Yet Another Update on Armor for Kids

Finally got the front stitched together today. Ran into issues with that including broken thread. I’m learning as I go. Sort of on-the-job-training. It’s been fun and my fingers are not nearly as sore as they were after the back half stitching.

I believe I’ve convinced my over zealous evil half to keep the project simple. The end product is for a costume not for all out neighbourhood warfare. So instead of going nuts, I’m just going to add a small decorative feature to the front on the basic cuirass. I settled on a cross pattee.

While waiting on the dye to dry on the front, I cut out the cross. I could have stayed simpler and tooled it into the leather directly. Given I made the decision after the initial round of dye was on, that was not an option.

Sketching the Cross

Once sketched, I transferred the pattern to the leather and used a hobby knife to cut it out. Not perfect but close enough for Sir Dylan the Skinny. He won’t notice the imperfections.

Adornment Atop the Top

Once the dye has dried fully on the front, I’ll finish it off with a second coat to get a uniform color. The cross will need burnishing, dying and can then be stitched onto the base. I haven’t settled on a color for the cross yet.

I should also get a second test fitting in this weekend so I can position shoulder and side straps. Then I’ll have to cut those, burnish, dye and attach. Once I have all those techniques tested, I can try out something fancier.

I like the look thus far. Different than my original vision but still pretty cool. Unsurprisingly, I have at least two additional variants I want to try out. And now I’m a wholesale member at the leather store.

Rear Half of a Kid’s Cuirass

Rear Half of the Cuirass

Just a minor update on the Armor for Kids project. The photo depicts the rear half of the cuirass after dying and stitching of the basted edges. The completely untouched front half is underneath the rear just waiting for me to get busy. Even without the add-ons or a final finish, I like the look.

The project has taught me a number of lessons. My novice skills are getting tested. I’ll detail the struggles when I have more time.

Update:

This just in, the marketing department of the office supply houses never considered this as a target market. It looks pretty funny.

Front Seam Basting

Armor for Kids Update

Cutting Down to Size

I know better. I really do. Never get fancy with a project of this scale. If I were a married man, I’d be reminded. Left to my own devices, I tend to wander off the path usually led by some mental question like “How hard could it be?”. Obvious to everyone other than me, the answer is pretty difficult. Not impossible but there are so many different techniques I wanted to try, I went a bit crazy.

After chopping the bulk leather down to size, it took some effort to flatten it out before I could lay down the armor template. Just wet the armor and work it opposing the rolled pattern by hand. The leather is 4-5 oz. Pretty light and easy to work with. At least it feels light but my fingers would argue otherwise. More on that later.

Templates Sketched

The pattern transfer was pretty easy. I basically just layed out my template tank top and sketched the outline onto the rough side of the leather. If you are experienced at pattern transfer, one of the most common mistakes mentioned is not allowing extra material along all the edges. Measure twice, cut once and all that general advice. I thought I was but it was insufficient. It would have been fine if I were not apt to change plans in mid-stream. Rule #2. Don’t change plans. Keep it simple stupid (from here forward, you can just exchange stupid with Mark).

Templates Pinned

The rough-cut patterns looked pretty good. Cutting and measuring is pretty straightforward. Accommodating a mental design change is not. Most of the designs I have seen for sale are pretty basic. Just a simple front and back with leather strapping to attach at the sides and at the top across the shoulders. Not me. Oh heck no. Let’s fold the edges for comfort and hand stitch.

Front Rough Cut

I haven’t done much hand stitching. Nor did I plan for it in the design. I should have paused but I did not. The muse in the back of my head kept saying to do something different and cool. Ahh muse, you have no idea how my fingers feel. If you want to fold the leather and glue it for stitching, binder clips work pretty well. I own a lot of them now.

Welt Gluing

Due to the minimal amount of extra material I had at my disposal, the folds were very narrow. Insufficient for good bonding to make stitching easy. I probably should have made a different pattern to work with but I am a stubborn sort.

Stitching Take #1

My fingers are sore from the effort but I do like the look. I added hours to the project by taking this route but I can always backtrack to something less complicated. I may have to rethink the additions I was pondering beyond hand stitching. My stitching is getting more consistent but still is not impressive.

Measuring for Body Defense Armor

As I mentioned in my prior post on the topic, I used the Chapter 12 guide in Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction The 14th Century for measuring. The particular section is Cuirass / Body Defense measurements on pages 145-146. As the text notes, taking body defense measurements is quite similar to those used for a seamstress for typical garments. Measurements should be taken over arming coats, gambesons or other clothing that will be worn underneath the final product.

