So my friends and I have been playing for a few months now and decided we would work on some small bits of armor. So we pooled our cash and I got a piece of leather.

Here is my first attempt at a pretty basic lace up bracer.


I think it looks pretty decent for a first try. However, my problem is the eyelets/grommets. The ones I got were large enough diameter for lacing, but would not go all the way thru the leather to attach. Most of these go about halfway thru the leather and then just cut into the leather itself to kind of hold itself in. Doesn't seem to me like they will last well and definitely not what I expected.

So my question is, what eyelets/grommets do people use or do they use something completely different or just don't use any at all?

Thanks for any feedback or responses!

That's definitely something to keep an eye out for. For most 'normal' leatherwork, the thickness of leather we use for armor is much, much more than you typically see. For grommets (and rivets, snaps, chicago screws, etc.), you need to keep an eye out for the shank length to make sure it will accommodate thicker leather.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of lacing -- I prefer straps & buckles. They're much easier to take off and put on and generally aren't subject to wearing down as much as lacing.

Looks pretty good for a first try!

One thing you can do with lacing is to replace it with elastic cord once you have the bracers shaped to your arm. It usually looks the same as string, but lets you slide gear on and off with ease.

Another option might be d-rings. Use these:



at each point where you have a grommet. Note: They would work a little better since you can rivet them to the leather.

and then put a double d-ring at one end at the bottom (on forearm) of the bracer:



Tie off the strap at the top (towards the wrist) and then run the strap in a criss-cross fashion through the d-rings. At the bottom feed the strap through both rings and then through one so it looks like this:



What this allows you to do is tighten the bracer using only other one hand to pull the strap through.

Thanks. Those are some great ideas and some good feedback.

This worked perfectly! I ordered some elasticord and it arrived today.

I also made a second pair of bracers with a little more forearm protection. The showlaces are just for shaping. I will replace them with elsaticord once I get my brother to test them out.