In the SCA heavy combat rules, strikes below the line one inch above the top of the knee are forbidden, yet accidents do happen especially in melees where the reality of getting your lower legs tangled up or struck on downed opponents is real. As such, I finally decided to add some shin protection to my armor. I looked online for appropriate greaves or schynbalds (gutter greaves or demi greaves covering the front of the leg only) that would work for a 1340s-1350s Norwegian Man at Arms. I found many good examples of splint riveted gutter greaves for this time period on Effigies and in Manuscripts and decided to go that route. Upon searching through various armor websites I found some examples for sale but the prices were a bit outside my budget, but since I like to make things I decided to give it a shot.
First I decided what materials to use. Originally I was going to go with 10oz leather, wet formed to my leg with added metal splints. However, I didn't have enough leather of that weight at home, although I had some really nice 4-5oz black leather. So with this in mind I needed something to back the light weight leather to increase the strength and protection. To keep them light weight I went with 1/8 inch black kydex and would rivet and stitch the leather to the outside to achieve my desired look. First I needed to create a pattern to get my basic shape, so I used some poster board and trimmed it around my leg to get the rough dimensions to cut my kydex.
Once the basic shape was cut, I used an old electric griddle to heat my kydex up, the way I used to make knife sheaths and gun holsters. Basically, you heat the kydex until it gets soft and floppy like wet leather. Then with two layers of thick knee high wool socks on my legs, I placed the hot kydex onto my shin and wrapped it with an ace bandage to rough shape it. Once cooler, I remove the wraps and pop the kydex off. Mine needed adjustment in a few spots, so I heated those spots with a heat gun while using masking tape to hold the main form of the greave shape.
After the kydex was cooled and in the desired shape, I went about marking my holes for the rivet placement. Sorry I didn't take pictures of the next few steps, as the project quickly began to frustrate me. Riveting leather on a curved piece is challenging as the piece of railroad bar that I use as an anvil could not get into the space I needed to support my rivet. I was only able to get the center row done, before I couldn't go further. It was important that I work from the center-out to insure the tension across the leather was even. I tried to use various other items from around the house to help back the rivet as I set it, but nothing worked. so I began browsing online for other anvils. This led me to find a cobbler's anvil that was on sale for $20. I picked that up and it was perfect to get into those tight and rounded spaces.
After finishing all my rivets, including the rivets for my straps, I folded the leather around the edge of the kydex and then stitched it along the outer edge to really secure it in place. This prevented me from having to rivet along the outer edge and possibly cracking the kydex. Below are the pictures of the final product, which is a great looking, riveted (fake splint) greave. This was a time consuming project, but should give +5 in armor and +10 in style points.
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