Given I’m constructing costume quality material for a child, only a thin shirt will be under the leather. He may need a larger coat if the weather is frigid. I’ll leave that up to the parents. For the measurements, my target was Sir Dylan the Skinny. Well into his 6th year, he doffs shirts of size 6-7 when not equipped for battling the local villains.

Sir Dylan the Skinny

Sir Dylan measured out as follows in the key areas using a cloth tape measure.

1. Chest Circumference: 21.5″ at the thickest part of the chest, which is typically around the nipple line.
2. Waist Circumference: 20.5″ taken just above the hips.
3. Neck Hollow to Front Bend: 5.5″ This measurement is from the throat’s hollow down to the point where the armor would bend at the waist. If you are skilled, this is point where the faulds would begin.
4. Arm Opening to Arm Opening: 9″ Used to determine the useful width of the armor between the arms, as taken across the chest at the bottom of the arm/shoulder joint. Roughly, it is the top of the armpit as diagrammed b the text. If too wide in this location, armor will reduce motion.
5. Hip Length: Not taken. Bend in the waist to the bottom of the fauld line. I was working off the diagram in the book and this measurement is not pictured in either of the diagrams.

The text also lists an additional 8 optional measurements.

1. Neck Opening: 6″ Measured at each side of the neck to allow easy head movement.
2. Shoulder Point to Neck Opening: 3″ Taken from the neck opening to the edge of the shoulder. Useful if you are adding pauldrons. If I do, it will be an add-on to the initial build.
3. Back Shoulder Point to Shoulder Point:: 10″ Similar to the arm opening to arm opening measurement above but take on the back to indicate maximum width along the back for arm motion.
4. Cervical Vertebrae to the Small of the Back: 14″ Indicates overall length of the back piece.
5. Arm Opening to Waist Bend: 7″ Used to leave approximately 1/4 of the space below the arm pit for arm motion. Also indicates the length of the cuirass from the fauld line to the arm opening.
6. Small of the Back to Lower Fauld Line: 6″ Measures the length of the rear faulds. Text notes that the rear faulds cover less than the front faulds. Especially important if the armor is for mounted combat. Don’t want your faulds bunch up on your back when pinched against a saddle, do you? I probably didn’t need the measurement.
7. Hip Circumference: 23″ Allows armor to tailor around the hips.
8. Shoulder Blade to Shoulder Blade: Not taken. Measured on the back. Aids in determining the cut of the back plate.

Hopefully, from the descriptions you get the general idea. I was going to include a diagram but my drawing skills are suspect. I considered scanning the drawings from the text but I question if it would be considered fair use. My tact is to always lean on the safe side when utilizing other people’s work. I was hoping to get some pictures while measuring but camera-mom was busy with other things.

Next up, I’ll be cutting some cardboard templates to test fit based on the original shirt I procured and the measurements.

Mom! I’m going to be a knight!

As an Uncle I’m convinced I’m overwhelmed. I just don’t have the defensive skills built up over time the parents do. Being an uncle lucky enough to have the niece and nephew close by, my role has become something mixed between being a role model like the parents, completely spoiling them like a grandparent, and flummoxing in the middle. I’m convinced my brother and sister-in-law are amused by watching me stumble into obligations I never really intended. Maybe they just like watching the uninitiated walk blindly into the obvious kid-traps.

The day started innocently enough. I had an email from Kevin stating one of the oddball queries to the site. His entire email was:

The query was: leather armor for kids 11 and older.
Sounded right up your DIY alley

In the hours preceding that, I’d been poking around trying to find a decent non-fantasy, non-SCA leather armor. Fate? Maybe. Conspiracy between parents to contrive an uncle trap? Unlikely.

I love leather. The smell, the feel, the workability of the material. Even behind the scenes of plate armor, it is the workhorse for strapping. The historical record is less than even spotty. Leather deteriorates quickly and disappears. After a few hours of surfing, I came up with nothing I wanted to use as a template.

Then I came upon a site I didn’t bookmark about working with metal armor. I wish would have bookmarked the site for quoting but essentially his opinion about patterns was to look and discard them. I’ll paraphrase his statements: “Patterns are a starting place. They do not scale over different body types. A big 6′ 6″ set of armor scaled down to fit a skinny 5′ 5″ person doesn’t work. Know the material and how it works.”

I cannot argue with his wisdom. For a child, the obvious starting point would be to make an elongated leather vest. Something in between a fancy jerkin and a gambeson. Templates for a vest are easy. The kid’s section is full of tank-tops at low prices in every discount store. I found them for $2 each on a discount rack. Slightly oversized for the kids. Room for growth.

