Spaulders or Pauldrons

[Azash]

I was doing some searching on the net and found comment of spaulders and pauldrons when talking about the upper shoulder armor and this lead me to the question.....

What is the difference between spaulders and pauldrons? Is it just the person you are talking to or is there one piece of armor caled a spaulder and another that is the pauldron, with the two of them closely related?

[Colin]

I suspect a precise definition didn't exist, but spaulders and pauldrons are similar. Pauldrons endeavouring to cover the entire shoulder and, at least at rest, the armpit.

The typical spaulder look is on 14th century armours (though certainly existed in later periods).

I hope that makes sense,

[White Knight]

My interpretation is that spaulders were smaller (typical of 14th century plate armours) and that pauldrons were bigger and covered the armpit and the shoulder blade (typical of 15th century plate armours).

Just elaborating on what Colin said.