Making a Coat of Plates
Dec 7, 2011 18:19:20 GMT
Post by Alan Schiff on Dec 7, 2011 18:19:20 GMT
I am starting this thread to detail a project to make a Wisby-style coat of plates. I hope that my efforts may also help others looking to make their own coats in the future.
So after selling my maille I decided I really want another piece of armor and thought that a coat of plates would be relatively inexpensive and easy to make myself. I thought about making my own maille but just don't think I would be patient enough. I tried, unsuccessfully, to make butted maille several years ago and could not even imagine trying to do riveted. So I decided on a coat of plates, specifically I was going to make a reproduction of #19 from Wisby. I've already bought all the materials and all told it's less than $75, much cheaper than buying anything pre-made I can think of.
My plan was to use leather but my local Tandy didn't have anything large enough in my budget, so I ended up with padded vinyl instead, much cheaper and it looks the same on the outside. I cut out the garment Monday night and decided that instead of opening on both sides I wanted to have it open only on the right side, so I modeled it after the #21 coat from Wisby. See pic below.
For the plates I bought a large sheet of 20 gauge steel and spent some time yesterday cutting it into 4-foot lengths to be made into small plates. All told I have 5 lengths at 4 inches wide and 10 lengths at 3 inches wide. Today I will be cutting these into 12 inch lengths before shaping some of them. The plates will range from 12 inches long to 9 inches long and will overlap. I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to get the plates to overlap properly and maintain the same number as in the Wisby coat. I couldn't figure out how to make the numbers for #21 work, so instead I am using the same number of plates as #19, so in the end my coat will be an amalgamation of the two.
Here are pics of my progress so far.
This is the sheet of steel I bought. It is 4 feet by 8 feet, more than I needed but the cheapest I could find.
Here are the 4 inch strips I cut to make 4 inch wide plates.
Here are the 3 inch strips for narrower plates.
And here is the outer garment I will be using.
Thanks for looking, and of course comments are always welcome.
-Alan
So after selling my maille I decided I really want another piece of armor and thought that a coat of plates would be relatively inexpensive and easy to make myself. I thought about making my own maille but just don't think I would be patient enough. I tried, unsuccessfully, to make butted maille several years ago and could not even imagine trying to do riveted. So I decided on a coat of plates, specifically I was going to make a reproduction of #19 from Wisby. I've already bought all the materials and all told it's less than $75, much cheaper than buying anything pre-made I can think of.
My plan was to use leather but my local Tandy didn't have anything large enough in my budget, so I ended up with padded vinyl instead, much cheaper and it looks the same on the outside. I cut out the garment Monday night and decided that instead of opening on both sides I wanted to have it open only on the right side, so I modeled it after the #21 coat from Wisby. See pic below.
For the plates I bought a large sheet of 20 gauge steel and spent some time yesterday cutting it into 4-foot lengths to be made into small plates. All told I have 5 lengths at 4 inches wide and 10 lengths at 3 inches wide. Today I will be cutting these into 12 inch lengths before shaping some of them. The plates will range from 12 inches long to 9 inches long and will overlap. I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to get the plates to overlap properly and maintain the same number as in the Wisby coat. I couldn't figure out how to make the numbers for #21 work, so instead I am using the same number of plates as #19, so in the end my coat will be an amalgamation of the two.
Here are pics of my progress so far.
This is the sheet of steel I bought. It is 4 feet by 8 feet, more than I needed but the cheapest I could find.
Here are the 4 inch strips I cut to make 4 inch wide plates.
Here are the 3 inch strips for narrower plates.
And here is the outer garment I will be using.
Thanks for looking, and of course comments are always welcome.
-Alan