Maille and Plates Armour

For my second instructable I'll be making some Maille and Plates armour.
I've chosen this style of armour due to the fact that it requires only a couple more tools than maille, goes together fairly fast, is easy to make, and i think it's pretty damn awesome looking.

For this project you will need....

Maille supplies
-THIS covers making maille better than i ever would in here.

Plate supplies
-fabric measuring tape
-tin snips
-a metal punch
-as much 1 1/4" pallet banding as you can get your hands on.
-something to curve plates with (rubber mallet, soup can, chunk of pipe... it just needs to be round)
-duct tape
-a sharpie

and that should about cover everything you need.

Step 1: Making the plates 1

Step one is working out how big to make your plates.

I did that by using a fabric measuring tape to measure my chest at nipple height, make sure you're taking a deep breath for this measurement or it will end up too small.
got that number? great. now divide it by how many columns of plates you will have.
I'm doing 8 in total so i wound up with plates that are just over 4 inches long.

step two will be prepping your pallet banding.

the first thing you'll want to do is cut your banding into manageable size. I usually cut mine down to lengths around 3 or 4 feet. if you want to cut down on waste then cut them to the circumference of your chest plus 1//2 inch.
after you've done that you'll want to bend out any kinks as best you can. this batch of banding was around small bundles of pipe at work, and is in worse shape than i usually find.
Now that you have manageable lengths of banding it's time to clean them. Fortunately I clean metal for a living, so I have access to all sorts of fun machines to do this for me, odds are you'll have to do this by hand.
I'd recommend just hitting them with some emery cloth or sand paper and sanding them to a nice satin finish to remove the rust and paint on them. it's easier to sand a bunch of 3 foot lengths clean than to sand hundreds of 4 inch plates clean.

Ok, so you've got a bunch of shiny strips of metal now, right? Good.
now measure out the length of one plate, mark it, then take your tin snips and cut it as perfectly as you can. this will be your template. now just keep using this to measure and cut your plates until your ready to pull out your hair. i usually make my plates in batches of a hundred or so.

Comments

[curvy77]

wasent the kind of way of armor i was looking for, but still looks really cool. (trying to make custom armor via fire and mold but no clue on how to hollow plates for body.)

[armourkris]

what do you mean by fire and mold? could you post a pic of something similar to what your thinking?

[curvy77]

sadly, i do not have a photo at the moment but i can try to describe.

by fire, i mean im useing a forge (in my case a wood/coal based fire pit, with a metal base.) and melting the metal. unlike what u have done, which isent bad and im not hateing on it, i prefer to use more manuverable ways.

because steel takes a great deal of heat to melt i use aluminum, which can be as strong as med-strength steel and is not only cheaper but has a much lower melting point. i try to melt this and pour into molds made of fireclay, so as too not only keep it contained in a cheapish container but because of the materials it is easliy moldable and dosent explode from extreme heat.

if i have confused or lost u somewhere please just let me know.

[The Metal One]

you could make some extremely flexible plate armor this way....shoulders, breast, thighs, etc. a full suit even

[armourkris]

Something sorta like this?

[The Metal One]

YES!!!

[Advar]

Verily, good sir, thou dost have skill! :)

[skimmo]

any one got anyideads on how to make this kind of washer armor?

[Advar]

For a scalemaille look one could overlap the washers from the bottom up.

[ninja of suburbia]

Go to http://theringlord.com. They sell these rings, or something similar, and it not only looks better, but more effective.

[Gryndar]

buy a bunch of washers and literally sew them to a vest, it wouldn't be very protective as far as thrusts went, and very ahistorical too. It looks kinda like armour, but is mostly hollywoody.

[skimmo]

i think from a thrust you would have good odds of hitting in side a washer which would stop a thrust but chainmail wont stop a good thrust anyway

[Gryndar]

yes it will, theres been lots of tests on riveted maille, made with period materials, and maille is amazingly proof against swords, not so good against polearms though

[skimmo]

riveted maille will stop a sword alot more then if it just open end mail such as this, with out welding or riveting you have to chance the edge will hit the gap in the ring then it just slides open and you have a gut full of knife

[Pryo Chain]

That's true, but even with riveted maille there's a chance that the blade could just break the rings apart, whether it be by thrust or through a strike. Everything is completely dependent on whether the competence of the wielder of said weapon.

[skimmo]

well yeah is that:P

[Gryndar]

on most of the tests I've read involving maille made using period techniques and iron wire, not steel wire, the links would deform alot before they broke and then only the one link dirrectly affected by the point would break, thats only speaking of swords and arrows mind you, pole weapons are a completely different story

[Aethereal]

Is there a way you'd recommend to do this without the punch? As in, would drilling the holes work, or would it be better to just buy a punch?

