Complete guide for custom armor order from ArmStreet

Custom armor from ArmStreet: a complete guide to your armor customization

May 27, 2024

Since the very beginning of the company, we have been mostly making custom stuff. A lot of our older customers probably remember that every order was about sending your measurements, choosing your options, and then waiting from 3 weeks to several months until your order was ready.

Things changed when we started visiting more events, building another manufacturing shop, setting up a warehouse in the US, and offering our most popular product off-shelf in standard sizes.

What didn't change was our ability to make custom armor and our passion for interesting projects. So, here is a guide to the custom armor order with us.

1. Standard designs – size

Most of our armor pieces are initially available in custom-sizing only, so all you need to do is to fill in the form with your measurements and send your order. However, some of our most popular pieces, like helmets and gauntlets are available in fixed sizes – that doesn't mean you can't have them made to measure: you just need to find this little tab switch.

Fig. 1. Custom measurements tab

It's essential to take your measurements right, and the best way to have enough room is to take your measurements with and without the gambeson you're planning to use. Very often, our buyers also buy gambesons along with their armor from us, and it is also OK — if we have your measurements and know that you're wearing our gambeson with our armor, we will make room precisely for it.

2. Standard design – materials

We are one of the biggest armor makers in the world, and the potentially available options exceed what you see on the “custom” page for many reasons, mostly because of price calculation problems. It doesn't mean that customization will be insanely expensive — it just takes time to calculate. You can see the most typical choices and click “more options” for more combinations available, but you can also send us an email to check on something special.

Our armor is available in a vast number of options:

Mild steel — sometimes with a discount on the stainless steel price: mirror or satin polished
Stainless steel in a variety of thicknesses: mirror and sating polished
Spring steel: our new line of armor is available in tempered spring steel by default, but you can also have older designs made in spring steel, you may have it blackened or brass-covered for a golden color

Fig. 2. Mild steel — basic

Fig. 3. Stainless steel (mirror polished) — stronger and rust-resistant

Fig. 4. Tempered spring steel — lighter and stronger

Fig. 5. Tempered and blackened spring steel — lighter, stronger, and looks cool

3. Standard design – accents and finish

We offer a number of options to complete your armor look:

No etching
Brass bordering
Mirror or satin polishing
Straps color
Brass, steel, or brass casting buckles and rivets
Etching
Oil blackening
Brassing (golden color)
Custom etching — also an option, but may require a lot of designer's time.

Fig. 6. Etched “Paladin” gorget

Fig. 7. Gorget without etching (mirror-polished stainless steel)

Fig. 8. Etched and oil-blackened spring steel gorget

Fig. 9. Oil-blackened and tempered spring steel cuirass

Fig. 10. Tempered spring steel cuirass with golden brassed finish

Fig. 11. Etched Paladin pauldrons with custom brass bordering

Fig. 12. Brass casting buckles

Fig. 13. Regular, brassed and blackened spring steel cops

Fig. 14. Etched spring steel with brass finish and with blackening

Fig. 15. Spring-steel armor heat-treating

Fig. 15-b. Spring-steel sallet and buckler in black and golded finish

4. Standard design customization

Some minor changes might be relatively easy for us to make and valuable for you — maybe an etched coat-of-arms on the cuirass? Or custom besagews? Or perhaps leather accents in your guild colors? Do not hesitate to ask — some things are hard to make, but some are easy, will cost you a little bit, and make your armor special.

Fig. 16a. Custom besagews on the “Dark Wolf” armor

5. Male vs female armor

Unlike many other companies, we have a special place in our hearts and pay a lot of attention to female warriors. Some of our armor kits were initially made for men, some for women, but often we can make an alternative version. Sometimes it is tough — for example, a female version for a shorter female warrior was a big challenge, and a male version of our “Dark Star” armor commissioned from us helped us to design a “Dark Wolf” armor.

Fig. 17. “King's Guard” armor for a female customer

Pic.18. “Dark Star” male version

Fig. 19. “Dark Wolf” is a twin brother of the "Evening Star"

Fig. 20. “Evening Star” is a twin sister of “Dark Wolf”

6. LARP, SCA, live-steel, harnischefechten and jousting armor

It's been discussed many times on our social media and all over the medievalists' internet that ArmStreet is a large company with a diverse armor line, and you need to be specific when ordering an armor kit for particular purposes. While most of our armor kits are perfectly functional and adjusted to the possibility of being hit with a rattan or steel sword, each format and discipline has its own rules, regulations, and priorities.

