PART THREE: LEG ARMOUR

After considerable research on appropriate thigh armour for my period, I adapted a pattern for steel cuisses by Sir Paul of Sommerton (Patrick Woolery¹). Padded cuisses were also constructed (see below).

The original pattern was constructed of corrugated cardboard which was then taped into position. After performing all the movements which might occur in a fight, the cardboard was removed and trimmed at the edges where bend lines appeared. This process was repeated until the armour sat comfortably and moved without pinching.

In an ideal world I would have the skills to make, or have access to, wooden forms on which to shape the cuisses after they came out of the water. I didn�t, so my own legs had to provide the "form".

In that other world I would also have had a big enough element and a big enough pan to immerse all the leather at once. I didn�t have those either, only an ordinary kitchen stove and an enamelled roasting dish approximately 30.5 cm x 38 cm (12" x 15").

• Pan, water, tongs, rubber gloves, thermometer, clock, and separate container of cold water (the sink in this case).
• Leather cut to shape.
• 2.5 cm (1") strips of panty-hose for strapping².
• Towel, bubble-wrap, and masking tape.

1. Not too surprisingly, leather straight out of boiling water is very hot. It also sets into shape rapidly so must be formed before it cools. Therefore, the first step in my less-than-ideal world was to wrap my right³ thigh in an insulating layer of towel, which was then covered by bubble-wrap, and the lot held in place with masking tape.
2. In the meantime, the first piece to be cuir bouillied was soaking in cold water in the sink, and water was heating on the stove.
3. After donning gloves, and then checking and adjusting temperature, the leather was taken out of the cold water and placed into the boiling water.

1. Because the pan was not big enough to take the entire piece at once, the leather was progressively rolled through the water along the vertical axis (approximately 2/3rds of the leather was immersed at any one time).
2. Natural curving started to take place as the leather polymerised and this was encouraged by the rolling process. This approach does have the advantage of allowing extra hardening to be applied to specific points by simply holding them in the water a bit longer.
3. This process worked well for all but the first piece. This piece had (subsequently identified) flaws and distorted badly at the middle of the outer edge � see below.
4. As soon as the desired hardness was achieved the piece was removed from the water and placed onto the form.

1. Working rapidly, the partially curved cuisse was lightly strapped in three places onto my padded thigh (these are the dark straps).
2. I then hobbled to a chair and repositioned and tightened these straps, taking care not to cut into the leather.
3. Three further supporting straps (the lighter ones) were added to cope with the distortion of this cuisse. They were not needed on the other cuisse.
4. In order to minimise distortion caused by sitting, I propped my leg out on a footstool and slouched down far enough that the upper parts of the cuisse weren�t trapped by the chair.
5. The time taken to sufficiently cool and retain shape before unwrapping was about 15 minutes, so a pre-prepared coffee and a book awaiting you could be useful!
6. Once the cuisse was cool enough, it was removed and then lightly re-strapped to maintain shape while drying took place.
7. Thigh padding and strapping were then removed and dry trousers put on!

1. The front and back pieces were joined by creating a hinge of thick, non-cuir bouillied leather. Holes were then drilled in both of the sides and in the hinge leather. and the pieces riveted together with tubular rivets.
2. On the right cuisse, the mid-section of the front piece was so distorted that I decided not to risk drilling a hole so close to the edge. Instead I made up a oval badge (tooled with my arms) which I riveted using smaller rivets at four points outside the distortion.
3. The cuisses were then strapped on again using the handy panty-hose strips, and marked for straps to secure them to the leg and straps for hanging from arming coat or belt.
4. Tags for buckles were riveted onto the front pieces and then the buckles riveted to the tags. The cuisses were then donned again and the placement of the leather straps checked.
5. Leather straps riveted to back pieces and to top of front pieces for hanging.

With the experience of the ability of imperfect leather to distort in mind, great care was taken to position the pattern (Sir Paul's) on good leather.

Distortion can also work for you, and I decided to try David Friedman's⁶ suggestion of achieving a dished shape by hardening the poleyns in stages. Briefly: a pin is pushed through the middle of the poleyn from the flesh side of the leather; the pin is held by pliers, and then the leather immersed in stages from the outer edges in. The theory is that the parts which are in the boiling water longer shrink more, so a natural �dish� is achieved. He then finishes the shaping by leaving them to dry between two appropriate sized bowls.

