Ahh, here we go. Nice, shiny, heavily padded demi-gauntlets! They fully protect the backs of my hands and wrists, and slide nicely over my bracers. Nothing exceptionally special about them, except perhaps my use of hide glue to seal the seam between the pieces. Also, in the picture on the upper right hand side, you can see my “rune belt”, which is meant to go over my gambeson and armor tunic, and help keep some of the weight off of my shoulders.

For the record, the runes (Futhorc, of course) read “Ulfkell Ludhinsson inn tuadrencan i Jorfik made this belt and carved these runes. If you can read this, thank you kindly G”. The only issues I really ran into with these were with the dye. The black dye seems to be rather inconsistant, even though I applied it evenly to two identical pieces. Once came out shiny and the other rather dull. I also have a problem with the “Ox Blood” dye I used for the belt. Even with 3 coats, it is still rather light and pinkish, as opposed to the deep red I had thought it would’ve been. Oh well, so I guess I’ll be the Norseman with the pink belt. Could be worse.

As you an see, I fashioned the required padding for my helm in the form of a slightly smaller version of the helm, made from 1/2″ closed cell foam. Using the ever popular duct tape as my means of holding the foam helm together. It fits nice and snug, but is a bit warm, so I plan on making an unpadded arming cap to help wick sweat away and let my head breath a bit.

I’ve actually refashioned the strapping since these pictures were taken. Unfortunately, the original design led to the buckles being up to nearly my ears, and were nearly impossible to fasten without assistance. Even with assistance, they were an incredible pain in the ass!

So with a little bit of inspiration from the chinstrap harness I saw on Windrose Armory I devised an easier to manage strapping system. I made a H-shaped piece of 10oz leather, and then riveted together the ends to form a basket, and also had a piece of strapping with just enough length to have the buckle stick out. It makes for a nice snug fit on my chin, but I could still wish for more room to attach everything.

Finished up the base of my latest “spur of the moment” project. A pair of Jórvík style Anglo-Norse shoes. Heavy duty cowhide for the soles, goatskin for the uppers. I used decidely non-period waxed polyester leather repair thread for the stitching of the sole to the upper, and attaching of the strap. A concession to necessity, as these are a wearable item, and I don’t want the sweat from my feet dissolving the stitches. Trust me, it’s entirely plausible. My feet eat socks.

Unluckily, all the patterns I found gave measurements on the sole, but not the upper… so I had to guess. My guessing was a bit off, and I ended up with a pair of shoes that don’t quite come up to the ankle as they should. So, to remedy this, I am making another 4 inch piece to act as an “upper upper”, and turn my mostly accurate, if a bit clusmy, Norse shoes into a horribly abomination of non-accurate but more comfortable footwear. They are actually rather comfortable to wear as slippers, but I don’t think I would like them if I was being active. Seeing as I plan on wearing them as part of my normal fighting garb, I’ll be needing a bit more ankle support, and less of the “Hel, my shoes are falling off!” bit.

Well, I’m finally getting somewhere with my armoring. Finished up my throat guard (unhardened heavy leather), and a pair of elbow cops (cuirboulli leather). The elbows cops were, perhaps, boulli’d a bit too long. Never the less, they turned out to be rather servicable once strapped (as you can see, I felt the need to add a third strap after completion) and padded. I used copper rivets for structural riveting, and where needed for strapping, but I prefer pop rivets for strapping, as they are much easier to replace, and straps will break eventually.

The elbows are made from 13-15oz leather, and then soaked in scalding water (75deg C) for a few minutes. I really should’ve only done it for 30 seconds or so, the additional time gained me little thickness or stiffness, but cost me in shrinkage and workability. Not to mention it pretty much erased the tooling I had done upon the pieces, and I was rather proud of that. A shame, for sure. It is starting to reappear as the pieces cure completely, but the leather is far too hard to remboss without destroying it. The 3 part strap helps keep the cop over my elbow when in motion, and hold it far enough back it clears my bracers.

