15th century plate arms

These are based off a pair of arms found at Chalkis Castle and now kept in the Metropolitan Museum. as always they will be somewhat stylized and made with some modifications.

Piece which the rest of the arm is built of called the couter was test built out of card stock to pattern it.

The flat plate was marked for raising then dished with a rubber mallet.

To keep the lines visible after heating the lines were marked with soapstone.

The couters took two passes of raising each and I added a crease in the middle

One of the hardest parts of shell articulation is creating lanes that will open and close while leaving minimal gaps the entire time.

I needed two lames per side for the joint to articulate from 180 to about 60 degrees.

The edge of the lower cannon, or vambrace, was rolled before bending and the rear was slightly dished to allow for a few more degrees of flex.

Hole placement is crucial when creating arms. 1/16 of an inch can mean the difference between good articulation and none at all.

The same process as creating the lower cannon was used in the upper cannon, or rerebrace . Bothe the under portions of the upper and lower cannon were creased as well as all the lames.

To open and close the cannons I used two long hinges for the lower cannon and two short for the upper.

The couter fan was given a saddle curve then creased on both the curve and the edges.

One final assembly was done before polishing.

This is an arming point used the lace the arm harness to the arming jacket. Straps were also cut for the upper and lower cannon and the inside of the elbow.

The plates were polished with a tiger polishing pad and then given the satin finish with a wire wheel on a pedestal grinder. 

The completed arms open and closed.