The Armour Archive

I don't know the proper terminologies (Hey, I'm a hobbyist chainsmith and unarmored fencer, not a historian! ) but what I am looking for is a pair of forearm bracers with attached elbows, a simple breastplate, and a helmet, I believe the design I want is called a Black Prince Helm. I would like it all in steel, if possible, because I have a gut aversion to aluminum (depite the field testing that states that it works) and I have not the money for Titanium.

Where would I have to go, who would I have to tak to, and how much would it cost me to buy these things? In priority, I would like the breastplate, the bracers, and then the helmet. It is to be used more immediately for my garb at rennaisance fewtivals, but will be used later for SCA or SCA-style combat (when I can locate/get into the nearest chapter to my Podunkville location).

Simple simple simple is the key. I was wanting a suit of transitional, I believe it is called (more or less half plate half maille, or, a maille shirt with a breastplate over it, and other various parts covered in plate as well), but then I got into mailling myself, and made my own shirts. Five years later, I still need the plates.

I am willing to barter chainwork for platework, if anyone is interested, or, if the price is right, I can do cash, albeit perhaps after a wait. (You all perhaps know as much as I do how it is with cash.... -_-)

All of this is going to depend on what kind of budget you have for this.

You can go from a simple "rough from the hammer" by Cet all the way up to several hundred dollars. There is just too much out there for a random "who has it" cause damn near everyone that makes armor does.

Basically, I'm looking for mild steel, basic complete piece. No polishing necessary, but if it's not too much more, then I'd go for it. I want the whole 'battered/time tested soldier/crusader' look, though I think I recall plate armor being rare/practically nonexistant in the Crusades (my history is not very good... >_<).

I'm hoping for a pricerange under $150 for the breastplate, same for the helmet, and under $100 for the bracers. If those are the norms for pricerange... I personally have no clue the right price for my needs (I know, a bad thing to say before making a deal, but... XD it's true).

So it's cool that you are thinking ahead to using this armor in the SCA. That being said, it might be a good idea to check back here before you buy something to make sure it will meet the requirements of rattan combat.

The helm I think you are talking about is called a "great helm" Here is a pic I googled:[img]http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/bhaiduk/blackprince.jpg[/img]
Depending upon who told you you want a balck prince helm, you might be talking about a bascinet, as the black prince's effigy has him wearing a bascinet, but the great helm was hung above the effigy. The great helm was actually worn over the bascinet. However, I'm like 99% sure the "black prince helm" you are talking about is a great helm. (If I'm wrong someone will post here otherwise)

Bracers, or vambraces are pretty standard. There are two pieces that strap together around your forearm. One other version you might consider if you are interested in transitional period armor is a splinted vambrace. That is leather with steel splints riveted to either the outside or inside.

Elbows come in all kinds from simple one piece to multiple lamed, and ones with and without wings. And they were just about all used in the transitional period.

I don't realy know much about breast plates, but they did start to come into vogue in the transitional period.

So, your history isn't so bad. Plate armor generally wasn't used in the crusades era. With the exception of helmets, most everything else was mail, cloth, leather, or smaller pieces of steel laced together called lamellar.

Mild steel is good choice if you want it to look weathered. The simplist way is to leave it out in the weather pun intended.

Anyways, back to what you really wanted. Normally I would send you to Mad Matt's armory http://www.madmattsarmory.com/, but he is not taking orders at the moment.
Here is a short list of armorers that I could think of off the top of my head. Most of them have prices listed on their websites. My apologies to anyone I forgot.

Stone Keep Armory http://spiers-saddlery.stores.yahoo.net ... andar.html
Bokalo's Armory http://bokalosarmoury.com/
Illusion Armory http://www.illusionarmoring.com/ (they have a great helmin your price range)
Rough From the Hammer http://roughfromthehammer.com/

I've only ordered from one of these guys, but if you post here asking for a review before you buy you can get a good idea of whether your getting screwed or not.

I hope this helps. If not, ask more questions!!

I think you will want to look into place and time a bit. The early crusader look you're talking about is not the same thing as the transitional plate that you're also talking about (although there were some later crusades, by the time transitional plate was in full swing, the 'crusading spirit' had mostly died off).

First crusade was the end of the 11th, beginning of the 12th century. You had crusades running through the tail end of the 13th, then things taper off a lot. The plate armor you're talking about really kicked off in the 14th - and started pretty light, without articulation at the joints, coats of plate instead of breastplates, etc. Then as the 14th progressed you got more and more plate armor added in.

Do a little reading - hit the library, grab some books. See which period of history you think you'd like to place yourself in. Look at the "I want to be a..." threads - grab that index and just pick places and times you think sound cool, and read the threads, TONS of information in there. My advice would be not to rush into purchases until you've hammered that out a bit, so that your final kit is something solid that you'll be proud to wear for years.

(Gentle positive note for Armourer_Eric too, btw - if you want plate stuff, what I've seen of his work is nice, he has pretty good prices, good reviews here, and is a nice guy, very helpful. Just ordered some stuff from him myself,.)