http://youtu.be/AebwV9ApHW4
Cutting a bracer made of galvanized iron, folded and reinforced, with a han jian made by a Chinese smith namely "17".

Just saw that video.
1st blow - the bracer dented
2nd blow - it nearly split in half

I'm not sure what the point of this is. Armour isn't normally mounted on on a rigid unmovable surface at an optimal height and stands still waiting for you to hit it. I can cut through much thicker armour than that with a hammer, chisel, and an anvil, but it won't tell me anything about its performance in battle.

Nah, my student who made the bracer just wanted me to have a test on it to see if it work as if he expected. The riveted link was the weak point. So he will improve his next design. That's all about it. Not to prove anything.

Also make sure he doesn't use pop rivets. Solid rivets work much better. I'm not sure what gauge sheet it is but he needs to use something MUCH thicker. 1mm would at least provide some defense as opposed to whatever he used. Armour also gets a lot of strength from curved shapes. It looks like he just bent the metal enough to "fit" the forearm but it really needs much more shaping to be considered armour. It will have more strength and fit better.

If he doesn't already know about

http://www.armourarchive.org/

then he will enjoy reading through the essays and the topics in the forum.

The problem with him is he's not good with English. I'll let him know though, so he can spend some effort there to learn.

Frank Anthony Cannarella wrote:

If he doesn't already know about http://www.armourarchive.org/ then he will enjoy reading through the essays and the topics in the forum.