Eldorado

I would be cool to see the lorica and the combat armor. I think I found the site I mentioned at http://www.arador.com/articles/spaulders.html There is a discussion of effigies and cuir boille. Obviously, these things are either brasses or stone carvings, so we don't know for sure. But it seems to raise the possibility. I also noticed mention of Cuir Boille in one of the Osprey books. They are analyzing a statue or bronze of a horseman horseman that stands in Venice and was made around 1480. http://www.scribd.com/doc/6826438/MAA-136-Italian-Medieval-Armies-13001500ocr. I'm not sure of the academic reputation of Osprey, but they don't seem to be aimed at D&D folks. There's also some mention of cuir boille in this piece, though how this writer knows what he is saying is true is not clear. http://gladius.revistas.csic.es/index.php/gladius/article/viewFile/187/189 This site is also interesting, but I recognize that this is not really definitive - http://www.angelfire.com/ms/middelton/peterm.html I guess at best these are food for thought, because it is odd that we would have shoes and such, but no armor. I guess my only speculation would be that there would be at least a pair of shoes for most feet and a belt for every person (understanding that there was much poverty, and maybe not everyone had these things). However, leather armor (or armor pieces) would belong to far fewer people. So the odds would be significantly higher that the common items would be found, while specialized items might not be. But I must confess that this is just supposition. Thanks much for the thoughts and I would love to see pics of your work. Eldorado

Can't disagree with the historic record, but definitely prefer to model off of historic stuff rather than Dragonlance or somesuch. I suppose I can choose to believe that the leather just decays so quickly that it won't be found. But of course, it would seem that some rich gentleman could/would have kept some nice in his personal armory. On the other hand, I did locate a few weeks ago an academic analysis of armor as depicted in the statuary/carvings on the top of tombs of knights. I thought I bookmarked it, but I may have done so on a different computer. If I locate it again, I'll post. Through the 14th and 15th centuries (I think) the writer was pointing out parts of these marble effigies that were likely to be cuirbolli (sic). These included both pauldrons and arm armour that showed a tooling and design that wasn't being done in steel at that time - e.g. no examples in steel have survived. Things like lion faces in the shoulder piece and such. The stonecarver might have been engaging in artistic license (just as we may be today), but the writer didnt seem to think so. Also adding to my hope that something like this was actually used at one time, is that the British Royal Armouries does have leather breastplates and leather helmets in its collection. However, while they note their existance, they don't publish a picture and note the dates to actually be the late 1700s. Not exactly evidence, but again providing some indication perhaps.

You know, I hadn't either. But I'd seen a ton of "Dragon armor" and fantasy styles. I'd also seen variations on Braveheart's brigandine or 13th Warrior's pieced armor, but nothing that demonstrated wealth. While the fantasy designs (with horns and scales) are usually really impressive, I'm much more connected to historical accuracy. Though there are apparently no good examples of leather armor that have survived, I have to believe that a Lord would want to demonstrate his position and protect his back, while going to festival day ... and not be encased in heavy steel. Consequently, my assumption was that they would want a tooled cuirass that would be lightwieght and cool, but make it clear that they are rich, powerful, and still the boss. So, I stole the basic layout of the steel ones. I have a dozen or so pictures from the Greenwich Royal Armories taped up around my workshop, to keep me in the right frame of mind. Besides, the wife looks elegant and the older armor I created out of latigo has me looking like I'm fresh from the battlefield. Mismatch of styles. I'm working on the tassets now and its taking a bit of thinking to get the design right. By the 16th century the tassets were usually 5-10 lames and created a very exaggerated hip appearance. The biggest problem with this piece is that it took so long to tool and is so large on the table, that my wrist and arm were often resting on tooled features when doing others. As a result, the parts that were done first have slightly less definition than the later ones. Thanks for posting your thoughts. I'll send up more pics when the tassets get done. After that is a fully articulated gorget. I might not get it all done before summer and the faires come around. Eldorado

Folks, Assembled, finally, the cuirass this evening and would love to hear what you all think. The look I'm going for ultimately is something like this:

Top shelf. Very nice. I'm curious where the brass bits come from? -- Eldorado

Folks, I'm working on a leather cuirass, very much in the style of the Greenwich armors of the 16th century. I'm going for the look you see where "great men" had their portraits painted with them in their armor, with poofy collars and cuffs. So I've made the cuirass, tooled it, and have gotten to the finishing stage. I read the posted guide on burnishing edges and have begun that process, though I don't have all the tools (e.g. a mechanical burnisher) available. At this point, I've got white saddlesoap on the edges of the cuirass and the knap laid down nicely. I really like the look, but I'm all of a sudden worried that the saddle soap will behave like soap when it gets wet (from perspiration or even just getting splashed with a bit of rain). I fear it will lather or get, frankly, soapy or something. Should I be washing this out of the edges or will it "set-up" with the dying process? To burnish, I'm planning on taking a long strip of denim, wrapping it around a screwdriver, and inserting the screwdriver into a mounted drill. The tutorial suggests I keep even more saddlesoap on the denim, so I'm uncertain whether the act of burnishing will take the soapy qualities out or exactly how this all behaves in the end. Some additional details. I'm working with B grade Saddle Skirting. Some portions are very tight grain and others are just a bit loose grain (almost spongy). My budget didnt allow for a $200+ hide unfortunately. I've got alot of hours in the tooling, so I'm really hoping I can get some advice before I ruin the piece. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for trying. Unfortunately, it looks like some security settings must be getting in the way. I still can't see anything. I'll have to pry myself away from my workshop when I get home and see if I can view it on that computer.

Am I the only one who can't see the picture? I'm assuming it has to do with security settings here at the office. I get his emoticon but no pic. I get lots of others on this site, so I'm confused. I'm working on my own tooled cuirass (a close imitation of the Greenwich Armor style from Henry VIII's time), and I'd love to see what he's doing. Can someone bump or repost his pics so maybe I can see them? Thanks in advance.