Rivetward Hand Made Riveted Leather Brigandine Body Armour | Chest Sized to Order | Steel Buckles and Rune Cut Chest Plaque | Norse LARP Gift | RK-1516

A sleeveless body defence in black leather, closed down the front by four steel buckle straps and covered in ordered rows of rivet heads, with a small engraved plaque at the sternum carrying a line of Elder Futhark. The rows of rivets are not decoration. Each row marks where a band of steel plate is riveted to the inside face of the leather shell, so the outside stays flexible black hide and the inside is a layer of overlapping metal. That construction has a name, and the name is brigandine.

Here is the fact that trips almost everyone up. The studded leather armour of films and role playing games never existed. What medieval artists were painting was this, a brigandine, seen from the outside, where all you can see of a coat of plates is the ordered grid of rivet heads holding hidden steel to a fabric or leather cover. Someone in the twentieth century looked at those pictures, decided the studs themselves were the armour and invented a category out of a misreading. The real thing is a genuinely good piece of engineering, and this is built as the real thing. Cut, riveted, buckled and engraved in our Memphis workshop. The folded cloth in the photograph is a studio prop and is not included.

Specifications

What a brigandine does that a solid cuirass cannot

A breastplate is one piece of steel. It is excellent at what it does and it is a rigid box. A brigandine takes the same protective idea and cuts it into strips, then hangs those strips on a flexible skin so they overlap like roof tiles. The result bends where your body bends and stays stiff where a blow lands, because a strike falls across several overlapping plates at once and they support each other.

Overlap direction matters. The plates run in horizontal courses with each course lapping over the one below on the chest, so a downward cut skids across the laps instead of catching a plate edge, and so the whole front closes up rather than gapping when you bend forward. Around the waist the courses shorten, which is what lets you sit down in it, and the flanks are cut away slightly under the arms so you can bring a shield or a weapon across your body.

The rivets themselves are structural. Each plate is held by at least two so it cannot pivot, and the heads are domed rather than flat so a point sliding across the surface is deflected rather than caught. Every one of those rivet heads is a place a determined thrust could theoretically find, which is the honest weakness of the pattern and the reason brigandines were worn over a padded garment rather than over a shirt.

The leather and the steel

The shell is vegetable tanned cowhide at roughly 8 to 9 ounce, which is about 3.2 to 3.6 mm. Vegetable tanned rather than chrome tanned matters, because vegetable tanned leather holds a shape once it is formed, takes a stamped or cut line cleanly and ages to a harder and more character laden surface, while chrome tanned hide stays soft and floppy and never firms up. Black here is dyed through rather than a painted surface coat, so a scuff shows dark rather than tan.

The internal plates are mild steel at approximately 18 gauge. Be clear about the limits. This is a light and display grade defence. It will turn a glancing LARP strike, take the hits of a stage fight, and look and behave correctly in a display line, and it is not certified armour and not built or rated for full contact steel combat leagues, which set their own gauge and impact standards. If you fight buhurt, buy plate that certifies to your league rules.

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 this brigandine the chest plaque is the obvious place, and the back panel between the rivet rows is a large clean area if you want a bigger piece of knotwork or a house mark. See the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

Give us your chest circumference measured over the padded garment you will actually wear underneath. A gambeson or a heavy arming jacket is worth two to three inches on its own and is the single most common sizing mistake people make. The four front buckles then give around three inches of adjustment either way.

Torso length matters as much as chest. This is built to end at the waist so it does not foul the hips when you sit or crouch, so tell us your height and your measurement from the base of the neck to the top of the hip bone. A long bodied wearer in a short brigandine leaves a gap above the belt, and a short bodied wearer in a long one gets the bottom course digging in every time they bend. Shoulder width sets how far in the armholes are cut, so send that too if you have broad shoulders or plan to wear arm armour under it.

Care

Leather and steel want opposite things, so treat them separately. Wipe the shell down after wearing and feed it two or three times a year with a neutral leather dressing, worked in thinly rather than slathered on, because too much oil softens hide that is supposed to stay firm. Do not dry it near a heater or in a car in summer, since heat cooks vegetable tanned leather stiff and brittle. Wipe the rivet heads and keep a light oil film on them so they do not weep rust into the black. Store it hanging on a broad shouldered hanger or laid flat, never folded across the plates, and never in a sealed plastic tub. The general oiling advice on steel care covers the metal side.

Forged in Memphis

The hide was cut, the plates were sheared and drilled, the rivets were set and the buckles were fitted here in Memphis, Tennessee. Nothing about this piece was ordered in from an importer catalogue and relabelled. The lifetime warranty against defects in the leather work, the riveting and the fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Hide grain, the depth of the black, the exact spacing of a rivet row and the tone of the steel all vary a little, because every piece is cut and set by hand from natural materials. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is this studded leather or a real brigandine

A real brigandine. The rivet heads you can see are holding overlapping steel plates against the inside of the leather. Studded leather with nothing behind the studs is a modern invention and we do not make it.

Can I wear it for full contact fighting

No. It is light and display grade with 18 gauge internal plates and no impact certification. It is right for LARP, film, stage, display and light reenactment, and heavy list or buhurt combat needs league approved armour.

What do I wear under it

A gambeson or a padded arming jacket. The padding spreads the load off your shoulders, stops the rivet backs pressing on you and is part of how the armour works. Measure your chest over it.

How heavy is it to wear all day

Around nine to twelve pounds depending on size, and most of that sits on your shoulders and hips rather than hanging off your neck. Most wearers find it far easier over a long day than a rigid cuirass of the same coverage.

Can I have it in brown instead of black

Yes. We dye in black, russet brown or natural at no extra cost, and we can fit brass buckles instead of steel on request. Put it in the order notes.

How long before it ships

One to two weeks of processing because every piece is cut to your measurements, then shipping inside the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One riveted leather brigandine body defence
• Four steel roller buckles on leather billets, fitted
• Engraved chest plaque with your rune line or ours
• Care and fitting sheet for leather and steel
• Lifetime warranty against defects in leather work, riveting and fittings
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See more in brigandine and gambeson, leather armor, viking armor and chainmail armor, or read the guides on armour sizing.