Leather Armor series - Shoulder Spaulder

So one of the projects I’ve previously mentioned has finally been completed.  Or completed enough that I can post a blog about it and add the finishing touches.  Of my blog posts one of the most popular posts was about making a gauntlet.  This is another chapter on leather work and in this post we’re covering how to make a Spaulder.

 If this makes you go “A what now???” fret not, I’ve done the same thing and have come to simply saying, “shoulder armor.”  You can check out the wiki page here to get a little more detail and the difference between a spaulder and a pauldron.

The first step was pretty straight forward I had to get a measurement of the person shoulders that this was going to fit.  I measure from about the collarbone over the shoulder to about the top of the shoulder blade to give me the general idea of the width.  Then I measure from the base of the neck to where it is to end.  Think of a trapezoid covering your shoulder and a portion of your bicep.

Once you have the width measurement it’s a matter of making enough pieces to cover the length you need.  There is a general patter out there that was brought to my attention a couple months back that can be used and found here.

My pattern is a free hand pattern inspired from actual leaves.  The first step is laying out the pattern onto the leather.  For this project I used a 8 / 9 oz. leather which is almost a ¼ inch thick.  I chose this weight of leather because it will look and feel more realistic than the thinner options.

Once the pattern was laid out I added a few lines for details and proceeded to cut out the leaves.  This particular spaulder called for a 3, 2, 1, meaning the top layer had 3 leaves, the middle layer had two leaves and the final layer had one leaf.

With them cut out I began to tool the leather which is making a design into the leather with various tools and/or stamps.

With the leather tooled it was wet down and formed to the individuals shoulders to allow me to mark where to punch the holes to connect the three pieces together.  This is also the time where I measure out the strap that is going to attach the armor to the body via across the chest and around the arm and mark those holes as well.

Once all three pieces were marked, and holes punched and rivets put through the holes, but not capped, to ensure it would fit how it was supposed to it was disassembled and dyed.

Once the dye had dried and re-applied as needed it was sealed and reassembled.  The rivets were now capped and cut off and pounded down to ensure the caps stayed in place and the sharp edges were removed. The buckles were placed onto the body strap and arm straps and then attached to the armor.