couter

The couter is the defense for the elbow in a piece of plate armour. Initially just a curved piece of metal, as plate armor progressed the couter became an articulated joint.
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v. cost

The defense for the elbow, generally mistakenly called the "elbow cop" in modern SCA parlance. During the 14th century these were generally reasonably shallow, starting off rounded in the early part of the century and progressing towards a more conical but still rounded shape as the century progressed. In the second quarter of the century a "wing" was added to the couter to improve the protection for the joint itself, first affixed with laces, then with rivets , and finally, mid-century, was made integral to the couter itself. Wing decoration then flourished, with the shapes varying by region, date and fashion du jour. About the same time that the more conical shape came into popularity, possibly because of this need, the couter was during the second half of the century now articulated using two or three lames to attach it into a single jointed defense from the wrist (defended by the vambrace ) and the upper arm (defended by the rerebrace ). See Arm Harness for a more detailed description of the development.