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Arm Defenses of Bands - an Experimental Reconstruction
By Norman J. Finkelshteyn
I made these for Bedlam Amok of the Tuchux Bear clan.
He was looking for a design that would work for a Seljuk of the Crusades period, be light, SCA rattan-fencing compliant, and of course - Barbarically Stylish!
I was looking to find out if my assumptions for the arm defenses represented on various images from 8th century Armenia to 16th century India were plausible.
All in all, I think the experiment was successful.
Description:
The defense consists of an outer panel that covers the forearm and elbow and an inner panel that covers the inside of the forearm.
The outer panel consists of five forearm bands and two elbow bands, the inner panel is of three bands.
Inner and outer panel are joined by two hinges similar to some I have seen on surviving Russian Naruches. These consist of a brass bracket at each panel, holding between them a rectangular ring.
Brass brackets with "D" rings are intended for holding fastener cords or straps.
Materials and structure:
All bands in a given panel are connected together by internal leather straps on rivets.
The forearm bands are all water-stiffened leather (aprox. 1/8" thick) with alternating bands covered with 20 guage brass.
Where it up to me, I would have used 18 guage steel for these forearm bands.
The elbow bands are steel, the outer one, of 18 guage sheet, the inner (most strongly dished one) of 16 guage sheet.
To somewhat follow the color pattern of the forearm bands, the outer steel band is polished, the inner is heat-blackened.
All forearm bands of a given panel are connected by two continuous internal leathers.
I had originally thought to make the leathers continuous for the elbow bands as well, but that compromised flexibility at the elbow.
I therefore used a separate leather strip for each elbow band.
This leaves somewhat the opposite problem of over-flexing to a gap.
In the case of the forearm band connection to the elbow, I solved this with a central leather strip connecting the last forearm band to the inner elbow band.
I found over-flexing to be a bit of a problem between the inner elbow band and the outer (oddly, the user does not seem to have this problem). In retrospect, this could have been solved had I used a single leather strip to join both elbow bands to the forearm instead of separate strips to join each of the elbow bands. Enlarging the curve of the hidden edge of the outer elbow plate may have alleviated the problem as well.
Of course, I had posited external leathers for the early Armenian piece. However, I believe that the overlap thickness of leather forearm bands would prevent a graceful structure with external leathers. They would, in my opinion, require the thinness of a metal construction.
I have, as of this point, not had the opportunity to experiment with external leathers, but I believe that a single strap would, in that case, work to flex sufficiently across the whole outer panel (rather than my required split at the elbow).
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