New Straps for Metal Greaves and Bracers?

[Davion]

I have these metal greaves and bracers. The straps on them are horrendous. Also, I'm having a problem where the bracers slide down into my wrists and ankles which then can hurt me. (I could see spraining my ankle or wrist very easily when they're out of position). Before I get started on the project of making better ones, does anyone have any experience or advice on how to make better ones? I'm especially interested in how to solve the problem of them falling out of place.

Thank you,
David C

 

[markusdark]

Without strapping them to your belt or shoulders, you're going to get slippage with metal greaves and bracers. The weight of the metal combined with the fact that the forearm and lower leg don't have anything to cinch the armor around (like a belt does with the waist/hip bone), means they're going to fall - especially with running and fighting going on.

A couple of things that I do to avoid them causing issues on the joints:

Pad the underside of the armor - the fabric and padding will help 'form fit' the armor bit better to your body and friction will help to keep them up.

Pad the end of the armor - What I do for a metal bracer I wear on my sword arm is that I thickly wrap a piece of cloth around my wrist. This protects it against armor rub/bites and also helps keep the piece up away from it.

Also if you flair the metal slightly outward at the wrist/foot end, it will make it a bit more comfortable.

 

[Dom]

With metal armor padding is your best friend. For the bracers I recommend a pair of padded bracers such as these which are only $12.60

For the greaves the best thing to do is to pad the inside of them with foam. Really, the absolute best thing to do with them, from my experience, is find somewhere else to get the armor value from. Heavy leather greaves will be one less armor point and far more comfortable. You can even stud them for the full 3 points.

 

[Wraith]

Generally the solution in-period was to attach the bracer to the cloth sleeve of a padded gambeson worn under the armor. It's why you rarely ever saw metal bracers worn by themselves, but rather as an integral part of an arm harness.

Same with greaves. The ones that were commonly worn alone, such as Roman or Greek leg armor, are often designed with a bottom arch to rest on the top of the foot. That said, if you can put up with it, a wider strap that sits just below the back of your knee, above the curve of the calf, can help. It isn't terribly comfortable to run in, though, and if the top of the greave isn't properly rolled, it will transfer any force of a bad fall directly to the bottom of your kneecap. Alternatively, you could add knee cops and thigh cuisses of padded material or light leather to let you suspend the whole thing from a belt.