spadler with fence

This German armour from 1530 at the Tower of London Armoury in Leeds is spectacular in its fit and finish, yet fairly straightforward in basic design and funtion. The fairly standard "Italian" style shoulders were now being made in Germany (and German style armours were now being made in Italy...leading to the tremendous confusion. We know this is German because of the radial fluting. Italian armours would be plain, or decorated in bands and panels of detailed etching. When you consider how much work went into fluting this armour, one wonders why the armourer stuck to this overall form instead of coming up with one of his own. My "theory" is that the panel basher who fluted this armour started from a standard off-the-rack set of pieces rather than starting from scratch. Its just a theory though, but it suits my admittedly unstudied concept of guilds and their jealously guarded fields of expertise. (I think this was originally an armour that had been fluted...the bottom of the flutes retain the curve of the original armour)

Anybody who has ever done fluting will tell you that although the fluting is fairly straightforward, you just have to file a stake to the correct shape to allow the shape to be bashed in, at first with a rawhide hammer, and then with a hard hammer, and then lastly with a swage. The hard part of course is to make the flutes straight and even. That would have given the armour maker a few unquiet nights! One unthinking random hit with the hammer, and two weeks down the drain!



If you click on these pictures you can see some interesting battle damage. The lance has clearly torn the fence right through its rivets, and even cracked the corner of the spadler. The three dimentional compound curves have proved to be stronger than the steel they were made from. An interesting engineering study.


The rivets along the edge of the spadler are clearly replacements...likely they held an underlying layer of leather in place to prevent scratches...and as we all know, leather does not have a long lifestyle. This armour then was in use for at least one cycle of leather replacement. Say five or six years. Maybe longer. This closeup (above) also clearly shows the underlying shape of the original armour. Not only did the panel basher make the flutes, but he also kept the underlying gentle swell of the shoulder. This is what makes me think that some guildsman (say a plate maker's guild) decortated an armour made by the harness maker's guild. Again, only speculation. Probably a lot to build upon a gleam of light in the bottom of the flutes...





For some time, the leather was not there to protect the breastplate from the spadler. Those scratches must an annoyed at least one owner! What is interesting is that they have dipped down into the bottoms of the grooves....which means it was a bit of flimsy springy metal dragging across the breastplate at that place. From such evidence are stories developed.



I included this pic because it was a good overview of the nice fence. Gently pointed at the top, beautifully rolled and finished. The centre line which looks so clean and crisp is an illusion however, it is just a reflection of the corner of the display case. This spadler is articulated, but all the articulation is on the helm side of the fence. And the fence is gently curved, but it does NOT follow the fluting. This leads me to another possibly unwarranted assumption....the fence was mounted AFTER the fluting was done. Which means it went back to the harness maker. Maybe not right away. This armour does not usually have a fence, so it might have been a modification. One can almost see the marshal shaking his head and saying..."good lookin' armour m'lord, but we use fences in th' joust now, so you gots t'get fences nailed on hmmm".

And from the side, we see that the fence is surprisingly enough, only on the front half of the spadler. Unless you see the armour from the side or the back, you would never know this! In fact, it does not even come up to the centre line, but rather, a couple of centimeters to the front of the centre line.

Building a greave part 3 of 3

The above is the attachment method from 1608. A centre pin, probably with a cotter pin. This is very popular since it allows for some lateral movement. A very useful thing, especially when riding a horse. The downside is that it will scar the blazes out of a gym floor, so is rarely used in re-enactment nowadays.



Above is the way the Dutch do it....keyhole fastenings. But sideways. Don't see THAT every day. Not very common. Note the small hinges on the outside.



The famous "lion armour" in Leeds from the back. You so rarely ever see an armour from the back. You can so clearly see the buckles on the inside (towards the back so that they don't dig into the horse's flank.) The armour is three quarters, open at the inside, with a little flap on the outside for comfort.
A slight variation on this armour....the man who commissioned the Lion Armour did not like articulated sabatons, rather he preferred buskins. Perhaps with fine chain mail over the top of his foot.

