Part of this is showing off, part of it is curiosity

[ahaugland]

I'd highly advise attending fighter practice in your area and try it out with loaner gear before starting making your own armour. This is more for helping you figure out what your needs and concerns are rather than to decide if you like combat in the SCA or not. There is also a mid-Willamette Valley fighter practice in Keizer the first Wednesday of every month, hosted by Terra Pomeria, which draws people from throughout the valley (including some who come up from southern Oregon occasionally). If you get on Terra Pomeria's e-mail list, you'll get announcements for it.

If you're wanting to get started immediately, I'd recommend not starting with metal at all, but with a padded long sleeved gambeson. Once you know what you're wearing under your armour, it will be easier to figure out sizing and patterning for the armour itself. They're not hard to put together if you have basic sewing skills. I'd recommend looking for a used all cotton quilted mattress pad or, an all cotton moving blanket (which seem almost impossible to find nowadays) at a thrift store for the padding. cut the pieces, quilt them between an outside and inside layer of a medium (pants) weight cotton or, better yet, linen, by running vertical lines of stiches every two inches or so, stitch it all together, then bind off the edges with bias tape. If you search the net, there are basic patterns out there.

As some general guidelines on metal, Cold rolled mild steel is better than hot rolled, if you aren't doing a lot of shaping, as it tends to be somewhat harder to start with. If every pieceis going to have significant dishing, etc, then it likely doesn't matter as you'll be work hardening the steel anyways. As far as tool steels, most period hardened armour I've seen metallurgical analysis of (which isn't necessarily all period armour!) is approximately equivalent to 1045-1055 high carbon steel, which is, unfortunately, modernly, very difficult to find a source for, except in very large quantities. Most people working high carbon steels are using 4130, which is much more readily available. hardening and tempering 4130, or for that matter, any tool steel involves heating to a certain temperature (usually around 1600F) and quenching in oil, water, etc, depending on the particular composition of the steel. This makes it exceptionally hard, yet brittle, such that it will crack or shatter with repeated or hard impacts. To make it function as armour, you have to temper it, releasing some of that hardness, in exchange for durability. This is usually done by reheating the metal to a lower temperature, dependent on the specific level of hardness you want, for a sustained period of time then allowing it to cool slowly Usually temperatures in the range of 500-1000 degrees. This was likely done in a forge in period, but nowadays, is most easily accomplished uniformly and accurately in something like a ceramics kiln.

A helm should be 12-14 gauge to start with, leaning towards 12 gauge if you're doing a lot of dishing, which will thin the metal. Otherwise, 14 gauge is OK. it should fit close to the head, particularly around the eyes, if it is a closed face helm, allowing for at least 1/2" of padding all the way around. For padding stick with a good neoprene foam, commonly available as exercise mats and the like. Make up the padding to go inside your helm before you make the helm itself so that you can take accurate measurements that account for it when you draft your pattern. For drafting patterns, poster board is great.

Most of the rest of the body armour can be 16 or 18 gauge, at least for all of the small plates. curved and dished shapes in metal are far stronger than flat planes. Creases and flutes also add strength, if done right as do rolled edges, which also protect against armour bites and cuts.

After your helm, I'd look at building a gorget, which should fit close to the neck, with sufficient padding, coming either from a collar sewn to the gambeson or padding on the inside of the gorget itself. Cover as much of your neck as possible while remaining comfortable, even if the helm extends below that line. A errant shot or thrust may come up inside the bottom of your helm and you want something there to stop it other than your windpipe.

For a new fighter (as a fairly new fighter myself) I'd highly recommend pauldrons of one type or another as your shoulders are likely the be the second most common area hit (after your head). This can be a great first dishing project and a basic pattern and step-by-step directions can be found on the Arador Armour Library site, if I recall correctly.

From there you can move on to meet the other basic requirements: Kidney protection, knees, elbows, hands, etc. You'll also need to fit in getting a weapon and potentially a shield put together. which will influence things like hand protection. If you're looking at a one handed sword and shield you'll likely need a demi-gauntlet for your weapon hand, which protects the hand and wrist but doesn't have finger protection, along with a sword basket (buy one if you don't have welding equipment!) and you'll need either a basket on the back of the shield or something like I have, which is half a mitten gauntlet screwed to the shield and a set of thumb plates sewn to my glove (made for me by Alail, but you could probably make your own.) Otherwise, you'll need a pair of gauntlets that meet SCA rules. For that, mitten gauntlets are far easier to make than finger gauntlets and worst case, you could replace them later when your skill improves.

