitched the entire shoe, as I do with all my leather items, using artificial sinew for the extra strength and durability.

The next step was the tongue, which I should have sewn onto the vamp before I attached it to the sole. It's very simple, just a rounded rectangle secured at the opening.

 To help increase the durability, I closed the seams and covered the sole with a flexible rubber-like coating.

To finish them off, I cut holes in the opening for laces, and while there are many different styles of lace patterns, I decided to go with the simple cross lacings.

While the shoes came out somewhat more pointed than I would like, I hope I can remedy this by soaking the toe and inserting a boot form. Beyond that, the shoes are comfortable and functional and are suited well to their use.

Chalkis Type I Brigandine

The body armor I am making is based on this Italian example in the Metropolitan Museum. It is a kind of brigandine which features a split version of a style of breastplate, called a goblose breastplate, which featured prominently from the late 14th into the 15th centuries. Also called a corazzinas (though I can find no historical source for this name), it is one of two complete brigandines found in the so called "Chalkis Hoard," named for the castle on the Greek Island of Euboea, a powerful Venetian outpost in the late middle ages. Of course, I will be taking some creative liberties and making what I feel to be improvements on the design, particularly in the skirt, which underwent some "reworking" in the 1920's.

I started with a very large sheet of 14 gauge mild steel. Before I even cut the metal, I made the entire suit out of cardboard and sized it that way. 

The first piece I made was the split globose breastplate; these were by far the two largest pieces of the armor and took quite a bit of pounding to dish to shape. I was constantly sizing and checking. There is about a two centimeter overlap on the plates, and both were flared out slightly at the bottom. the backplate goes down to just below my shoulder blades and will have nine more plates that will move the same way as my back.

Unlike the example above, I chose to make the skirt out of horizontal lames. I made this out of cardboard before cutting it out of metal as well. The lames have about a centimeter and a half of overlap, and I test fitted them by holding them together with duct tape.

This was the test fit of the front two sections. The breastplate goes just below my ribs so that I can bend and flex, and I will continue to add lames to go just blow my hips.

Though I found no historical examples of the two plates just under the arms,  I found several examples of the backplates with the curved shapes cut out near the armpits, and the three plates at the waist are flared on both sides.

Once I completed shaping the plates, I drilled holes for the rivets, a centimeter away from the edge, in all the places where the plates will be riveted to the covering. I did not drill the holes for the straps yet, since they need to be sized precisely and will be marked after the three sections are complete. Before I covered the plates, I sprayed them with a protective paint to prevent rust from forming.

For the covering, I looked at several examples, both historical and reproductions. While many I see have covering such as linen, wool, and reinforced velvet, the one that attracted my eye was a beautiful reproduction of a Munich style Brigandine which was covered in black suede. For rivets I used galvanized roofing nails and small washers on the back.

For straps I could have used veg-tan leather, but instead I chose a more durable leather called latigo. Latigo comes from the Spanish word for whip, and it's durable yet supple qualities make it the perfect tan to use for straps.

For the front and side straps, I cut the straps to three-quarter inches wide, but for the shoulders I made the straps a half inch wider to both support the weight and distribute the weight over a larger area on the shoulders.

Like the suede, the straps are connected by roofing nails which act as rivets.

In addition to the brigandine, I also made a set of voiders and skirt which act as supplementary armor both to fill in the gaps plate can't cover and protect the straps and lacing for plate arms and legs.

Assembled

Back and side view.