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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 5:31:48 GMT
Okay, so maybe I'm a little bit nuts. My wife certainly seems to think so. At this very moment she is looking at me apparently wondering how it was that she came to be married to me. I do think I got the better end of the deal but at moments like these I can understand her feeling short changed. On the other hand, my son seems to think I'm the coolest dad on the planet right now. Here's why: I wish I was such a cool dad that I had made it for him, but the simple fact is that he is still young and growing so fast that I hate to expend the time,money and effort to fashion something that he will outgrow in less than a year. He does get to play with it though, which is good enough for him. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I fancy myself as a fair hand with leather, I had some leather and thought it would be really cool to make a full set of leather armor. Figured I'd start at the top, so the helmet is the first project. Bear in mind that while I did want a japanese look to this, I made no attempt to do things in a traditional manner. I started with a six panel pattern based on an old baseball cap. Since I was primarily a holster maker, this is all new to me and I had quite a bit to learn. That was a lot of the fun involved with the project. I thought the ballcap pattern would be fairly easy and it wasn't too bad, but all told I probably have about 30 hours in the helmet and I still need to furnish a chin strap for it. While I don't foresee that being too much of a problem, I will be working on the facepiece next and thought it might pay to wait and see how that works out and then figure out how to attach it, possibly incorporating it into the chin strap. As it was, I initially was going to rivet the leather together, but after some thought realized it would look better being laced and I would not have to modify or experiment with the pattern so much. Ironically, the piece I had the most problems with was the visor. I just couldn't get the curvature right and spent quite a bit of time working that out. Without the skirting on the rear it ended up looking quite a bit like a WWII GI helmet which I was pretty dissatisfied with. But after it all got put together it turned out pretty ok. I'll let you guys be the judge. He's not mad here. I told him to give me his war face. Needs to work on that a little. Being made out of leather, it isn't going to protect me from anything at all, except maybe some biting zombies, hence why I'm calling it that. Think it'll be a really great Halloween costume. Thanks for looking. Any comments or questions are welcome. Troy/Shoboshi
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 8:56:26 GMT
:lol:
Nifty helmet; I like it a lot.
M.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 9:44:10 GMT
very nice job. cant wait to see the rest when its done
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 13:20:17 GMT
Very nice. The leather holds the lobstertail design very well. An excellent piece, shoboshi, and one your son I'm sure will be really proud of!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 14:34:22 GMT
If you harden the leather, it'll protect you from a good deal.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 14:51:51 GMT
Eversberg-- LMAO. Thats exactly what I was thinking when I told him to give me his war face. I even tried to do the voice. Excellent. It's like you crawled inside my mind for a moment there, which is kinda creepy. Glad you liked it.
Terryzac-- Thanks brother. I'm anxious to see the full suit done myself, but it'll be a while. If there is enuf interest I will update as each piece is finished.
Chuck-- Thanks man. Yes, my son does think it's pretty cool. He was running around playing the Last Samurai with his bokken. My wife looks at me funny when I do that.
Taran-- This leather is pretty light stuff. Is there a way to harden tooling leather? If you can educate me in this area it would be appreciated.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 14:55:01 GMT
I like it ,your son looks happy.Good for you! +1
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 15:05:45 GMT
Thanks whisky! It has been a good learning process. I'm sure I'll do another helmet at least so I can apply what I've learned to ensure that one is better.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 15:17:26 GMT
There are several different ways to harden the leather. As a holster maker, you should be well aware of wax hardening. It works just as well on lighter leathers, though they maintain more flexibility. Of course, wax hardening will rob the leather of any cutting resistance it had to begin with.
Water hardening, submerging the leather in near-boiling water (or pouring the water over the leather) is the period style of making hardened armour. Still won't protect against a piercing blow, but much better against cutting and bludgeoning weapons (you'll want to pad any bit of the leather in direct contact with you). It'll cause about a 12-25% reduction in the surface area of the hardened piece due to thickening. It's also Very temperature dependent. Get the temp off and the hardening won't work quite right.
Just remember that, like metal, thickness determines a lot about the protection the piece provides. So 2 or 3 ounce leather (and that really looks more like 4-6 oz leather) will provide less protection, even hardened, than, say, 7-10 oz leather.
Of course, it'll be a lot stiffer and less comfortable to wear...
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 15:52:18 GMT
That is fantastic leatherwork, Shoboshi! Very nicely shaped.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 15:54:29 GMT
Don't know a thing about wax hardening. We did not use anything in particular to harden our holsters while I briefly made them professionally. We wet fit them and let them dry with the gun blank installed. Dunk tank water was room temp. Sealed with Tan Kote after. Gave the holster all the stiffness it needed, but was really a by product of the fitting/molding process.