OK... That's a lot to go over, but hopefully some of it helps! Also, this is my advice, though the range of opinions in armouring and fighting gear in the SCA varies widely, so take everything I say with a grain of salt and make sure it makes sense to you and for your particular needs and wants.

[Peter Baker]

I'll be sure to look her up. There's also fighter practice every monday in Portland for the local group, and I plan on checking them both out now

I've made a couple dozen knives, so I'm fairly familiar with the types of steel available, as well as the hardening/tempering process, and can imagine the difficulty of doing a large piece...

And my mom taught all of us how to sew, so instead of the moving blanket approach, I'll probably buy a medium weight wool or flannel and some fleece.

I'll most likely go with the shield and sword approach, partly 'cause I've been practicing making shields the past year or two in order to get the basics down, but mostly I like the idea of a moveable wall.
I'm also kinda working on a breastplate with the 12 gauge (it can stop 6 .22 rounds at point blank in a 4" area ), but it's a bit pathetic right now. Pics will go up when it's something close to usable.

To start with, I'm just planning on having a plastic thing hidden under a kyrtle, with a pot helm, gorget, greaves, spaulders, vambrace on the right arm, and a set of demi gaunts. Though I will shamelessly use loaner gear until I put the kit together

Thank you very much, especially for Terra Pomeria's name.
And I must say, that was exactly the sort of post I enjoy seeing, especially after a couple years as a lurker. Very informative, a little long, but considering the amount of info, very concise and well written.
I take my hat off to you and your linguistic skill good sirrah.

[Mad Matt]

It is still possible to make your helm useable if it is actually .0625. You've just gotta add some weight to it. You don't want a helmet to be any less then 7 pounds. I'll bet that one weighs around 5. On the other hand you don't want a helmet to be too heavy. With a helmet that's too heavy you end up with the possibility of muscular and spinal neck problems and injuries.

If you're making any kind of a riveted together helmet (greathelm, barrel pot spangen etc) don't use 12ga. The overlap in these helmets makes them not only stronger but also heavier. 14 will work just fine. If you really want to reduce denting in a spangen and want 12ga for the panels (atlantians I'm looking at you). You can use 12ga for the panels but compensate for it by using 16 for the bands.

Best way to make a spangen that's really durable is to use a welded 12ga top and put on 16 or even 18ga bands that are just decoration.

[Peter Baker]

Ok... I just checked, she weighs in at 5.6 lbs.
So, if I do decide to fix it up and add a little weight, think attaching a heavier gauge panel to the inside would work?
And would I want the weight high, or low?

[Mad Matt]

That'll work fine. Get it checked with a mic. before you bother doing anything though. Stick the weight anywhere you want as long as it's balanced side to side.

[Payn]

You could add a plate for the area most commonly hit (above brow line on the head). If you put a lot of weight only high, the helmet can rock quite badly when hit high. You may want to add some weight low to counteract that.

[Peter Baker]

Thanks, I'm heading off to the hardware store to see what they want for a set of calipers, but they're probably outside my budget for now. (yeah, broke student at the moment... Wait, is there any other kind?)
That will definitely change by the end of summer, at which point I plan on buying a kit from someone who knows wth they're doing, and putting together a decent shop.

Thank you for putting up with my stupidity, you've been a great help.

[Mad Matt]

You can try taking your helmet to the hardware store and see if there's a mic. you can use in there.

[Peter Baker]

It actually is .0625.

And thanks for the tip about strengthening the brow Banzai.

So, what's a good weight for a helm?
I'm guessing 8-10 looking at what people have made on here...

[horsefriend]

Peter,

Drop me a line, I'm less than half an hour from you, and at the very least have patterns you can use. If your interested in doing a "barrel helm" you can get a very authentic look for not a lot of outlay, and 14 ga. is plenty thick for that style as there is no/minimal thinning, and there is a nice double layer right at the prime impact point. You could use the shop for some tasks, or I could do you a "kit"

Drop me a line, I work from home and so have a flexible schedule.


alail/scott


Baron Alail Horsefriend, OL, KSCA, OP
Summits Principality Rapier Marshal, Kingdom of AnTir

[Peter Baker]

Thank you very much, Baron.