Want to buy Leather Bucklers

[Guest Jake Norman]

Hello, I'm looking for a leatherworker based in the UK or who can ship to the UK, to provide an order of all leather bucklers, at least two in the first instance and possibly more.

Purple Heart Armoury used to produce an all leather buckler, but have since discontinued them. My club used these for HEMA training, but all of our kit has gone missing and we're now looking to resupply, and Purple Heart Armoury was the only supplier I am aware of, so now we're looking to commission some.

A buckler is appromixately 15" diameter circle, with an outward facing "boss" as shown in the image, which covers a hand grip hole in the main face of the shield across which a grip is attached. In the pieces we had from PHA this was entirely made of leather, including the grip, but was solid and sturdy (we used them for sparring and they held up perfectly well to solid strikes from wooden training weapons)

The leather construction was perfect for us as it allowed for controlled contact in our sparring, which is not very practical with the more readily available wood and steel or hard plastic varieties.

So, what we're looking for is basically a 15" disc with a central cutout, boss and grip, for training purposes. The leather must be stiff and solid enough for moderate contact martial arts practice. The grip doesn't have to be leather but it seemed to work well on the ones we had. From memory there was stitching around the rim so I assume the main shield portion was constructed of layers of leather. The key is that the central convex boss section was solid but not hard, so the buckler could be used to strike at the head and body so long as the strikes are pulled, without the risk of serious injury as would be the case with wood or steel.

If anybody thinks they could produce these for us, or if you have any further questions, please contact me - alchemicalsolution at yahoo.com