I slaughtered a cow and skinned it. Then I cut some nice pieces of the thickest part of the skin, in appropriate shape and carved the patterns upon them. Afterwards I put them on my under arms and soaked them, and kept them on until they had dried (that way they took the shape of my underarms)....
Ok, I lied about slaughtering the cow, I bought some thick leather in a special store. The rest is true though.
... and don't worry... I'm not for real... I'm just a bit :zombie:
I'm a total wannabe-Johan so I walked into a special leather store and got them designed. He measured my arms and I got some real top quality brown leather, not too hard as I use it at every concert.
If their not hard you wont be able to block a sword or axe with them you know
I got a good tip concerning bracers the other day, to get them really hard, you should put them in boiling water, after a while all the fat in the leather will be gone and when they dry they will become rock hard.