The Armour Archive

Greatings all! I just got a commision to make a leather muscled cuirass like the one in the movie Gladiator I was wondering if anyone had some tips on how to form it so it looks like muscle. What I was going to do is this : soak it in really hot water for a few seconds, then hammer out the muscles on a dishing stump much like you would steel, then strap it down to a form about the size of a human torso to drie. Once dry I was going to melt in alot of wax in the oven, then do all the finnishing work. Does this sound right? If not please let me know so I don't ruin perfectly good leather. PS- I'm using 12 oz leather.

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YIS,
Aram http://www.geocities.com/arams_armoury/index.htm

That sounds about right to me. Cariadoc and others have some good articles on cuirboulli that you should look up.

Whatever you do, experiment on a test piece first and post the pictures of the finished piece when you're done


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Vogeljager
www.angelfire.com/nf/dfowler/

Id cut out a circle 6-8" and makr off about 2" around the edge. soak it in cold for a bit until it doesnt bubble much. try pressing it Onto a Bowl .... if that doesnt work beat it a bit with the hammer....inside that circle you drew.

Ive done this before for some interesting female body armor and it worked fine. Ive also thought about dishing a "master" out of 18 or 20guage mild, spray painting it and smooting the leather out over it...

id suggest a plaster form, palster is absorbant by nature so it will accelerate the drying process. there are many ways to harden leather but ideally very hot water (not boiling, but close) and rapid drying is the key to making it its hardest.

Haven't tried it, but if you made a mold out of some incredibly thin metal (say, sheetmetal for auto body repair, y'know the aluminum cheap stuff) and then tied the soaked leather to the mold (wrapping the metal in saranwrap or some such to prevent rust stain marks) might work.

I've had success with the hammer method, but I've noticed that leather is a lot less forgiving than steel.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Paul

Greetings
I have often wonder about the same thing. The plaster mold sounds good to me. Hammering on wet leather may create undesirable marks that will be there forever. However I have done a bit of wax hardening. First make sure the leather is dry dry dry before applying the hot wax. if there is any moisture at all the heat of the wax wll heat the water which will in turn cook the leather. The wax itself wont cook the leather, I aint sure why? Secondly if you can heat the leather up a bit before applying the wax it will penetrate better and go on much more even. Good luck and let us know how it all works out.

For a mold... what about something like a mannequin torso? I would think they would be solid enough to form wet leather around.

Sigeric