Simple Leather Armor

[TRed01]

Hi everybody, this is my first post here on leatherworker.net and let me begin by saying that this community is awesome!

I'm a huge fan of medieval fantasy LARPs (Live Action Role Play) and I was planning on making a very simple leather armor but being a complete newbie to the subject I need some help. I know that probably a beginner shouldn't try to do something like this but it's something I've been thinking about for quite a bit now.

So here's the questions, the allowed materials are "soft" non-worked leather (at least 4mm thick) and the hard one (at least 2mm thick), since I've no idea of the cost, what's the average price per m^2 (or square foot) of these materials? Is there a good seller in europe that ships to Italy? I don't need high quality leather since it's only for fun.

What are the essential tools of the trade?

Do you know of a particular good book or guide that could help me?

Thank you!

[Dwight]

I used vegetable tanned leather for my armor, . . . made to look like the statue of Agustus Caesar (I believe it is in Rome???).

It is about 4mm thick, . . . and I paid about seven dollars US per square foot for it.

The wonderful thing about this type of leather, . . . it is easily worked, . . . cut, . . . sewn, . . . all that working stuff, . . . until you are ready to finish it.

Then you dunk the whole thing in very warm water (around 130 deg F), . . . then mold it to the shape you want it, . . . let it dry, . . . and it will dry fairly hard.

I made a mold of my upper body, . . . and did the above process, . . . and now I have my alter ego: Centurion Salvatorus Antonio, Centurion of Capernaum, of the Sixth Legion.

May God bless,

Dwight

[ReneeCanady]

The way Dwight explained it is exactly how I did mine. The armor on my husband is thicker though. His is about 8-9oz. The leather set on my daughter is about 5oz.

[TRed01]

Thank you Dwight (yes the statue of Augustus Caesar is in Rome inside the Vatican Museums) and Renee for the useful infos and also the armors you made are very good looking! I've still some trouble in finding the right seller, last one I browsed was selling leather for 80€ per squared meter but I guess that was probably some kind of high quality material. Is there a way to dye or paint the leather?

[Dwight]

Absolutely, . . . you can dye vegetable tanned leather or you can paint it.

I have done both, . . .

Depending upon the color you want to finally wind up with, . . . it should not be terribly expensive. One quart of dye is about 30 dollars US, . . . and will easily do the whole armor that Renee did for her husband.

You can also buy drum dyed leather if you can find the color you want. That is what I did for my armor.

Renee (it looks like) also added different colored strips to both her husband and daughters armor, . . . which is a technique I prefer, rather than trying to make the same piece become different colors. That works very well when you are not doing delicate or intricate designs.

What "period" of armor are you attempting to duplicate, . . . or is it just open imagination?

May God bless,

Dwight

[ReneeCanady]

The men's armor set is veg tanned leather dyed black. The chest is made of 4 pieces of leather on each side. The bottom of each piece was not dyed ( the strip), it was oiled an tanned in the sun. Then the entire suit was "finished" at the same time. The female armor set is also veg tanned leather and was dyed completely black and then I used acrylic leather blue dye on the edges. The design on the female leather armor was don't with paint markers that just happened to match perfectly to the light blue acrylic dye.

[TRed01]

Thank you very much for the useful infos!

[electrathon]

I made a mold of my upper body, . . . and did the above process, . . . and now I have my alter ego: Centurion Salvatorus Antonio, Centurion of Capernaum, of the Sixth Legion.

Dwight,

You set yourself up for this. If you molded this to your body you have the strangest shaped man boobs and six pack ever. LOL

Aaron

[Dwight]

What can I say, . . . the centurions of that day were a strange lot, . . . just following in the footsteps,................

Actually, . . . I modeled it somewhat after Ceaser Augustus statue, and a couple more I saw here and there. The "up and over" inverted C above the abdomen was a piece of rubber hose I had laying around, . . . needed something there to add a little rigidity, . . . it worked.

Anyway, . . . most of the folks are too fascinated with all the other accouterments, . . . the armor gets a pass.

May God bless,

Dwight

[TRed01]

@Dwight, sorry I just realized your post above mine. I'm interested in replicating some fantasy medieval armors like the ones you see in movies like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones etc. Something like this for example:

Of course I don't pretend to get this level of detail, just the shape would be fine

Edited December 17, 2013 by TRed01

[Dwight]

Actually, . . . that should be fairly simple to make.

It looks like the builder sewed a cloth backing onto the leather, . . . and may have riveted the whole thing together, . . .

If you look at my image, . . . make the pieces in the order of the numbers, . . . 1, then 2, the 3, etc.

Make each one an inch taller and an inch wider than they will show when finally done for pieces 1, 2, and 3. Number 4 needs to be longer than shown so it can be sewn onto 5.

Then sew 2 onto the top of 1, three onto the top of 2, both 4's on the sides, both 5's on the top, and complete with # 6. Or you an rivet them together in the same sequence.

You could make this from thin leather cut with scissors to really thick stuff for wooden sword competition.

I'd also buy pre dyed leather for this, . . . saves a lot of work.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited December 17, 2013 by Dwight

[TRed01]

Thanks, Dwight! Your instructions are very clear! I need it to be at least 4mm thick which is the minimum allowed by the rules of the game I play. So I basically have two options: 1) I could make the general shape with 4mm leather and then apply on top of it 2mm thick leather crust to make all the details or 2) make everything with 4mm leather.

Also when do I have to boil the leather to harden it? Do I boil it after I've sewn all the pieces togheter?

Edited December 18, 2013 by TRed01

[Dwight]

Thanks, Dwight! Your instructions are very clear! I need it to be at least 4mm thick which is the minimum allowed by the rules of the game I play. So I basically have two options: 1) I could make the general shape with 4mm leather and then apply on top of it 2mm thick leather crust to make all the details or 2) make everything with 4mm leather.

Also when do I have to boil the leather to harden it? Do I boil it after I've sewn all the pieces togheter?

Stop right there my friend.

We don't BOIL the leather. All we do is dunk it in hot water. And the water should NOT be hot enough to burn your hand.

It should not be over 130 degrees farenheit.

Do all the construction work, . . . sewing, buckles, rivets, cutting, . . . . get all that done first. THEN, . . . dunk it in a big pan of really warm water. Using 4mm leather, it should probably be in there about 30 seconds or so, . . . you want to make sure it gets water all the way through, . . . not just the surface.

Then, . . . carefully hand mold it to the final shape you want it to be. Be very careful to roll out the edges of the neck hole and arm holes, . . . it will cut down on chafing later on, . . . as well as rolling up the bottom edge a bit. That will add immense strength to the bottom panels of your armor.

AFTER you have molded it to the shape, . . . put it in front of a fan or lay it where there is a lot of good air circulation. You want to leave it alone for at least 24 hours, . . . LET IT DRY. Moving it about while it is drying will result it a less than satisfactory product.

After it is dry, . . . you can stain or paint it to your heart's content, . . .

AND, . . . don't forget to bring pictures back here and let us see the final product.

May God bless,

Dwight