Progressing with laser-cut plates...

[schindibee]

Hi there!

For my armor project I designed some armour plates and figuring that especially big quantities of plates could easily be mass-produced, I gave the drawings to a local company for laser-cutting. Maybe not period conform, but I guess we all have to make more or less adaptations to modern life, yes?

I could pick up my material a few days ago, so I'd like to show you how it looks and what I make out of it. Still very much in the experimental phase, so don't expect anything finished yet haha!

Here the designed plates I had cut for me (measurments in cm):


The narrow plates on the left will be for my haidate and will be connected with kusari, the big ones in the middle for kote (some hard 'islands' in the kusari of the upper arms), and finally the small kikkô-plates I want to use for tateage and maybe for a manchira...


And this is what I got! 60x narrow plates, 20x bog ones, and a full 750x small kikkô-plates (I may have overcalculated a bit there...). From now on the tape shows inches, btw.


This a very first section of my haidate-armor: per panel I will make three rows of vertically mounted plates, connected by kusari. Of course the plates will be dished and painted black before actually mounting them on the kusari. Not sure if I will also attempt painting the kusari or if I simply "blackburn" it...


...and also the kote kusari and plates (and the splints which I still need to design) will be treated similarily. The preview here still has copper-placeholders instead of the final steel ones.


Possible layout of tateage with kikkô-plates. The base cloth and the plates here will then be covered with a dark blue fabric.


I first had some trouble getting my braid through the 2.5mm holes of the plates (easy) and the textiles (not easy), as the braid still frayed a bit when melted to a point and fiddling it through pre-pierced cloth. Finally I found a good solution by twisting the braid very tightly, soaking it with superglue and then cutting and sanding the thus hardened part into a kind of needle tip with which also the textiles could be pierced easily!


And behold, a very small very first proof-of-concept patch of kikkô-armour! You note that the hexes are not perfectly regular - I guess I have to work on the way how to mark not only the base fabric with the pattern, but also on the covering fabric...

It already looks not too bad! Of course I would have to dish the kikkô-plates lightly, but as I worked in the middle of the night (just couldn't go to sleep without experimenting with the plates) and my neighbors don't appreciate hammering at 1 am, I used non-dished plates for the first trial...

[AJBryant]

Cool, but one note. Usually, no plates are flat -- the rectangular plates need a slightly curved profile, and the kikko all need to be "cupped."

You know, you could always sell extra kikko in batches of fifty or so.

[schindibee]

Yes, I'm aware of the fact that all plates are curved, and this I will also do of course. Just haven't done it yet as I still need the proper equipment for it (will build a comb-like jig for the different curvatures I will need) and - to be honest - I was just too impatient to wait with experimenting around... ;D

Hey, selling the spare kikkô is a great idea! Especially as they didn't come too cheap. Guess would be about 70$ per bag of fifty...

[nismos14270r]

This looks great! Definitely interested in getting some plates made like this in the future.

I'm quite curious about the kusari... Are you making all of your horizontal links yourself? If so, whats your process?

Also, when you say blackburn, do you mean oil blackening? I've toyed with this idea myself, but I have never actually used the process on anything. What I used to paint my first kote was flat black rustoleum, and then a coat of matte polyurethane sealer. It worked out surprisingly well. No chips or missed spots and looks great. However I connected everything together and then painted all at once. In the future I'd like to powder coat my plates first, and paint the chain separately, and I don't see my method surviving the assembly process too well... Maybe oil blacked chain would hold up better?

[schindibee]

I make all links by winding steel wire slowly around a brass rod (5mm for the round flat rings, 4mm for the oval vertical ones) into a spring.



For the oval rings I take this spring and carefully flatten it by squeezing it in a vice. Doesn't work all the times, but I find it easier than flattening the spring with a hammer. The individual links are then clipped off with a side cutter.

I find making kusari is a great thing to do while watching (or better listening) to the TV! What you see in the pic with the kote kusari was done while "watching" Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, I think. The three small strips in the haidate plate pic were qickly done whithin two sitcom episodes, so maybe 40, 50 minutes?

Maybe in the future I will also try to make those characteristic double-wire links, but for now stay with the simple version.

Yes I guess what I mean with blackburning would be what you describe with oil blackening: For an experiment I dipped a patch of kusari into linseed oil, then heating the whole thing with a gas burner. This I repeated until all links were nicely darkened. The kusari got a nice, slightly old looking aspect which could be quite attractive (I'll post a pic later).

