Bone Armour

[Kon-Nona]

Armour made of bones (mainly rib, and probably from a moose or some other big animal) tied on some light fabric or leather. Legal or no?

[Kruger]

Armour made of bones (mainly rib, and probably from a moose or some other big animal) tied on some light fabric or leather. Legal or no?

So thats why you asked me if i had any bone laying around.

[Kon-Nona]

nea i was looking for a skull to decorate. this idea came to me today while i was mowing a lawn, lol.

[Alabraxis]

bone would certainly be a period material. I'd be a bit leary as far as the potential for breaking the individual pieces, but if it conformed to all the other armor rules, I'd certainly allow it.

[Mercer]

There's a local fighter who incorporates bone as part of his armor. It seems to work fairly well.

[Kon-Nona]

i figured rib bone would look cool coverin the lower legs, and for bracers. if i can, i want to make a curius out of some smaller ones...

[Vak]

Sounds cool, I think it would be bad * to see something like that.

[Cyric]

This has been brought up before, try doing a search for it. I do know that you would probably have to either tape or lacquer the bones to prevent splintering should they break.

[Kon-Nona]

I guess suede is a no for armour by itself, but thats what i want to attach bones to.

[The Lost Celt]

Umm, it's an iffy subject - while I do think it would pass in most areas I would talk with your local marshalls before going through the motions, the key is while it's a period material there aren't any conventions for it - spirit of the rules makes you think it should be okay but just to be on the safe side be prepared to provide historical documentation (native americans and perhaps inuit should have it) and also be ready to convince them that it's built safely (i.e. laquer, old bones want to splinter over time) and maintained when venturing outside your local realm.

Post pictures if you do do this though:)

[Kon-Nona]

Kruger was telling me that it would break easyly, so i was thinking of shattering it into larger chunks (mayhaps around 1 n half inches) and making it into a scail mail type thing.
i would also have to dull the edges because they would probably be bloody sharp. if the whole thing wasn't good for belegarth, i could always just have it for decoration.

[Kaibashi Shintaro]

Maybe you could cover the bones themselves in armor grade laether, or something to that effect.

[The Lost Celt]

heh, I figured you were going for scale type things anyhow - the bigger it is the likelier it is to break, scales move and are somewhat small, needs more pressure in a smaller area.

Ribs would look cool complimenting greaves, but I don't have the patience or the stomach to wait for nature to clean them, not to mention the raccoons that frequent this area...

I personally would love horn lamella, but the cost is too * prohibitive

[Kon-Nona]

i could always boil the bones so long as they are fresh. that should get them clean faster

[Kruger]

i could always boil the bones so long as they are fresh. that should get them clean faster

Only problem with that is it eats away at the marrow and makes them weaker. Bones that are naturally cleaned will be stronger, yet take longer.

[Faolan]

Why use glue when you can just use some leather lace and tie them to the leather underneath. OR you can lash them together and make them into a weave. Bleaching bones makes them very white. But if I was going to do it I would clean them naturally. If you have to tye 'em down. Sun bleaching is nice too.

[Aleksii]

The sarmatians, and to a lesser extent the huns and scythians made use of bone and horn lamellae and scales. My friend/armourer Travis is replacing my current plastic lamellae with bone and or horn and if it can (hopefully) take sca blows it shouldnt splinter in belegarth.

[Mekoot Rowan]

The question of bone armor is one that I've toyed with for years now. I've been told that others in the sport, Klaus in particular, have also been trying to come up with a good design for a number of years.

The issue isn't that the materials aren't period, bone has been used for all manner of tools since before the inception of human civilization.

The main problem that I've found is that when the bones dry out they become very brittle. This leads to easy splintering which leaves you with dangerous sharp edges. This is especially a problem with curved bones like the ribs which you mention wanting to use.

I'm also willing to bet that having the bones repeatedly driven into your flesh from foam strikes is going to hurt much worse than any other kind of armor and leave some really interesting bruises.

The most effective way I've thought of to use bone would be to make a native american breast plate. The trouble for me is that I don't have the time or inclination to make that many bone tube beads.

I'm in full support of anyone making bone armor and would love to see the result. Just make sure you keep a close eye on the bones for splintering as it could be a major hazard on the field.

Also, I would definately not use it for SCA. I'm not sure about splintering from foam weapons, but am certain it would happen from repeated hits with a rattan weapon.

[Outis]

I am by no means an expert on such things, but I have heard one effective way to clean bones is to leave them on an ant hill. The ants will eat off any bits of flesh left on the bones. You also get the sun bleaching effect.

It maybe be somewhat gruesome, but it's supposedly effective, especially for hard to clean bones such as skulls. I'm not sure how long it will take.

I believe this was done in the deserts of the southwest where the dry air keeps things from rotting as easily, so results may vary with climate.

[savetuba]

it depends on the size of the "hill". A massive sized colony will have it clean in a few hours.

Also while you are in the desert look at the ant hills carefully. I have found many a gem and metal around them.


So has anyone gone to a taxidermist (thanks faolan) and ask them if there is a way to preserve and/or cure bone. If there is I have several cow skulls that I'm willing to turn into helms

[The Great Gigsby]

http://www.reenactment.de/hornlamelle.html

The site's in german but is a really good example of lamellar armor made from cattle horns and bones. From what I know, this is a fairly historically accurate means of protection (assuming you can't afford metal).

[Faolan]

Taxidermist

[Mekoot Rowan]

Most taxidermists use the bug method only not ants. They use flesh eating beetles in a box. Once you put the skull/bone to be cleaned in the box with the necrotic insects they multiply like mad and eat away the meaty bits leaving you with clean bone. Then most of them die from starvation.

And I think that lamelle armor is made from horn, not bone.

[Beorn Tordensjold]

yep, it's horn. And he does say that he does NOT have an historical counterpart to compare it to. it is based off of a Byzantine style, but he was not aware of any historical counterparts. On top of that, that shirt took him six months. yikes.

[Forkbeard]

It might have taken a long time, but it's **** cool.
I wouldn't make any bone armor for Bel. I will be destroyed very quickly on our feild. We play too rough. I see leather wearing out and chainmail with holes in it all the time. Bone armor would definetly dry out and break
If you make it keep it nice. It will be a work ok art, not a peice of sports equipment.
FB

[SerisFoxglove]

have any of you thought about using the ribs from something a bit, well, larger? like say BEEF? seriously i worked as a butcher ad the rib bones of cattle are pretty thick, also tery looking at other smaller bones. and if you are wanting an idea for armor think more along the lines of plate-maile or splint rather than lamellar armor.
Also, you may want to think of smaller bones such as the metacarpals of animals such as a bear or other large animal. BTW Bone armor was used in China and Japan as early as 300 AD (earliest document I could find citing bone armor) and was used by conscripts and the sohei.

[Dacian]

DUDE. 4 YEAR THREAD RESURRECTION? ...come on, man...

[Black Cat]

I think this thread is a little too decayed to call a thread zombie. Thread Skeleton?

[No'Vak]

Where can I get this maille made out of plate?