First Project Underway

[Toastygawa]

My armor is underway! The fabric backings to the suneate and haidate are complete, and the kote are next on the table.



Laid across the suneate backing sloppily are the stencils for the splints, modified from Effingham-dono's pattern.

Does anyone know where I can find the anodized steel wire to make the elongated maille links used to connect the plates to the rings?

[Nobuhide]

let me first say, toasygawa-dono, excellent choice of title
secondly, try a hardware stores gardening section or something, or a craft store.

[AJBryant]

So far so good.

One thing, though, before you continue: the top of all the splints should line up.


Tony

[Toastygawa]

I'm irritated that the stuff I just wrote is now gone and must be re-typed. Damn thing gave me an error saying I didn't name the post, please go back and enter a name, and my post is gone. Dog feces, I say!

Now that the rant is finished, here's the cut splints for my suneate!



Not to mention the pseudo-kikko on the tateagi and... the... thing I cannot find the name of. It's the kikko shoulder/neck protection on most dou.



The pseudo-kikko is made of washers, rather than dished button hexes. While it's not necessarily attractive, it's a nice weight and I've learned a bit from the lacing process. And that's what one is supposed to do with their first armor, right?

So, now I have 20ga galvanized wire and 16ga tie wire... I think I'll tackle the kusari!

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Cool.

What material are you using for the splints? It looks two-toned. Painted metal? Painted plastic?

I don't think Mr. Bryant names the padded/kikko collar attached to the watagami although he describes it in the chapter on dou. I'll get some books out this afternoon and see if I can dig it up.

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Maybe it is just 'manchira,' although I thought that referred to a piece that wrapped under the armpits as well.

But the ebay Daimyou54eb seller is referring to this smaller piece as a 'manchira.'
daimyouryouma3.web.infoseek.co.jp/C676/index.htm

[Toastygawa]

The splints are made of black ABS plastic. It's not yet been thermoformed, but should be impact resistant and sca-legal once it is (from what I've been told). If it looks two-tone, that is likely due to the sanded edges reflecting the light of the flash.

I think I'll refer to the collar/shoulder piece as watagami-kikko for now, until we can be sure. My thanks for helping me search, Otagiri-dono!

[Mykaru]

When attached to the dou the collar is a tate-eri the shoulder pieces are kobire.

[Toastygawa]

My Guruwa is complete! Pictured here around my neck with my kobire. ;D

[Toastygawa]

Ok, so after one day shift and two night shifts of intermittent cutting and linking while I DJ at the club, this is the amount of Kusari that I have completed.



The facing rings are 16ga tie wire, the linking rings are 20ga galvanized. Each have been turned and cut by hand with wire cutters (I can't set up a mandrel in the DJ booth at work), and then closed with a Gerber multitool. The openings should be 2x2, but are 2x3 right now. It'll be fixed, but I'll tackle that during tomorrow's shift.

This is gonna take a while...

I hope the kusari that I've made will hold up to the rigors of combat. Its sturdiness will determine whether or not I use it for combat or dress.

I also hope that this attempt at kusari is at least passable as Japanese. It's probably not as authentic as it could/should be, but it should look the part.

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

I hope the kusari that I've made will hold up to the rigors of combat. Its sturdiness will determine whether or not I use it for combat or dress.

If you hand sew the flat links and or the oval links to the fabric backing, your kusari should stand up to combat quite well...it is the movement that will tend to spread the links under SCA combat...not the impact so much.

The sewing is tedious, but is period, and helps tremendously for longevity...

Nice stuff so far, by the way. Good job!

Date