Simple Armoring for the SCA

One of the greatest attractions of the SCA is it's armored combat. The sight of adult folks on the field laying into each in a recreation of a behourd tournament, with pagaentry, salutes to Royalty, honour done to consorts and opponents and the comraderie of arms is probably the most visible and exciting aspect of our historical re-enactment.

Many are the gentles who wish to be a part of this spectacular, physical and thrilling activity. Over more than 20 years of fighting, the refrain I hear so often is, "armor is so expensive", "I have no skills in working with metal", "I don't have the tools I need" and similar whinges. All those refrains are patently false. A full suit of SCA legal, period-based armor can be made for less than the cost of a basketball uniform, or a decent pair of football boots. It can be made with a mere handful of tools, all of which are cheap and readily obtainable from your local super-hardware store or the even markets and swap meets. Metal isn't difficult to work, and in fact you only have to know about 6 different techniques to make even fancy armor. There are no secrets involved in making armor. All it really takes is commitment, time and a willingness to learn.

I am an ideal case study. When I made my first suit of armor, more than 20 years ago, I was a university student with a couple of part-time jobs and I had never done any metal work in my life. I had never even used a power tool. It took me 6 weeks to make my first, legal, and very ugly, set of armor, teaching myself techniques as I went using the Fighters' Handbook and The Known World Handbook as my sources.

About 6 years ago, myself and Lord Ulvar McVanis realised that there was a real dearth of armor for the new fighters who wanted to fight in the Barony of Stormhold and the Shire of Arrowsreach. Neither of us were experienced armorers. We lacked many of the tools that would make our job easier. We didn't even have patterns. We sat down and made our own patterns, based on straight line cuts, simple shapes and a configuration that would minimise waste steel in the cutting process. We set about making solid, legal, basic munitions harness that could be easily mass produced using a production line of willing bodies. In 2 years we made about 40 full suits of armor. On one 104F day we made 9 sets of legs between 8am and 9pm.

Currently I do not even class myself as an armorer. Armorers are artists, creating practical items of beauty using a myriad of techniques and skills they have learned over the years. I am merely someone who makes armor; simple, cheap, easy to construct armor that suits the new fighter or the fighter on a budget. Most of the pieces here aren't even documentable (except by "leap of faith" documentation). However, if you use the right materials, and accessorise appropriately (accessorising is so important), you should end up with armor that is servicable, legal and is probably pretty accurate for a man-at-arms or dirt poor knight of the 14th century. It should enable you to train and improve, and to enjoy your combat.

No doubt you will some day want to upgrade your kit. When that day comes, I would ask that you some how pass your superseded items on to a new fighter, or donate it to your local group's loaner kit. If you learn skills by making this armor, share them, pass them on, and use them to assist other new fighters. Also, please share the fighting skills and techniques you learned while wearing the armor you built. The more knowledge and resources are shared, the more people we get to play with, and, at the end of the day, it is all about wrapping warm meat in cold steel so we can slay our friends, but not hurt them. :)

The patterns are now being scanned and made available. Each piece of equipment is accompanied by a "how to" guide, and we'll be making a photoset (and perhaps some video) to further aid new fighters, or anyone who wants a suit of legal, reasonable looking armor for a loaner set, spare set or even to upgrade from a cobbled together beginning set.

Please note that these patterns have been designed with the combat regulations of the SCA in mind. However, it is your responsibility to ensure that the armor built using these patterns is in accordance with your local armor regulations, that you are satisfied that they afford you the level of safety and protection you are happy with, that they are inspected by a duly authorised marshal before every use and that you maintain them.

Patterns - currently available: Legs, Elbows & Shoulders, Barrel Helm, Demi-gauntlet & "Des Cartes" style helm

Here you can find the patterns you'll need for legs, arms, shoulders, hands and helmets. Print out the patterns and scale them up as needed, then go to the section below for the instructions needed to build the item.

Instructions

Munitions leg harness

Barrel helm

Elbow and forearm

Shoulders

Demi-gauntlet

Des Cartes style helm