Armor

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pullrich

Joined
May 4, 2010
Messages
863
Lot's of information in these forums and elsewhere on offense. What about defense? My sense is that if the zombie or any other flavor of apocalypse arrived there would be plenty of folks ready with their blades, fewer capabe of a suture or other basic first aid or defense.

Speaking of defense, I'm looking for a similar community for tapping expertise and otherwise learning about how to make armor and shields.

If nothing else, would like to have an awesome Halloween costume next year. :)
 
Hi Pullrich
The North West coast First Nations from your area and north to Alaska made armour from vertical slats of wood drilled and tied together, the slats were about an inch wide by 4 to 6 inches long, the northern tribes sometimes used Walrus ivory. The southern tribes used rawhide from the neck of the Buffalo. They wet it then heat shrunk it in sand under a small fire, they ended up with a 20 inch diameter circle up to about 1/2 inch thick. I have seen early shields with and without frames. I am about to make a model size shield, I'll post a picture when I do it. I also have some books with slat armour that I'll try to scan.

Best regards

Robin
 
Pullrich, I have a friend that makes chain mail (?) like that used by knights. However, it is extremely heavy and takes a lot of time to make. If you are interested, I will get you in touch with him.

Howard
 
This makes me think of the Bud Light commercial, with the guy in Bud Light armor at the end during the sword fight........
 
A vest or shirt from ringmesh.com would do nicely. They're made by the Azon corporation, which makes maille aprons and gloves for the meat industry. Micro-welded stainless rings. I've got one of their vests just for kicks. :D
 
Thanks folks. Robin I recall seeing something about armor in pacific coast people's arsenals in a book and thinking dang that must be heavy! Same book had interesting discussion of early forts in the amerias. Also, I was surprised because for some reason I never considered people from this part of the country to have had a history of significant warfare. A foolish thought, I know, because around the world throughout history .... who doesn't?
Handaxepro sure I could use a referral, shoot me a PM. Fortytwo thanks for the link to ringmesh, that stuff actually looks pretty lightweight (relatively).

If I find any armor making forums (something like bladeforums but for armor obviously) I'll share.
 
The rings are super tiny, and yeah for the amount of material it's really not too bad weight wise.
 
If there's any info you need on chainmail or some other types of armor, I've been making it since 1992. I also have a ton of books that I can recommend.

Patrick
 
pullrich,
This is the best online resource I know for armour.They are primarily concerned with historical accuracy and anachronisms,but there is an incredible amountof info there.
 
tantofolder said:
pullrich,
This is the best online resource I know for armour.They are primarily concerned with historical accuracy and anachronisms,but there is an incredible amountof info there.
Click to expand...

Cool, but is there a missing link here? Not sure which website you mean. Thank you!
 
actually, I tried that once -- it stopped a knife, a field point arrow fired from a 50 pound recurve, and a 3 blade broadhead fired from the same bow. The broadhead stuck out the back less than 3/8" -- so it would have left a mark, but not a deep wound.
 
You could probably build some nifty armor if you could source some carbon fibre, kevlar mat and ballistic ceramic plate... :D

OR..... you could follow in the footsteps of Troy Hurtubise; he built suits to withstand bear attacks. Early suits of "armor" were built out of old football equipment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3CzYw5-qdA

I built a somewhat accurate viking shield just for fun, it's got me interested in building some homebrew armor as well!
 
1066vik said:
actually, I tried that once -- it stopped a knife, a field point arrow fired from a 50 pound recurve, and a 3 blade broadhead fired from the same bow. The broadhead stuck out the back less than 3/8" -- so it would have left a mark, but not a deep wound.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected.... I know my summer project
 
rotozip or sabersaw will chop it up very efficiently, heat gun for shaping.
when shaping, fold a bath towel in half and drape that over the body part in question (arm, leg, torso) before wrapping the hot plastic around it. wear decent leather gloves.
if you're worried about hydrostatic shock transfer, glue 1/4" neoprene to the back.
 
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