I need a back plate to go with breastplate from a can.

[Panzerkinder]

So I need a back plate to go with the breast plate from a can .... Do any of you fine armourers have any patterns you can share with me? I've actually got a customer for this ! Weehoo!

[Konstantin the Red]

1. I doubt they do.

2. You don't need it anyway.

3. All you do need is some tagboard, scissors and tape, and a helper to rough the can-method backplate in upon your form, or else you cut and fit this can-thing to your customer's back if he is handy. Then you cut the metal to that pattern from the tagboard, weld up, and work the thing with hammer and heat to turn the welded-together pieces into smooth curvatures as with a breast or a helmet. Same principle as anything else, and having made a breast already, you have all the needed skills to get a back done from the design stage.

Perform any experiments you need to get it down to a science before you embark on it for a paying customer -- less stress, fewer errors.

[Mac]

A few months ago, I played around with the idea of a backplate from a can, but I found that the process was not nearly so applicable as it is to breastplates. That saddle shaped depressed area between the shoulder blades has to be welded in as separate pieces. It's not like the breast, where one can simply take a series of darts. This makes it much less convenient. That, combined with the fact that backplates are usually made of thin (and thus trickier to weld) stuff makes the can process less suitable.

I may return to the project some day if I have a new idea, but for now I count it as a dead end.

Mac

[wcallen]

I expect that Mac is right.

I did make a pattern for something similar, I was making a waistcoat cuirass. It happens to have seams where the high spots are, so the pattern is vaguely similar. In my case I was patterning one with a very high neckline with an integral collar, but the idea with a shorter top might be what you could handle.

This was the piece:

http://www.allenantiques.com/R-35.html

The pattern is shown on that page here: http://www.allenantiques.com/images/Geo ... tterns.jpg

I expect that you should shorten the pattern up a good deal to go with a 14th c. breastplate. But you should be able to get the idea.

In this case I didn't run the seam up to an area that won't need a roll, I put it where it should be for a waistcoat cuirass. I expect that curving the edges of the outer pieces and straightening the edge of the center one at the top would get it away from the neck and over the shoulder.

It is certainly pretty easy to try.

Wade

[Panzerkinder]

Thanks gentlemen ........I appreciate the help/advice! Wade thanks for the link to you templates! Ive been thinking about tackling one of those folding clamshell pieces.

[wcallen]

The "folding clamshell thing" is normally called a waistcoat cuirass.

They are... interesting. The actual amount of metal movement is pretty small. The amount of fiddling around you have to do to get all of the parts to fit with each other and the wearer is a real thrill. I had to put the piece together and take it apart many, many, many times to get it all working.

If you do use something like my pattern for a backplate, I expect that you will need to dish from the welded form, not push pieces in. That will get you the nice sweepy shape that you want and not end up with a flat back between the welds. You would still have the advantage of a stable outside shape, but the working method is very different.

When I was working on my waistcoat, I did do most of the work by squashing - dishing on a flat anvil surface - to get the gentle shape that the back needs.

Wade