Leatherclad Warrior

[shanmonster]

I have begun making my leather armour. I am now in the process of experimenting with boiled leather. Wish me luck. This could be grotesque.

....

10 seconds doesn't do much.
25 seconds makes it a bit stiff.
I'm drying the 1-minute boil to see how that goes.

....

The one-minute boil seems to do the trick with the coat leather I'm using. It shrinks the leather a little bit, and gives it a good stiffness. Any longer, and I think I'd end up with cooked leather, rather than stiffened leather.

Now that I've figured out what works, I'm going to cut out lots more leather leaves for the leather leaf armour. Here's hoping I end up with something bot serviceable and not too fugly.

Comments

[mysteryelfx.livejournal.com]

My husband makes leather armor. Full breastplates, legs, arms, shoulders, etc. His technique is to soak the leather in water until it stops bubbling, shape it (he hammers it like metal) and then bake it on low heat in the oven until it's done. He watches it constantly. He fights in the SCA with this armor and it's pretty damn awesome. Let me see if I can find a photo of it and I'll post it for you. Don't know if that's what you are going for. Looks like you're wanting to do scales rather than large pieces. I think the same technique would work, but smaller pieces will shrink faster being baked than larger pieces. Good luck with that!

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'm using garment leather, because that's what I have. It's from old leather jackets and the like, and I'm trying to use the thicker stuff.

I'm assuming he uses heavier stuff, like saddle leather. Am I correct?

[mysteryelfx.livejournal.com]

Yes, he uses very thick leather. It's almost 1/4" thick. He just said it's like 14/15 oz. The hat I'm wearing in my icon is the same leather he used for the armor. I don't know if you can tell how thick it is.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Nice! I'd love to use that sort of leather, but I can't afford it.