Building an Ecranche

This site is dedicated to building an echranche, otherwise known as the small curved shield worn by a jouster while mounted. There are pieces of armor that mount to a jouster called a grand guard, but those are quite different and not the focus here.

• Grandguard: Possibly Jörg Sorg II 
• Augsburg, Germany c. 1550

To level set what this is; I am defining the ecranche as a small curved shield worn over the left shoulder of a jouster made from layers of wood that is pressed and laminated together. The layers of wood and lamination are important rather than just a solid piece because this allows several aspects of physics to be at play.




To start with a baseline, many people will say that being hit with a lance from a running horse is equivalent to a 30 mile per hour car crash. That is a lot of energy that needs to go somewhere.

Essentially take the weight of a horse, saddle and any armor it may be wearing (generally 1,000-1,500 pounds) combine with the weight of a rider and armor (generally another 200-300 pounds). Horses generally canter between 10-17 miles per hour depending on several factors. Simple acceleration of all that coming at you - and your return energy of roughly the same to meet at a point of impact determines the force of the hit. That point of impact comes from a long stout pole (a lance) that will ideally focus the energy into a roughly 1.5inch space and on your ecranche.

Here is where physics comes into play. A single piece of wood could easily split. The laminate helps provide strength across several pieces of wood and disperse the energy more evenly. In addition the curve of the ecranche helps to guide the lance away from the impact point better, and again provide better protection. A flat surface being struck with the same force level allows the end of the lance to land more squarely, and thus transfer more energy into the flat.

There were many styles and types of an ecranche and certainly no defined standards; but they all served the same basic purpose of protection -- with style. A tournament was after all a show of prowess and skill at arms, not a mere fight to the death as on a battlefield.

In jousting there is a myth that the rider does not want to get hit, and could avoid the lance of an oncoming opponent. That is not the case. The rider is expected to boldly present a good target for the opponent to strike (the ecranche), and accept the blow should it actually land.

Ok, enough background - on with the instructions:

STEP 1: 
Before going too far you will want some basic idea on how you want to curve the ecranche. A friend made a press that was used in the pictures, but I have other friends who used a tree, a barrel or other heavy duty round item, then crank down straps to make everything tight.

This particular press is made with 2x4 and 2x12 material then reinforced with steel stock and tightened with a series of bolts and metal bar stock. The first thought going through your head may be that this is engineering overkill. However this device when in use is under a tremendous amount of pressure. Having pieces and parts crack or break would be tragic.

looking inside the press - Notice bolts and bars

Notice the bar stock is free and loose as a guide

 STEP 2:
Once you have an idea of how you want to bend your material; you need the material. We chose a thin 1/16th inch plywood since we knew we would be cutting multiple layers to press together. In this case we chose to use a decent grade that was finished on both sides. Buying a single 8ftx4ft sheet will give you 14 pieces if laid out for 15.5x20 inches as we did.

 We simply chose an edge to consistently work from for measuring, and with a large T-Square, drew pencil lines to mark our rectangles. There will be a little bit of scrap at the end, but it is not a tremendous amount.

We wanted to make this 5 layers thick to emulate one that we already had, so with this cut we can make 2 echrances at 5 thick, and 1 with 4 layers as a practice or test piece.


STEP 3: 
This is the really exciting step... the glue. Everyone will have their own preference of glue I suppose, but we chose Titebond Premier Wood Glue. This has always had excellent penetration and is water resistant. Take your first rectangle and place it on a table or sheet of plastic/paper or what ever you want. Remember that glue WILL press out from the sides as you start stacking pieces together.

Using a scraper apply a generous layer of glue, and spread it thin across the entire surface of the rectangle. Press another board onto this first one, and then apply glue to the new one. Do this until you have 5 boards, but do not put the glue on your top facing board. This seems like an obvious statement - but once you catch a rhythm - it may just seem like the thing to do. You will be wrong and sad about your choice.

STEP 4:
Now that you have a stack of 5 boards hand pressed together, and while the glue is still wet- time to add some real pressure. Due to wisdom from our friend who made the press, we added cardboard slightly bigger than the size we were making to both sides of the press. This prevents us from essentially gluing the press closed.

Notice the uneven edges. This is OK

Once everything is in place and the press is open, it is time to start cranking down on the bolts. Be sure the bar stock aligns to sit freely in the holes to keep everything aligned.

If there are two of you with power drills and a socket to drive both sides at the same time it goes very fast and easy. This is not required however.

Once the pressure starts for real, you will see glue start pressing up from between your rectangles. This is a good thing as it shows just how much pressure your boards are under. Crank your press all the way tight and evenly to maintain a nice curve throughout. Let this sit for 2 days or so, based on the humidity where you are. We put down some scrap material to catch any glue that dripped down, but to prevent the 2 sides from catching on the material, we put it on 1x2 skids so it would slide freely.

Note the 1x2 skids

STEP 5:
When the piece comes out of the press, the edges will be non-uniform as you can see in the picture above. That is ok. This is very easy to trim off with a band saw/scroll saw/or whatever saw you choose. This will give you a rather nice looking curved piece of thick laminated wood.

STEP 6:
Now that you have the basic blank, you will need to determine the style you would like. There are many choices, and it comes down to decisions of taste, and what time period you may wish to be emulate in your armor design. After looking at several designs, I chose the pattern I wanted.

With the help of a trusty empty pizza box and a pair of scissors, a template was cut and applied to the blank. The only thing left at this point is to cut it out. We chose a small jigsaw and the work went very quickly.

Nothing left to do now but sand it, strap it and paint it.... Hopefully this has been a helpful guide for those interested.

STEP 7:
This last set of images is a reminder from "Tournament book. Knight games held by Emperor Frederick III & Emperor Maximilian I between 1489 and 151"

Remember that being bold is part of the game and presenting a good target is important.

As is staying on your horse......