Making a Simple Hardened-Leather Rapier Gorget

by Todde mac Donnell1

Gorgets are often the most difficult piece of rapier gear to acquire. They must be properly fitted to be comfortable and legal, and merchants seldom carry a wide enough selection to guarantee a good fit. Metal gorgets, especially the spanish/italian style with front and back bibs, require more than passing competence to make and fit, and a decent metal shear to cut the pieces. I have made one… the metalwork alone took nine hours of difficult work, and despite copying a gorget that was very comfortable, the fit still wasn’t quite perfect. Fortunately, the rapier rules require neither a metal plate, nor a full bib.2 Hardened leather (as many heavy fighters can tell you) dissipates percussive force at least as well as steel, and without the armor bites.

Historically, leather was hardened by either soaking it into hot (about 180F water works best, boiling it does not) water, or cold-soaking the leather and drying it in a warm oven. The hardness of the finished piece varies with the temperature and times, and may not be acceptable to overzealous marshals. Impregnating the leather with paraffin or beeswax hardens it more reliably, but was not used for period armor3 because the resulting leather is less resilient to real weapons.

Since our goal here will be to produce an well-fitted, legal gorget for the new fencer4, this paper will use a modern "dog-collar" design, and the waxed-leather process. Beeswax melts at a higher temperature than paraffin, results in a slightly softer leather, and requires at least light gloves to avoid pain; however, it does smell nicer and won’t get as sticky in a hot car. Choose whichever you prefer and can obtain easily. Beeswax can be had at leatherworking and stores (but is cheapest from beekeepers), paraffin at most supermarkets. A 25% Beeswax-75% Paraffin blend combines the best of both worlds, but involves buying both.

Shopping list:

Tools:

The Hard Part: Working out the Pattern

Main Neck Plates:
The general gorget shape consists of a curved, contoured front plate, and a straight back plate, with a "lobster tail" extension to cover the cervical vertebrae, as shown in Fig. 1. Both plates should be symmetric about their centers (fold the pattern piece over when cutting), and have the same width at the shoulder. The two plates together should cover the whole neck, and be fitted over armor so the shirt and doublet can pad the neck. If you add padding (wet suit neoprene is best), fit the gorget over a contoured strip of padding. Shaping the front is the tricky part, but if you use the lines of the three included patterns, you should have a good idea. Simply make it long enough to cover the front half of the neck, and tall enough to comfortably cover the neck. Take the width of the front piece at the shoulder, and use that for the starting width of the back piece (before it flares down, which we'll worry about later). Shape the flare however you like: it only needs to cover the spine, and can be done artistically. Alternatively, start with one of the included patterns and modify: Figure 2 fits many average-sized women; It can be adjusted for smaller necks by leaving the back assembly unchanged and decreasing the circumference of the front plate. Figure 3 fits people with larger, shorter necks... like me.

Base Leather for Neck:
This piece holds everything together, pads your neck from the hardened leather, and is made to fit under the neck plates. Lay your front and back plates on the pattern paper, as shown in Fig. 4, and add 3/16" above and below the plates, 1.5" from the end of the back plate, and nothing to the front plate (the curvature of the front plate will fix this). Now chop off most of the tail protrusion from the back of the neck, leaving it 3/4" wider at back-center than at the shoulder.

Lobster Tail:
The tail of the gorget need not be particularly fitted, since it easily covers the cervical spine, and can borrowed from any of the patterns shown. Just make sure to leave a little base leather outside the plates, and overlap the articulation by at least 1/2".

Cutting and Waxing the Pieces:

