I am doing a western knight, mid to late 13th century. The only problem is that my shirt of maille has short sleeves, so I will need a separate defense for the lower arms. Any ideas?

oops, yes, reading the thread properly would have helped. You have 3 choices. mail, mail and mail... :-)

D'oh!

umm no, mail. start working on adding to the sleeves. tapper them so there not huge tubes

I agree with Chuck. Maille is the way to go. Even if you buy a maille ring kit and stitch it to a leather vambrace, I think you would be okay. Besides, it would look cool as hell.............. :D ...........McM

I made that haubergon myself, but I use it for more than just 13th. I need it have short sleeves.

I've seen illustrations of integrated maille mittens for XIIIth. Perhaps you could do "extended" mittens & lace them to the shorter sleeved maille shirt or, if you have "seasons" to the different personas you are doing (vs. changing out monthly based on events), actually weave them in & remove them, based on season. Would take some time, but wouldn't create the expense of a second set of maille to maintain proper armament for the particular period... If you only had to do it once or twice a year, might be worth the effort. Then again, I'm not the one that would be doing it! :)

Man in the foreground in the lower right... undershirt... or VAMBRACES?!?!?!
...undershirt.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...le_10r.jpg

Crossbowman... undershirt?... or VAMBRACES!?!?!??!
...undershirt.
http://home.tiscali.nl/~t401243/mac/mac10vA.jpg


I always wondered why the 13th Century has plate greaves for legs, but nothing for the arms. You'd think the leg protection would be for cavalry, but most of the depictions are on infantry, so why didn't they just copy that for the forearms. Oh well, we've gotta go with what the documents tell us.

You could always use a shield. :p