The Armour Archive

Since Pennsic fast approacheth, people have been asking me for assistance. You know the kind, "Hey, you're an armourer. I'm going to be buying a (*Magic Cats Ass*) at Pennsic, what should I look for? How do I know if it's a good one?"

This is an article I did a couple of years ago, that should help all those asking these kinds of questions.


A Guide to Choosing Armour

Whether you are buying new armour or upgrading your old gear, I’ve found that most Heavy Weapons fighters can use a bit of help. This is intended as a guide to helping people in that position, who may not know what to look for.

Let’s say that you are new to Heavy Weapons and need to outfit yourself with a complete set of equipment, or that you are an experienced fighter who is finally ready to upgrade to the set that you wanted all along. You have a big event coming up that you know armourers will be selling at and have decided to begin your quest there. The problem arises at the event however, you don’t know what to look for, which is the good armour and which is the bad, which will work well, and which will end up being left in your armour bag after a couple of practices. Well, there is a quick and easy way of figuring it all out.

First off, let’s start with the easy stuff. Decide what what kind of armour you are looking for. Do you want 11th-century Viking, 14th-century Italian, or 16th-century Maximilian? Do you want mild steel, stainless steel, aluminum, leather? How much is your budget? What peices of armour do you really need immediately, and what can wait until later?


Helms.
Does it meet all the requirements for helms for SCA combat? Does it fit? Is it large enough to allow for at least 1/2â€

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Frederich Von Teufel:
<B>Since Pennsic fast approacheth, people have been asking me for assistance. You know the kind, "Hey, you're an armourer. I'm going to be buying a (*Magic Cats Ass*) at Pennsic, what should I look for? How do I know if it's a good one?"

This is an article I did a couple of years ago, that should help all those asking these kinds of questions.


A Guide to Choosing Armour

Whether you are buying new armour or upgrading your old gear, I’ve found that most Heavy Weapons fighters can use a bit of help. This is intended as a guide to helping people in that position, who may not know what to look for.

Let’s say that you are new to Heavy Weapons and need to outfit yourself with a complete set of equipment, or that you are an experienced fighter who is finally ready to upgrade to the set that you wanted all along. You have a big event coming up that you know armourers will be selling at and have decided to begin your quest there. The problem arises at the event however, you don’t know what to look for, which is the good armour and which is the bad, which will work well, and which will end up being left in your armour bag after a couple of practices. Well, there is a quick and easy way of figuring it all out.

First off, let’s start with the easy stuff. Decide what what kind of armour you are looking for. Do you want 11th-century Viking, 14th-century Italian, or 16th-century Maximilian? Do you want mild steel, stainless steel, aluminum, leather? How much is your budget? What peices of armour do you really need immediately, and what can wait until later?


Helms.
Does it meet all the requirements for helms for SCA combat? Does it fit? Is it large enough to allow for at least 1/2â€

Yeah, whereas I agree somewhat in spirit that "slightly too large" is BETTER than "slightly too small" usually, I espouse the philosophy of "if it doesn't fit, don't buy it" as well.

The "bigger rather than smaller", to me, is pretty well only a philosophy for loaner gear. And like JP said, vambraces that are too long are PAINFUL. Hehe..now that I think of it, I put my legs (I have a 36" inseam) on a friend once...he has a 30" inseam. It was, er, a bit binding, shall we say.

Well, I realize that you were nitpicking Jean, and I haven't taken offence.

The intent of the article is for someone who is going to be buying "off-the-shelf", and you know as well as I that the chances of it fitting him perfectly are between slim and remote. In cases like that, it is much easier to work with armour that is slightly too large, than to make up for armour that covers incompletely or binds.

When I was first writing the article, I gave close consideration to the type of person who would be using it as a guide to shop, and to the kinds of armour that they'd be looking at. It's why I specifically tell them that helms should allow for a minimum of 1/2" of padding, less than that (i.e. helm is too small) becomes dangerous. And I had specifically added in the 'if the arms are too long' to deal with situations where the vambrace turned out to be too long for the fighter and would need to be cut down.

Hmmmm....or are you disagreeing with what I wrote based on the way I phrased it? Admittedly, I did not state it the way you did, nor did I at any point specifically say, "if the armour doesn't fit well, don't buy it."

In any case, you may forward the article to your chronicler with my blessing. Make sure that the article has both my name and email (teufelskerl001@aol.com) and let him know that he (and any one with questions) can contact me.


Frederich