[Ponte Alto] Spats

[corun at cox.net]

James wrote:
> 
> Sure Corun that is what I would like to see, my legs have leather greaves 
> and I wear turn shoes. But solerets or sabotons don't fit over modern shoes 
> and will not go over combat boots. Greaves alone will not cover over the 
> bottom laces of the boot either.

Actually since one would have to make sabatons or solerets they could easily be made to fit over the boots, or turn shoes, or whatever. There was solerets that were called "duck bill" and resembled the wide toed Tudor style shoes. Master Kevin has just such a pair of shoes.
 
> Also so many people are complaining about a huge cost and we just posted 2 
> solutions for under $15 with shipping.

I guess I weight the cost against three other things; doing it right, doing it well or just getting by. This is, of course just my personal opinion. If one is already putting money into a set of armor, then it seems to me that one could go the extra step. The pieces for an articulated pair of sabatons could easily be made of leather. Now even though leather wasn't used to make sabatons, this would still, to me, look better than a pair of WWI canvas gaiters that aren't going to cover the foot of the boot anyway. Frankly I don't have a problem with the engineer or biker boots that people wear. I just wish more folks would cut off those straps and rings. That in iteslf would go a long way to making the boots look better. As for lace up combat boots. Well, you have to do a lot more hiding of those, which is what I assume the gaiters are proposed to do. The thing is, a nice set of solerets or sabatons will hide enough of the shoe that you won't even notice the heavy combat sole, much less the laces.

As I said previously, I don't want to offend or denegrate anyone who has made the suggestions about the gaiters. I'm simply pointing out that it doesn't buy you much to cover one modernism with another. The SCA is not the same caliber as the smaller groups who participate in things like MTA or MTT, but I still am of the opinion that we're far more lax than we need to be. I also think that if cost is an issue, then the more people striving for a more authentic look, the greater is the chance that the overall cost to achieve that goal could go down.

Corun