I decided to try and build some elbows from some of the leather scraps I picked up at Tandy a few months ago, using the plans from Duke Cariodoc's
The Perfect Armor Improved. My results were less than spectacular, but it was a learning experience and the only failed experiment is one in which you did not learn something.
I began with the elbow patter HG Cariadoc published.
Simple, right?
Well, easier said than done.
I cut two mirror images of the pattern from my leather (5-7 oz vegetable tanned bellies), which I had soaked in water before cutting. Then I attempted to following HG Cariadoc's instructions.
First hiccup -- someone lost the thermometer! The process requires that you heat the water to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees Celsius). So, I "eyeballed" it to see what I could do. After all, our ancestors didn't have mercury thermometers in the 14th Century, right?
After heating the two pieces (separately) for what I thought was the right time at the right temperature, I took each piece out and tried sandwiching the piece in two bowls, each of which has a diameter of about 6.5 inches.
As I had feared, the process left major folds and creases in the leather, which I attempted to smooth out with my fingers.
The resulting pieces look like this:
The piece on the left shrank more than the piece on the right, and is thicker and harder. Both pieces are not in the optimum shape for an elbow cop because there was too much leather that needed to be removed or folded to create the right shape.
So, what have I learned?
1. Water temperature (and immersion time) is very important in getting a consistent product.
2. Modifications must be made to the pattern or process to obtain a "cop" shape for the elbows.
For the next step in the experiment, I am going to try softening the larger cop in water, then removing a gusset of material on the front and rear of the cop and riveting or bolting it together. Then I will try re-hardening it in 180 degree water with a thermometer!
Hopefully, this will give me the desired shape and size. If so, I am considering reinforcing the cop with plastic to add some extra protection, followed by adding a strap that will ride in the fold of my elbow, holding the cop on. I also intend to experiment with baking wet leather in the oven at 200 degrees and liberally basting the leather with hot rabbit glue or other organic glue to more accurately reproduce what is believed to be the period procedure (or at least, one of them) for creating cour boulli. (See excellent articles
here,
here and
here).
My fantasy is that, once I have a good pattern and consistent procedure down, I can turn the cops out fairly easily and create new loaner/new fighter gear for our Barony.