Leather Armor Belt

[eatonjar]

I am working on a piece of leather armor and want to have a belt that has a piece that hangs down in the front and leather "plates" that cover the legs. My question is whether it would be better to use a soft veg tanned leather or regular veg tanned leather. My concern with the regular leather is hardening the leather and it being too stiff to walk/sit in. My concern about soft leather is that it may not hold the shape around the legs. In the front, I would think the soft leather would work better since that will likely need more bend in order to sit down and will move easier while walking. I do plan to use 8-9 oz. leather for the belt portion and am thinking about using strap/buckle or some sort of hardware to hold the hanging pieces to the belt so that I can detach the pieces if I choose to do so. I hope this is clear enough of a picture for what I am trying to do, if not I can try to clarify.

Jared

[treybecca]

Any reference pics would be extremely helpful....

[Sporq]

Use a thinner / softer leather, and put the hardened or shaped pieces on it, using the thinner or softer leather like a hinge.

[anhurset]

It sounds to me like you're looking to make a pair of tassets, a hanging sections of armor designed to protect the upper thigh. Tassests came in two forms, articulated panels designed to flex with the wearer and solid sheets which moved only at the belt/fauld attachment point, either way they should be made of stiff leather. You really should look up some armor construction references, the net is filled with free, easy to find armor reference which should give you a better idea of what materials you need. Try looking at the pattern/construction sections at myarmoury.com, the Armour Archive and Arador Armour Library, there are others, but those are the three with the largest active communities and most often updated resources.