Building Boromir's Leather Vambraces from The Lord of the Rings
These are the vambraces Boromir wears in The Fellowship of the Ring, and the ones Aragorn wears after Boromir falls. Two pieces of leather that get about four seconds of screen time each and that people have been asking me to build for years.
Three layers, and why
The outer shell is 2.6 mm vegetable-tanned leather. It is lined with 2 mm cow hide. Together with the middle layer that closes the sandwich, the finished vambrace is stitched through three thicknesses all the way around.
That is a lot of leather for an arm guard, and it is deliberate. A single-layer vambrace curls at the edges within a year and shows its flesh side against the wearer's sleeve. Three layers stay flat, and the lining means the piece is finished on both faces.
Tracing the Gondor feather
The pattern is a stylised wing, rows of overlapping feathers running out from a star at the centre. I traced the whole design onto cased leather with a stylus before cutting a single line.
Feathers are the hardest thing to trace on this piece because every row has to sit at the same angle as the one above it. Get one row wrong near the middle and the eye follows the error all the way to the edge.
Cutting and bevelling the pattern
Once traced, every line is cut with a swivel knife and the feathers are bevelled so each one lifts above the one behind it. This is where the flat drawing turns into something with depth.
The bevelling is the whole job on a piece like this. The cut only tells the eye where the edge is. The bevel is what makes a feather look like it overlaps its neighbour instead of sitting beside it.
Dye, then the machine, then the hand
The pieces are dyed brown and finished before assembly, because reaching into a closed three-layer vambrace with a brush is not a plan.
The lining goes on with the sewing machine. Everything after that is hand stitched, all the way around both vambraces, through all three layers. It is the slowest part and it is the part that decides whether the piece survives being worn.
A word on fit
Vambraces have to be sized. A forearm guard that is too loose rotates and ends up pointing at the floor, and one that is too tight stops being wearable after an hour. This pair is made to order for that reason.
Get a pair
The Boromir and Aragorn Gondor leather vambraces are made to order in the shop, in your own measurements.
If you want a different piece from Middle-earth or anywhere else, commissions are open.
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