woven leather armor

[NessiePop]

I've been thinking about using leather belts in a basket weave to make armor. I've seen this a coupla times, I think someone had some for sale a while back, and there's a guy on the right in the main page picture that's got woven * armor. I was just curious about the drawbacks to this kind of armor, and any tips on making it that you guys have. I'm planning on starting with a war skirt, and maybe moving from there to a chestpiece and some greaves.

[Valas Hune]

I can tell you when I get my hip armor finished. The one thing you will want to do is get thinner leather (normal is what 13-15oz so get half that) since you are layering two pieces together. That way it will not weigh a metric ton.

[tyorl]

I made a skirt of it a while ago. Not really any draw backs other than it being a little inflexible. It can look really good if you use it to compliment a clean looking kit. I am moving away from the "clean" look and going more for a barbarian look. My skirt is green and black with gold snap rivets. I used so many it would be * near impossible to break them apart. It is attached to a belt as well. If you want it shoot me a pm and I can take some pictures and stuff.

[Arrakis]

Drawback: It's a clearly LARPy fake armor; it in no way approximates a real armor.

Advantages: You can make it out of scraps and don't have to do any planning or thinking or have any skills whatsoever.

[NessiePop]

Drawbacks: Haters gonna hate.

Advantages: Lachlan's gonna live.

[Valas Hune]

It is done and nice. I will post pics.

[Loptr]

http://board.belegarth.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36761
That was light, flexible and breathes. Some may scoff, some may requires no skill. I certainly have seen significantly lower quality on the field.

[NessiePop]

I was thinking something like that, only down to my waist, and with buckles on the sides, under my shield arm, since that's where i get hit the least.

[Valas Hune]

Mine is just hip armor but is similar to Breeders there.

[Tiberius Claudius]

Necro,

Lachlan, I just went to the thrift store and bought a ton of belts to make thigh/hip/* armor like this and I'm curious to see how yours turned out.

Got pics?

[NessiePop]

I haven't gotten around to it yet. I've got like 36 old belts that I've bought, and I've worked out the pattern without riveting, but i haven't managed to have enough money at once to get the rivets and rivet setter and finish the * thing. Only thing I'd say is, rivet where the belts cross, not at the ends of the strips like Tyorl did. There's nothing wrong with it, but it just seems sturdier to do it at each intersection. If you do make some, let me know how it turns out.

[Tiberius Claudius]

Interesting,

I bought 10 belts of mostly the same length (36"+, but cut off the ends with holes and the buckle) and it is only enough to get the frame and vertical slats done for the front panel of one leg. I'm planning on it running from hip to just above the knee. Even though I'm a fat guy, my waist is normal size and I'm not going to have this thing going over my stomach, so I'm expecting a total of about 80 belts to do two front leg panels, a half sized groin panel, two side panels, and either one large or two smaller (front size) size rear panels.

I'll admit that I was planning to only rivet the ends and I'm curious about riveting the overlaps instead of the ends. I would think that the flexibility of not having a rivet every lateral inch or two would be beneficial. How do you plan to secure the ends if not by rivet?

[NessiePop]

The ends are getting rivets too. I'm just also riveting at the intersections, like the armor in Loptr's link.

[Arrakis]

Please make sure the belts are real leather.

[Tiberius Claudius]

The "P" in front of the "leather" counts, right?

Of course I'm making sure they're real leather. I even went so far as to get rid of any snake skin, shark skin, alligator, and even one I found made out of buffalo hide.

100% burger, no man made materials, no fillers.

[Arrakis]

It just occured to me to wonder whether "Genuine Leather" belts would qualify, being leather the same way that particleboard is wood.

[Dacian]

I had a set of this YEARS back, and it feels great, but just be VERY cautious. Most belts, even if they say 100% leather, are not, in fact, 100% leather. I found that most of them have a cardboard-like core covered with 100% leather. I only say this cause at the time (hell, I think I was, like, 16 when I did it) my armor COMPLETELY failed because the leather itself, even layered, wasn't in itself armor thickness.

Wish I would've seen this post sooner and hopefully save you SOME headache.

[Tiberius Claudius]

Appreciate the concerns.

I'm not using belts that are puffy in the center. Those have filler in them. The only thing I'm using are 100% leather belts that are obviously strips of leather like you'd get from Tandy and throw a buckle on them.

That's really good information for the both of you to have put out there, though.

[Mekoot Rowan]

Having done a number of craft projects (no armor) that involved cutting up belts, I feel I should throw in that many belts are layered leather even if they don't have a cardboard core. This can lead to an unintentional violation of the layering rule.

3.5. The minimum thickness for leather Armor is 3/16 inch. The minimum thickness requirement can be achieved by layering up to two pieces of thinner leather.

Be sure the belt you are using are not made of two thinner pieces glued together.

All of that having been said I can't believe you paid less than $30 for 10 belts even if you raided every thrift store in a 30 mile radius. Even at that minimum amount you could have bought leather scraps and made better armor, especially if you already have rivets or are planning to get some. If you really are planning on getting 80 belts you may as well wait for a tandy sale and buy a side of saddle skirting.

[Derian]

I'm with Rowan on this one. It's going to look better, probably only slightly more expensive, be more likely to pass and more durable to simply buy a side of leather from tandy and cut it up.

It's a bit more work, but you won't end up looking like you're wearing 80 cut up belts when you're done.

[Blackwolfe]

Having done a number of craft projects (no armor) that involved cutting up belts, I feel I should throw in that many belts are layered leather even if they don't have a cardboard core. This can lead to an unintentional violation of the layering rule.

3.5. The minimum thickness for leather Armor is 3/16 inch. The minimum thickness requirement can be achieved by layering up to two pieces of thinner leather.

?? Not sure your meaning on "unintentional violation of layering rule." as your BoW quote says, it's ok to layer leather?

[Arrakis]

While layering up to two pieces of leather together to get to minimum thickness is fine, achieving minimum thickness by using three pieces of leather is illegal, Blackwolfe.

[Tiberius Claudius]

Yep, all points were considered long ago when I started the project.

To clarify, again, the leather is all top and full grain, unlayered, single solid piece belts just like you'd buy from Tandy. No fillers, no cardboard layers, no reconstituted glue/leather puree, no "bonded leather".

The two, and only two, layers meet the minimum thickness requirements, per BoW. No cheating involved here and lots of double checking to make sure of it.

I'm pretty lucky, I guess, to get the belts at $2 apiece, but I have to sift through 20X as much crap to find them.

- EDIT 7/2/11- So, I went to a new thrift store ran by the local hospital after clearing the first one out and they sell all belts for $1 each. Since my grandmother-in-law works there, I got a discount on 8 for $5. Then I went to the Catholic thrift store in town and they sell all belts at 2 for 25 cents. Too bad they only had one usable one.

I have been looking at Tandy, but when the leather's the exact same, I might as well buy what I can now and then purchase some later to speed up the process. Definitely don't have the money to purchase that kind of material in a large enough quantity to do the project, and I definitely don't have the patience to not be working on it until the cash comes along.

As far as looks go .... I don't want the standard segmented armor with articulation made out of sheets that you see on all the fields. Rather, I want a quasi samurai-esque, square shaped but flexible type of armor that's not made out of scraps, innumerable small pieces, or laced together. Strips is the way to do it.

After its dyed and painted, it'll look fine and be just how I want it.

Thanks though.

[Arrakis]

Just lookin' out.

Sounds awesome.