Scale Armor Project continues

Well the armor is not coming together as quickly as I had hoped. The scales are taking a long time to produce. You have to cut and shape the scales, then you have to mark and punch the holes and then you have to file the edges and finally hammer them into a slight curve. The hammering also work hardens the brass and makes a stiffer piece. The hammering is time consuming and a pain with the small scales. Once all that is done you have to do the linking of the scales and that can be frustrating.

Below is a 3 row section. I ran out of hammered scales. Time to start pounding some more metal.



Below is a closeup of how the scales look from the front.



This is a close up of the back.



Now off to do some more hammering.

The Scale Skirt - Part 2 update

So, I was thinking about the problem I was having yesterday using the rings and ending up using "staples". Today I decided to try something completely crazy, I changed the hole size from 3/32 to 1/8 and the rings worked. I did not change anything else with position yet it made all the difference in the world. It did not change the ability of the scales to move greatly, it did improve some though but it will dramatically improve the time it takes to assemble the pieces.

The Scale Skirt - Part 2

Yesterday I did more work on the scale armor. I rounded the ends marked out the places to punch the holes and finished up 5 complete plates. I planned to use some of the rings I cut for my chainmail to attach the plates. At this point I discovered why they call it experiential archeology.

With only photos of originals to work from it is hard to make out the details. I will explain this in a moment. First lets see what the scales look like.



Here are the originals.




Looking closely you can see the hole pattern and connection "staples". Well I was wandering why they refer to them as staples. Well I found if you make the holes for round links at the proper distance and then stack the plates it does not go together well. A more squared off staple shape works better. You get movement between rows of scales and a little side to side movement but not much, just enough to allow for body movement and muscle flex. The thing that was surprising was how strong the piece becomes when held together with 14 gauge brass wire. It is like building a semi -flexible plate armor. It would take a very good and well aimed upward thrust to get through this armor. The slight curve of the individual plates does not leave a flat surface and it flexes enough to absorb force and transfer it across the armor.

It is not going to be as flexible as I thought but it is much stronger then expected. I will see about getting a round link to work and see if it adds to the flex.

Here are the five plates that I connected.



The tools used.





More to follow as I get the full skirt assembled.

The Scale Skirt - Part 1

Well, it has been a while since this blog started. I went silent but now I am back. I moved and the work space is just getting set up. So, the first thing I need to make is leg protection. And this is why, courtesy of Arundoor. (photo taken six days after the attack)


So, I started the scale skirt. It is based off a find in Denmark that is listed as a Roman scale and dated to around 360 to 400 CE. It is not connected to fabric but is connected scale to scale with "staples". There are sever finds across Europe of this style scale armor.


My scales are 1.5 x 2 inch red brass. I spent a couple hours on Thursday evening cutting out the squares from 6 x 12 inch sheets of 20 gauge brass.

This is the setup. I used my small Central Forge throatless shears. I picked this up from Harbor Freight a few years back for under $100 and I love it. I have a Beverly B3 throatless shear that can be seen behind the area but it sucks for soft low gauge metal.

So after the squares where cut I had to mark them for the curve at the bottom. This took a good part of the evening on Friday as we sat having bad movie night, consisting of Idiocracy, and Evil Aliens. (movie review: Idiocracy is so stupid that it is not even worth watching from a free loaned video. The kid wanted to see the whole thing so we watched it. Evil Aliens is a bad, sick and twisted British movie that is also funny. If you have a warped mind you should see this film, but send the kids away.) Now back to the metal.

After two evenings I now have a bunch of squares that need to be rounded on the ends. So, I am now off to the garage to get to work.

More on this project to come.