First Armor Piece

[vaguesilhouette]

Woohoo, so I spent all night working on this piece and i'm pretty excited about it, especially considering it was a learning piece. basically the whole thing was built in one go with some trial an error. i'm way too cheap to buy patterns. i also ran out of rivets after i put together the thumb cover, and didn't have any for the bracers. I also added restraining straps on the interior of the gauntlet so it stays on your hand now.. to lazy to retake the pictures though =P

Critique welcome! also, if anyone knows a good place with free armor patterns that would be excellent.

[hivemind]

Looks like you already found the clamshell gauntlet pattern from here: http://www.bladeturner.com/pattern/clamgaunt/clamgaunt.html

FYI, it's customary to give credit for other's help or patterns.

I thought it was a pretty poor thumb design, and clearly you didn't like the cuff. How's it working out for you?

[vaguesilhouette]

Looks like you already found the clamshell gauntlet pattern from here: http://www.bladeturn.../clamgaunt.html

FYI, it's customary to give credit for other's help or patterns.

I thought it was a pretty poor thumb design, and clearly you didn't like the cuff. How's it working out for you?

yeah that was the only site i found with any guides on a pretty quick search. that being said, there's a lot that i'm going to change in any subsequent designs. there's really too many unnecessary pieces that make it stiff and somewhat complicated. in addition, if you don't use the right arc length for the ovalaid pieces they tend to wrinkle up near the rivet in the middle. it looks fine but i'm planning on refining it and going to an overlapping panel type gauntlet. i also made the hand part a little too small, but again, it was basically a first try at anything like this. i only started doing leatherwork a few weeks ago. =) As far as the thumb design goes, it really only covers to the knuckle, because the gauntlet overlaps a little when you make a fist so you're still covered. I'm considering doing a fingered glove type guantlet for my next armor piece, or possibly a shoulder/arm piece. its either that or a helm. =)

the cuff was also a not quite what i was going for so i attached it to a pretty basic bracelet that i stitched to some basic bracers i made.

i'll cite any resources for patterns i use in the future =P

[hivemind]

Here's the sword-hand one I made from the same pattern: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=24499

I reworked the thumb entirely.

[Thistledown]

If it's just a "dress" gauntlet, it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt. However, if you plan to use in any any sort of combat, I'd suggest adding some felt or closed-cell foam padding. Plain leather alone won't do much to protect from bruised or cracked knuckles .

Edited November 19, 2010 by Thistledown

[vaguesilhouette]

If it's just a "dress" gauntlet, it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt. However, if you plan to use in any any sort of combat, I'd suggest adding some felt or closed-cell foam padding. Plain leather alone won't do much to protect from bruised or cracked knuckles .

Yeah, i'm not in any SCA type activities atm, but i like them... i use to dagorhir in KC but haven't in a few years. if i did start up again i'd pad it pretty seriously. any functional armor i'll probably make with actual liner or covered padding =P

i did actually play around with what it would be like wearing it and punching something... it was painful, lol. rough dry leather doesn't feel pleasant against your knuckles.

[vaguesilhouette]

Here's the sword-hand one I made from the same pattern: http://leatherworker...showtopic=24499

I reworked the thumb entirely.

Hey, thats actually the way i was thinking of redesigning the entire piece, referring to the layered thumb cover. that makes it looks much nicer btw. totally agree with you on the rubbish pattern as well... but its not a bad starting place if you have no idea what you're doing. =P

oddly enough, i had also considered doing a triweave pattern on my hand piece but decided in the end i needed practice tooling so went with the wing design instead.

looks pretty awesome

Edited November 19, 2010 by vaguesilhouette

[hivemind]

If it's made of Dag-legal armor leather (12oz or thicker) then all it takes is a little foam. I used 6mm and 2mm fun foam.

[jinrui73]

When you guys make armor, is it raw leather or do you actually harden it? I understand that re-enactment stuff doesn't need to protect from live blades as much as blunt weapons, just curious though.

-jerry

[hivemind]

I generally just waterform things, which lends a good bit of hardness to them, but I also have a pot of beeswax which I occasionally use. For what I do, though, there's no need for serious hardening.