Tutorial- Making a lamellar breastplate

[Enderonimus]

This is a fun and easy project, although it can be a little time consuming. As is the case with most armors, the easier it is the more tedious time it demands!
Lamellar armor is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of armor. Almost every culture had a brilliant individual who realized that small plates could be layered in differed ways and have the same effectiveness as a solid plate. This proved effective for cheap and ready armoring of large units, armies or militias. From the various asian cultures, through europe, even the native americans and pacific islanders all had their variant of lamellar armor, and all proved effective for generations.
Some examples of lamellar armor:





Sources for lamellar plates:
One effective source is to cut them yourself. There are many resources on the web which display the differed variants of lamellar plates.
Some examples:





Other places are those merchants who offer precut plates and kits in metals and leather:
http://skaldic.com/Pages/torvaldrbodyarmor.htm
http://www.tradersoftamerlane.com/leather.htm
http://www.whitemountainarmoury.com/lamella.php
http://www.polarbearforge.com/lamellar.htm
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... lar+plates
Now, as far as construction goes, there are numerous tutorials already in existence, and are very well done. Here are links to many how-to's that I have found effective and used in the past:
http://www.geocities.com/kaganate/howlamlr.html
http://www.pegasusvalley.com/armorguild ... =0&thold=0
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/perfect_armor.html
http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/l ... emplarbob/
http://www.arador.com/construction/construc.html

I used these same tutorials to make my lamellar cuirasses. Here are some photos of a harness I dug out of storage:
Made from 12-14 oz lames. Weighs a liitle bit!





All in all, lamellar can be a fun and productive piece, and functional as it gives and moves with the wearer.
Good luck with all your projects, my fellow craftsmen, and if you can, share your work with us all!

[Aegis]

i really like the

[Karne]

OH MANNNN!!!!

DUDE ENDER YOU ROCK BIZALLSSS!!!!

I think you're by far the most productive armorer on these boards. Holy bajinga! Thanks for another great tutorial, I really like the armor that Aegis picked out, unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to roll with a bit simpler armor, as my leather skills aren't quite where yours are...lol

Thanks for another rockin' tutorial!!! Keep up the good work man.

[Aegis]

i wonder how much the suit i linked weighs tho...

[Enderonimus]

not much, believe it or not Aegis. It is made from thinner light leathers on the plates, and tooled overlapping strips between rows of lamellar.It is very nice,though!
and thank you, deth. I try to remain productive. I dream of one day having a full-fledged career where i just tour around the country half- 3/4 of the year going from festivals to events to fairs selling wares. That'd be so awesome!
its a hope someday to be at that level personally and professionally.
And as far as making a suit like that,its not that hard once you realize the basic structure of the suit. Its basically rows of laced hourglass shaped plates shingled from the center out with the laced holes overlapped by strips that are then in turn riveted to an underlying tabard. I know that sounds complicated but start with this:

then move to this:

and add those rows to this:

like so:

lengthoning the rows to the end like so:

And decorate as you see fit!
Good luck and I'm open to any lamellar questions anyone might have,
Thanks againq

[Winfang]

Lamellar FTW

My SCA armour is plastic lamellar. I absolutely love it. My suit only weights about 5-6lbs.

[Enderonimus]

Yeh i've used those before. Noble Plastics right? Very nice and effective for SCA but unfortunately not legal in this game. Lamellar is nice though, one of my favorite and first body armors.

[Enderonimus]

Link to them for those who want some pics of nice lamellar:
http://www.plasticlamellar.com/

[Winfang]

Yeap that's it. I have the Auk plates. My suit is about 450 plates.

[Enderonimus]

yeh, they're so small and light its like wearing fish skin scales. Very nice for sca use. I started a stainless suit a few years but ended up weighing a ton!

[To'Gur]

i also use plastic lamelar for sca... thank goodness for the 10 ft rule

[Enderonimus]

yeh I spent a whole year making barrel plastic armor when I first started out. really taught me how to be creative with patterns and styling!

[The Lost Celt]

Holy **** dude, think you could be a little more thorough?

Seriously though, thanks for the post, I own the white mountain plates, I've done fantasy B lamella in leather and in general just love the looks, My next suit is even worse since it's technically lamella with the appearance of scale - I got a 1 1/4 belt tip cutter and you can guess the rest:) It's the 8 hole lacing pattern minus the bottom two holes, 1200 plates so far, all grooved, stained and hardened through various means.

Here's a question for you, if I ever do a set of lamella in 3140 spring steel (22 to 24g) any ideas on the cording? I'm considering that years down the road.

Anyhoo...

I've already seen most of these links but you've managed to get about a months worth of passing research into one post there, so props for that!

[Enderonimus]

well, I hope I was thorough enough here! I could have went through and rewrote one of those great tutorials I suppose, but I just wanted folks to have complete access and follow the same procedures that I did. I'll be glad to answer any questions on making lamella, as I have experience in making some from cutting my plates from flat stock to finished assembly and onto the field. I included every place I could find that offered plates in materials accepted in Belegarth, and some not (the plastics). My goal in these guides is to excite and light the fires of passion for armor that I have!
And as far as the spring steel goes, when you deal with materials a: that hard, and b: that thin, no matter how much you grind and smooth the edges, you're going to have an edge that will very quickly cut through standard lacing. The constant friction rubbing, and friction creates heat which metal just loves to cut with,is gonna eat up any ordinary lacing. My reccomendation? 1. Have the plates cut and holes predrilled with a laser cutter from a proffesional fabrication shop. You'll get nice even plates and about the smoothest edges you could possibly get. 2. Before you start using them, make sure the plates have not lost and of their spring from the cutting process, ie: they got heat-tempered again. 3. Use parachute cord or deepsea diving cord for your lacings. This stuff is multilayers thick and made to withstand razor sharp knife cuts!
Hope this helped, celt. Good luck in the new projects and please, share with the class!

[Rizier]

would be nice if you made a video making these. It would be much better and understandable, but just making a suggestion.

[Enderonimus]

yeh, seeing as this is all done voluntarily on my part I really don't have the free time and/or resouces to do that. You'll have to learn the way I and eveyone else did, read and follow instructions. Good luck!

[Forkbeard]

THanks, man. I keep kicking around the idea of lamellar. A Viking Historical group started up here and I want to go get drunk with them. I'd like some period **** to wear while hanging out with them.
FB

[Dabbanoth]

Sticky

[Enderonimus]

Done. Thank you,Dag.

[Godfrey the Redshirt]

I really like the lamellar breastplate in the second image. Any tips on how to make one like it?

[Derian]

The process will be the same, but you'll have to play around a bit with lame shapes and hole placement to get the same sort of look.

A big thing on those pieces is that there's a bit of edging running around the outside. That's literally as simple as taking a long, thin piece of thin leather and stitching it to the lames.

[Mefit the Merciless]

Lamellar FTW

My SCA armour is plastic lamellar. I absolutely love it. My suit only weights about 5-6lbs.

Wussy! My SCA lam is stainless and clocks in at about 65. It looks amazing so I put up with the weight.