The Armour Archive

I wanted to use steel, but leather was handy so I made one. Range of motion is a bit limited so I'll have to improve that. Loosely based on the Thor z pattern in the archives.

I'm no pro but that looks like a great start, thanks for the view

Looks better than my first try.

Your range of motion would improve if you do two things.

1. Reduce the length of the plate in the middle covering the wrist. This will place the angle of movement closer together, more closely mimicing the wrist itself.

2. Flare the cuff, and increase the diameter on the inside of the wrist, rather than using a nearly straight tube that touches the forearm. Think funnel/truncated cone rather than tube.

Do you intend this to be protective or decorative, and if the former, how will it be used?

The other thing to do is once the plate covering the back of your hand is closer to the "arm" plate, use thinner leather for the section in between. If they are almost butting, this will allow them to be attached, but increase the range of motion.

Thanks everybody for the generous input! I've been a lurker here for a while and this is the first project I thought that was worth posting.

Alcyoneus,
I wouldn't have thought of shortening the wrist leather by myself. I was actually thinking of putting in more segments at the wrist area. I'll try shortening for the next project.

There was supposed to be more of a flare on the forearm part but I made a mistake with measuring the material. I'll have to rectify this situation, again, on my next project

Corby
I intend to use this for lightly armored rattan sparing (with some control), it held up ok, but the ROM was the problem that kept popping up. But I've a friend who does BB gun shooting who wants to buy it (according to him his knuckles kept getting hit and he's happy with the range of motion, afterall, how much do you need while holding a rifle?)

Here's another picture that will show the *very* slight flare with the forearm guard.

Bajaro wrote:Thanks everybody for the generous input! I've been a lurker here for a while and this is the first project I thought that was worth posting.

Alcyoneus,
I wouldn't have thought of shortening the wrist leather by myself. I was actually thinking of putting in more segments at the wrist area. I'll try shortening for the next project.

If you look at the originals, you will find one plate between the cuff and the metacarpal, which might be one, or several overlapping plates. You'll often find a raised area for the knob to the outside of the wrist, as well.

Pretty cool! Would you mind posting a pic of the underside as well? Thanks!