Hardened Leather Armor And Tooling

[KingDominoQ]

Anyone know what the best order of operations would be for creating functional leather armor, strong enough to stop a blade or say tooth and claw attacks, and still be tooled to look amazing?

Do you tool then harden or do you tool during the armorizing process... Basically when can you add the flourishes to armor without sacrificing too much functionality?

[PutnamLeather]

Hello,

All I can say is that I've been looking around for a while now and haven't found anything usefull. There's some articles about boiling the leather but never mention the exact process. I know it can be done somehow because I've seen it, but whoever knows how I guess isn't talking.

[ChuckBurrows]

Tool first then harden - use a thick /hard enough leather to beging with and it won't change the abilities - but how well it protects depends on several factors not just hardness - for some of he best info on cuir bouilli aka boiled leather (not really boiled) see here: http://www.personal....leather/hl.html

Edited December 15, 2012 by ChuckBurrows

[PutnamLeather]

Wow, that's awesome. Thanks Chuck.

[Dwight]

I don't have the reference, . . . but there was a piece about leather armor being used by the Romans, and I think the emphasis was more on a "dress armor" that would provide a level of protection well above none at all, . . . it was very well decorated, . . . kinda like the old "Sunday go to meetin' suit" idea.

Supposedly the person who would wear it was the model, . . . they would put on a long sleeve, tight fitting shirt type garment, . . . then the leather would be litterally boiled in wax, . . . pulled out, . . . and form fitted to the person, . . . as they lay on a table. Once it cooled, . . . it would be trimmed, decorated, and worn.

Again, . . . hearsay, . . . but it makes sense to me. I tested a piece once, . . . some 14/15 oz veg tan, . . . immersed in liquid parrafin, . . . I didn't have a knife I could have stuck through it if it were armor on someone I wanted to hurt.

I also have a set I made for a Centurion costume, . . . it's about 10oz, . . . only hot water hardened, . . . but it is very rigid.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited December 16, 2012 by Dwight

[ReneeCanady]

Cuir bouilli is a term to look up on the internet meaning boiled leather. I have seen a few decent videos on youtube I believe for it. You should tool before you shape/boil the project. I know one of the cuir bouilli methods also talks about beeswax and baking it in the oven as well. I have beeswaxed and baked mugs before and it hardens them right up.