Don't know yet though how this will look in connection with the black armour plates. Guess I'll have to experiment some more! ;D

[AJBryant]

I am a great fan of DVDs and reruns when lacing armour or doing mail work.

It's best with stuff you've seen before -- you don't pay attention QUITE as much.

[schindibee]

...which reminds me: I still need to get me the first "Game of Thrones" season on DVD! ;D

Some more pics...


My little wooden block with the tiny dish to smack my kikkô-plates...


Close-up of oil-blackened kusari-patch: The rings are a bit brownish, which is not well visible here. The problem is getting a nicely homogenous colour for all the rings...


...and a comparison between untreated (l.) and oil-blackened kusari. Difficult to take a picture which correctly shows how it looks in real life...

What are your experiences with spray-painting the kusari? I'm a bit afraid it's not very durable and prone to chip off paint everywhere where the rings move around.

Do you pre-treat the rings somehow (apart of cleaning with acetone)? And isn't it a problem to hurt the paint layer when attaching the plates and closing the rings with the rough edges/surfaces of the pliers?

[nismos14270r]

The first set of chain that I spray painted turned out really nice, this is the only picture I have at the moment, I'm offshore right now.



Its hard to tell in the picture, but its a deep yet matte finish. It definitely looks like something thick was painted on, like its not quite perfect, which is the look I was going for. I've never seen well preserved lacquered chain in person, so this is the best guess I have for how it should look.

As far as how I achieved this, I think materials have a lot to do with it. I used mild steel in the picture. I tried with aluminum rings, and it worked, but the paint wouldn't stick nearly as well. I tumbled the rings in the dryer while in a cloth sack. This was great for removing built up junk off the rings. Then I washed and cleaned them. Next, while the chain and plates were separate, I built up my paint layers on my plates, but I didn't apply the final top coats. Same with the chain. Once everything was dry, Then I connected everything together. I spray painted a uniform finish on the chain and plates. Finally, I used a foam brush and applied the urethane sealer on everything, and let dry for about 2 days before I moved anything.

Thats how it looked before final painting.

Next, I'm going to experiment with spraying a urethane automotive paint on individual rings, and then assembling them using nylon jaw pliers like these theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=69&cat=Pliers . I think I'll also play around with oil blackening too. I have a blacksmith down the road that said he'll help me out. I'll figure something out eventually!

Also, I don't do any fighting or even really wear anything that I make. So I cant really advise on durability under heavy use.

[pallidus]

How thick is the metal you are cutting these out of? And what size laser did you use to cut that with?

Depending on the metal thickness, I'll take a bag of fifty kikko right now! Actually you dont even need to dish them, I can smashy them myself!

[schindibee]

Hehe, I have no idea what laser the company uses that made them for me. Just designed the pieces in CAD and handed them the STEP-files...

The kikkô-plates are in 1mm ( a wee bit thicker than 20 gauge) thick stainless steel (contrary to the 'normal' steel used for the other pieces): I thought stainless may be a smarter option for the kikkô as they're not painted and are used in areas where body sweat and thus corrosion may be a factor...

The plates btw are deburred by vibratory finish, so the edges are quite smooth and shouldn't cut into the surrounding fabric very much.

The plates measure about 0.6x0.7", and the actual hexes formed by them gets to about 0.75x0.9", as I mount them with a gap of about 4mm (0.16"). Meaning I will need about 50-60 per single tateage...

Oh, and a bit off topic: when will you gentlemen from over the pond switch to the much simpler to use metric system? *evil grin*

[schindibee]

Oh, and an additional number: the four holes are 2.5mm (0.1") in diameter, allowing the 5mm braid I use for the kikkô to fit just perfectly...

[AJBryant]

Lookin good brah.

[schindibee]

Got a bit of work done with my little plates this weekend...



So now off to the second tateage and to the store to get me some bias tape! ;D

[meskeram]

That looks really slick. I am loving the orange too.

Adam Mesker

[schindibee]

Hah! I found an obsolete piece of aluminium at work with holes close in size of what I wanted for the curvature of my narrow haidate plates, and had our workshop guy cut it for me:



Like this I got a nice little template to dish my plates uniformly!

Now I just need the same for the bigger plates, with less curvature...