The Armour Archive

Hello, friends.
If one were to take a plain soup can elbow cop and want to wear it without attaching it to a vambrace or anything (just a stand alone piece), how would one go about doing that? I've got a set I'm just scared to put drill or punch to metal out of fear of messing it up.

off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure the more period method would be to point it to maille or an arming garment of some sort. otherwise, I've seen people rivet or lace simple elbow cops to elbow pads and use the elbow pad to hold them in place.

I've never seen any evidence that soupcans were directly laced to anything. A lot of people do it, but as I said, there's no historical evidence for exposed lacing.
Perhaps there was leather riveted to the interior of the soupcan, and lacing was run through that.

If you don't care about authenticity and you just want it on there, a lot of people lace it or stitch it right to an elbow pad.

Mine are laced to splinted vambraces via a little leather tab, and are also strapped to keep them from flopping around. Don't be afraid to DIY. It's pretty easy and I am not an armorer. Also, they are pointed at the top to my arming coat so they don't slide down my arm. I was never able to keep any of my arm armor where it's supposed to be without an arming coat.

Lacing it to the underlying garment seems to be as close as you can get to correct.

That said, Aaron and I have both worn elbows directly over the gambeson sleave without attaching it to anything. The one I have includes a glued in pad (probably helps keep it from slipping) and a strap around the inside of the elbow. The strap is set up as a "Y" strap on one side and just a straight strap on the other side. It is strapped to the arm and just seems to sit on the elbow.

That is very simple.

It may work at least in part because it is a deep elbow so it tends to be aligned automatically when the elbow is bent.

Wade

duct tape.

Not sure about duct tape...I think the marshall would end up hitting me in the head with his stick if I showed up for inspection with cops duct taped to my arms.

Could you show me an example of the Y Strapping you were talking about?

Y-shaped strap, the two ends riveted to the metal at its edges (medial and distal) and the single bit being where the buckle and strap end live. Nothing elaborate at all. So simple it does not need a reference picture.

Spangenhelm depicted here at bottom of the pics shows a Y strap equipping it. Not a great picture of a Y strap, but it's enough. Search "Y strap" onsite and you will get many hits, including this thread.

Broadway wrote:duct tape.

You took the words out of my mouth!!!!!

Broadway wrote:duct tape.

My whole arm harness practically got duct taped back on last Estrella because of some Calontir shield wall guys....