This is the same armour from the side. There is so much that is interesting about this armour, but I will confine myself to noting that there is a little articulated plate on the bottom, helping to protect the ankle from lances. My suspicion is that the stirrup has a nice big plate which will protect the top of the foot. It is hard to imagine any other reason why there would be such a glaring opening in the armour.

But I am here to show how the fast way to make those really cool greaves. Up until now, we had quite a lumpy mess. Now we bring in the iron, to iron all those wrinkles out. Enter the English Wheel.
You can do all this work without the wheel, of course. You would have to work it over a flat "burnishing plate" with hammers. A collection of snarling hammers is well worth the trouble if you don't want to use the wheel. However, what can be done in fifteen minutes with a wheel will take you two hours with a snarling iron. (google "snarling iron")




Insert the two inch ball. This is a pretty tight circle, and you don't want to use much pressure or you will track grooves into the work piece.



A few minutes wheeling back and forth will knock down all the high spots.



Leaving you with a rather fat greave. But the centre line is still there, and all you need to do is to fold it on the centre line to narrow it down.



Which I have done in the above picture. But now it is too tight! No problem...



A couple of hits with a hammer on a convenient pipe will pull the calf muscles and foot out. I wrapped a belt around the narrow part to KEEP it narrow while I did this. And forgot to take a picture of that clever little kink.

The last part of the job is to draw the flare. It is in two parts, the first part brings the flare to about forty five degrees, the second is another forty five degrees to make it horizontal to the foot.



The hashing hammer will stretch the metal out neatly, and a round ball pein hammer will flatten out the hash marks.


Check to see if they are the same....

And there they are, ready to mount onto the articulated legs in back. Note that there has been zero sanding or polishing....a polishing job would add to the time.

Elapsed time....about ten or twelve hours for both. Thereabouts. Maybe a bit more for the leathering, which has not been done yet.

If I was to do the back of the leg, we would be looking at about the same amount of time. Not because it is very complicated and more difficult, but rather because I would have to fuss with lining the pieces up, as well as making and installing hinges. These are designed to cover the sides and front of the lower leg. And they do that just fine.

Building a greave part 2 of 3

Above is my hammer. It is a helve hammer, and not a particularly big one either. A four pound sledge, rounded and mounted on a leaf spring. The spring is actually not for springy-ness, but just because it has a convenient eye at the back for a pivot. The rope is used to drag the hammer down when I step on the plank at the bottom, and simple bungee cords pull it back up.
I could have made a much heavier hammer, which would do a lot of wonderful work, but hey, this one does the trick. Nice thing about this hammer...I can do it all day, and hardly work up a sweat. The other nice thing about this hammer... it hits in the same spot. Every time. I can let my fingers get pretty close to the moving hammer. (but I don't!) So it is scary accurate.
The stump is an ash log about four feet long, with a ring around the top keeping it from splitting. The ring works. Sort of. The dish was carved out, and would accomodate a 3 inch diameter ball. Its pretty solid. But not perfect...the hollow needs to be re-hollowed every couple of months. Which makes the whole stump a bit shorter each time.




The hammer will use a combination of dishing and raising. Dishing is so easy to do that it is almost always my first choice. I found out that different metals dish vastly differently. For instance, this mild steel will blow outwards by about 5 per cent...two dots ten centimeters apart will become 10.5 centimeters apart when I am done....whereas aluminum will be 11.25 centimeters apart after dishing. (nugget of free information....use it wisely!)



The spaces for the ankle bones has been drawn, and the heads of the calf muscles have been drawn out. Its hammer time!



And after a couple of minutes, the overlapping hammer marks make for a blown out shape. I fold the metal down the length of the shin bone because I know that if I don't do that operation at the beginning, it won't be possible to do it later on!




As you continue to work, the edges will get wrinkles in them. You want this, because you use those wrinkles for a much more important operation....the raising.


Does not look too bad. The centre ridge, the angle bone cover, and the calf muscle have been hammered out to where we want them.