So that leads me to this question: If wax hardening reduces the cut resistance, what is the point? Would I be right in assuming this is a process for some other purpose that has simply been applied to recent leather armors for mock combat with wooden swords? To give it say more blunt trauma resistance?
I knew I could boil harden it but I'm pretty sure that will ruin whatever tooling I've applied. I have ruined stuff just using tap water that was too hot. The quality of the leather may have been questionable or maybe I just left it in a few moments too long. Whatever the reason, it sucked to have to start over, so I will admit to being gunshy of that method.
And you are right, used 6 oz leather.
Can you tell me where to find some good information on wax hardening, I think that would be much better suited to my purposes here.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 16:08:07 GMT
Impressive...I didn't read the whole post, did you hand tool the leather?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 16:17:41 GMT
Ichiban-- Thank you brother. It was a great learning project. I will admit there is quite a bit that could and probably should have been done better. In essence I was simply throwing together pieces to see how to fit them all together. But since it was a bit of an undertaking, I thought it would be worth it to at least attempt to make it look nice.
Things I've learned for the next one?
/The bowl needed to be wider at the bottom. I didn't have room to properly install the suspension system I had envisioned. /The plates should be double layered. I've found from making belts that two layers of thinner leather is much stiffer and more supportive than a single layer of much thicker leather. /The skirts should come further around, to my tastes anyway. /The leather lacing does not work very well for the skirts. I was just experimenting so used what was on hand. /The 'ears' on the top skirt should have been integral and not added on. It was a mid process change. /The plates should either be riveted and overlapping or stitched with good thread into a rib.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 16:18:36 GMT
Ebon, yes. Hand tooled. One of the things that added to the man hours. Worth it though.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 18:13:18 GMT
Wax hardening, you are correct, was not a technique for hardening armour. It was used for just about everything else made out of leather that needed some significant stiffness. It's used in leather armours now because it works just fine for blunt trauma (perhaps even slightly better than water hardening) and runs no risk of damaging any tooling.
You Can water harden without harming your tooling. Good luck when/if you decide how to do it. It takes some serious skill. I'm not that good yet.
Wax hardening resources can be found all over the place. There are certain parts that remain consistent, however: First, and more important, find a wax or wax mix you like for price and toughness that won't melt when being worn in the sun (50/50 Carnauba/Beeswax is the most common, in my experience).
Second, prepare your leather with all the tooling and anything else you're doing to it.
3rd, Melt/mix wax.
Most people I have spoken to use ovens but... 4th, bake leather in intended shape (most people go for 200 degrees F) while brushing on wax until wax soaks through to the underside.
5th, cool the leather.
And then wear it.
Should work great for 6 oz leather. And for some real protection against blunt trauma, put another layer of 4 to 6 oz soft leather under it for padding. Or use a more popular gambeson.
But you'll have no cut protection, whatsoever. That may or may not be a problem.
But if it's just for show/Renne Faires, it should be just fine as is. Light, cool and awesome looking.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 19:34:17 GMT
Ebon, yes. Hand tooled. One of the things that added to the man hours. Worth it though. I'll say; the Maple Leafs just pop out at you- making this helmet head and shoulders above (pun intended) the competition. Well done!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 23:49:48 GMT
That's amazing work! Are you planning on eventually completing a whole set or are you good with just the helmet?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 1:43:46 GMT
Taran, Thanks for the info and advice. I do appreciate it and I will do some looking into it to decide on whether or not to use it. I noticed when I first started making holsters that the old timers in the shop wanted nothing to do with anything new and I have to admit falling victim to that myself time to time. Foolish, but I try to keep an open mind. Just doesn't always work. I'll have to look into the benefits.
Ebon, Thank you very much. With the lessons learned it gives me some ideas about how to do it better next time, but that'll be a while off.
Pepper, I appreciate the compliment friend. Yes, I do intend to do a full set of armor, continuing with the oak/maple leaf pattern. A face mask will be next and from there I will move on to the rest, piece by piece. Originally I had wanted to do a breast/ chest piece similar to the blue warrior with the zero on his chest in Last Samurai, but I wouldn't be able to apply the leaves so will likely do something more traditional in construction. It will be similar to samurai armor but I will not be going to any lengths to use traditional construction or anything else to make it historical. I just want it to be comfortable, look good and worst case, to protect me from zombie bites.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 2:27:50 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2009 3:05:05 GMT
Thanks Terry. In fact, that is the very thread that inspired me to attempt this.
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