Ceremonial Bronze Ring Baldric

---

Notes & Process

On the drive back from the Tournament of Defense of Wigthegn and Neassa (April 2024), we were celebrating the induction of my cadet-sister Maedhbh Ni Mannen into the Order of the Bronze Ring. As the conversation went on to the OBR regalia, it came up that several pieces had gone missing over the years, including a baldric for the enormous ceremonial bronze ring.

Well with 2024 being the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Order of the Bronze Ring (introduced on April 17 1999, at the final court of Dag III and Elayna I), I decided I wanted to make a replacement for it. I spoke with Master Pieter Grau, who had commissioned the original baldric from Warder Miguel, and we agreed it was a fantastic idea.

Using an old baldric given to me by Master Vindis Sigtrygson, I made a paper pattern for tracing new pieces out of 8oz leather.

I knew I was going to make the straps red to reference the OBR badge, but I wanted a deep earthy red over a bright red or oxblood. Oxblood dye on an unsealed dark brown leather did just the trick for that.

As a side note, the dying process ended up resulting in the worst leatherworking incident I have ever experienced. While laying down the straps to dry, I ended up tipping an almost completely full bottle of oxblood dye over and directly onto my carpet. It was an absolute horror show, both in the incident itself and the fact that it looks remarkably like blood. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the incident, as the moment this happened my entire focus was on damage control for the next 4 hours.

Droplets splattered on almost everything within a 5 foot radius, and while thankfully none of my in-progress sewing projects were hit, that didn’t change the situation much. Concentrated dye like that means that when you try to wash it out it takes an obscene amount of liquid to begin rinse and not just make the stain spread. I was on my hands and knees with all forms of soaps and carpet-safe solvents to clean up the disaster. Luckily I was able to get the whole thing cleaned up with just a few minor pink spots here and there to show for it.

Once that chaos was over, I was able to get back to construction.

After the straps dried I hit them with some Fiebling’s leather sheen to finish and seal the surface, and some dark brown Edge Kote to finish and seal the edges and backside of the straps.

Once that was dry and buffed, some oxblood red shoe polish gave a final shine to the surface and made the reds pop just a little but more.

For assembly, I didn’t have any bronze rivets or fittings (if they’re even made), but brass is close enough for this project. The ring is held in place with a turn-lock bag clasp for easy yet secure attachment/detachment.

To make the baldric extra special for the anniversary, I 3D printed two embossing stamps and used them to make decorative embellishment disks. Both stamps were modeled in Fusion 360, and printed in resin at a 3mm image depth with a 5mm backing plate.

On the shoulder pad is the badge of the Order of the Bronze Ring, accented with an actual bronze ring secured along the outside edge.

On the ring strap, the year of the order’s establishment (Society Year 34).

For a last touch, I added my maker’s mark to the inside of the strap, using another 3D printed embossing stamp.