I could have started crafting. I did not. By some strange coincidence, the night before I’d leafed through my copy of Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction The 14th Century by Brian R. Price. The book has a chapter (12) on measuring people for armor.

Here I was staring at my $2 template laying on a table. Ready to craft. Then I realized it was ugly. Straight sides. It didn’t even make an attempt to dip inward below the chest to fit even slightly. If you have followed this far along, the realization should have been — “Dear Uncle Mark, Fit doesn’t really matter to a kid”.

I’m not a bright uncle. Ugly doesn’t really work. So I loaded up my tape measure and headed over to my brother’s to measure a real kid. When I showed up, both kids were gone down the block playing. My nephew, Dylan, was kind enough to come home.

I put the template shirt on him. Then measured him sixteen different ways. At the end, he pointed over at the armour book and asked “Does that have knight stuff in it?” The book has more “knight stuff” than any other book I know. He was fixated on the armor pictures. He loved every picture of the knights but didn’t care much for the process photos.

When his mom came through around 45 minutes later, he jumped up, exclaimed, “Mom! I’m going to be a knight for Halloween”. Dashing to the door, he stopped, “I have to go tell my friends, what time do I have to come home?”

As an Uncle, he’ll be the best knight I can make him. He might forget between now and then but he’ll have the option.

Where are the maces?

Short answer — in the hands of the same people I sent them too. If you are confused, back on July 1st, I mailed off my reproduction maces as an experiment. I know both maces arrived safely at the intended destinations but the resulting updates are underwhelming.

Kevin has the 4-flanged mace and the cucumber style mace is in New England. Both maces have been in the hands of the participants for nearly two weeks with barely a peep of response. I was hoping for more instantaneous thoughts upon arrival. None were posted. I was also hoping for photos and/or videos. None have arrived.

I will not call the experiment a failure yet but the results are not what I expected. Finding something to do with the mace is challenging. After all, what role does a medieval crushing weapon have in the modern world? Toss in summer activities and the normal life time constraints, and a 1 week window is overly narrow. Hindsight.

Perhaps my expectations are too high. Perhaps I should have shipped them to unsuspecting people. Maybe the original post will light up. I have my doubts.

The one portion of the experiment playing out nicely is the lack of control.

Mace In the Mail

Packing Up

My maces are already getting a bit dusty. I cannot allow it to continue so they must move and move they will. As I write, I’m packing them up and sending them on a journey I cannot control. Tomorrow, the first of the two maces will be mailed out to a friend of mine.

My intention was to have both packages ready to mail but I apparently failed to measure the head of the second mace properly so it will not fit in the mailing tube. Alas, it will wait another day or so before it departs. Like most projects, this one is well behind schedule for a variety of reasons.

Once the packages have been sent, I have no idea where they will travel or if they will return. If they do make it back to me, it will be interesting to see what they look like.

Included in the package are instructions as follows:

July 01, 2010

Greetings, friend.

By now, you are staring at an odd looking chunk of metal, wood and leather. Welcome to a mixed media project brought to you by the KORE rpg blog – Mace in the Mail. You have received the mace because the previous recipient believed you would appreciate either the physical object or the experiment in general.

I hope you enjoy your time with the mace and feel open to contributing to the project. Without further ado, I shall list the project instructions below.

Thank you for your participation,

-Mark
—

Mace In The Mail

Upon Arrival

After getting over the shock of a mace arriving in the mail, please visit and comment on original the Mace in the Mail blog post on the KORE rpg blog. Feel free to post anonymously. Initial thoughts and reactions would be wonderful in addition to the general location.

Blog Post Location:

Your Week

You are free to do what you wish with the mace except for destroying it. Additions, modifications, and other alterations are acceptable so long as the mace remains a mace. Smash a watermelon, pound in a nail, or squash something with it. Take photos and video as you do. Blog about it and link back to our site. If you do not blog, feel free to email media or links to the mace’s email address. I’ll post updates on the KORE site with new material as they arrive. Be careful, the mace is not a toy – it is a weapon designed to smash armor and harm others.

Photos and Videos:

Send it Along

After having the mace for 7 days, please send it to someone else you know who would appreciate the project. If sending to a different country, verify the shipping regulations for that country. Some, such as Canada, do not allow shipping of even reproduction weapons. Feel free to include a local trinket to mark the mace’s passing such as a post card or other item. If you cannot think of a recipient, email and I’ll send return instructions.

This should be fun. Who will be the first person to get a mace in the mail? Only I know.