The Armour Archive

I'm primarily a leather-worker. I don't have the tools or place for complex metal work.

Are there any examples of splinted greaves in use during the late 15th century? I have tools for that sort of thing.

That held on longest in Germany, but I'd bet splint limbs did not go hardly past the turn of the fifteenth even there. Frankly, plate greaves delivered better protection. You're unlikely to need thicker than 18 gauge in mild, 20 in stainless. You can work that stuff with a No. 1 size rawhide Garland hammer and a sandbag/shotbag. Cash outlay on tools, sixty to seventy dollars, tops.

You're a SCAdian, I believe -- any metal-bashin' buddies in your Barony? Next Barony over? Mobility unravels many a conundrum; if you ain't got the tools you go where the tools are.

http://www.garlandmfg.com/mallets/split.html -- Size 1, item #31001, $38.30, and shipping I suppose. Expensive per hammer, still they last forever and even when the rawhide face is all mushroomed and raggy looking it still persuades metal gently but firmly to go where you want it. Minimal planishing afterwards too.