Soldier Torso Armor

(About): A Premium-Quality Soldier Torso

Our Soldier Torso Armor is a hand-made cuirass, consisting of both a breastplate and back-plate, securely attached together by rugged leather straps. Whilst many torso armour options only include a breastplate, our Soldier Torso Armor is an armored steel shell which provides excellent protection from enemies front and rear. It is a solidly constructed, functional piece of armor, designed to stand up to roleplaying and re-enactment use. Its brushed steel finish and brooding dark colour will bring an instant air of brooding menace to your roleplaying outfit.

Mastercrafted With Carefully Selected Materials

Epic Armoury’s legendary armor-smiths have crafted their Soldier Torso Armor from 19-gauge (1mm) steel. Medieval armorers were concerned about trading off mobility and protection, with most surviving examples of medieval historical torso armor being a little heavier than 19-gauge, usually around 18- to 16-gauge (1.2 – 1.6-mm) in thickness. Some weighty tournament armors, where mobility was much less important, have even been found to have been 14-gauge or thicker! Knights and soldiers in the medieval period would have gotten wholly used to wearing their armor, being able to do strenuous activity (and even to climb and roll) in their armor – but such a level of synergy between wearer and armor isn’t generally achievable by most weekend roleplayers! By using a slightly thinner steel than the historical originals, Epic Armoury have made their soldier torso much more wearable for we mere mortals, significantly reducing its weight whilst retaining an excellent level of resilience and wear resistance. Their armorers have endeavored to create a thoroughly wearer-friendly armor torso, and so they have rolled the steel edges around the neckline and the arm holes. This has a number of advantages – it means that it is significantly more rugged than an unrolled edge, standing up much better to the knocks and scrapes of re-enactment and roleplay; it is safe edge that won’t cut or dig in; and it won’t snag on other clothing or armor.

Designed For Exacting Modern Roleplayers and Re-Enactors

The chest-plate is secured to the back-plate by means of six robust leather straps. They have been hand-riveted to the back-plate, and are secured with chunky antiqued buckles to the breastplate. The front- and back-plates also overlap. This means that the torso armor is fully adjustable in all planes, giving it unrivalled fit to a whole range of body types, whilst remaining fully protected and gap-free.

The design of our Soldier Torso Armor is deliberately spartan and minimalist: it is not strongly Italian or Gothic or Milanese in style. This means that it can fit in seamlessly with a whole range of periods and settings: simple breastplates of this type were in use from the emergence of plate armor towards the end of the 13th-century CE, all the way through to the discarding of plate armor in the face of overwhelmingly powerful gunpowder weapons in the latter half of the 17th century. This also means it fits extremely well with our other blackened armor, as well as our Blackened Chainmail Hauberk and Blackened Chainmail Coif. It is also available in an glorious unblackened Polished Steel finish

(Curiosity): Did Medieval Armorers Use Chemicals To Blacken Their Steel?

Our Soldier Torso Armor is finished in a striking dark colour. This is achieved by ‘blueing’ the steel – in modern production processes, this is a process which involves treating the steel with chemicals in order to partly oxidise it in a controlled fashion, resulting in both a lustrous dark colouration, and improved resistance to further oxidation. It is a subject of some debate whether chemically-treated black armor would have been historically available in the medieval period, although we at Medieval Ware have seen some evidence that black armor may well have been not uncommon. Whilst there are well-attested contemporary documents (and even a handful of surviving pieces) of armor that had not been polished or had been forged with the scale still incorporated, both resulting in a dark-brown or black finish, there is more debate over whether chemical treatment of steel armor was practised in the medieval period. Early chemical techniques for darkening metal – known as ‘browning’ – were used by early gunsmiths from the 17th century onwards. It involved submerging the metal item in a mixture of chemicals for several days, then polishing the metal smooth, and then repeating until it was dark and smooth. The chemicals involved were known throughout the medieval period, such as aquafortis (nitric acid) and blue vitriol (copper sulfate), although some early sources recommend simple saltwater for the oxidation bath. Although direct evidence for these forms of early chemical armor treatment for torso armor is lacking, it seems historically plausible – and so our Soldier Torso Armor remains a fantastic speculative historical cuirass that works in historical and fantasy settings equally brilliantly.

Technical Specifications:

• • Material: 19-gauge mild steel
  • Secondary materials: Leather

• Finish: Blackened Steel / Polished Steel

• Sizing:

Small/Medium:

Back Length – 15 Inches , Front Length – 15.4 Inches, Neck Width – 8.5 Inches, Chest Width – 21.3 Inches, Waist Width – 19.9 Inches, Back Chest Width – 18.1 Inches, Back Waist Width – 16.9 Inches, Weight – 5.5 Pounds

Large/X-Large:

Back Length – 16.1 Inches , Front Length – 17.7 Inches, Neck Width – 8.7 Inches, Chest Width – 25.6 Inches, Waist Width – 24.4 Inches, Back Chest Width – 22.8 Inches, Back Waist Width – 20.5 Inches, Weight – 7.2 Pounds

XX-Large/XXX-Large:

Back Length – 17.9 Inches , Front Length – 19.9 Inches, Neck Width – 10.2 Inches, Chest Width – 30.7 Inches, Waist Width – 28.7 Inches, Back Chest Width – 28.7 Inches, Back Waist Width – 26.4 Inches, Weight – 9.5 Pounds