I am looking for information about corrazinas, or goblose-breasted coat-of-plates (I understand that the term corrazina is a bit debatable). I have seen a couple of wonderful pictures of people wearing them but I can't seem to find any information about them. When did they first appear? When did they fall out of favour and disappear? Who used the? The highest nobility or the somewhat lower class? Both? What's the outer material made of? Are there any extant pieces besides this one in Milan?

And of course, where would I be able to buy one? All I found is this one at Oaks Armoury but the website doesn't list any prices, not does it seem to have been updated since 2005 or so.

I just love the look of this type of armour. Pictures most definitely welcome so I have something to drool over :D

These have been discussed here before. The Search function should help. :)

I get search results for "corazzina," "corrazzina," and even 1 for "corazina." Your spelling gets the most results, but all are worth checking. :)

Corrazina is a pretty generic term that is applyed to many diferent styles armour. In fact it's a type of armour made from several metal plates, held together by a flexible material but there are different styles of doing that. I believe that because of this, there is so less information about this type of armor. The different styles of armor are often considered different types of armor so it is possible to find a corrazina type armor called differently :).

Thanks David. I saw those pictures before in the "Let's see you kit..." thread and they are awesome. It's what inspired me to look into this kind of armour :) But I didn't realise that you made these yourself!

A few questions if you don't mind.

Are they hard to make? I don't have any armouring experience, nor any equipment for it. From the looks of your corrazina I think it would involve dishing out or raising a cuirass. That's probably not such a good first project :)

Are they expensive to make?

Also, is your black corrazina split up the front? I can't really tell from the pictures you posted. If you happen to have a picture that clearly shows the front of the black corrazina I'd be happy to see it.

Thanks in advance!

Hello Sander,

I helped make the two corrazinas but neither belong to me so new pictures are a bit hard. To answer the question posed, yes it splits up the front.

(Here is the pic from Doug's great instructions)
[ Linked Image ]

While I'm not really an armourer (I only play on on TV ;) ) I do have some light armouring tools, an anvil, hand shears, and some hammering skills from hanging out at a blacksmithing shop for a year when unemployed as a free helper.

They weren't too expensive to make other than the silk velvet (which was somewhere around $100 for the fabric) and a riveted maile shirt that we cut up for the Milan inspired piece($220) The Milan inspired piece used scrap fabric and used steel from a old hot water heater to otherwise lower it's overall cost.

Both guys probably spent around 300 in materials for their armour and 100 hours of hand labor each. ( I did a lot of the sewing, hammer work and rivet work with them helping me, but each was a group project).

There is a armourer (Cet) who will cut and shape armor for you and you do the finish work. His company? The aptly named Rough from the Hammer. If I was going to build a corrazina and lacked the basic tools I'd look into having him cut the pattern out and shape it for me and use Doug Strong's pattern as the instructions and design.

Most of the corrazinas"out there for sale aren't that close to historical, they copy the mistake with the faulds of the Met reconstruction or they push a 1000 dollars or more (and can still suffer the above problems).

Cheers,

David

I followed Stanislav Prosek's link to check out the messer, and saw what you appear to be looking for in his "in stock" page.

Follow the link: http://www.mac-armour.cz/index_en.htm

There's also pictures of the in stock item, and an example of one in black, under his 14th century gallery.

At current rates, the available item prices out to about 470 Euro.

Thanks for the information. Having the metal pieces custom made and doing the assembly myself is a great idea. Riveting is something I can learn :D

Thanks David, I'll be sure to ping for help by that time.

I don't know yet exactly how historically accurate I will be. It's a balancing act between accuracy and cost. Period-looking buckles and rivets do not seem to be prohibitly expensive but I have no idea yet how expensive period fabrics are.

@ David!

How is the basic plan for that brigandine? Is it a breastplate sawn into the brig. and then som plates in lower parts?

Looks very interesting and I have a old brestplate I could use to make a simmilar one.

Go with nails whenever possible. The riveting takes some time, but there are much less rivets in the covered globose breast and fauld compared to a 15th cent brig. It is doable and not really difficult.

I would recomend zinc coated flathead nails. The group I am with made an experimental batch of iron nails with a tin coating using a method that would have been doable in the 14th c, and the only way we could tell the diference once they were made up was that one made my fillings tingle when I chewed on it. So unless you are planning on having someone bite you while in harness the zinc nails have a very high level of historicity.