The Armour Archive

So, i need to build my buddy some new body armour, and he wants it in leather. Anybody got pics of good sca leather body armour? Thanks!

Your buddy hardly knows what a prince of a friend he has in you. Who's paying for all that leather? Spending that much on the material suggests it should be ornamented so it will look like a hundred and fifty bucks in materials cost alone, if you're getting toolable vegetable tanned.

Now does he have any idea what time or place he'd like to derive this leather cuirass from??

What would make a leather cuirass SCA would be either hardening the leather, perhaps as a Roman musculata, or sticking in reinforcing pieces, either metal or you-know-what.

Hardening would be difficult if you were trying to water harden a leather breast and a leather back. I think either piece would only just barely fit inside a kitchen oven. But maybe, so long as you make certain the shoulder strap areas are properly bent and you don't make it too long, so it doesn't fit in sideways. Remember that the leather will shrink and thicken in the hardening. And this only works on vegetable tanned. It does allow you to use lighter-ounce leather thicknesses. You'll want a form, a last, to use to keep the piece shaped properly. Get an oven thermometer that reads accurately around the 170-180 F zone.

If you're using chrometanned, then never mind the gentle bake in the oven. You're going to use it to carry reinforcing plates: the kidneys as mandated and you might as well at least cover the spine. Whether and how much you harden up the rest of the ribcage will be up to you. Chrometanned's greenish-white reverse side and edges can be disguised with dye if desired, but since chrometanned is compressed leather you shouldn't expect really even dye coats. Tooling and stamping will be right out, again because the leather is compressed already.

I can offer a couple of examples:

Kidney belt with tooling
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80888788@N ... 340275264/

Leather interpretation of Greek linothorax
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80888788@N ... 345264847/

Sort of two extremes. The first is a thoroughly SCAdian creation, the second a decently accurate recreation of a historic armour, even if the Greeks didn't use leather to build theirs.

I am paying for the leather. I keep a couple 14/16 ounce hides in my shop for making elbows, knees bazubands gorgets and such for new folks.
I have done a lot of work in leather, and i am getting to the point where i have figured out the limits and the possibilities of leather.
I am wanting to make him new body armour because his curent setup looks like ass.

Killkenny, That Linothorax is insanely beautiful. What thickness is the leather.

thanks for the replys guys!

what is his persona?

Certain types of armour lend themselves to leather nicely.

1. Lamallar
2. Scale
3. Lamallar
4. Linothrax
5. Muscled cuirass (roman breastplate)

Agnarr wrote:
Killkenny, That Linothorax is insanely beautiful. What thickness is the leather.

thanks for the replys guys!

Thank you. It's saddle skirting, 13-15 oz. The body and shoulders are hardened, the skirt left unhardened so it can flex. As you can see in the pictures, even unhardened the strips were sturdy enough to hold up the entire piece.

Gavin --
Damn pretty linothorax. Wow.

Spectacular work. I just wanted to let you know how spiff it is.



Effingham

Credit where credit is due on the linothorax. It was a commission for Tim Finkas and he provided all the artwork. I just translated it to leather.

Agnarr wrote:Killkenny, That Linothorax is insanely beautiful.

QFT! Your Grace, my bar just went up!


Check out UIllieag's site, he's got some roman-style-oid breastplates on there. Click on 'gallery'

www.houseofthewolf.com

Gavin, I'm a translator. I recognize that that is an art.


Effingham

Effingham wrote:Gavin, I'm a translator. I recognize that that is an art.


Effingham

Touche'

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... highlight=

Mine and a few others are in there for examples. On my own, few things I would change. I'd rather lace the sides up instead of buckles. I'd use a double layer too for further kidney protection. Becareful with the curve of the hip to allow flexibility.

Agnarr wrote:So, i need to build my buddy some new body armour, and he wants it in leather. Anybody got pics of good sca leather body armour? Thanks!

I was checking out that "house of the wolf" link and he's got some really nice looking stuff in there. Check out that leather lorica! So do you have any ideas on what you're going to make?

Well I did a cherburg 13 out of 13 oz leather. Then cut an aluminium strip to go over the center plate. Not sure if that's what you're looking for but it's a thought

Nomad wrote:

Agnarr wrote:So, i need to build my buddy some new body armour, and he wants it in leather. Anybody got pics of good sca leather body armour? Thanks!

I was checking out that "house of the wolf" link and he's got some really nice looking stuff in there. Check out that leather lorica! So do you have any ideas on what you're going to make?

Yeah, i started on it and it is basicly a scadian harness.

It is a kidey belt that has an upper part covering the chest. I will post pics when it is done.