Making a St. Maurice Coat of Plates

[Siggy]

Well, here's how Joaquin and I made my St. Maurice Coat of Plates. It is based on the coat of plates depicted on an effigy of St. Maurice in a cathedral in Germany. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures, as my digital camera still isn't working properly.

First, we went out and got some cloth to use as a backing. The original intent was to use a canvas tarp, but I didn't have enough cash on hand, so off we go to the local Ben Franklin and bought some really damn cheap muslin, or canvas, I'm not sure what it was. It came out to two yards. We drew a roughly +-shaped patern on the cloth to be the body of the coat. The arms that wrap around the body were measured to be a couple of inches, plus seam allowance, larger than the distance from the tops of my hips to the base of my sternum. I then sewed the cloth up (with a little help from Joaquin's then-fiancee, now wife, Anne) to form the coat.

Remember the measurement from my hips to my sternum? Well, that's the length of the plates to go around on the arms of the tabard. My plates came out to be 9" x 2" with four holes in them for rivets. We cut enough 18ga steel to wrap entirely around me, from front to back, with a little overlap in the plates. We also made three plates to cover my chest. We put four holes in each plate for rivets with a Whitney punch (or a harbor freight knockoff, I'm not sure which). We duct-taped the plates together to test how they fit around me. When I was satisfied with the fit, I started riveting the plates to the cloth.

I started out using roofing nails as rivets, but they took a long damn time to peen and, at 4 rivets per plate, were probably overkill, so after the chest plates were attatched, I switched to copper leather-working rivets. I added a couple of buckles to the back, and I was done. I'm going to have to re-do it soon, as the cheap cloth I used is beginning to let the rivets pull through and to fray around the edges. This coat of plates has served quite well, however, getting me through the summer and through Armorgeddon.


Siggy

[Thorvold]

Is this the style?

http://www.thorvold.freeservers.com/cgi-bin/i/COP_early.jpg

Thorv

[Steve S.]

Yes, that is the St. Maurice coat of plates. Quite kick-ass, if you ask me.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
Highly authentic, affordable riveted maille.

[Raymund]

I really like Historia vivens version at: http://www.historiavivens1300.at/realien/plrock.htm
And the whole kit is even better: http://www.historiavivens1300.at/biblio/ritter.htm

/R

[Steve S.]

You will note that is Steve -SoFC- maille he's wearing! He did the customizations himself.

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
Highly authentic, affordable riveted maille.

[Patrick]

When you remake it, try using contact cement to glue the plates to the cloth. They will move less and be less likely to work free of the cloth. Just a thought.

-Patrick

[Thorvold]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Steve -SoFC-:
<B>You will note that is Steve -SoFC- maille he's wearing! He did the customizations himself.

Steve

</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


That's yours Steve?! I thought I recognized that. That was the custom full hauberk you were working on earlier this year?

[Steve S.]

Nope - this guy did his own work. He just started with the maille and made his own mods.

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
Highly authentic, affordable riveted maille.

[Siggy]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Thorvold:
<B>Is this the style?

http://www.thorvold.freeservers.com/cgi-bin/i/COP_early.jpg

Thorv</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's the one. Except where the two seam lines are, there is another row of rivets. I'll try that gluing thing.

Siggy