The raising is done with the rounded hammer on the flat board. I just bring a scrap piece of two by four and lay it on top. I have been known to use a hockey puck, but that slips out of place too easily,

Starting at the end of the flute, you hammer it down. The rest of the metal hold it in place, and the metal shrinks. Looks like magic, using a hammer to shrink an edge! But it works.



Flatten the flute neatly.

And then run a line of hammer strikes down each side.



What you get is a lump which has all the features, as wavy and lumpy as they are.

Three quarters view of the same....


Then, using a soft hammer, gently clean up the edges, and define the work better.

Building a greave (first of three parts)

As usual, click on any or all these pictures to enlarge them. These thumbnails are not quite good enough...

A closeup of these German greaves show a very narrow ankle, rolled bottoms and a very neatly done back part. No hinge, like so many of the armours on special built stands in museums, the front and back are held on my magic. Or double sided tape. Or something. Oh wait, there is a buckle on the outside, accessible by his squire. I think the front and back parts are separate, and just held together by cinches. (small belts which have become lost over the years.) You can see the line on the inside of the leg, but the outside line is quite far back, the greave wraps three quarters around to the outside.
The ones I made for Phil are not so fancy, or as expensive. I made it wrap around his calf muscles, and there will be an opening at the back, which can be filled in at a later time if he desires. So these are really just shin pads, but they will protect more than the shin, they protect the sides as well. I made them out of eighteen gauge because you really don't need it that heavy down there. And if he gets 'em dented, well, he knows an armourer. Actually, since there is not a square centimetre that does not have a compound curve, dents are unlikely. Not impossible....just unlikely.
It is surprising to most people that the greaves would be so wide...these are three quarter greaves, so they look quite wide when laid out on the pattern. Unlike the German "Ritter" ones above, these wrap three quarters around both the inside and the outside.



Greaves are interesting things. Mr. Stroud of the Palace Museum used to say that he would judge an armour maker by how well he did the legs. They are not that difficult to make, but they are not a beginner's project! Unlike most armours, greaves are invariably required to look like the flesh they are protecting. So you have to create the muscles, the bones, and the joints.
Lower leg armour is also one of the most expensive armours simply because of the sheer time it takes to pound them out. And there is a lot of fussy, inside work that has to be done with tiny little hammers and annoying short strokes. I think most armourers charge as much as they do for greaves because they are so annoying to make.
This post shows how to make them the easy way. You should be able to get a pair of greaves finished and ready for the customer within six hours, seven tops. I have made so many of them that I can usually get them done in five. Not counting the fitting or leathering.

The greave above has been shaped to cover the ankle, swell out over the calf, and make a nice shin bone line. That shin bone is dead straight (unlike a real shin bone come to think of it) and like all straight lines, it shows in the harsh light. My shop light, with its horizontal bars of flourescent lights is very unforgiving of any wonkiness or dents. (as is the "sharpening and enhance tools I have used to make these pictures presentable.) So it behooves me to do it right. The armour in the above picture is "from the hammer", no sanding or grinding whatsoever.



Above is a close up of the little flare in front. It is a two part flare, the first part goes to forty five degrees, the second part sits at ninety degrees...and it is short so that it won't dig into the top of his foot when he is running. The original brought this curve out to a full roll. I find the flare to be more comfortable. If in the future, Phil decides that the roll is preferable, that is easy enough to do.



Sighting down the length of it, you can see if any bad lines.



From the side, you can see the nice "anthromorphic" lines. Anthromorphic means the metal follows the human lines underneath as it it too had real muscles. To get them right, you need a little knowledge of anatomy, and a measurement of the distance between the points of the ankle and the "heads" of the muscles is also required.
That being said, you can also idealize the sculpture. This is not so important with a lower leg, which in this century is not as sexy and subject to fashion as it has been in previous centuries, but you can imagine how useful it might be to make a flat six back belly, or a sculpted chest.

Tomorrow I shall put the second part up, which shows how to do the sculpting, and then the last part will show the fitting and leathering.

How Eric does it.

Breast and back plate. dishing and rolling. The bare minimum you need to learn if you want to call yourself an armourer.

