Building a Portable Armor Stand by Ceara ni Neill

Often we see piles of armor at events, sitting outside of cabins, tents, etc. It's usually been discarded by weary, sweaty warriors with the notion that that the wadded-up gambeson is going to air & dry out and that nobody will trip over the arms & legs in the middle of the night. On occasion, we see someone with a brilliant notion: the armor stand. It keeps armor off the ground, lets it dry & air out and displays that pretty new $600 helm somewhere besides your head. After all, how are you going to enjoy your neighbor's mead with a helm on? Straw through the face plate? I don't think so.

Here's an armor stand I've designed. Most that I've seen are not collapsible, and being one that travels in a small vehicle I like to keep things compact during travel. I haven't built it yet, this is just a design plan. Being a non-fighter I'm not in a hurry, but I will get to it eventually. In the meantime, if you build it before I do, let me know how it turns out!

The center can be made from either a 4x4 or two 2x4's laminated. The legs are 2x4's and the leg support and arms are 2x2's, as are the arm braces. The center support can be trimmed down in the middle (in the drawing it's turned) for the sake of appearance and to shed a little weight. All arms and legs fold upward, except the arm braces which are hinged to the arms; they fold down to lay flat against the arms.

I have not included measurements as they may vary according to your body size, but generally your armor stand should be about as tall as you are and the arms should not extend past your own elbows. This may seem short, but just try to dress an armor stand with a sweaty gambeson and you'll find out it's not so easy to fit that heavy wet fabric over long rigid arms!

Extra accessories include:
• chain
  (a basic lightweight doggie-tie chain should do, cost around 10¢ per foot)
• seven eye bolts
  (One large one for the center support and four smaller ones to attatch the chains to the legs. Not too small, though, they need to be durable. Also two smaller ones to attatch to the leg supports, these will help keep the armor legs from sliding off.)
• hinges
• four S hooks
  (You should press one end closed to each length of chain. The hooks fasten to the eye bolt on the center support to hold up the stand.)