I've got this great whacking thick hide here, and I wanna make some shoulders and other odds and ends out of it, but....I can't find any patterns.
Does anyone have any links, or such, for shoulders, and perhaps demi's? My pattern-making skills, after many attempts, are...lacking (that's a better word than non-existent, right?)
I plan to harden them with paraffin wax, in case this might be asked. If there are better methods, or more generally preferred, I'm all ears and would love to learn more
Hello http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/demigaunt/
I used the pattern available from here on AA. Came up with a decent Demi gaunt. Just make sure to cut it out in paper first to see if it fits. I had to add an inch to accomadate my big hand.
For hardening paraffin wax will work but will melt on a really hot day. I used an acrylic floor wax and dipped the leather in. Dried pretty hard. I used two layers because i was using thinner leather.
"Those responsible for this post have been sacked."
Your starting point for any hard-leather armor construction is in the patterns for steel items. The articulation method is going to be either lacing together or riveting to interior leathers, not using articulating rivets. They will wear the leather unless eyeletted. In the case of pauldrons or leather spaudlers, the entire array may articulate upon leathers. Pitbull suggests that two lighter-weight soft leather straps for each course, doubled up, gives excellent flexibility and mobility combined with long wearing.
The thickness of sole bend or saddle skirting (c. 15oz) may make a small difference in dimension or form. Test this using corrugated cardboard to simulate that kind of thickness.
Iain, I think you've been around here long enough to have at least seen the phrase "water hardening" onsite. Why didn't it come to mind? It's like magic. An hour's reading of the Search results on the phrase will equip you with what we know about it. The results seem so excellent and lightweight that I'd relegate all other leather hardening methods to ancillary, usually weatherproofing, uses. Coatings.
I find your difficulty in developing patterns wholly puzzling. I don't get it -- how the hell does one miss? By being intensely left-brained and having little knack for the spatial? Work from the skin out, not from the surface in. Guess what you need, cut that out with scissors, tape it to yourself and try to move in it, looking for places that either bind you and dig in, or else get creased when you flex something; cut away the bit down to where the creasing is and flex again. Keep trimming the place until you don't crumple it any more. Pay close attention both to historical models and to ergonomics: the shapes plate armor comes in are the ergonomic ones for the problem of protecting flesh and moving with your motions. A tapering piece made of lames, regardless of direction of taper or location of the piece on the body, has a gentle curve throughout the lame to fit the thing on a conical place, a tapering or expanding limb or part of one. Many zones of the human body are rounded cones -- narrow cones with assorted bulges here and there. The zones that aren't conical tend to be spheroids or part-spheroids -- even sometimes the belly. You hardly even need to take measurements until later, though for starters data on how long some part of you is and how big around will land you in the ballpark dimensionally. Next step from the above is the measuring and patterning chapter of TOMAR, which will make more sense to you after you've done what's in this paragraph -- you'll have some kind of spatial foundation to put under what you'll read.
Konstantin, you're right. My search-fu was definitely weak, and I *should* have paid closer attention to all the leather talk going on around here.. Nobody to blame but myself, so I'll accept it. Water hardening *is* easier, with no serious outlay of money or other resources.
Going back (waay back) to my 5-piece shoulders (16 gauge stainless..dished by hand, no less..), and I have all I need for a pattern right there. Some mild tweaks to fix what i didn't know, and I'm in the ballpark..
Consider me chastised, but educated.
Thank you, Konstantin, for the nudge in the right direction.
