The Armour Archive

I'm currently working on my new Turkish kit and I've got an idea that I don't know if I can make work for SCA. I think it's possible just thought I would see if anyone else could throw out some engineering/construction idea's or input on these.

If it worked in real life, it can probably be made to work here.

Baron Alcyoneus wrote:If it worked in real life, it can probably be made to work here.

I agree completely, just trying to determine how to make it work for our game. I wonder if maille can be used to hold the lames of the gaunt together. Also whether or not maille can cover some kind of cuff that could fall within our rules.

I have handled some bazubands (Turkish and South Asian examples) with integral hand protection (a private collection in Los Angeles) and they did not allow very much rotation of the wrist

You want this.

Adjust for details and styling.

Destichado wrote:You want this.

Adjust for details and styling.

While those are very cool and quite interesting, I'm pretty comfortable saying they would be jarringly out of place with a Turkish kit.

First I must say your term "Bazugant" is ... well, kinda makes me cringe every time. With that out of the way --

Benedek wrote:

Baron Alcyoneus wrote:If it worked in real life, it can probably be made to work here.

I agree completely, just trying to determine how to make it work for our game. I wonder if maille can be used to hold the lames of the gaunt together. Also whether or not maille can cover some kind of cuff that could fall within our rules.

Here is a closer picture of the gauntlets.
When I first saw that suit I thought that it was a modern SCA-type mod because I'd never seen an Ottoman suit so spot on for SCA regs - specificaly when it came to the gauntlets and gorget. But the claim is that the photo is from a collection in Florence - so lets take it at its face.

The gauntlets in that picture sit just like mine.
(not that they are precisely like mine - when I designed mine, I thought I was inventing the wheel - and made them half-n-half - part with mail and part with internal leathers)
Do not attach the gauntlets to the Bazubands - just have them mounted on separate gloves.
You don't need a cuff.
The gauntlet lames just need to overlap with the Bazuband sufficiently -- and the ones here definitely do.

The main part of the hand is a full mitten - that is either deep enough to "bottom out" on the weapon or just shy of that and certainly modifiable without much notice. It is definitely doable if you have practice with Bekhter (small plates and mail) construction and "European normal" rivet construction -- largely just think of the mail as tiny rivets. This is doable with the standard 14 gua butted mail but would be better if you rivet at least the rings at the joins.

The only issue with that design is that the plates over the thumb are flat or almost flat - so without modifying, the thumb is not getting any SCA protection.
All those years ago, I solved having to worry about irredemable injury by making my thumb sculpted in one piece -- precurved for the right amount of bend with enough space in there to be able to comfortibly put on the gauntlet.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm totally upgrading my kit and I think I can pull this off. I may even just do a short leather cuff and cover it in mail just for appearance sake. We do have some fairly 'by the book' marshalls in this area. I even had one of them bounce some Christian Fletcher gaunts I was fighting in.

The gaunts should be a fairly simple design. I may be able to pull those together in the garage, I've made one set of bazu's that I really didn't think turned out to well. I may finally be in a position to outsource some of my armour work instead of piece mealing things together.


Wonderful input guys.

Much appreciated.