Where can I get good, but light full plate armor?

[James Brazas]

I imagine this has already been asked before, but what suggestions do y'all have for a good suit of armor?

Due to the cost, I am unlikely to purchase full armor anytime soon, but I would like to learn Harnisfechten with an actual harness.

Ideally, I'd like to get a quality suit of armor for a reasonable price. I'd also like it not to be too terribly heavy. I like to be maneuverable.

I found that Get Dressed for Battle has a fully wearable and fully assembled suit of German Gothic armor, but they claimed it was 135 lbs. I would hope that was including the stand, otherwise that is truly excessive.

I tried to compare different websites to see what sorts of armor I could find at different weights. The lightest I was able to find that would be a complete suit was around 70 lbs with the arming clothes. Is that what I should expect?

Also, is there a significant difference between a cuirass and a breastplate with tassets and backplate? One website I found has a German Gothic cuirass that weighed nearly 30 lbs all by itself.

[James Brazas]

I looked it up again. Apparently, Get Dressed For Battle's full suit of Gothic Plate is either 59 or 75 lbs.

http://www.getdressedforbattle.co.uk/ac ... 1016600700

http://www.medievalware.com/German-Goth ... b0024c.htm

That's still heavier than I heard before. I have been told that Renaissance suits of armor frequently weighed only 45 lbs. Then again, the website did say that it was late 1400s armor - when armor was at its heaviest.

So there's an idea, though I've heard that Get Dressed for Battle armor is "robustly put together armour but clunky and inaccurate" and "not the best quality for your money"

http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=24516

Does anyone know of any other options or better options?

They seemed to suggest contacting some sort of armorer for a specialty suit. That sounds expensive.

Does anyone know what the likely cost would be, what sort of quality I might get, and how much it would likely weigh?

[John Farthing]

You could try contacting Parker Brown http://www.crescentmoonarmoury.com/Cres ... _Page.html

[Anthony R. Camacho]

Dear James,

I have Get Dressed for Battle's (GDFB) Milan and Churburg Suits of Armor. If you are looking for full plate I highly recommend the GDFB Milan suit of Armor. It is a good entry level full harness. You will need a good arming doublet that you will have to make the holes for attaching the shoulder, armes, and upper leg pieces to. Further, you will have to add the leather borders to the voiders, the mail arm and skirt, to attach to the doublet. Finally, you will have to modify the sabatons to attach to your shoes. I use ankle boots. I got mine from Paul Chen Hanwei Swords, as they had the cheapest price for it. This Harness weighs approximately 75 pounds with the voiders. Although it may seem heavy, it is lighter than the 90 pounds of body armor, ammo, and weapon, I carried in Iraq for 1 year, and 2 months.

The Churburg is not really full plate and is more of a transitional armor. It is in fact heavier as you will wear a chain mail hauberk, arm, leg, and a metal breastplate piece. Further, with a good gambeson, you can ditch the chain mail and it is much lighter. I usually wear this harness to costume parties as it is comfortable without the chain mail. It has the same sabotons as the Milan armor.

As for harness fighting, I would use the Churburg suit of armor for horseback (the breastplate even has a lance rest) and the Milan armor for dismounted combat. It takes practice to wear this much weight. In the Army we practice road marching with ever increasing weight until we can carry all the mission essential gear we need. You may have to do the same to learn how to fight in full harness.

Sincerely,

Anthony R. Camacho

[James Brazas]

That idea of a custom suit of armor by Parker Brown definitely sounds like an interesting idea. I imagine such a suit would fit very well, would be quite durable, and likely much lighter than the Get Dressed for Battle Suits. I would also imagine it would be much more expensive.

Is all this correct?

Anthony Camacho,

Is there a particular reason you would recommend the Milanese suit over the Gothic suit? Is it merely an aesthetic choice or do you think their Milanese suit is better than their Gothic suit?

Aesthetically, I tend to prefer the Gothic style armor, but I'm a practical guy. If their Milanese suit is better, then that's the better option.

Thank you for your service, by the way. I come from a military family and I'm hoping to do JAG myself.

[Sal Bertucci]

I believe that you will actually save more money if you just save up and buy it all at once as opposed to multiple items shipped. Multiple times etc.

[Anthony R. Camacho]

Dear James,

I have seen Parker Brown's work first hand and it is well worth the extra money you will pay for it. Further, he is an ARMA member and particpates in the gatherings. Thus, he knows exactly what the armor needs of a Western Martial Arts practitioner are. In fact he is working on a great helm and cerveille project for me that should be done in the February/March time frame.

I recommend the Milanese Armor because the helmet is 14 gauge and the rest of the suit is 16 gauge. Remember that the lower the gauge, the thicker the metel. So 14 and 16 gauge metel is thicker than 18 gauge. The Gothic Armor is mostly 18 gauge with the knees and elbows made in 16 gauge. The Milanese suit of armor has a 14 gauge helmet, knees, and elbows, and the rest of the suit is 16 gauge. Overall, the Milanese suit is a tougher nut to crack, of course with the trade off that it is much heavier. Further, do not be intimidated by the overall weight of the container the suit of armor comes in because it includes the 37 pound metal armor stand, and lots, and lots, and lots of cardboard, paper, and plastic wrap. Further, the voiders that come with the Milanese suit are worth the suit itself. My fencing atire now consists of these voiders over an arming doublet, with the breastplate from the Churburg armor over that. The voider set is made of GDFB's light weight wedge riveted mild steel flattened rings. It is very light weight and provide great protection against blunt steel training swords.

However, despite being made mostly of 18 gauge steel, the Gothic Suit is lighter and more attractive than the Milanese. I admit that I will eventually wind up buying a GDFB Gothic suit when I have the space to display it. As the suit of armor is a big investment, my best advice is to go with what you like. You almost can't go wrong with a GDFB suit of armor. I must warn you though, buying this type of armor is like drinking a very good wine, you almost always can't stop after having just one!

Sincerely,

Anthony R. Camacho

[James Brazas]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

So would it be wise then to just save up my money and eventually buy a custom made suit? It sounds like the custom suits would probably be both lighter and more durable.

I can probably still train for harnisfechten without armor for a while.

Would anyone know approximately how much a Parker Brown suit of armor would cost and/or weigh? It might be useful to know just for planning purposes.

[J. Harvey]

I'm having Parker do some work like this for me now, you would really have to contact him directly as it greatly depends on exactly what you want - and Parker is good about helping with options if the budget is tight.