The Armour Archive

Along with other projects, I am playing with scale armor. one thing that I am noticing is that it is not flexible.. at all. It is almost as rigid as a breastplate. I'm not afraid that I am doing it wrong though I may be but I am just wondering of peoples thoughts on the subject. the scales are about 1.5 inches long and 3/4 wide. I am riveting it to several layers of leather, probably about as thick as a belt. maybe a little less. one interesting thing I have noticed while making them is that (no reason why I did so but I did) I heated the front of the piece (scale side) after soaking it in some oil and the leather shrank (expected) and it caused the scales to.. i want to say.. grab onto each other tightly and it is very rigid. very interesting outcome that I was not expecting. very hard to slip a blade under a scale like I have heard as one of the main downfalls of scale. partly what I was trying to engineer the scale to be able to protect against.

Leather's wayyyy too thick. But I"m VERY interested in your result... could we get pics?

Not sure if you can tell how rigid it is from these pics but here they are.
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?ci ... 7B5EB!2579
Hopefully that works

Not sure if you can tell how rigid it is from these pics but here they are.
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?ci ... 7B5EB!2579
Hopefully that works

It appears that you have too much of an overlap. It looks as if each row of your scales overlap nearly half the length of the scale. It should not need to overlap by more than a third of the scale's length, ideally no more than one quarter the length.

Also, your leather backing should be no thicker than 3 -5 ounce leather. That would make the scales infinitely more flexible.

You're also going to get some rigidity out of all of the large flat rivet heads that are practically touching each other. There's no where for the leather to bend.
-Cian

I'm actually not unhappy about how rigid it is. from the result I got, I feel like constructing it a bit like you would plate.
If I ever get to finish it then it mught be interesting.

For my scale I used a heavy linen backing and sewed the scales to it. That gave me good protection as well as great flexibility as well.

Those are indeed very deep overlaps -- I like the three-dimensionality of the end-product quite a bit.
Did you make your scales?

Fenris Ulf wrote:I'm actually not unhappy about how rigid it is. from the result I got, I feel like constructing it a bit like you would plate.
If I ever get to finish it then it mught be interesting.

The shape looks VERY globose. Your scales might be dished to much and as such don't lay flat. You may need to bend an angle "tab" at the top where the rivets set to allow the scales to lay flatter.

to Russ
Thanks, I didn't make the scales, they are actually casting spoon blades. I had to reshape them alot and heat treat them though, they were very soft.
to Irish
Its actually that shape more because I soaked the whole thing in oil (after the scales were all riveted to the leather)and wrapped it tightly around a breastplate I have and then heated the scales with a torch till they blued. it shrank the leather and hardened the leather and made the scales hug really close together. you have to try very hard to get a blade between and under a scale.

to Russ
Thanks, I didn't make the scales, they are actually casting spoon blades. I had to reshape them alot and heat treat them though, they were very soft.
to Irish
Its actually that shape more because I soaked the whole thing in oil (after the scales were all riveted to the leather)and wrapped it tightly around a breastplate I have and then heated the scales with a torch till they blued. it shrank the leather and hardened the leather and made the scales hug really close together. you have to try very hard to get a blade between and under a scale.

Here is my shirt that I made...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronninscot ... otostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronninscot ... otostream/

I like it.
I guess for sca it doesn't matter, but I look at that and just feel like slipping a sword up and between the scales.
thats why I made mine the way I did.
what are the scales made of? did you make them yourself? I especially like how it goes around the neck. did you have to fasten them differently than the rest of them?

Fenris Ulf wrote:I guess for sca it doesn't matter, but I look at that and just feel like slipping a sword up and between the scales.

It didn't matter that much in real life, either. The vast majority of blows were coming downwards from above. To get a blade between the rows, you'd have be inside his shield and your blade nearly vertical.

I like that shirt, too! Very much how I want to do one, myself.

Valete,

Matthew

The scales are made of .032 410 Spring Stainless, all of them are heat treated as well. I ground out all 1300 of them with a vice, and a angle grinder. I burred all of them out, punched over 6,000 holes and then had them heat treated. I buffed all of them out and I used paracord to make rows of the scales. They are originally used copper staples to get them together however I was afraid to have a staple stab me whil being hit or add even more weight. I had a linen garment made for me by my Knight's wife. I suck at sewing lol. I then sewed all the rows of scales, did the leather linning and viola. It moves amazingly well, it is heavy though but its about the same as wearing a maile hauberk. The protection is amazing, I dont know about how they work with stabbing but blunt force they absorb Alot of impact...