The deal with kozane (lamellar) - help for a newbie

[Shinjo Takame]

Okay, so I’ve been researching how to get my own lamellar and the various parts of the armour and what they look like. The idea of learning lacing, bit by bit, maybe starting small by making my own Sode and/or haidate and then move on to something big like a do when I’m more confident.

the thing is in my research I have noticed that the plates are off different sizes on the same suit of armour. Especially the sode which is what I’d like to start on.

so bearing in mind I will be buying the plates and assembling, I have the following questions.

1) What are the merits of plastic vs metal in terms of weight, durability, cost etc. Weight will be an issue as I’ll likely be ordering from overseas and live in Australia.

2) How to obtain plates of different sizes, especially longer ones for sode 

3) Can curved ones be obtained or will I need to find a way to do it myself?

[nismos14270r]

I'll edit this later with better information. But, here are a few things I know about kozane.

You're only going to find premade kozane in one size. I dont know of anyone making a variety. Noble plastic is making an excellent kozane out of ABS plastic and designed by effingham, but they are flat and you'll have to figure out how to do all the bending yourself. I've experimented abit without much success.

There is a company of Facebook that makes aluminum kozane that come with a pre-bent edge which helps a lot, but you'll still want to bend them into a S shape. They are really wide which means you'll need to source a 1/2" flat lace. Shoe laces wont work well due to the thickness and how they stretch when pulled. But I suppose that depends on what you want to use the armor for. I haven't tried to bend them into a S shape yet.

I'll post some pictures and links in the near future.

Link to the company on facebook that supplies metal kozane (I purchased a sample from them); www.facebook.com/EldesarianMetalWorks/

Link to the plastic kozane company (funnily enough, they are down the road from my parents house); www.plasticlamellar.com/

Link to this famous post on the forums that utilizes the plastic kozane; Bushi's First Armor