[armourkris]

Drilling the holes will work, it'll just be a whole hell of a lot slower and you may need to de-burr the inside edges of the holes after.

[Aethereal]

Alright :) Thanks a lot!

Great 'ible, too:)

[scalhoun]

I plan on making some gauntlets and the like, but i was wondering what type of steel you would recommend between cold rolled, hot rolled, or galvinized? I know stainless is probably the best way to go but it is much more expensive.

[armourkris]

I mostly work in cold rolled steel. only because it's less finishing work than galvanized or hot rolled. in either case though once your piece is finished you can strip off the coating by soaking in vinegar overnight. all three are pretty much identical as far as how strong a finished piece is and how hard they are to work with.
stainless is a beast to work with. i try and avoid it, it chews up your tools, work hardens faster, needs to be hit harder, and is just generally more of a pain. the advantage is that you can often get away with using a gauge lighter steel and get similar strength to mild, and it's as low maintenance as armour gets.

[pyrorower]

I'm thinking of making this out of aluminum since I have a forge now. I'll try and post it when I can.
Also, about how heavy is your suit? I want to estimate how heavy my aluminum one will be.

[overblast]

You could use the forge to make aluminum plates from soda cans and transmission cases, which is what a friend of mine does for art projects. But you must be very very careful, it spits, he accidentally set the barn on fire.

DO NOT SET YOUR BARN ON FIRE. Your wife will be really really mad.

[armourkris]

You shouldn't actually need a forge for any of this, also, forges and aluminum don't mix well, aluminum doesn't turn red hot or anything, it just looks like aluminum then looks like a puddle.
as for the weight of my armour, well, i;m not really sure. 15 or 20 pounds would be my guess. it isn't that heavy, certainly no more than 25. In aluminum i'd recommend using 1/8" plates, i think that's 16 gauge in aluminum, and i would guess it would come out in the 10 to 15 pound range.

[pyrorower]

I actually know that we don't need a forge for this, it's just that we could only find plastic palette banding and we happen to already have the forge and some old kick scooters :P And thanks for the weight estimates. I'll post pictures just as soon as we have it built.

[azurelupine]

how about using "blue barrel" ie HDPE plastic as a plate material?

[armourkris]

In my experience blue barrel plastic varies between 1/4 and about 3/8 inch thick, making it too thick to connect with the chain maille rings. I think 1/8 inch is about the thickest you could get away with. Strips cut from 5 gallon pails would probably work, but i don't know how protective it would be.

[azurelupine]

Hmmm, 1/4" sounds about right.. would work with 1/2" rings using 14ga. mild-steel rings. As for extra protection, a good arming coat would also soften some of the blows (unless you rhino-hide, and I DETEST rhino-hiding! Please call a good shot a good shot. ;) ) Atlantia, Always! Vivats! Vivats! Vivats!

[armourkris]

I've really got to recommend riveting or welding at least the rings that link the plates together, as I've found i usually have to repair or replace 3 to 5 rings for every shot to the body i receive. I've been repairing my rings with riveted rings and haven't had any problems with them so far.

[azurelupine]

BTW, Kingdom of Atlantia, Barony of Sacred Stone, Canton of Aire du Falcon. and serving in the household of my master, THL Osric the Pale (Hus Sla' Hamar) and the Lady Una von Shieb (Corvus)

[armourkris]

Kingdom of An Tir, Principality of Tir Righ, Barony of Lionsgate.

[PKTraceur]

Is that SCA?

[armourkris]

yep. that it is. basically it works out to Pacific north west, BC, Vancouver. I do PK as well.

[PKTraceur]

I think Ill try to make your armour. Think you could help me on gate vaults?

[pyrorower]

I can help you there. Armored invasion starting to sound good :D

[The Jamalam]

Any chance of a picture of you in the armour? I'd like to see how it fits together and things.

[armourkris]

normally I'd say yes, but my camera drowned while i was hiking the west coast trail, so I wont be able to take any new photos until i replace it.

[swordsmen]

what do you use to clean the metal

[armourkris]

I cheated. I used o work at a metal cleaning shop and I;ve still got access to all the tools there, so i ran them in a giant tumbler filled with burnishing media overnight. If i had to do it by hand I;d use emery cloth, not sure what grit though, i's ahve to experiment for a bit first. the paint does come off fairly easy though. you might be able to get away with a coarse scotch bright pad.

[Agnus Warstrider]

A friend of mine has a torso/shoulder armored unit of pickle-barrel. Pretty thin stuff, but has been quite durable throughout its life of beatings. I want to get a full suit of the stuff, but I'm not sure where to get the barrels themselves. Any ideas? By-the-by, posting from the Kingdom of the West.

