[Allan Senefelder]

" Sigh ", today through Saturday we're offering 20% off all arm and leg harness for Labor Day. Additionally we're offering 50% off our Type II wooden bucklers through Saturday. See here http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/index.php?c...1b8744fb92 , http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=22 , http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/product_inf...cts_id=136 . Please feel free to conatct us with any questions you may have.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Just giving this Topic a bump to help out Allan, but to give it a little useful content I'll mention a few pieces I bought at different times and combined together very well for an early plate period:

A) Two piece Bracers: These are a recent buy and they cover well the lower arm and the longer side comes up almost to my elbow. Leather lined also + 1/4" of cotton batting ( Read comments below about the Cops ).

http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/product_inf...ucts_id=73

B) A pair of 14th Century Elbow Cops with the optional round plates: Bought these a year ago and tried them with the above Bracers and I found that the pointed end of the Bracer overlaps the Elbow Cop very nicely but doesn't interfere with the Elbow Cop. The overlap also means that very little or gap is left unprotected by plate and is almost as good as attached Vambrace/lames/Elbow Cops of a later period.

Over a long sleeved maille Hauberk the gaps are covered and the bulk of the plate is very minimal.

With the compression of the strapping over a good Gambison the Elbow Cop seems to stay in place fairly well without having to use points. One could easily drill a few holes for points or ask Allan to do so for them. They are also lightly padded inside with leather/cotton batting giving better friction between arming clothes and the Elbow Cop.

For casual wear the points doesn't seem necessary at all but might be useful if used very vigourously in jousting or aggressive bouting.

C) New product I don't have yet, so I'm guessing they would complete this early style of arm armour very well:
http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/product_inf...cts_id=147

If you add up the normal price on all 3 of these they are already very affordable and even more so with the sale.

Just an observation: Although well fitted attached plate doesn't compromise mobility very much I find that this combination feels like they reduce range of motion even less. I think that in the transition from maille only to plate over maille to mostly plate with just maille voiders some mobility was sacrificed for better protection. During the transitional periods some Knights may have retained by preference the older versions of armour due to preferring agility and range of motion to level of protection with slight losses of range of motion. ( The lost of range of motion being acceptable at the ends of the the range where the forearm would touch the upper arm when folded as much as possible .... speculations. )

Note I also have the fully attached arms that work extremely well for me:

http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/product_inf...cts_id=122

I also have the " half arms " 14 th / 15 th Century arms that work great when one doesn't need or want shoulder armour, and they also give a great deal of variety in mixing and matching arm armour parts:

http://www.merctailor.com/catalog/product_inf...ucts_id=35

Anyway, hope that this gives a few of you " ideas " about buying some armour from Allan

[James Anderson III]

I have the two-piece plate bracers and a pair of the cased greaves from Allan. Both fit great and are a steal for the price. Allan is *highly* recommended.

[Jean Thibodeau]