Article By Dwarlock.
a.k.a. Johan Roraback
arrrrrgh@hotmail.com

This is a fairly simple pattern for a full arm made of leather reinforced with steel splints.

What you need:
Steel 18-16 gauge (I used 16 gauge stainless)

Leather 3-8 ounce (it does not have to be heavy leather at all, the steel is the armour, all the leather is is backing)

Rivets 1/8 inch wide (you can cheat with roofing nails, but rivets are better)

Burs/washers (as many of these as you have rivets, and you want their inner diameter to match the outer diameter of the rivets)

This arm is made in 3 pieces, the rembrace (upper arm) the vambrace (forearm) and the elbow cop. I will instruct you in the making of the rembrace and the vambrace but not the elbow cop. (there are several articles on construction an elbow cop, already, no need to make this one another) (BTW, the elbow cops in the pictures I used were made by Gundobad, Of Wise Ogre Armoury, thanks again Gundo), and Ron Simmons.

The Rembrace

first cut out your leather from this pattern

most likely scissors will work well for cutting this

then cut out the plates from these pattern.

the center plate need one of these

the second plate (one from the center) need 2 of these

The third plate, need 2 of these

the forth plate, need 2 of these

The overlapping plate, need only one of these

I use a plasma cutter for this, however anything from a jig saw to a Beverly shear would work also.

drill or punch rivet holes in the plates, either using your rivet pattern or the one I used
then place the plates on the leather like this

then mark the leather through the holes in the plates, take the plates off the leather and punch holes where the markings are.

now that that is done you need to give all the plates a bit of a shallow roll
this can either be done by placing the plate on a depression and whacking it with a hammer, or you can place it on something round like a pipe and whack it with a hammer. or you can get lazy and improvise some sort of press. (best results, or if your gona make a lot of these use a press)

Now, place the plates back onto the leather, put the rivets through the holes, places the burs/washers on the ends of the rivets and peen them down.

the piece is mostly complete now, all that remains is to overlap the ends by a hair more than the width of the center plate and sew/rivet the piece closed like this.

you have now completed the first piece of this arm armour

The Vambrace

now for the vambrace, cut out the next piece of leather using this pattern

and the steel plates using these patterns

The center plate you need one of these

the second plate, you need 2

the third plate, you need 2

the overlap plate (need one of these)

once again drill/punch rivet holes in the plates either using your pattern or mine.
place em like this on the leather

mark the leather, punch holes, roll the plates, and rivet on.
before finishing place straps between the leather and the plates like this

last either put buckles on the straps, or make your own buckles.

Buckles



Here are 2 pics of the buckle I use. they should be sufficient for you to make your own. I used 9 gauge stainless steel wire. the circular part of the buckle is an inch across.

Final assembly

Assuming you have all the pieces done, Vambrace, Rembrace, Elbow cop. there are several ways of finishing the piece.

You could wear all 3 pieces separately (works but bad idea, However the vambrace is cool by itself)

You could attach the rembrace and vambrace to a 3-5 piece articulated elbow (easy to do but if your going for articulated steel you might as well wear full steel arms)

you can attach the leather edge of the rembrace and vambrace directly to the elbow cop (what I did in the pic, It works but is better if you leave a little extral leather on the ends that need to be conected)

Or last, and perhaps best, you can attach leather straps to both the rembrace, and the vambrace, and then rivet the straps to the elbow cop. (this works really well, and allows a lot of customization for size)

Additionaly you can add straps or points to connect these arms either to your spaldurs, or to your gambason
(lets hope all these pics work out the first time)