

Breast and back plates, cuirass with faulds.
Table of Contents
Considerations when pricing armours and important
measurements
Vocabulary of the armour maker
Canadian prices are
fixed, but US prices may fluctuate a bit. Please check here for latest
currency conversion rates.This page has been reviewed for accurate pricing on January 2013,
and will be honoured until end of December 2013
The galleries are all below....please scroll down past the table
of contents and stuff.
.
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Table
of Contents
Page one....Table of contents, and an introduction to armour on this site, pricing notes and so forth. Breast and backplates single, double and triple piece suits and their prices.
Page one (supplementary) examples of various suits, lady armour, anime armour, (a sort of archive of work I have done in the past.) (Careful though, prices in the archive may be out of date. However if you are seriously planning to have me make an armour, you should oughta check me out! Go here ...and do just that!)
Page two...Gorgets, Spaulders, and variations on them.
Page three...Basket Hilts, Gothic elbow cop, vambrace and full arms.
Page four...Articulated elbow cops and full arms.
Page five...Gauntlets, Half gauntlets, goatskin and deerskin gloves.
Page six...Greaves, articulated legs, single piece English style elbow cops
Page seven...Cuisses, hinged and plain. Articulated Leg Armour, single piece and articulated knee cops.
Page
eight....Fur cloaks, sheepskins, gambesons, aketons,
shields.
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Pricing All required
strapping and lacing is included in the price...that is to say,
two robust buckles over the shoulders and buckles
on the sides. Faulds are laced onto the
breastplates, and tassets are laced onto the faulds
unless you want to pay extra for straps. (roughly 12 bucks extra
per buckle and strap)
Sliding rivets may replace any
strap at no charge. Note that straps provide better mobility.
All breast and back plates are
hammer rolled at the neck and arm hole openings as standard
features.
Some variation on the
basic patterns are easily accomodated without extra charge....for
instance, changing the top edge of a 2 or 3 piece breastplate from
plain to scalloped edges, or I could build you a custom tasset
from your fax drawing. Since the whole look of the armour can
change according to how the tassets look, this would be a good way
to customize your armour without paying big customizing fees.
You can upgrade to handmade
forged buckles at 22 dollars extra each, specify brass or
forged steel.
Although I am based in Canada,
US orders are shipped from Ogdensburg, New York, and any
returns must be done in the US.
Further shipping and
payment options are available HERE.
Prices may change
without notice, the Candian price rules, the US price might
fluctuate a bit depending upon international currency prices.
Credit card orders are processed in Canada, and will
be done in Canadian Dollars. This is generally favorable to
US customers. I use this currency
converter.............. http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic?user=WilliamFedun
(Keep an eye on your bank statement though... sometimes
your bank's currency conversion is a little different!)
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Sizing your armour 
Vocabulary of the ArmourerA dictionary of armour....Milanese style Equestrian armour diagram from Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight by David Edge & John Paddock. ISBN 0-517-64468-1. Excellent book on history and construction of armour. Click the picture to see larger and complete view. This is the nomenclature used on this web site. See note 1 at bottom.
Hot rolled steel...a
mill
blackened
metal, looks quite authentic, available in 16 and heavier gauge
only.
Cold rolled steel,...shiny
metal,
what
you normally see in a museum.
Gauge sizes....the
usual
gauge we use is American Wire Gauge, known as AWG. It works
like this...how many pieces do you stack up to make an inch.
Clearly, 16 gauge would be heavier than, say, 20 gauge.
Suggested gauges would be 18 for parade and parts you want to keep
light, 16 gauge for combat. 18 is normally good enough if
you don't mind banging the dents out every week, and was most
common back in the day. 16 gauge tends to be a little
clumsier looking, harder to work and therefore a little more
expensive up front. Helmets should never be lighter than 14 gauge.
Picadills....leather chaff guards on
armour...prevents the metal from scratching itself . I
expand their use to protect men and horses from sharp edges and
corners as required.
Two piece or three
piece suit...how many pieces make up the
breastplate. Normally, the more pieces, the more
flexibility, and easier to make. (that is to say, more
pieces get you cheaper armour, to a point)
Points (arming
points) ... laces which hold the armour into place.
Sometimes attached to a gambeson. Often fancy aiglettes are
attached to the ends of points...they can be decorative elements
in their own right.
Gambeson....the
padded suit you wear under your armour to prevent chaffing and
armour "bites".
Lames...small
pieces added to the edge of an armour to allow for flexibility.
Articulation...the
movement
of lames past each other....to allow for flexibility.
Blueing....the
art of colouring the armour with torches or chemicals to make it
blue-black, perhaps purplish.
Fluting....A
stiffening
ridge in the armour, often more decorative than otherwise.
Strap Work....decorative
ends
on
leather straps
Leathering....the
interior
leather on armour which holds it all together. Leather
stretches, rots, tears, and needs replacement regularly, so it
behooves you to learn how to replace it. Fitting problems
are often resolved by re-leathering.
Keepers...those
little leather or metal loops which keep the ends of the belts
from flopping around.
SCA approved...meets
or
exceeds minimum armour standards of the Society for Creative
Anachronism
AEMMA approved...meets
or
exceeds minimum armour standards of the American European
Military Marshal Arts society
CJF approved...meets
or
exceeds minimum armour standards of the Canadian Jousting
Federation
There, now that THATS out of the way...we can proceed on to the
galleries...
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SOUTHTOWER ARMOURING GUILD
ARMOUR CATALOGUE
Page one
BREAST AND BACKPLATE
COMBOS
Ladies have their own page for
armour...click here
#12-b
(faulds and tassets sold separately)



