splinted defense

Usually used on arm and leg defenses during the 14th and very early 15th century, the idea was to add longitudinal strips of reinforcing to a heavier leather gutter that formed the vambrace and another that formed the rerebrace . The couter was generally, but not always, attached with internal straps rather than articulated with lames . The leather vambrace and rerebrace are often depicted in surviving effigies and brasses as being tooled; the strips might have been formed from iron , brass, bronze, or latten , though iron was probably the most common. Especially popular in Germany and in Italy during the whole of the transitional period . (See Blair p. 64)