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.

Richard Beauchamp

Sword dance

Sword Dance


stag like....

I also like the shaska work here. Seems very....straightforward. As is this one.

And what this fellow does with a shaska is just amazing.
(He comes into it about thirty seconds in.)

Crinnets

Click on these admittedly dark pictures to enlarge them. The more you look at this armour, the more you see, and the more "ahh ha!" moments you get. The crinnet of course is the armour which protects the horse's neck. These german crinnets are interesting in that they are nearly "cage like", the horse's mane being allowed to come out through the openings in the cage.

I was quite taken with this armour because it was like...totally unique! No where else have I found a crinnet that looks like that! If you click on the second picture down, you can see the very interesting "hinge" system...the crinnet pieces are actually separate pieces mounted on two fairly heavy belt which runs lengthwise. This would allow the horse to turn his head from side to side.

Now THAT's something you don't see every day!

Iron in the Weald

One of the nice things about the interwebs is the ability to download some wonderful books. The above are excerpted from Starkey's book about iron working.

Horses of the AEsir

• Blóðughófi: "Bloody-hoof";
• Falhófnir: "Hairy-hoof" or "Hidden-hoof", i.e. whoses hoofs are covered with hair, or "Pale-hoof";
• Gulltoppr: "Gold-tuft";
• Gísl: related to "beam", "ray";
• Glaðr: "Glad" or "Bright";
• Glær^[4]: "Clear", "Glassy";
• Gullfaxi: "Golden-mane"
• Gyllir^[5]: "Golden";
• Hófvarpnir : "Hoof-thrower";
• Léttfeti: "Light-foot";
• Silfrintoppr: "Silver-tuft";
• Sinir: "Sinewy";
• Skeiðbrimir: "the one which snorts as he runs";
• Sleipnir: "trickster";

Snorri Sturluson paraphrases this stanza in his Gylfaginning:

Each day the Æsir ride thither up over Bifröst, which is also called the Æsir's Bridge. These are the names of the Æsir's steeds: Sleipnir is best, which Odin has; he has eight feet. The second is Gladr, the third Gyllir, the fourth Glenr, the fifth Skeidbrimir, the sixth Silfrintoppr, the seventh Sinir, the eighth Gisl, the ninth Falhófnir, the tenth Gulltoppr, the eleventh Léttfeti. Baldr's horse was burnt with him; and Thor walks to the judgment.

—Gylfaginning (15), Brodeur's translation^[2]

The viking standing stone shows Slepnier, the one with the eight legs. In fact you see a whole bunch of folk on that stone!

Gauntlets

These are the gauntlets I made for Mr. Plummer (who played Barrymore playing Richard III) back in February. Like many items made for movies, they show signs of unhappy haste. They are oversimplified, but even considering they are rushed, they don't look all that bad. I gave them a quick matt black spray before delivering them...remove some of the "star wars storm trooper" look the white primer paint gave them!

Above is a close up of the roping. Keep in mind that the very worst job in armouring is the dreaded "outside roll". These gauntets had the outside roll, which get this! It needed to be roped as well. This roping was done on the "flat" like all roping, and when it was all done, then it was shaped over the horn of the anvil with a rubber mallet which hopefully would not leave too many dents. The material was sixteen gauge aluminum, which was even more annoying because that stuff dents when you drop it, toss it on the "finished" pile or whatever. And aluminum has the unfortunate habit of once you dent it, you can't fix that dent!

The first part of the job, of course, is to roll a bale into the metal. (a bale is a wire which supports the edge, and prevents it from "kinking".) I used a copper wire as the bale, which worked better than the steel wire I usually use. Once the roll was made, I divided the edge up into several little squares and drew diagonal lines which would correspond to the chisel marks. Then I had to make a chisel with a curved face, not too sharp. I used a railroad spike for that purpose. Each groove is made with four strikes, which progress over the bale. Its okay to give a bit of a backwards curve as you progress...it only makes it look more like a twisted rope.

I have had people tell me that scaled fingers are not period. I wonder what source they are referencing! They are certainly easier to make than the articulated fingers. Below is a Milanese gauntlet with scaled fingers and a bell cuff with a nice roll to it. The rivets would have attached a leather inside cuff which would probably flare out over the vambrace...both protecting the metal of the vambrace and giving a punch of colour to the harness.


Below is a German "gothic" armour with articulated fingers. They should not be any harder to make than the scales, however, I find that if you don't get the articulation joints in 'exactly' the right place, they have to be redone until you do. In that respect, they are much more fiddly than the scaled fingers, and consequently much more difficult to get right


And below is a close up of the stunning "gold armour" which was actually used in the joust. This incredibly complex armour is more pretty than useful, but because it shows signs of having been used in the joust, I think we can presume that it was useful as well. Not just a pretty statue. As you can see, this wonderous armour has scale'd fingers.

All these armours are on display in Leeds at the Tower of London Armoury.