Gorgets,
spaudlers...individual pieces.
(I will honour all prices for six months from date posted on the
price column, after which prices may change without notice)
Prices checked for accuracy 1 January 2013, so will be honoured
until 31 Dec 2013.
A Safety Note
(click on pic to enlarge)
Jousters tend to wear their gorgets under their breast-back plate cuirass. Certainly the person with this armour (click HERE) wears his gorget inside. And it does make for greater safety against the lance. However, considering the above pictures, the picadills (leather chafing strips) are riveted onto the underside of the gorget, to keep the gorget from scratching the armour...these ones are clearly made to fit outside the cuirass. As far as I can make out, this may be a personal choice! I think that the gorget shown above looks best when worn over a chain mail shirt or maybe a brigantine. A gorget should be a little big on you...so you can fit lots of padding between your neck and the collar. How big? Well, as long as it can fit under the helm, it is fine.
13a...Collarbone
Gorget Parade Grade
I make these in many incarnations. This one links closed
with simple key and slot, and has a leather collar. The
leather can be hardened if desired, or steel may be substituted. I
wear this gorget UNDER my breast-backplate combo, and the leather
keeps the steel breastplate from digging into my neck. The
tabs on the sides are eyeletted to provide an anchor to lace on
the arms and spaulders. A decorative gorget like this one is good
for "showing off", well, like for parades. The gorget in the
picture has an interesting brass trim on it, interesting in that
the rolled edge is actually on the inside of the trim for
texture. I can make it with rolled edges all around, just as
in the period pieces above if you like.
Click here
to see this armour from the back...I rolled the edges on the back.
Please note, most SCA, JFof C, JF of A,
or AEMMA Marshals will not pass a leather collar even if you
harden it with wax, but it looks nice enough for parade. They like
the battle ready one below.
13b...Heavy Gorget...Battle Ready.
Called "Heavy" because it is made for "Heavy Fighting", not
because it weighs a lot, this armour has steel instead of leather,
and is held together with a leather belt against an interlock as
well as a simple key and slot fastener. This one is
guaranteed to be "SCA Legal", and I rather like it myself.
As you can see from the pictures, I riveted on a couple of leather
tabs on the side to hold your shoulder harness and arm
harness...this is standard, and it helps to add mass to the gorget
if it actually gets hit. On this particular gorget, I
got a little fancy and laced in little leather laces to hold the
belt in place, and left the knots on the outside as decorative
"points". I have built in a good half to three
quarters inch all around for padding...and I STILL have to caution
you to not depend totally on this armour for your safety...use it
in conjunction with a chain mail drape off your helm, and make
sure your helm comes down enough to stop the majority of the
shots. Remember, the gorget is the last line of
defense...like a safety belt, you don't want to actually have to
use it! But it is nice when things go pear shaped. The
belts are generally considered disposable, and replaceable, and
are easy to find at the Sally Ann. Rolled edges are period, but
not absolutely necessary.
Available in sixteen gauge
only.
#13-c Simple Spaudlers
#13-e
Old style South Tower Spaudlers
not quite pauldrons, a little more than
spaudlers
This is the new spaudler we make for the upgraded number two
armour. This shows the "pointy" French style, the English
style is the same but straight across. The sketch is of the
German multiple scallops....they are all equally easy to make, and
they set off an otherwise plain armour.
This shows three lames. More lames are of course easy to
make. The pic below shows a four lame spaulder with five points.
click
here to see a larger pic of me wearing this armour.
variations on a theme....a little fluting, a little torching....much the same price.
Gentleman from Norway in South Tower armour and his own beautiful red aketon....if you click on the picture, you can see that he is fighting a not so gentle man from Norway. Looks like fun!
13F
South Tower pauldrons
(click on image to enlarge)
These are my new design. They are later period, and seem to fit
really well over the breast and back plate combinations on the
previous page. I think they are hanging just a bit high on
the above picture...the bottom lame should be riding about an
inch lower. The spaulders are laced onto tabs on the
gorget, or some people even lace them directly onto the gorget
itself. Eyelets are provided for that purpose. Note the
holes in the bottom lame...these provide a bit of adjustment for
the one piece elbow cop. The big flanged one-piece elbow
cop is perfect for this shoulder set up.
(click on image to enlarge)
This shows how large and sweeping it is in back. I flanged
the back since I could not stand such a large outside
roll! It rolls properly when it comes down and touches the
shoulder blades in back.
(click on image to enlarge)
close up shot of the lames. You can see the mate in the background.
(click on image to enlarge)
Close up of the armour. As you can see on this particular
version, the top lame is actually a false lame...riveted into
place. It fills a gap which formed when the arm was bent
way down. You can clearly see the rolled edge which
goes up against your neck.
(click on image to enlarge)
Here is me doing a cross hand movement. The spaulder folds up like a fan in front, keeping it from digging me in the neck.
(click on image to enlarge)
This last picture is from the Palace Museum in Malta, and shows my inspiration.
One size pretty much fits all. Customizing would include fences, points on the lames and so forth. Since they get hit a lot, I think they should be made from 16 gauge. There would not be much savings in time or material to make them in 18 gauge, but 18 gauge spaulders WOULD be half the weight. These weigh in at a fairly hefty 4 pounds per side in 16 gauge. But no cracked collar bones!!
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