[armourkris]

I've heard car washes will often give you pickle barrel, apparently they get their detergent in them. other than that i'm really not sure. the last time i got a barrel i found it in an alley behind a fish and chips place, but i think someone else ditched it there since i;ve never seen another one there.

[Speedmite]

Good Job! A little confusing at some points though. I make chain maille differently.

[bowmaster]

How period is this?

[armourkris]

it's period ish. for around 15th century turkey, Persia, and parts of Russia/eastern Europ. there are some eastern European armors that are side closing like this, but they are tailored a little differently, then there are turkish examples that look very much like this, but they buckle up the front like a jacket and have maile sleeves as well. as well period ones tend to have a maille skirt instead of the 4 tassets i used. also, in 95% of the period suits i've seen the plates overlap upwards instead of down, the only reason mine overlap down is because i built the upper chest plates backwards and didn't want to take them apart and rebuild them.
http://velizariy.kiev.ua/avallon/cuirass/kpd/gallery/gallery.htm
has just about every image of this style of armour you can find on the net in one easy location if you want to see some originals.

[bowmaster]

OK, cool. I was asking because I'm looking for some easy armour that fits my 15th century persona.

[armourkris]

IF you plan on using it for SCA heavy or something equally hard hitting i highly recommend using riveted or welded rings, otherwise you'll be doing a lot of repairs. split rings work reasonably well to, but they still only last a few direct hits. i haven't had a riveted ring fail yet.

[bowmaster]

I think I will go with riveted. There is not very many rings on this so it won't take as long as a full shirt.

[crazyscott85]

I'g going to go to an airsoft field in this and not call any of my hits because I have armor on.

[WurdBendur]

What gauge is that? It looks really thin.

[armourkris]

It's 20 gauge, but since it's spring steel it's about equivalent to 18 gauge

[WurdBendur]

I don't doubt that it's strong enough. I would just be a little worried about the edges being sharp.

[armourkris]

I've been using it for SCA heavy, and cut and thrust fighting. it's actually held up better than i thought it would. the only strength problem I've had has been the butted maille coming apart under the force of the blows when i fight heavy, I've solved that by doing all my repairs with riveted maille. as for the plates themselves, i haven't had any trouble with them deforming under impacts. the actual edges of the plates are all beveled and polished when i polish the plates, so they are about as sharp as the back edge of a butter knife. the only way i can see one of them cutting me would be if it were held against me on edge and then smashed into me, and the way the armour works i don't see how that could happen accidentally.

[bowmaster]

I light touch of solder on the opening of the rings make them hold up better.

[DerStu]

what kingdom are you fighting in?

[armourkris]

Antir, Barony of LionsGate specifically.

[DerStu]

sweet, I'm down south of you here in Dragon's Laire

[bowmaster]

Kingdom of Atlantia. Incipient Canton of Abhainn Iarthair.

[armourkris]

just realized you said you don't doubt that it's strong enough, so i suppose the first half of that can just be ignored

[masterochicken]

http://www.instructables.com/group/toughstuff/
added it

[comander01]

Have you ever considered making a solid breastplate or greaves to complement your maille?

[armourkris]

Actually my next few instructables will probably be bazubands, spaulders, cuisse and greaves. thats forearm, shoulder, thigh and shin armour, then i'll finish it off with a helm. i'm also thinking about making a center grip shield and some disc armour to reinforce the maille and plates.

[comander01]

Isn't Armour for the forearms called 'bracers'? A coif would also be cool, but that would have to consist entirely of ring maille.

[armourkris]

yes and no, it really depends on how technical you want to get. bracers are actually used for archery, they only cover the inside of your forearm and are meant to stop you from getting smacked by the bow string. european armour for the forearms is usually called vambraces, bazubands are a middle eastern and central asian armour, they are different from vambraces in that they have integral elbow coverage, wheras european armour would have the elbow as a seperate plate from the forearm.

as for a coife, the top half can be made the same as this hackey sack, but on a larger scale, then just add a rectangular patch down the back and side of your head and you'll get a basic coife.
http://www.instructables.com/id/chain-maille-hacky-sack/

[john_colobe]

you absolutely have to finish this. ive been bugging my dad for banding ever since i saw this. i thought it would be a nice addition to my chainmail i made a year back.

[armourkris]

Ok, i just finished the last step, and added some pics of the finished armour on a manikin. so yea, this instructable is finished.

[Chrys]

Can you please add a pic of someone wearing this armor? Thanks!!

[gojukai]

Hard work. I found the simple solution which was to just buy some samurai armor on www.budomall.com

[armourkris]

well,you could do that, but i don't have $3000 or so to toss out for armour that wont fit me right. besides, I've already made a suit of Japanese armour. i didn't really like it so i sold it to a friend. this is actually closer to Turkish armour than Japaneses.

