My Armor

Body-Armor
Breast and back plate wear made from 10 oz vegetable tan leather that was dyed black before wax-hardening. The breast plate was also wet-formed with a hammer before dyeing black. The breast plate actually started out as a piece I had begun over a year ago and not finished until now.

GAMBESON (the padded cloth thing that cushions a wee tad):
My first one made out of thrift shop findings - one sweatshirt, one turtleneck, one pair of sweatpants. Cost $6.25.
Cut the arms off at the elbow on the sweatshirt, cut the legs off at the knees from the pants. Debulked armpits by cutting a hole there. Sewed the sweatshirt over the turtleneck, and sewed the pants onto the sweatshirt. Used the cut-off arms to reinforce the shoulders, and sewed the cut-off legs to cover the side of hips and thighs.
Looks ugly, but works.

HELM (the heavy clangy thing that covers the head):
Bought 16 ga 'SCA standard' helm from Atlanta Cutlery for $150. Removed cheap sponge padding that came with helm. Gooped up inside with 10 oz of black silicon rubber to reduce 'clang'. Put spongy padding on top while rubber was wet. Lined sheep fleece on top of that. Fleece sticks well to silicon rubber while it is still wet. Drilled holes in side to attach straps. Make sure hole are around where your ears are. If done right, chin straps can be swivelled up to put helm on and off, and pulled down to chin when worn, without for buckles to be undone. Wear helm with helmet liner $30 also from Atlanta Cutlery.

CHAINMAIL (the heavy slip-on that needs lots of wriggling to get into) :
My chain is made of rings of stainless steel. Supplier of rings is www.roscoinc.com, and I got their size '5B' rings.

Gorget:
Took a whole day to make, difficult to fit, and had a friend help me. Also used plaster bandages to make a mold of my neck to help with fitting. Hardened it with beeswax in the oven. Used foil-covered pan, and basted it with wax like a turkey. Eventually it got done.

Gauntlet: Was made by trial and error, and a patch-work job because it was my first. Also wax-hardened, and took a whole day to make.

Shoulders:
These were actually quite fun to make. First, a paper pattern was cut, then small-scale mass production of 8 identical pieces and 2 top pieces cut out of 10 oz leather. They were dyed, then wax-hardened, then bent into shape while still warm. 2 strips of soft leather were used as the back-bone. Holes were measure 1.5 inches apart, and the rest was smooth sailing.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION. more pics may be added later.

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