first lacing attempts

[Yvarg]

I'm finally getting around to switching from rivets to lacing. I've done some experimenting with 2 different types so far and have some results. I know for sure that the sugake one i did (or atleast tried to do) is really bad. the other one i have no clue as to how i did. so here's the pictures. oh yeah, i should mention that the white barrel plastic here was used ONLY because it was the only material i had lying around and that i would never use that on a piece of armor that i would use for fighting in.

my (pathetic) attempt at sugake lacing:





attempted lacing with kozane:





sorry about the bad pic quality. now please, can i get some guidance as to how i can make my lacing not be so bad? thanks in advance for your time.

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

Green-eel,
The lacing for the kebiki is essentially correct, however, it is more common for the bottom most lame of the set (the hishinui ita) to have two rows of hishinui (cross knots) at the bottom. The knots on the bottom most row are correct, the other knots are staggered in by one in this sort of pattern:

IXXXXXI
XXXXXX

Don't forget that there is an added half scale (vertically split) on the left most side, and it is laced in the same way as the others, but it gets the woodpecker braid, and usually, for the right side, to maintain thickness, a half scale is added there too.


As for your sugake lacing, you seem to have some rows with three sets of holes, and others with only two sets of holes. This should be made to be that there are three sets of holes only on the outer most column of lacing. The very edge of the set of plates has a single running (woodpecker) braid, for added strength, next to a standard column of paired lacing, and all the others have standard colums of paired lacing.

Lastly, tomodachi, the X made by the cross knot should be so close as to almost make a square, and not an X with visible lines. This will make the lacing below it hang as a double wide column of lacing, and not have the so called "X's and Railroad Tracks"(TM).

I believe people get this idea from looking at woodblock prints, where the artists (who are not armors) used artistic liscence to indicate lacing when they did not really know how lacing should be illustrated.

Good study, and good job on working with it. Keep up your dilligence and see if these notes do not help any. I hope they do.

Date

[Kitadatedenka]

I'll add just a bit to Date'dnon's comments here:

To avoid the dreaded X's, one method is to measure the width of your lacing. Then space your holes vertically and horizontally by that measurement, or just a hair less.

Yes, most kebiki made from kozane has 2 rows of hishinui, but you do have enough holes to make it a simple matter to just relace that bit.

[Yvarg]

As for your sugake lacing, you seem to have some rows with three sets of holes, and others with only two sets of holes. This should be made to be that there are three sets of holes only on the outer most column of lacing. The very edge of the set of plates has a single running (woodpecker) braid, for added strength, next to a standard column of paired lacing, and all the others have standard colums of paired lacing.

yea, i knew they were supposed to be on the outside, but i couldnt get them to transfer from the outside of the shorter lames to the outside of the wider lames

Lastly, tomodachi, the X made by the cross knot should be so close as to almost make a square, and not an X with visible lines. This will make the lacing below it hang as a double wide column of lacing, and not have the so called "X's and Railroad Tracks"(TM).

yea ive noticed that i should've used the 1" wide shoelace instead of the 1/2" one i used.

Anyhow thanks for the tips. i had no other real way to findout how to do the kebiki lacing other than some diagrams from www.sengokudaimyo.com and arms and armor of hte samurai .