Knight circa 1300 AD
Those rectangular pieces on my shoulders are called ailettes. They date primarily from about 1270 through the 1320s AD give or take a decade or two. They saw a brief period of use and there is continued debate as to whether they served any function as primitive shoulder armor or more probably were decorative pieces to display the arms of the knight. Some were extremely ornate. Most were made of hardened leather, wood, or even parchment. In this case the ones I made for this kit are made of wood with leather glued on the back and fabric on the front. I set eyelets into the wood and they are laced onto the edge of my coif (for practical purposes of not having a squire to help me that day), although generally they lace onto the upper part of the shoulder.
Knight circa 1300 AD
Those rectangular pieces on my shoulders are called ailettes. They date primarily from about 1270 through the 1320s AD give or take a decade or two. They saw a brief period of use and there is continued debate as to whether they served any function as primitive shoulder armor or more probably were decorative pieces to display the arms of the knight. Some were extremely ornate. Most were made of hardened leather, wood, or even parchment. In this case the ones I made for this kit are made of wood with leather glued on the back and fabric on the front. I set eyelets into the wood and they are laced onto the edge of my coif (for practical purposes of not having a squire to help me that day), although generally they lace onto the upper part of the shoulder.