Dan Pike's Armour

Dan wants an armour for SCA fighting in Estrella War in Arizona. On a recommendation, he found me, and found this blog, where he saw the effort I put into making armour that looks good. I think I do that, and the price stays down because I stick to my knitting...basic good armour. My armour is pretty basic armour, and seems to not take a huge amount of time to get reasonably good results. The armour below is completely sixteen gauge steel front and back, the buckles are industrial roll buckles and belts from the harware store (they are usually used to hold tool belts onto construction workers) Not period, I know, but cheap and easily changed if Dan decides to go for my handmade buckles in the future.
The first picture below is the breastplate in the morning sun. As I write this, a lot more work has been done. But it is all in the leathering...grin!
Below is a fine picture of the backplate. Dan decided to try out the three piece suit. I call it the three piece because it is three pieces in the chest, three pieces in the back, and three pieces in the faulds. The result is really nice. I installed buckles made by my apprentice Andrea, and a fine job she did too! Those big square centre bar buckles are solid brass. And please note that those buckles are included in the price...harumph.

Below you can see the "reveal", that is to say, the shadow line formed by the armour. If you look closely, you can see the leather which I install on the steel to prevent it from scratching the piece below it. This leather has a name..."picadills". Normally it is made so that you can't see them, like in this example, (though you can "just" when you click on the picture and look closely) but sometimes when you want them to show, they can provide a nice contrasting line of colour. The picadills are made to wear out instead of the armour wearing out. Sometimes in museums of real battle armour, you can see slots and gaps worn into the underlying armour by the constant wearing and scratching of the top armour, particularly on the back plates which tend to be thinner anyway. The picadills are normally mounted with copper nails so that they will be easier to replace when the time comes. As has been done here.

Above you can see a real side angle shot of the armour. The strap has been mounted to fit underneath the metal (giving Dan's shoulders a much appreciated cushion) and as you can see, it is pretty stiff. Needs some neatsfoot oil me-thinks. Oh well, leather maintenance is one of the fun jobs, along with sanding. Speaking of which, please note that there has not been any sanding of the steel after it was shaped...that shiny look is entirly from the wheel. If he wants to sand the armour, there will be plenty of time to do that in the next few years as it WILL rust a bit, from his sweat if nothing else.

I especially like this view since it shows the space I made for his shoulder blades really nicely.

Tomorrow, I'll put up the pics of the breastplate. Leava a comment somebody!!!!