Armor


Armoring yourself is one of the biggest hurdles to fighting when starting out. There are a few things to be aware of when you are armouring up.  First, if you search online for "Armour" instead of "Armor", you may find you will get more appropriate results. Below are links to a wide range of websites where you can buy appropriate armor off-the-shelf. Some prefer to make more of their armor themselves for a variety of reasons (economical, artistic, pride of workmanship, etc...). Whichever route you take you need to make certain you have the appropriate body parts covered and that you are familiar with the technical terms for different pieces of armour.  Make sure you check the current rules of the list to ensure your understanding of the armor requirements is up-to-date and sufficient to pass any questions put to you during authorization.

 

In general, newcomers will want to look towards stainless steel, plastic and aluminum armour (including aluminum shields).  Mild steel rusts, leather armour is hard to maintain, and wooden shields are heavier and often harder to maintain.  Some armourers are now making armour out of spring steel, which allows you to make armour of a similar hardness that is thinner (often up to two gauges thinner, so you can get a 16-guage elbow at the weight of a 20-guage elbow, for example), but spring steel is mild steel and will thus rust if not rigorously maintained.  Thus, unless you are *absolutely certain* that you are obsessive about maintenance, or unless you get spring steel that is blued, blackened, or coated in some other manner to minimize rust, we advise against any of the mild steels.  Chainmail (mild, stainless, titanium, or otherwise), looks great and is very authentic, but was designed to armour against cutting strikes.  Since we bash each other, it is not great SCA armour without significant padding underneath (adding significant weight, movement restrictions, and bulk).  We would again advise against chainmail for newcomers.  Breastplates and wraps (Cherburgs), coats of plates and brigandines, splint and studded (of aluminum, plastic, or stainless)... these make great starter rigs and are available in whole and in part from the various armourers below (and can be put together with help from the Armour Committee and the various Lanistae of the Scholum).

 

First, let's take a quick look at what has to be armoured, and what's a good idea to armour...

 

By the current rules, these things need to have some kind of armour on them:

1) head (a helmet or helm -- all kinds of styles including bascinets, armets, sallets, barbutes, etc...)

2) neck (the helmet may do this, a gorget, bevor or aventail/bishop's collar that will cover the neck vertebrae and the clavicle)

3) knees (knee cop/cup, technically, a poleyn)

4) elbows (elbow cop/cup, technically a couter)

5) groin (usually a jock strap & cup -- there are alternatives such as softball shorts and cups)

6) kidneys (at minimum a kidney belt, and usually some form of upper body armour)

7) hands to the wrist (basket hilt & demi-gauntlet, or else full gauntlets)

 

By the rules, guys don't have to wear a shirt. The bare minimum described is designed for the absolute baseline of safety. Some people decide to fight with the minimum requirements.  Most of those fight in Kingdoms that fight at a different level with different armor standards generally than Atlantia.  We are not advocates of fighting in bare minimum, prefering instead to choose a higher level of safety. Here are the things you may want to cover, in addition to the requirements:

 

1) Forearms (vambraces, bracers or bauzubands)

2) Upper arms (pauldrons & spaulders - coming down from the shoulders, a rarebrace)

3) Upper body (breastplate, coat of plates, brigantine, globose, cuirass, etc...)

4) Thighs (cuisses)

5) Shoulders (pauldrons, spaulders)

6) Shins and feet (greaves or demi-greaves, sabotons -- though many consider these completely optional)

 

 

Lastly, some wind-up building two harnesses. A leg harness to support your legs, and/or a chest harness to support your arm protection:

1) Leg Harness -- a belt or other rigging mechanism to support the cuisses, knees and sometimes the greaves and hold them to the hips and/or body

2) Arm/body Harness -- A gambeson/jupon, body armor, or other support mechanism to connect and support the shoulder and arm armor and rig it all together with the body armor

 

To help further understand the concepts, there is a pictorial lexicon of armour.

 

We recommend getting a copy of the Knowne Worlde Handbook which you can find Online as a wiki or you can order directly through the SCA Stock Clerk, as it has great pictures and advice for general SCA life.  There is also a site providing free public armor patterns of various quality (check with more experienced fighters before making anything).

 

Finally, be aware that there are armourers within the barony, and throughout the kingdom who cab teach you to strap, assemble, or build your own armour. This won't save time, but it will save money, if that's a constraint.  We plan to hold armor workshops sporadically throughout the year at Viscount Sir Eldrid's Open House and at Sir Thomas' garage.

 

Jarl Valgard Stonecleaver in the East Kingdom has put together a great article on trying to get armoured-up in style at low-cost (about $300) which can help give folks some great direction and ideas about how and where to get started get armoured.

 

The reliable, quality, price-effective armourers we might recommend ordering things from include:

 

 

 

In terms of specific recommendations:

 

 

Body (particularly oriented towards 14th Century kit w/excellent protection for women):

 

 

 

Arming Outer Garments:

 

 

 

Arming Under Garments:

 

 

 

Legs:

 

 

 

 

Arms:

 

 

Shoulders:

 

 

 

 

Neck:

 

 

 

Hands:

 

 

Helms:

 

Completely dependent on what period and style you want, how much you want to spend, and how long you want to wait.  First you have to determine what kind of helmet you want, then we can figure out where to get it. But Kat recommends that you just call Jackie at Shamrock Armoury and tell him what you want.

 

 

Shields:

 

 

 

Swords:

 

 

 

Armor Maintenance

 

 

 

Amoring Material

 

Good sources for raw materials for armour include: