Scale mail

Thanks alot for the link Tsafa, lot's of interesting reading to be done there

Try leather. I lot of guys do that and it is both historical (Mongolia) and cheaper. $90 for a side at Springfield leather. Get lowgrade leather for armor.

You can also do it in plastic for FREE. Get carwash barrels and cut them up with a jigsaw. You can get that for free. If it has to be mettle, then you can look for the lids of #10 cans and cut those ups... or you can "acquire" street-signs.

You can expect that you will make mistakes the first time around so I recommend you go cheap. Try the plastic barrels first. Later you can do leather or mettle. Take your time with this project. Spread the work out over a few weeks.

Also check this site out:
www.plasticlamellar.com/index.htm

A bag of 50 plates cost $22 to $24 depending on the style. You will need about 300 pieces. They have a gallery on their site that will also give you design ideas.

Remember the movie Legend with Tom Cruise back in the 80's. I have always wanted to make the gold scale maile that he finds in the cave.

It's not to be missed - at least for seeing his bad teeth!

"Try leather. I lot of guys do that and it is both historical (Mongolia) and cheaper. $90 for a side at Springfield leather. Get lowgrade leather for armor. "

Well if I had vegetable tanned leather I'd probably use it for bracers. What do you mean by $90 for a side?

Where can I get this leather? Do they sell it in smaller amounts? I don't think I'd want to make something extensive enough to need a full twenty square feet. I'll probably only want about ten. Since I'd start off with Bracers, I'd probably just want to start with two square feet.

Which method is best for hardening? I've read about boiling in water, and one that involved a soak in cold water, followed by coating with bee's wax and cooking in an oven.