The Armour Archive

Anyone know if baking leather with Barge cement on it is dangerous? Or will it melt in the heat, and lose it's bond? Or evaporate? I don't think it will catch fire at such low temperatures...

Seems a bit of a brainless question, but I'm looking for a way to laminate 2 thinner pieces of leather to make it stronger. I can't afford any armour bends, but I've got quite a bit of 7-9 oz stuff.

Anyone know if rabbit glue works for making leather armour more rigid WITHOUT baking? Will it get the right pennetration?

I'm not as stupid as my question sounds, I just am getting desperate for protective armour with the stuff I got.

Thanks, and be nice to me

Christopher

I don't know either -- properly handled, Barge cement is formidable stuff.

What about forming your cuirbouilli pieces together, say tacked down upon a form in the oven, and then gluing the two layers together after they're fully baked? In certain shapes, you'd even be able to glue rigid reinforcements inside -- inwardly splinted vambraces, gauntlet cuffs, and such.

No forms and no artistic ability to make them. Besides, the inner one would need to have sharper curves, and be a bit smaller to fit. Guess I'll just have to give it a try with a wee piece and see if I get high...lol

Christopher

Now I've sold skids of Barge Cement but I've never considered what would happen if you baked it!

Being a neoprene based adhesive dissolved in a blend of petroleum distallates, Barge All Purpose cement (the yellow labelled one, they make a dozen other formulae) should be unaffected by leather "baking" temps like 200F (+/- 20F) once the solvent has evaporated. It isn't affected by water or it wouldn't be useful for shoe soles, would it?

I say try it. Make a little drinking cup and see what happens. At least the experiment will be useful afterward.

As to making useful defensive equip from 2+ layers of lighter veg, why not? A prototype of bullet proof laminated leather breastplate was submitted for testing by the Royal Armouries in the 17th C. It worked but was too expensive to be viable. My suggestion would be to shape and bake the outside layer. Then glue and line it with the second layer. The unbaked layer inside will create some resilience in the piece. Items adhered with Barge AP cement tend to be uncooperative to further processing. It is tough stuff.

Please let us know how it goes. Interesting idea...

Artistic...? Now you're making excuses rather than results. Artistic, shmartistic -- you take a block of wood, draw profiles on sides and front, and take a wood rasp to it until it's shaped to the profiles. Absolutely nothing to it, and even less if you can take some of the corner bits off with a saw, power or hand.

The inner one would of course have a bit less radius to its curves, but big whoop: the outer one is tacked down over the inner one. They bake and dry together.

Please don't tell me when I'm making excuses. Just because someone else had no difficulty doing it naturally, does not mean I am similarly blessed. At least, not the first couple times I tried it a couple years ago (nothing related to leather, tho). My interest in making forms (other than something like a sewing dummy) is not enough to motivate me to overcome my natural artistic defficiencies. In fact, part of the purpose of the experiment (and I accept responsibility for not stating this previously) is to see how laminated leather takes being hammer shapped. The only piece I tried hammering before was out of a single ply of this stuff, and it holds it's shape but is entirely too flexible. It acts like polyurethane.

I think I'm going to try stitching the pieces together. Stitch them, and then shape them with a spoon, or if I'm lucky get to pound them a bit (I don't get to do much of that here, but with the weather getting milder, I'm pretty excited...I can go out and pound). It will give me a chance to try out another experiment I've had in the back of my mind for about a year now.

Kel, I had the test chunk in the oven for a while this morning, and I couldn't smell anything unusual. I wasn't able to leave it in long enough to bake too good, tho I had to run away to go see the local IRS office...yee haw. It wasn't too hot to the touch, so I'm guessing it didn't have time to get hot enough to be a danger...if it will be dangerous.

I'll make sure I let you know if I die from it...lol


Christopher