New spaulders!

These babies were waiting for me when got I back from my Christmas holidays. Well worth the wait, they were made by Marko Saari, the guild leader of /the Armoursmiths' Guild (WaruSseppäin Kilta in Finnish). Here's a link to their website:http://www.warussepat.fi/

Nice one, Marko! I think they're gorgeous! As you can see from the photos, they are attached using points. I still have to find out how to sew the laces onto my gambeson and whether to use laces or leather thong for the chords.

Already before the holidays, I decided to join the WarusSeppäin Kilta group, WSK for short, to enhance my historical martial arts repertoire and experience. The WSK train in various German styles based on several historical treatises. In effect, they do what we do, but in German styles AND they also make their own gear and do re-enactment. To-date, I have not really discovered another one-handed sword style that I am really interested in*, so I thought I'd stay with an approximately similar period to Fiore, but with a German twist. I like the finesse in longsword as well as the wrestling and dagger techniques. I also love both the look and feel of the Messer, which although it looks like a fearsome sword, is technically a long knife! Through this cross-training I hope to deepen my appeciation of HEMA overall and to get new insights into italian swordsmanship.

*= with the exception of backsword/basket-hilt claymore.

Compulsive Obsessive Disorder and thoughts on freeplay gear

Well, as previously mentioned, I bought myself a gambeson while at Swordfish 2008. So, I've already made an order for a hand-made leather gorget and a pair of pauldrons. Both of these will be hand-made by local guys. It's easy to get such things online, but it's much more satisfying to actually have some more input as to how the things look. Plus, it's great to support local artesans. Basically, Emil Lindfors will make the gorget and Marko Saari will do the pauldrons. Marko has already made a buckler for me and with which I am very happy. I really like the idea of having nice gear and being able to tell people when I meet them that it's hand-made and thereby "advertise" their skills.

The obsessive side of my personality has manifested itself recently in an extensive but ultimately fruitless hunt on the net for a leather cuirasse to wear over my gambeson. I don't think the leather straps close the gambeson quite enough to give enough of a safety overlap of the material, so I wanted something to wear over it to protect better against thrusts. There is some stuff available, but it is either very expensive, or it is designed for an orc or an elven hunter, in other words, LARP bollocks. No thank you !

I guess I could just move the straps (they are sown on), so that the overlap is off-centre and the risk of getting a point in the gap is lessened. Trouble is, I cannot sow to save my life and so was thinking of using rivets instead. Decisions, decisions! It's really bloody frustrating because I want to DO something about it, but don't have the requisite skills to fix it myself, nor does it seem possible to just buy a blasted breastplate from the net. Arrrghh! Grrrr!

I did have the idea to make a plastic breastplate from those blue/black/grey plastic barrels. I just cannot seem to find out where I can get them from. More frustration. The basic idea would be to cut a one piece plastic "cuirasse" which covers the ribs and goes over the collarbones and shoulders. It would be strapped with either an x or y-strap arrangement with a lower back strap and adjustable fast-locking clips. I'd like also to add shoulder pads to the thing.

Ok, it'll probably look bloody hideous. I was thinking to cover the plastic with black cloth, canvas or something equally durable. In addition, I'd add high density foam padding. This would also be covered in the black cloth, glued to the inside of the plastic shell and then riveted for extra durability and an attempt at some sort of "historical" look. I just have to find a plastic barrel first!