Editing Variation of the field (section)

=== Barry, paly, bendy, pily, chevronny ===
[[File:Blason fr burelé 10.svg|thumb|100px|A shield ''barry of ten argent and gules'']]
When the field is patterned with an even number of horizontal (fesswise) stripes, this is described as ''barry'' e.g. of six or eight, usually of a colour and metal specified, e.g. ''barry of six [[argent]] and [[gules]]'' (this implies that the chiefmost piece is argent).{{efn|More rarely, a barry field can be of two colours or two metals. The arms of the [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]] show a very unusual example of barry of three different tinctures, and there are even more exceptional examples of barry of a single tincture, as in the arms of Kempten on the Zurich roll.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ZurichRoll/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110806033056/http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ZurichRoll/ |archive-date=August 6, 2011 |title=Zurich roll}}</ref> The arms of Eyfelsberg zum Weyr provide a perhaps unique example of barry of four different tinctures that do not repeat.<ref>{{harvp|Woodward |Burnett|1892|page=669}}</ref>}} With ten or more pieces, the field is described as ''barruly''.
A field with narrow [[Pile (heraldry)|piles]] throughout, issuing from either the dexter or sinister side of the shield, is ''barry pily''.
[[File:Paly demo.svg|thumb|100px|left|A shield ''paly argent and gules'']]
When the field is patterned with an even number of vertical stripes (pallets), the field is described as ''paly''. 
[[File:Ecu bandé d'azur et d'argent.svg|thumb|100px|A shield ''bendy azure and argent '']]
[[File:Blason ville fr Milhavet (Tarn).svg|thumb|100px|A shield ''bendy sinister sable and argent'']]
[[File:Chevronny or and gules.svg|thumb|left|100px|A shield ''Chevronny Or and gules'']]
When the field is patterned with a series of diagonal stripes (bendlets), running from top-left to bottom-right, the field is described as ''bendy''. In the opposite fashion (top-right to bottom-left) it is ''bendy sinister'' (of ''skarpes'', the diminutive in [[England]] of the bend sinister); of chevronels, ''chevronny''. An unusual example of bendy is one in which a metal alternates with two colours.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Arms of Dr. Murray Lee Eiland Jr |url= http://www.armorialregister.com/arms-za/eiland-ml-arrms.html |website=The Armorial Register - International Register of Arms |access-date=2 September 2024}}</ref>

In modern practice the number of pieces is nearly always even. 
A shield of thirteen vertical stripes, alternating argent and gules, would not be ''paly of thirteen, argent and gules'', but ''argent, six pallets gules''.{{efn|This is the lower portion of the shield on the [[Great Seal of the United States]]. The incorrect blazon is usually used anyway, to preserve the reference to the thirteen original colonies, and this form is occasionally imitated allusively.}}
One unusual design is described in part as ''bendy of three'' though, as each third is again divided, the effect is of a six-part division.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://archive.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project-pic.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=899&ProjectElementID=3229 |title=Christopher Harrington Jones |website=Canadian Register of Arms, Flags and Badges}}</ref>

If no number of pieces is specified, it may be left up to the heraldic artist, but is still represented with an even number.

An instance of a ''[[fess]]... [[#Barry, Paly, Bendy|paly]] [[Sable (heraldry)|Sable]], Argent, [[Bleu celeste]] and [[Or (heraldry)|Or]]'' occurs in the arms of the 158th Quartermaster Battalion of the [[United States Army]],<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/QM/158QuartermasterBattalion.htm |website=United States Army Institute of Heraldry |title=158 Quartermaster Battalion |access-date=2005-04-01 |archive-date=2006-09-11 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060911011818/http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/QM/158QuartermasterBattalion.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> although this is atypical terminology and it could be argued that the fess should be blazoned as ''per pale, in dexter per pale sable and argent, and in sinister per pale bleu celeste and or''.

In the [[:File:Wappen Deutsches Reich - Fürstentum Schwarzburg-Sondershausen.png|modern arms]] of the [[House of Schwarzburg|Count of Schwarzburg]], the quarters are divided by a cross bendy of three tinctures.

When the shield is divided by lines both palewise and bendwise, with the pieces coloured alternately like a chess board, this is ''paly-bendy''; if the diagonal lines are reversed, ''paly-bendy sinister''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/resources/anthonywood.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050315140858/http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/resources/anthonywood.htm |title=The Heraldry Society - members' arms: Anthony Wood |archive-date=March 15, 2005}}</ref> If horizontal rather than vertical lines are used, it is ''barry-bendy''; and similarly, when reversed, ''barry-bendy sinister''.

A field which seems to be composed of a number of triangular pieces is ''barry bendy and bendy sinister''.