Roanward Hand Made Studded Leather Cuirass Body Armour | Fits 44 Inch Chest | Brass Domed Rivets Buckle Straps and Engraved Rune Plaque | Viking Reenactment Gift | RK-1501

The Roanward is a sleeveless leather cuirass in russet oiled cowhide, closed down the centre front with five brass buckle straps, studded across the chest and body with rows of brass domed rivets, and finished with an engraved brass plaque at the sternum carrying knotwork and a line of Elder Futhark. The armholes and the neck are bound in matching leather, and the whole garment is cut in two halves so it opens flat rather than having to be pulled over the head.

Leather body armour has a longer history than most people credit it with, and a more complicated one. The Greeks and Romans wore the spolas and the linothorax, layered linen and hide bonded into a stiff shell, and medieval accounts describe cuir bouilli, leather hardened in hot wax or water until it holds a moulded shape. What none of them were is a substitute for mail or plate against a serious weapon. Leather was cheap, quiet, light and good against a glancing cut. It was never the armour a wealthy man chose. Every Roanward is cut, dyed, riveted and stitched in our Memphis, Tennessee shop.

Specifications

Studded leather and true brigandine are not the same thing

This matters and a great many listings blur it, so here is the plain version. A true brigandine is a garment with dozens of small overlapping steel plates riveted to the inside of a fabric or leather shell. From the outside all you see is rows of rivet heads. The armour is the hidden steel and the rivets are the fixings that hold it.

A studded leather cuirass looks similar from the front and is a different object. The rivets are set through the leather itself, and they serve as fasteners for the layers and as decoration, not as fixings for hidden plates. That is what the Roanward is. There are no steel plates behind the leather, and we would rather tell you that on the product page than let you assume otherwise because the rivet pattern is familiar.

What the studded construction genuinely gives you is a stiffer and more abrasion resistant panel than plain leather, because each rivet locks the layers together and stops them shearing across each other. It also gives you the look that has defined the Norse and fantasy silhouette for fifty years of film and stage design, which for most buyers is the actual point. It is comfortable, it moves with you, it photographs beautifully, and it weighs a third of what mail does.

The hide, the tannage and the fittings

The panels are vegetable tanned cowhide in the eight to nine ounce range, which is roughly three and a half millimetres. Vegetable tannage uses tree bark tannins rather than chromium salts, and it is the reason this leather behaves the way it does. It takes tooling and dye, it stiffens rather than flops as it ages, it develops a deep patina from body oil and sunlight, and it can be wet formed to a shape. Chrome tanned leather is softer, cheaper and more uniform, and it will not do any of those things.

The russet colour is oil dyed rather than surface painted, so a scratch shows the same colour underneath rather than a pale line. The dome rivets, the buckles and the sternum plaque are brass, which was the usual armour furniture metal for anything that had to sit against leather, because brass does not stain hide the way bare iron does.

The plaque itself is engraved rather than stamped, so the knotwork and rune line sit crisply below the surface. It is fixed at the chest where a period fastening plate would sit.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the leather. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On the Roanward the sternum plaque already carries knotwork and a rune line, so your text takes the place of what is there. If you want the existing plaque untouched, ask for your line tooled into the leather at the lower front panel instead. Full detail is on the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

This cuirass is made to a stated size and adjusted by its straps rather than tailored to an individual. Measure your chest at the widest point over whatever you plan to wear underneath, because a tunic and a padded garment can add three or four inches to a tape measurement. The five buckles give you a useful range of adjustment, perhaps three inches in total, so you have room to move within the size but not to change it.

Torso length matters as much as chest. This piece is cut to cover from the sternum to the hip on an average build. On a tall wearer it will finish higher on the waist and on a shorter wearer it will sit over the hip bones and may restrict a deep bend. Neither is a fault, it is what a stated size means.

Wear something under it. Leather directly against skin will chafe at the armholes within an hour and will absorb sweat that eventually rots the stitching. A linen tunic is the minimum and a light gambeson is better, and the gambeson also gives the cuirass something to sit against so it does not shift as you move.

Care

Leather is skin and wants feeding. Two or three times a year, work a neutral leather cream or a light dressing into the panels with your fingers and let it sit before buffing it off. Do not use household oils, do not soak it, and never dry wet leather near a heater or in front of a fire, because heat drives the tannins out and leaves the hide brittle and dark. If it gets soaked, blot it and let it dry slowly at room temperature, then feed it.

Store it on a broad hanger, over a form, or flat, rather than folded, because a fold in eight ounce leather becomes a permanent crease. Keep the brass wiped, and if you want the rivets bright rather than mellow use a little metal polish on a cloth and keep it off the leather. The armour stand shown in the photograph is a display piece we used for the shot and is not included, and neither is the belt lying on the grass.

Forged in Memphis

This cuirass is made in Memphis, Tennessee. The hide is cut and skived here, the panels are dyed and edge bound on our bench, every rivet is set by hand and the plaque is engraved in our shop. It is not drop shipped from an importer catalogue with a new label sewn in. The lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings is ours to honour directly, with no end date and no receipt needed.

A note on handmade variation

This cuirass is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Hide takes dye differently across every panel, so the depth of russet, the visible grain, the slight variation in rivet spacing and the exact set of the buckle straps vary from one piece to the next, because each one is worked by hand from natural materials. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Are there steel plates inside it

No. This is a studded leather cuirass, not a plated brigandine. The rivets go through the leather as fasteners and decoration rather than holding hidden steel plates behind the shell.

Can I wear it for full contact reenactment

No. It is built for display, costume, festival wear, film and light living history. Contact societies specify rigid body protection to their own standards and leather of this weight does not meet them.

How do I size it

Measure your chest over the tunic or padding you intend to wear, and compare with the 44 inch figure. The five buckles give roughly three inches of adjustment either side of a good fit.

Is it hot to wear

Less than you would expect, because it is sleeveless and open at the sides, but leather does not breathe like linen. At a summer event, drink more than you think you need to.

Will the leather crack

Not if it is fed. Vegetable tanned hide fails when it is left dry, soaked repeatedly or dried with heat. Fed twice a year and stored flat or on a form it will outlast most of what is in your wardrobe.

When will it ship

Processing is one to two weeks because each cuirass is cut, dyed and riveted to order, then shipping is free within the United States. Engraved orders take a little longer.

What is in the box

• One Roanward studded leather cuirass in russet oiled cowhide
• Five brass buckle straps down the centre front, fitted and set
• Engraved brass sternum plaque with knotwork and a rune line
• Care card covering feeding, drying and storage
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See more in leather armor, brigandine and gambeson and Viking armor, or read the guides before you choose a size.