Floating elbows. It is not quite as easy as Eric makes it look.

and building hinges. If you can build a hinge, you can build anything.

More of Phil's armour

This is Phil's armour last week. I kept looking at the back plate. Just did not like its lines.
Oh sure, it would "work" but I was not happy with it.

So I took it apart and started hammering again.


Both the back plate and the back placquart were just not "right".

And I hated that buckle. No keeper, and just too plain.

This is what the back plate looks like now. The small of the back actually comes in closer to his body, and the side is a full two inches longer now.
The whole armour looks a lot nicer now.
I moved the top strap to the placquart...I can add a third if it is needed.

Roy Leask was the 2008 Guizer Jarl for the Lerwick Up Helly Aa, and represented Kol Kalison.
Roy is Operations Director of local building firm D.I.T.T. Construction Ltd.

The 73 strong Jarl's Squad, the youngest member of which was Roy's 19 month old grandson Euan, were dressed in full length chainmail over dark green pigskin kirtles. The chainmail of the Jarl's suit was silver and the other squad members suits were gold plated.

Paul Thorfinnsson (died after 1098) and Erlend Thorfinnsson (died after 1098) ruled together as Earls of Orkney.

Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson were the sons of Thorfinn Sigurdsson and Ingibiorg Finnsdottir. Through Ingibiorg's father Finn Arnesson and his wife, the family was related to the Norwegian Kings Olav II and Harald II.

Their lives and times are recounted in the Orkneyinga Saga. The first mention of the brothers is when they accompanied the Norwegian king Harald Hardrade and Tostig Godwinson on the ill-fated expedition to England in 1066. Paul and Erlend were with Harald's son Olaf Kyrre, guarding the ships, when the battle of Stamford Bridge was fought. Along with Olaf they were allowed to leave by the English king Harold Godwinson. Olaf overwintered on Orkney with them and left on good terms with the Thorfinssons.

The saga says that Paul and Erlend were on good terms until their children grew to adulthood, after which the disputes between their sons led to a quarrel and open hostility between the brothers. As the disputes between the descendants of Paul and Erlend loomed large in the affairs of 12th century Orkney, the saga goes into some detail on their family relationships.

Paul was married to an unnamed daughter of Norwegian earl Hakon Ivarsson. Two sons and four daughters are named. Of these, Hakon played the greatest part in events.

Erlend married Thora, daughter of one Sumarlidi Ospaksson, and they had two sons and two daughters, while Erlend had a third, illegitimate daughter as well. Erlend's son Magnus appears in the saga as earl, martyr and saint. The troubles between the earls began with rivalry between Hakon Paulsson and Magnus's brother Erling. Both are described as quarrelsome, arrogant men, and talented too. Erland's daughter Gunnhild's was married to Kol Kalison and Rognvald Kali Kolsson was their son.

Magnus III of Norway took possession of the islands in 1098, deposing Erlend and Paul. Paul's son, Haakon Paulsson, then became regent on behalf of the Norwegian prince, the future King Sigurd I of Norway, who made Haakon earl in 1105.

So...lets see. Kol Kalison married Paulson's daughter Gunnhild.

Paul's father was Thorfin the Mighty, and his Grandma was Olith, who had married Sigurd the Stout.

Sigurd's Grandpa was "Thorfinn Skull Splitter", and Olith's dad was Malcolm II of Scotland, and HIS dad was the famous Kenneth II of Scotland.

With such, um, exciting lineage, it is no wonder this family went on to become kings of Norway.

The family tree is here....and its not so complicated, though the events they were involved in were VERY complex and profound. It involved the succession of the kings of Norway, and it makes for fascinating reading.

However, the descendents of Kol Kalison still live in the Shetlands, and hold a parade every spring. The "up helly" days are, up...becoming quite a tourist attraction.

As interesting as this is though, what do you think of Roy Leaske's gold plated chain mail with the alternating black rows? This has got to be some of the prettiest armour I have ever seen, and worth a closer examination. Please follow some of those links to see much more of the great Lerwick Up Helly-Aa event in the otherwise sleepy Shetlands.