Leather Armour

A pictorial guide

Copyright © 2011 Paul Carpenter

Geared mainly to

the experienced hobbyist, This book

will show you how to make

the Armour illustrated via

text and colour photos.

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Published by Lulu.com

ISBN number 978-1-4478-8536-8

Other publications by Paul Carpenter

Travel;

Six Mountain hikes from around the World

The Moray way and the Ben Macdui Trail

Crafts;

Leather and Wood Crafts

The leather lace Bullwhip

Bows and Arrows, Homemade

Leather Projects

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Contents

Waxing and boiling……..7

Materials and tools used……..9

Making the Chest pieces………11

Making the Helmet……..25

Making the Arm guards……..31

Making the Leggings……..39

Making the Boots…….47

Quiver and Horn attachments……..67

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As always, the procedures outlined within this book you do at your own risk.

Caution – if you do use axes, power tools and other potentially dangerous tools, make sure you know how to use them i.e. how to stand/hold/cut with them – it’s the wood your trying to cut not you or anybody else – use of apparatus (which make bow making easier and safer) such as shave Horse.

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Leather Armour

Within this book I am going to take you through the process’s I used to make a set of Black Armour including the boots for a 12 year old. During the process I used old and improvised methods suitable to the lack of experience and tools I had.

Because this book is set out as more pictorial then written instructions and involves alot of pattern measuring and making, previous leather craft experience would be advantageous, plus the reading of my ‘Leather Projects book’ will cover certain parts of the armour such as stamping or carving leather. I have used a fibreglass horse bow but my ‘Archers Craft book’ may also help in making a flat bow.

Front and back of finished armour.

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7

Wax and boiling

I did not use any wax or boiling for this armour and quite frankly after the experiences I have had with them, I wouldn’t advise it unless you have more than enough experience with them but for those of adventurous spirit..........

My experience of boiling leather amounts to two small samples placed into a pot of boiling water for about 5 seconds. When pulled out it was shrunken shrivelled and very soft......for about 5 seconds then it harden very quickly. If you want to use boiling, your need a huge pot and a solid form to mould the leather onto.

If you want hard leather, buy sole leather or you can now buy readymade plates for the Japanese style of armour.

Waxing leather is easier and safer in my estimates but very messy, so do it outside unless you don’t have a fussy wife, then use the kitchen! First you melt the wax not in direct heat, place the wax in a pan and place that inside a larger pan with hot/boiling water. Once melted use a ladle to pour it onto your leather front and back, once it has set use a hair dryer to re-melt the wax which helps it soak into the leather, Caution – alot will drop off onto the floor.

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9

Materials and tools used

I used three sides of lightweight skirting leather from Tandy’s, you need skirting leather to take advantage of the difference in thickness and density found on these sides. Depending on which colour dye you use your need a 32 oz size bottle of it.

16 x large Sam Browne studs, 40 x small Chicago screws, a mannequins head, black tiger thread (1mm), an oval belt buckle and 2 x 2 inch rings.

Tools include; knife, cutting board or surface you don’t mind cutting into, tracing paper for patterns, cloth plus gloves to soak dye on, stylised tool, leather carving knife plus carving and matting leather tools, an awl blade and saddle needles (the blunt type).

Most, if not all these items can be bought from Tandy and Le Prevo Leather.

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First part of the armour is the chest piece; I took the pattern by wrapping my sons upper body with cling film then coated this with duct tape. On this, I drew the pattern as dictated by the rough sketches and other weird ideas we had onto it with a marker pen. Next, I cut the pattern off very carefully up one side and along the opposite arm to neckpiece.

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Making the Chest Pieces

Place the tracing paper over the pattern and draw – I extended the ends by about an inch to allow for extra room.

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My idea for this chest armour was to create three loops of leather each side which would be laced together, hence the pattern in the first two photos. The last photo shows the middle piece which will go over the shoulders plus the dotted lines indicating where the leather will be cut to account for about an inch of lap over.

This shows the pattern of the three pieces needed for each side – notice also the straight line, this is marked onto the leather to help line them up. Caution you will need to ensure that the inner or the longest piece is scaled down by about a 10th to prevent it bulking up to much under the other two.

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Cutting the chest pieces

Notice how the different pieces are placed onto the skirting side to take most advantage of the properties of the leather (you will need two sides for all the pieces especially if made for an Adult). Because you are cutting out six pieces or two sets of each three lengths, you will need to mark each to ensure you remember where they belong plus mark the centre marks before cutting the leather out.

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Joining the chest pieces together