How to point knee cops

bhaiduk · Post by **bhaiduk** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:09 am

I just got a pair of aluminum knee cops I want to wear hidden. How is the best way to point them to the inside of my pants. Do I just sew a couple lengths of paracord to the inside of my pants and drill some holes in the top of the cop?

Benedek · Post by **Benedek** » Thu May 22, 2008 8:23 am

I wouldn't point them. I would use straps or attach them to knee pads.

Lord O'Quinn · Post by **Lord O'Quinn** » Thu May 22, 2008 8:38 am

I tie mine into my "padded cuisse" with leather lace at the top and also run one fairly looses buckled strap around the knee. Not sure what you have to "hang" them from if anything. If you don't have anything to hang them from, I woudl go with the above suggestion. I also have mine laced into a pair of knee supports, the stretchy elastic kind.

Another trick Kelen uses is to wear a knee support over top of the low profile cop itself, this almost eliminates the movement completely if done right.

O'Quinn

Morejello · Post by **Morejello** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:27 pm

One trick that a few people around here use is they start with a standard pad on their knee, then they just place the cop over the top of that and wrap it with a long strip of cloth or an ace bandage to secure it in place.

Personally, my cops are attached to skate pads, with the steel cop tied in 4 different places to the plastic shield on the skate pad.

Sean Powell · Post by **Sean Powell** » Thu May 22, 2008 1:31 pm

If you lace metal cops to something flexible you may find that the metal abrades the paracord and eventually cuts through. Your gear will last longer if you rivet on a tab of leather or nylon webbing and sew/lace the webbing to your pads or fabric.

YMMV,
Sean

Konstantin the Red · Post by **Konstantin the Red** » Thu May 22, 2008 9:30 pm

And what sort of pants are you planning to put these inside?

Your fastening needs to do two things: hold it up, and keep it from shifting or flopping from side to side. All this while allowing your knee to bend.

For some really good hints, we'd need to know what the rest of your armor looks like. Hey, if you've got a mail hauberk and are contemplating gamboised cuisses of the c. 1275-1360 period, you're all set -- they did it that way, you see, with the cuisses suspending the cops at their ends, using a flexible backing and some thonging to lace it on. And then there's a strap around the back of the knee to stabilize.

So, whatcha wearing?

bhaiduk · Post by **bhaiduk** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:32 pm

I'm going for a Polish Hussar from the late 1500's. The hussars didn't wear leg armor(from what I can tell). I'll be wearing a knee length zupon and boots, so I was planning on wearing either a pair of gambeson cuises or just a plain pair of trousers over crash pads. Either way, most of my legs will be covered by the zupon.

Konstantin the Red · Post by **Konstantin the Red** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:55 pm

Something in this general vein then?

http://www.polishhussarsupply.com/

bhaiduk · Post by **bhaiduk** » Thu May 22, 2008 10:57 pm

exactly