“The Wayward Knight” Black Armor

Hi everyone, we're here at a castle in western Ukraine just taking a look at a new set of armor that we've produced. This is Yorick, one of our blacksmiths, he's made this himself and it's an example of our chemical blackening techniques that we've been using as well as sort of a hammer or rough forged appearance. It's based on some 14th century finds, the fairly iconic Visby Brigandine. We've made some adjustments too to make it a bit more protective as well as fully articulated leg and arm harness and some nice bezigus sitting right there. So with this set of armor we have two options for helmets. We have here the bassinet helmet which is pretty, you know, pretty good looking. We also have a sugarloaf helm without a moving visor, more like a transitional great helm. So with the bassinet here we have a wonderful riveted male avontail. This is just going to last a lot longer than buttered male. It's blackened and has hammer marks all over it and then has the removable clap visor, so hinges up with a hinge on top of the head and then it is entirely removable. If Jörg wants to pull it off it just opens and closes like that or is removable and yeah that's a bassinet. Now next we have the gauntlets. These are essentially our basic model of gauntlet with a new surface treatment on them and they're made out of mild steel with a chemical blackening agent applied to them so that they go this wonderful black color which contrasts nicely with the hammered brass edging. They've got a padded glove inside as standard sewn to the gauntlet. Now these compared to historical ones are a little bit more rounded in the finger plates just to get better coverage of the side of the fingers for RSCA and other sorts of combat sports and yeah they're wonderful and move very well in the hand. Okay so next we have the spaulders or pauldrons. Armour for the shoulder. Start off by looking at how this goes on. It's attached using lacing through a leather tab at the top. These have three lames that protect the gap in between this and the arm harness. Compresses when the arm moves and has a bezigu or shoulder rondel to protect the armpit. On the inside you can see the three pieces of leather suspension that make this compression possible and we have cast brass buckles to keep it closed on the arm. It's a little bit nicer in contrast very well with the blackened surface of the spaulder. Now we have the brigandine. This is protection for the chest made out of 16 gauge steel using solid rivets. It's attached to a leather exterior to sort of protect it from the elements and to help it move and articulate with the body. This is based on some finds from the Battle of Visby in a mass grave. We've made a few adjustments just to make it a bit more protective. So if we look at the back you can see there are plates covering the top back of the piece. In the original this would have simply been a piece of leather and used to attach it to the person or to the wearer. We've added this so that if you get hit in the back there's a bit of something there to help. It's made out of a leather, solid rivets and a 16 gauge steel. So at the back it's attached using just a set of four buckles and straps under the head. So if you look at the inside this is the upper back. A whole bunch of thick steel plates to protect the back. The front is made of larger plates that articulate and allow for a lot more range of motion than if this were a single piece of steel. It compresses and moves and these are side pieces wrapped right around the back of the wearer or riveted to the leather. Another great thing about this is you can store it flat. It's going to be able to sit flat and transport easily. Now we come to the arm harness. These are fully articulated. This leather tab like the Spaulders attaches to some lacing sewn onto the gambeson. It has a full range of motion. It'll compress more than most people's arms will while still offering protection. This is very similar to the other western arms that we offer with the slight difference that we've made sure that there's a lot of more anatomical shaping to the forearm which makes it more comfortable around the wrist and makes it sit nicer and look better. It's 16 gauge steel with the same chemical blackening applied to it. Brass trim and yeah. Now we come to one of my favorite pieces which is the leg harness. These are a late 14th century early 15th century style of leg harness with an enclosed back of the leg. It's just beautifully articulated. They move excellently as you try and run. Nice big fans to cover the sides of your your knees to make sure you're not going to get hit in the back of the leg. They articulate just excellently. Shape to the the upper leg really well and they attach to either a belt or where are you going i'm not i'm not done i'm not done all right they attach either to a belt or to a vest underneath the armor or to the gambeson itself using some points to tie it on with this leather edge up the top now we've made one change to the the lower leg just to make it easier to produce and easier to fit to the wearer and that is we've used the leather at the back of the greave to stop it from uh yeah stop rather than having to create a full metal anatomically shaped back of the leg we can get this to sit and fit the person a lot more easily they are still flared at the base and anatomically shaped to the to the shin so they're going to sit comfortably and hopefully not chafe or pinch in the way that something just a simple tube might be like the rest of the suit these are a 16 gauge mild steel with a chemical blackening agent applied to them should keep some of the surface rust off though it will still rust eventually and brass edging and a nice beaten up hammered appearance that just sort of makes it look really cool