LARP is the easiest domain, so when ordering armor for LARP, it makes sense to order spring steel or leather armor as the lightest. You can also ask us to make a helmet with thinner padding — it will look smaller, and you don't need thick padding unless you're planning to be hit with a heavy weapon. Also, for LARPing, you may have a thinner gambeson or even replace it with some reasonable underclothing, so keep it in mind when ordering.

Fig. 21. Leather armor is perfect for LARP

Fig. 22. “Evening Star” armor for a LARPer Fable

SCA is where we began, and conveniently, most of the SCA requirements are aligned with traditional European live-steel point-based sword-fighting. When ordering for SCA, please keep in mind that you can order a helmet without padding and make your padding if you wish — pay attention to helmets and request additional inner protectors for originally open-face helmets. A recent standard for SCA helmets is now 12 or 14ga, and the best options are mild and stainless steel. Please avoid tempered helmets for SCA — they provide less shock absorption, and while perfect for HEMA harnischfechten, we do not recommend them for SCA-heavy.

We are experts in SCA gauntlets and both our clamshells and finger gauntlets are now considered one of the industry standards for SCA and live-steel.

Fig. 23. SCA hidden face protection

Live-steel sword-fighting takes place under the umbrella of different groups, from SCA clubs to reenactments to buhurt groups — requirements may differ slightly, but most of our kits could be adjusted to those. Make sure you explain the intended use to a manager, as it's often possible to increase the thickness of the material, add some plates or padding, etc., but we need to understand what it is for. ArmStreet has a lot of former and active fighters in practically any sword-related sport, but don't take the discipline for granted — there are dozens of different formats in sword-fighting.

Fig. 24. Our customer Frank Perrin in a live steel tournament fight

Harnischfechten is a kind of niche part of HEMA, and while we have our own line of plastic protective gear, sometimes something in between heavy armor and HEMA gear is needed for those who practice HEMA in a traditional way - with heavier weapons and armor. We have a line of spring steel products for this: simple, protective, and lightweight, and a number of spring-steel helmets with perforated visors. Do not hesitate to ask if you need a combination of technologies and designs to meet your requirements.

Fig. 25. Plastic HEMA knee

Fig. 26. WMA spring steel harnischfechten knee

Fig. 27. Stainless SCA elbow

Fig. 28. Stainless steel live-steel elbow

Bohurts and jousting are probably the most challenging side of swordplay; at least, it's a kind of “jokes aside,” seriously physically demanding and risky sport. So, folks who order armor for bohurts and jousting normally know what they want, and every nuance might be important, as even within each hobby there are grades and different approaches. We've worked with HMB folks proudly sponsoring a Ukrainian National Battle of the Nations team for several years and dealt with many jousters. Those armor projects are always deeply personalized, so send us an email, and let's talk.

Fig. 29. Kyle Robinson from Seattle Knights

7 Mixing different kits

This is one of the great options you have. Our armor line is quite huge and fairly represents the different technologies and styles we offer, so sometimes you just need to ask if things can be mixed.

Fig. 30. “Kingmaker” gauntlets with “Wayward Knight” beaten-up finish and “Dark Wolf” multi-color scheme

Fig. 31. Blackened “King's Guard” cuirass with beaten-up borders and finish

Fig. 32. “Paladin” pauldrons with "King's Guard" etching and bordering

Fig. 33. “Paladin” arms with custom etching

8. Custom projects

Completely custom projects are always a matter of discussion.

Fig. 34. Korean leather-covered bracers

Fig. 35. And a Korean version of khatangu-degel

Fig. 36. Custom lamellar armor

Fig. 37. One-of-a-kind male “Dark Star” kit

Fig. 38. Gothic armor for our customer

We only made a few, but we made some we are really proud of. It's always hard, takes longer than expected and costs more than we thought, but a little bit of craziness is in ArmStreet's DNA, so stay tuned and shoot us a message.