knees from the brass of Sir John D'Abernoun

 Listed as the oldest Funeral Brass in England, the brass of Sir John D'Abernoun gives us a glimpse into armour at the time of his death 1277AD.

 The brass shows ornate rosettes on the sides and other details decorating the knee cops.  How exactly the originals might have been done is up to conjecture, they could have been tooled leather covers or maybe painted, or the decoration could have taken some other form.  For my recreations I chose to inlay brass for much of the ornamentation.  While that might be the least possible of the ways the originals where decorated it carried through the look and feel from a 2d brass into a 3d object that not only looks the part but is quite durable.

d'abernoun knees

 On most knees of this style found in different art work, the bottom and top flanges have a row of rivets on them.  Looking at example after example I came to the conclusion that they where most like not just ornamental but also served some necessary function, as even the plainest examples still had the rows of rivets.  Reason dictates that very likely the rivets where there to hold some sort of liner/padding in the knees.  Using such logic i used those rivets to hold a trim piece in brass on the outside of the knee while holding a leather strip on the inside that a padded liner could sew to.  The liner is made of a canvas outer layer with multiple layers of fulled wool fabric hand quilted to it for comfort and resilience.  The chisel decorated rosettes act as washers for the straps that hold the knee to the leg, while the top flange also has a leather tab with grommets to lace the knee to the garment under it, keeping it from moving out of position.

The Knee itself is made of hr16g steel, inlayed with brass and heat blued.

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