The base situation when everything was fine:
2 Footmen, both equipped with a Thick Leather Vest, a Wooden Shield and then one with a Bronze Mace and the other with an Iron Mace.
Then I crafted another Bronze Mace and now both my Footmen are equipped with a Bronze Mace although the Iron Mace should have the better stats.
System is Windows 8.1 x64 on latest (develop-2380 x64)