Armour 1540
Reproduction of a black and white half armour. Composed of breast, back, and gorget with munions over a doublet and slops.
The breastplate has a central crease which is drawn out to a rounded point somewhat below the center. The upper edge is rolled inward. The roll tapers from the center. The arm holes have sliding gussets. The gussets have large, hollow, inward-turned rolls. The breastplate was raised from the flat. A weld at the bottom would have been a lot easier, but I didn't do it that way. The gussets are made from straight strips and flaired to create the roll and to fit into the breastplate. The breastplate has a simple fauld of 2 lames. The lower lame has a small rolled arch at the center. The back plate is fomed of one piece with a separate waist lame forming a degenerate culet. The back is shaped agressively to the shoulder blades almost forming a point over each. The gorget is formed of 2 neck plates front and back, a large main plate front and back and shoulders of 7 lames. The neck lames are secured by 3 leather strips front and back. The shoulder plates are secured by sliding rivets at the back and interior leathers at the center and front. The smaller rolls on the top plate of the gorget, backplate and at the center of the lower fauld lame are turned over wire. The rolls on the bottom edge of the munions are just turned without wire. All of the rolls go 'in' (as appropriate for 16th c. armour). The plates are rough from the hammer with a painted black finish with raised bands of polished steel. Worn with morion A-152.
Thicknesses: breastplate .062, fauld .050, backplate .050, main gorget plates .050, munions .035.
The clothing consists of a shirt, doublet and slops. Socks and shoes are modern. The shirt is based on one in the Victoria and Albert museum in London from 1540-65. It is featured in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 4. It is assembled in the same way as the original, by finishing the individual pieces and then butting them together and (machine) embroidering over the two pieces to hold them together. The main pieces are held together by the embroidery. This copy omits the frill at neck and wrists. The doublet is fulled wool lined throughout with linen. The white on the sleeves is a layer of silk between the linen sleeve lining and the slashed wool outer sleeve. All three layers are stitched together and treated as one. The wrist openings are bound with a narrow facing. The buttons are based on some found in the Mary Rose. They are formed by covering some 7mm beads with wool which are attached by stitching through the center which gives that little dimple in the center of the button. The diagonal slashing on the sleeves frays very little. The slops are fulled wool lined with linen. The white is a layer of silk between the lining and the wool strips (panes). A rotary cutter is an excellent tool for cutting panes. They were worked flat, mounting the silk onto the linen lining and then laying the panes over that. Then they were assembled into pants. The leg opening is finished with a narrow facing and the waist has a wide waistband. The fly opening is modified in deference to the wearer by adding an invisible zipper (instead of points) and reducing the codpiece to a nearly flat flap (instead of something aggressively masculine).
Geoffrey is riding Bruce(Callaway's North Wind) his 12 year old Saddlebred.
Armour by Wade Allen, Clothing by Tracy Justus.
If you have any questions, please send them to Wade Allen
This site last updated Wed Apr 13 19:23:17 EDT 2022