Battle re-enactment: to buy or not to buy a good breastplate
OK, I started with battle re-enactment and I'm going to portray a man-in-arms. Currently I'm into buying a breastplate and I'm not sure who to buy it from.

Here is the thing, I'm going to use the armour I buy in re-enactment battles so I wanted to ask who you would buy your armour from? I was thinking about Mac (mac-armour.cz) because he is supposedly very good but on the other hand I'm not sure if it's not too dangerous taking such relativelly high quality armour into battles. On the other hand I could buy my stuff from people who are cheaper but of course the quality is not as good (mainly those who do not use heat treatment).

So, what would you do? Who would you go for? I'm clueless! :p
Re: Battle re-enactment: to buy or not to buy a good breastp
Tomas Z. wrote:
OK, I started with battle re-enactment and I'm going to portray a man-in-arms. Currently I'm into buying a breastplate and I'm not sure who to buy it from.

Here is the thing, I'm going to use the armour I buy in re-enactment battles so I wanted to ask who you would buy your armour from? I was thinking about Mac (mac-armour.cz) because he is supposedly very good but on the other hand I'm not sure if it's not too dangerous taking such relativelly high quality armour into battles. On the other hand I could buy my stuff from people who are cheaper but of course the quality is not as good (mainly those who do not use heat treatment).

So, what would you do? Who would you go for? I'm clueless! :p


For me the place to go to is Mercenary Tailor's if you want stuff fast at a good price and a very reliable supplier with great customer service. http://www.merctailor.com/index.php
http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/product_inf...ucts_id=36

Now, this is " munitions " grade armour and is well made and functional: There is more highly finished stuff out there but it will cost a lot and take months or years for some custom work. Also, heat treated armour is going to be expensive no matter where you find it.

Some of the Eastern European armour can also be very good and affordable but I don't have personal experience with it.

For re-enactment battles good sturdy stuff that you don't have to worry about scratching is a good idea I think.

For living history some groups are very fussy about getting the historical accuracy as high as possible, so I would try to find out what the group you will be joining if they have historical or safety rules about the equipment used.
Thank you.

Yes, I'll most likely end up going for a Central European armorer. As you said, they are much cheaper than their W. European counterparts. I'm just a little undecided on which one to choose. Mac, whom I already mentioned, makes some really good stuff, which are however relatively expensive (certainly cheaper than in the UK or US as far as I know). I could however go to this site (www.armero.cz) and order the same stuff much cheaper (basically ask him to make it). However the quality will be different and I'll have to make sure that he actually does a copy of the real thing and not a "fantasy" breastplate (that is also one of the reasons why I was asking for photos of 15th century breastplates).

As for my group, we don't have strict rules but I might move away once I finish my university degree (who knows, right?). So technically the group isn't an obstacle. However I'm trying to achieve a good amount of historical accuracy but at the same time I'm quite scared to order a very good quality breastplate to have it damaged in battle (I mean, do you have some experiences with something like this happening?).

Cheers,
Tomas
quality of armour
I'm guessing from the tone of your posts that you're intending a more "contact" reenactment group, such as 15th Century. My advice, after 12 hours in an A&E department, is Will the armour you are looking at protect you for real? If so, pay the cost. Armour is replaceable, your ribcage isn't!

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