  1. Begin by cutting out the base leather, from the lighter-weight piece of leather, and checking the fit over your collar or padding. It should overlap by the 1.5" tab on the end of the back side. If all goes well, cut out the rest of the pieces, making sure only the armor plates are cut from the heavy veg-tan leather.
  2. Carve and decorate the armor plates as desired. Carving, burning, and punch-work will all survive waxing admirably; paint may or may not, and pale dyes will not do well. I despise making undecorated leather goods (see my other gorget in Fig. 5), but your mileage may vary. At least add some sort of identifying mark, in case someone else uses this article. There's no point in decorating the base leather, as it won't be visible except at the very edges.
  3. Heat up the wax under indirectly heat (wax is flammable!) until it melts to a thin soupy consistency, and no hotter. Paraffin melts at a lower temperature than water boils, beeswax a bit hotter. Working with a pie tin on a hot plate, I use 260°F for paraffin and about 300°F for beeswax. Immerse the veg-tan pieces in the wax until they stop bubbling until they turn an even brown color. This usually takes about 5 minutes. If you can't fit the whole piece in at once, just soak it in stages. When each piece is fully impregnated, take it out and rub it with your (gloved for beeswax) hands until excess wax stops coming off.
  4. Assemble the tail of the gorget first. Rivet the bottom plate onto the tail base leather first, then add the next plate above it, with about 3/4" articulation overlap (Fig. 6). Give the plates a little curvature by bending them, and the waxed leather will stay curved. A note on setting Jiffy Rivets: You can buy tools that let you leave a nice, curved dome on the front and back of the rivet. Don't bother. Smash each face of the rivet flat and you'll have a much more durable bond.
  5. Rivet the front plate onto the base piece. This is slightly tricky, because the plate bends at a larger radius than the base leather, leaving planned-for gaps at the shoulders. Center the plate on the base piece, and set upper and lower rivets along the center front. Curve the plate to the approximate curvature it will see in use, and add rivets (upper and lower) halfway between the center-line and shoulder. This is best done by first punching holes in the plate, then curving the plate and pressing the base leather into it, then punching holes in the base leather (see a clever technique for this in Fig. 7) Now just align the piece again when inserting the rivets. Continue curving the plate and rivet top and bottom at the shoulders. At this point you should have about 3/16" of base leather peeking out around the plate, and a gorget that want to stay curved in front, and looks like Fig. 8. Add decorative rivets as it pleases you.
  6. The back plate is attached in almost the same way, with the back plate centered on the back half of the base piece (excluding the 1.5" overlap flap). Since the base piece doesn't extend to the bottom of the back plate, just make sure to leave 3/16" of base leather above the top. Set the center top rivet only, then curve the plate out to halfway between center-back and the shoulders, and set only the top rivets again. Curve out to the shoulders, and set both top and bottom rivets, so your gorget looks like Fig. 9. Now tuck the already assembled tail, and set the last three rivets along the bottom of the neck plate, securing the tail and riveting the back plate to the base piece, so it looks like Fig. 10.
  7. Check the fit again, and make any adjustments. There should be a 1/4"- 1/2" gap between the front and back plates, allowing the gorget to hinge open. If it fits properly, cut two 6: strips suitable to the buckle, one to attach the buckle (to the back of the neck) and the other as a strap (attached to the front and wrapping around), as in Fig. 11. Rivet these in place as shown in Fig. 1, using two rivets each (a single rivet is bound to fail at the least opportune time).
  8. If you want to add padding to the inside of the gorget, cut a piece of padding slightly taller, but to the same plan as the base leather. Glue it onto the inside of the gorget (Barge contact cement is my preference, and sticks permanently), starting at center-front and smoothing outward. Since it cannot match up perfectly, just trim off the excess padding. Note that this padding will make blow-calling very difficult, and a well-fitted gorget too tight. If your local marshal says you must have foam padding, ask their superiors until you find someone who will explain the ways around it.

Notes:

  1. Who hopes his Lux Caidis and Duellist won't be rescinded for detailing how to make such a gratuitously non-period gorget. For starters, the design is completely modern; water-hardened leather should be used instead of wax; and the leather plates should be stitched on instead of riveted.
  2. To wit, in Caidan Law:

    Section 3.1C:
    Rigid Material: Puncture-resistant material that will not significantly flex, spread apart, or deform under pressure of 12 Kg applied repeatedly to any single point. Examples of rigid material are:


    Section 3.2:
    If Heavier-Type Rapiers are being used, additional throat protection is required; it shall cover the entire neck (throat, sides, cervical vertebrae, and first thoracic vertebrae). Either puncture resistant material (as a hood) or a minimum of 1/4" (6 mm) of open-cell foam shall back rigid material.

  3. Waxed leather was used in some period rigid leather drinking vessels. Modern experimentation finds that a 50-50 mix of paraffin and beeswax works well for lining leather jacks.
  4. The new SCA fencer should be fighting with a gorget and schlager as soon as they develop the musculature to do so. Working extensively with the much faster epee will train the fencer that modern linear movement is more effective than period movement, and that their opponent’s sword is too fast to void or parry with the offhand. Both lessons should be avoided, even if it means training with a wooden waster instead of an epee.

Last updated 2/22/05