The throat guard was not hardened at all, merely soaked to make it workable and then allowed to air dry. Of course, I had spent so much time tooling the elbow cops, I did this one a bit more simply. I simply did my usual triangle within a rectangle motif, only minus the inner curlicues I usually add. For the main part of the piece, I decided to emboss the phrase “TYR GIDE ME HAND TO HROD” in Futhorc runes, HROD standing for a slightly corrupted version of an Old Norse word for praise, hróðr. I suppose translating the whole thing might’ve been better, but it was rather spur of the moment, while I was looking at my Futhorc sheet for ideas. It seems fairly apropos for one who was Anglo-Norse and a bit too impulsive to be properly educated (i.e. like me), even if the Anglo part of the language is modernized. Then of course, I padded both pieces.

Padding, ahh yes, wonderful, glorious. Except for the fact I accidentally bought 1/2″ foam instead of the 3/16″ I really meant to get. Curse you, unreliable mind! Slicing thickness off of closed cell foam rubber is not easy. I recommend using smaller pieces and then cutting them with scissors… and saving pieces and adding them on the underside for thin spots. Original outside serves best as the outside, not as likely to peel and rub that way.

I’d also like to show off one nifty bit I got for my toolkit. The world’s smallest anvil! Fits right in my tool box, and perfect for setting rivets on the go.

A good, solid shield. 32″ in diameter, 5/8″ pine plywood, with a 14ga steel boss, a carved pine handle, and a nice russet-dyed goatskin rim. And all bolt ends nicely tucked either in the handle or under acorn nuts. It’s heavy, but that’s alright, I need the exercise. After having a week off from any chance of working on my projects, I was glad to be able to finally finish one up. Next on the agenda is a pair of demi-gauntlets and a throat guard, I picked up a nice saddle skirting side for cheap at Tandy Leather. 13-15 ounce, not much lighter then the “armor grade” (14-16 oz), but only $79 for a side, most sides are in the $120+ range.

Still trying to catch up with all my “things that need doing” that got put off because of the California trip. Wasn’t particularly impressed with Orange County, CA. Too many people, too damn hot, might as well be next door to Muspull, in my opinion. I was sweating my ass off in February, don’t even want to think about what summer months might be like.
I also finished my bracers and stuff a while ago, but forgot to put up a picture.

Well, now that I have ruined two otherwise perfectly good bracers with my attempted wax hardening… I have decided to chalk that method up as too risky in terms of materials. I’m not sure whether it is I not paying attention, or some inherent flaw in the process I used, but I am going to stick with plain old oven baking to harden my leather and shoe polish to seal it, for the foreseeable future.

On the bright side, I have now equipped my garage with a work table, vice, and the raw materials for making some shields. I’m just waiting for my boss to arrive, so it probably won’t be ready for the next practice, but perhaps the next one I’m at.

Now, this is an incomplete project, but I decided I wanted to show off the first piece of the project. I apologize for my photos, photography is not one of my skills. But this is the first vambrace out of a set I am making into an arm guard, with an elbow cop to be attached later. (Once I get the pattern right). This time, I also decided to use dye, and stick with tooling the decorative parts into the leather instead of branding it.

I modified my hardening this time, and will be modifying it further still on the next piece. Instead of the soaking in nigh-boiling water, I soaked the entire piece in room temperature water until fully saturated(over night, in this case, but it could’ve been shorter), then did my tooling and cutting. And when done with that, I baked it in the oven at 200°F for about 30 minutes, which turned out to be a bit too hot, as I am using a lighter piece of leather this time.

After baking, I applied heated wax to the hot leather, and let it cool for a bit. Then I returned it to the oven, at a lower temperature of 150°F, to let the wax soak in (just for 10 minutes or so, long enough to open the pores and melt the wax). Unfortunately, the way I had the piece laid in the pan led to some minor overheating and some rippling of the leather on the part touching the pan, as well as rippling on the upper side, away from the pan. Made a mental note to turn the piece when doing this next time. After heating, I assembled the straps and buckles. I really need some form of T-bar to set the rivets easier, another mental note. After a few false starts, I secured the buckles and straps.