Overall this worked fairly well, though I was in my non-ideal world still so had no appropriately shaped bowls! I therefore shaped them on my insulated knees. I was also not confident enough that a pin would work, so used a small nail instead. As a result I was left with a small scar where the nail went through the leather. This seems to be a cosmetic rather than a strength issue.

1. Use as small a pin as possible.
2. Acquire "forms" in advance, and preferably raise them up on something so that the side-pieces can dry on a flat surface rather than a curved one.
3. Mark the poleyns both �right� and �left� and �up� and �down� as soon as they are shaped as failure to do this caused a lot of time wastage!
4. The difficulties in attaining a good shape make it clear why poleyns (and then couters) were the first pieces of steel nearly universally adopted regardless of the construction of the rest of the armour.

View of the poleyns from the top. The left-hand one is near perfect in plane, the right-hand is slightly off.

In practice, I based the pattern on a pair of hose which fitted well, rather than the more segmented approach suggested by Sir Michael. (NB He interprets the lames as �decoration� which I do not think is born out by other authors or by the experience of wearing them � see below.)

1. The lames are put on the points first and then the poleyns are placed on top before tying off with a weavers knot (single loop bow).
2. The padded cuisses are then put on over whatever leggings you are wearing, and the points tied at the top to arming coat or belt. The back laces are adjusted for fit at this stage.
3. The points at the knees are now re-tied if necessary. (Note: silk is very slippery for points and they tend to undo themselves. I solved this by dripping melted beeswax onto the areas which need to grip, removing excess with fingers once the wax hardened, and then tying them off.)

I couldn�t find any evidence for padded shins, despite Sir Michael�s pattern. As my boots come up well over the ankle I decided not to worry about padding there. The base of the demi-greaves therefore intentionally make a slight curve out over the tops of my boots.

Finally, the cuisses are put on. The best order has proven to be:

• Attach top strap to arming coat/belt.
• Slide bottom of cuisse under the top lame.
• Do up cuisse leg straps.

• Yellow was chosen for the poleyns and lames after coming across a reference in Ashdown¹⁰:

• Red ('gules') was chosen for the main parts of the armour as it was my other livery colour. The cuisses and demi-greaves are pictured. For the fully coloured harness go to Complete Armour.
• For an explanation of the specific intensities of colours and their application go to Part Eight: Notes on Colour.

FOOTNOTES

² Panty-hose/nylon stockings are useful to stake plants as they don't cut into the soft plant tissue, so they seemed a logical choice for this exercise as the wet leather marks easily.

³ The right thigh was chosen for the first piece as it typically receives less attacks than the left thigh � unless facing a left-handed fighter. This turned out to be a good choice as there were problems with the leather as discussed later in the article.

⁴ The back pieces went through the same process as the front pieces. In order to ensure they would match the front pieces, they were strapped on with the dry fronts in place to match seams.

⁵ 'An Illustrated History of Arms & Armour'; Ashdown, Charles Henry; Wordsworth Editions Ltd, Hertfordshire; 1988; ISBN 1-85326-914-X, pg 98

⁶ David Friedman's discussion under 'Experimentation' - http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/%7emarc-carlson/leather/hl.html#cb11

⁷ In 'Building your own Armour - Part 5: A 14th Century Leg Harness'; http://www.eredsul.org/earl_mike/ArtsofWar.html

⁸ http://www.liebaart.org/cuisse_e.htm "a Living History and Experimental Archaeology group Belgium (Flanders) which focuses on the �life in Flanders around the year 1302".

⁹ Ashdown, op cit, Chapter X, 'Camail and Jupon Armour Period 1360-1410', pg 189. He goes on to comment:

"Sir Thomas Cheyne, 1368, also has studded cuissarts, and jambarts of studded splints - but his genouillieres are most remarkable and quite unique. The appear to be constructed entirely of cuir-bouilli with pendent tabs of singular form reinforcing the jambarts (Fig 236)".

¹⁰ Ashdown, op cit; Chapter IX 'The Studded and Splinted Armour Period 1335-1360', pg 156.