click on the above pics for full size versions.
Shown is the heavy 14 gauge12-b1 as they were being
manufactured.
#12-b
Single Piece Cuirass front and
back plates
(not including faulds and tassets)
#12-b2
(shorter in the body, and
heavy enough for the joust)
#12-c
Two piece Gothic Cuirass
(price does not include faulds and tassets)

back plate showing lots of shoulder blade room

standard three piece faulds w. eyeletted
holes for lacing onto breastplate and tassets

rounded tassets to comply with the "no sharp corners"
regulations of
some re-enactment groups. pointy ones (illustrated
below in12-c-2)
are the same price...so you choose.

This design is pretty much
what Joan of Arc (played by Mila Javovich) wore in the movie "The
Messenger", except she wore a chain mail shirt instead of the
upper breastplate, as you can see in the pictures below. Please
see note 2 at the bottom. (With predicable results...the
chain didn't deflect that arrow!) Chain would cost
extra....of course.

(And a couple more here, here and here for those Mila fans who can't get enough!)
The part of this armour which people often don't like is the
buckle in front. It can go from the plackart to the gorget
(as in the picture of Mila above) or it can attach to the upper
part of the breastplate. A sliding rivet can replace the
buckle at no extra cost.
Style Variations

#12-c-2
Two Piece Gothic Cuirass
sliding rivets and keel plackart
#12-c-1 16 gauge, battle armour............$475.00
Canadian Dollars
faulds and tassets included but tasset buckles are optional.
over the shoulder buckles and side buckles included.
#12-c-2 16
gauge keeled horseman's armour.....$485.00
Canadian Dollars
faulds and tassets included but tasset buckles are optional.
over the shoulder buckles and side buckles included.
#12-c-3, 14ga breast, 16 ga back 2 piece jousters
armour with
extra rolled edges, specify if you want a keel...$750.00
Canadian Dollars
(Jousters rivet the back plates together. I'll do it,
just make sure you tell me. See
link
If you wish to see the above prices in another currency than Canadian Dollars, please click on this currency converter
(note, jousters battle armour includes heavy duty homemade
buckles,
torch stress relieved rolled edges, and leather chafeguards
everywhere,
steel side buckle mounts, double riveted straps, min. 3/4 inch
tasset buckles when specified, and emergency
backup eyeleted lace holes to allow the show to go on even
when I am not there to fix things.)


(closeup of any of the cuirasse shoulders)
(This just happens to be one of my handmade buckles!)
(This is the way I make them all now...with a lace point for
shoulder cops, besagues, or whatever)
click on the images to enlarge.
Moreover, for the heavy jouster's armour, I also decided to
strengthen these 1 inch buckle mounts with steel mounts.
Have not had any of them fail yet!

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Below is the armour I made for Jason in the summer of '04.
It has a three piece back plate as well as the three piece
breastplate and I used straps on the sides instead of the more
usual laces. Notice the deeply dished lower plates which are
so similar to the 2 piece breast plate, the keepers over the
shoulders, and the leather pads at the top of the breast and
backplate. Also the front is plain, single pointed instead
of triple pointed like in the sample above. click HERE
to see a pic of this armour all put together.
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Korey's armour....a little fancier
note the picadills...those leather rub strips which protect the
armour
click on the above pics to seem them full size
From the back, this armour looks really spiffy. Looks
not so bad...and it gives the wearer a lot of mobility and
freedom.

three piece back plate
w. Maltese style shoulder flutes
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Below is the armour I made for Brent in the summer of
2011. Click on any of the below pictures to enlarge.
12d1.....16 gauge front, battle armour ....$430.00
Canadian Dollars
(normally the back is made of lighter and easier to wear, 18
gauge steel.)
Please add 40 bucks if you want the back plate to
be made from 16 guage instead of 18 gauge)
Over the shoulder buckles included.
Side buckles included.
tasset buckles, add 40 bucks, otherwise they are just laced on.
sliding rivets instead of front centre strap...add $40.00.
(note, this armour includes
heavy duty homemade buckles, faulds, tassets,
torch stress relieved rolled edges, and leather chafeguards
everywhere,
steel side buckle mounts, double riveted straps, minimum 3/4
inch tasset buckles, and emergency
backup eyeleted lace holes to allow the show to go on even when
I am not there to fix things.)
(prices will be honoured during the dates shown at the top of
the page)
note 1. Please also see "beautiful iron's" web site here for more diagrams in different languages...http://www.beautifuliron.com/armour_diagrams.htm
note 2. My research seems to indicate that her costumer's configuration of this quite lovely suit was perfectly period. Here is a pic from her web site....http://www.millaj.com/film/joan.shtml which shows the armour really nicely. This armour is so well made and so accurate I just had to show it here.
note 3. The Milanese style was called a "splinted" armour and was not made like this at all. Click here to see the difference.
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