SCA Armorsmithing

[']['Ritha][]

So, what have I been up to the last few months? I've been apprenticing at a local SCA armorer and I have finally gotten around to completing my first real piece of armor. 16 gauge stainless steel Greek style greaves with an articulated knee cop.





Any other armorsmiths (Or SCA heavy fighters) out there?

[Silas]

That's pretty slick! How much does it weigh?

[edmundblack]

You lucky sod. Nice one.

[mephiston_2k]

Nice one, theres some work gone into them! What are you working on next?

[']['Ritha][]

Next, I'll be doing more of the apprentice grunt work on a set of 8 Corinthian helms. Which is going to suck.

Though, after making all 8 of them, I get to make one for myself.

[stormlord]

Beautiful work Ritha...

[Deception]

Interesting exactly how do you make armor these days?

[']['Ritha][]

You buy a sheet of whatever thickness metal you want. Then you spend hours cutting, sanding, hammering, bending, forming and polishing. Its made very similarly to the way it was made thousands of years ago. Hammers, mallets, an anvil, assorted forming tools. The patterns are hard to get right, and are a valuable commodity in the armoring community because very few armorers can actually make good patterns.

[mephiston_2k]

I know plenty of metal workers... Just they tend to do tooling and components lol

[tone.tran]

Pretty awesome. Is it difficult getting your leg into one of those?

[']['Ritha][]

Nah, it's actually really easy. I designed and formed them specifically for my own legs. Which is funny, because it makes other people not fit into them very well. A lot of my friends have forced them onto their own legs with lots of pounding and grunts of pain. For me, they fit snuggly over the top of my boots, and are braced nicely on my kneepads, so there is actually a 3/4 to 1/2 inch gaps between the shin plate and my actual shin, so I never actually feel any impact to my shin.

-edit- Realized I should show some more stuff. I finished my shield yesterday. I designed and built it essentially by myself, with some mentoring and help from the Master Armourer I'm apprenticing under. All I need is one of my friends with some artistic goodness to design me a Greek styled hydra (or other Greek serpent) to paint in the middle of it. Also forgot to mention that it is 0.10 thickness 6061 T6 aluminum.

[tone.tran]

So what does that thickness + material mean for the actual functionality of the shield?

Will the handle be sufficient if someone was to take a mace or broad sword to it? From the picture, it seems like you've got a temp up with tape. What is the plan?

[Andon]

I've done a bit of blacksmithing as a hobby, and while what I've done is pretty different (I take "raw" metal, typically rebars, and form them into stuff), it's similar to know just what a pain in the ass getting stuff like that is. Very impressive.

[']['Ritha][]

The handle is bolted on, the tape just covers the bolts to help avoid sharp edges. You can actually see the heads of the bolts on the front. 6061 T6 aluminum is what the wings of aircraft, the hulls of boats and scuba tanks are made from, 010 is pretty standard shield thickness. Basically, it'll easily last two or three years of getting beaten on by large men wielding baseball bats a few times a week.

Andon, working rebar and other raw metal stuff is awesome as well. We don't have the equipment to do that kind of stuff (Being an armoury, not a blacksmith), but I'd love to learn that type of forming. People who haven't worked on forming metal don't really understand quite how hard (or how fun) it is teasing it into just the right shape.

[']['Ritha][]

Aaand, double post to update. I finished my brigandine today. My kit is rapidly expanding. So I took some pictures of it all together.

[Andon]

That has GOT to be uncomfortable.

[']['Ritha][]

Nope. When it is strapped to me, the plates lay perfectly with the shape of my body, and slightly overlap each other so they articulate as I move. With a gambison (Or, until my gambison gets here a sweat shirt) under it, you barely notice it at all. It is hard to take a picture of the inside with the plates laying correctly, as I don't have an armor stand.

-edit- Here's a better picture of how it looks on the inside when I'm wearing it.

[Andon]

I wasn't thinking it'd poke you in awkward places in normal use, but I can see how some movements, while not exactly prohibited, could cause some akward poking.

Have you had anyone hit you with anything while wearing it, just to see what it feels like?

[']['Ritha][]

Yeah, the first thing the armorer I'm apprenticing under did when I finished it was whack me in a few places even though I didn't have any padding under it.

Let me tell you, it still really sucks to get hit. But not nearly as much as it would without the armor.

[Mali32]

Pretty sweet man. And smithing would prolly be a useful skill in an apocalypse with a few survivors. Needs people who know how to make and repair tools and other bits of metal i'd think.