Now, the vambrace was nearly complete. Now, with this set, instead of attempting to make rock-hard leather, I decided to experiment with padding as a main contributer to the damage prevention. When picking up my supplies, I had also purchased a bag of thick, natural sheepskin scraps. I cut two pieces to line what I figured will be the main impact zone of the vambrace, and then glued them into place with rubber cement (or some derivative thereof meant for leather, it was from Tandy Leather). I would like to have them stitched into place, but in all truth, I’m not prepared or equipped to stitch thick sheepskin into hardened leather. Perhaps with another set, should the experiment pan out.

After a good bit of browsing, checking on regulations and reputations, and all sorts of other mercantile activities, I have finally settled on a helm. It is a nice 14 gauge, hammer dished, concical helm in, of course, the Norse style. Or a fairly reasonable facsimile thereof. I think I may have to pad it and strap it myself, luckily I have plenty of leather and sheepskin scraps leftover from my bracer projects, and I think I should be able to use them. It’s a bit plain, and being of mild steel, I’m going to have to be somewhat pro-active on maintenance unless I want it to turn into a rust-bucket. But at least it was within my budget. It’s warranted to be SCA legal, and I could find nothing but good reviews of the vendor and his work, so hopefully I am not disappointed. He does offer no questions asked returns, if needs be.

So last night, I finally had a chance to strap on some armor and take a few swings with an SCA sword and shield (Thanks to Martino for the use of his sword and shield, and Toen for helping me with the loaner armor). I very quickly came to a few conclusions…

• I’ve watched way too many movies, and not nearly enough exercise programs.
• Swords and shield are a lot heavier then they look, or even feel, when you hold them at the ready.
• I need a lot of practice.
• The swings that come naturally to me are far more suited for an axe. I’ll have to remember that once I manage to authorize for sword and shield use, and can start trying other things.

And yeah, I expected myself to be some kind of natural wunderkind with the sword. It wasn’t a reasonable expectation, but it was still there.*chuckles* I should take up blacksmithing just for the upper body workout, even the short drill Toen put me through left my shield arm sore from trying to keep it in place.

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So here I am… it’s a snowy weekend, and I have a bad idea I can’t get rid of. And the current bad idea pertains to leather armor, and the hardening thereof. After snooping about on the internet a bit, I came across this helpful tutorial: Leather Bracer Tutorial. “Hmm”, said I, “I think I could do that.” And I also saw this page on hardening leather.

With that in mind, I gathered my tools… and took a ride down to a local business called “The Leathersmith”. I picked myself up a good hunk of fairly heavy leather (not sure on the exact weight), some tanned lacing, and the punches and mallet you see in the above picture. Laying out and cutting the initial bracer was not really that difficult. Luckily my X-acto knife set had plenty of sharp blades to work with, and once the pattern was cut, I set it to soak in warm water for about 30 minutes or so. After soaking, I punched out a series of 1/8″ holes about 1/4″ in from the edge, and 1.5″ apart. I also gave the whole thing a good pounding with the broadside of the mallet, to help harden it. I then took one of my long and thin curved blades, and set about beveling the edges of the piece.

Then I wandered off in search of ideas for designs to put on it. Not being a great artist by any means, I made a line/geometric pattern on one edge, a poor copy of a linework raven’s head I had found online at the wrist, and my name in Futhorc runes at the upper part, where it sits next to the elbow. I used a leatherworking, umm, you know, I have no idea what it’s called. It has one end that is similar to a pick and the other is a minature spoon. But with this tool, I carved my chosen patterns into the leather. Now, had I dye, and a sensible mind, this would’ve been the end of the project.

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