[diskincluded]

So we can go to some site and buy some pre-made armour. Whoopdee doo. I'd rather use this instructable to learn how to make a suit of armour that fits my taste, even if it means a lot of work. Plus there's the satisfaction of knowing that I made something so cool myself instead of wussing out and buying it.

[Silence]

And DIY armor is much cheaper and satisfying. Its yours, unique and you can truly say... i made this. Besides, if i bought some polished armor id be afraid to wear it, scratch it, damage links, bend plates etc...... hell no, packing bands and wire rings for me.

[diskincluded]

Plus it's much easier to change parts of it, like maybe bolt on a bit of extra plating here, or add a cape there.

[Gunk on Floor]

My SCA youth kit was made from a hide of 9oz. leather, a black plastic pickle barrel, and some baseball catchers knees with modified knee flanges. The legs aren't pretty but everything else is and it's legal. DIY armor is way more fun than buying it, unless it's something that you know you can't make. Like a 14 gauge mild steel helmet.....

[Silence]

My dad works in a sheet metal shop.. the helmet isnt outta reach for me.. hes already had a job to make a suit of plate, nothing forged mind you but it looked pretty cool just the same :)

[Meeethril_MailleNerd]

Do you know what gauge the pallet binding is? Cuz I have an almost unlimited supply of 18 g steel and I don't know if that would be too stiff or something. But yeah I'm gonna make one of these suits, this is the most awesome instructable ever. You should make more instructables.

[armourkris]

pallet banding is 20 gauge, normally thats to thin for armour, but it's also spring steel, so i find it's usually about equal to 18 gauge. so yea, 18 gauge should be fine.

[screeching crow]

Any place in particular that you can get the binding from? Because everywhere I've gone just has the plastic stuff.

[armourkris]

I've had the best luck at lumber yards. Specifically lumber yards though. hardware stores like home depo or rona usually dont get anything larger than 3/4 inch banding, that said if you only punch 4 holes in each plate then you should be able use 3/4 inch banding. other than that you just have to look and keep your eyes open. industrial areas, construction sites, and anywhere that ships or receives bing heavy things will sometimes have it in dumpsters and recycling bins.

[screeching crow]

Ok thanks.

[wi-fi astronomer]

A chain mail undershirt would be good in areas where knifings occur. Do not wear too close to water if you are not a GOOD swimmer, it'll weigh you down. For best results, have your chain mail under a Kevlar vest in hazardous neighbourhoods. If you can't swim, the good swimmer thing means stay away from lakes, oceans, and rivers near bars you visit. Don't be within pushing distance from bodies of water - including drowning pools.

[Silvester10528]

Very spiff!! You might want to expound a little on making rings for the maille section... But overall, very nice!! I like the idea of using banding for the plates. As someone else pointed out, this is the basic process for making a Roman Lorica and rekindles my desire do one!

[Silence]

they looke like premade rings. but theres a few instructables with instructions on making chainmail and rings.
How to make chainmail and (Instructable) to build a mandril to help you make those rings faster.

[Silence]

And if you wanna stay instructables, this instructable has a section on making rings.

[Silence]

Also known as plated chainmail, splinted mail, or splinted chainmail (wiki) and based off the Lorica segmentata...
very nice, gives me some ideas. ive been toying with making a suit of my own chainmail whith home made rings. What im curious about is how scale mail is woven together (could most likely use packing bands for DIY scales as well) and how i might weld my links for durability.

[Cylvre]

Scale mail is woven exactly like Euro 4in1, with the scale taking the place of the "1" in the center of the group. Here's a visual example from The Ring Lord scale inspiration gallery: http://www.theringlord.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2797 The full scale gallery starts here, if you wanted to see more of people projects and a couple little visual tuts: http://www.theringlord.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2607&g2_page=1

[big-jamie]

that is the most fantastic thing ever, i started making chainmaille because of instructables, and i think i'll now start being more adventurous and adding some plates to my maille, maby gauntlets or something, brilliant instructable mate =)

[duck-lemon]

Thanik you for helping my group get started!

[duck-lemon]

Hey armourkris can you add this to this

[bounty1012]

im gonna make something like this with cds :D

[RFilyaw]

What's amazing is something very similar to this is still made by hand by certain shark researchers. There was this one guy on Dirty Jobs who made his own chain maille and chain gauntlets (no plates, just rings) by just bending each and every ring into place with a pair of pliers and nothing more. The maille made with only rings is also used in some special kevlar vests to deflect knives in addition to their bullet protection.

[Charles IV]

Let's see a pic of you wearing it. Nice Instructable +1

[animal0307]

Too freaking cool. 1 question where did you get the rings for the maille? and did it cost much?

[armourkris]

Like duck-lemon says, i made mine. i think i spent about $30 on a quarter mile spool of wire, other than that i already had all the stuff i needed laying around. if you do want to buy rings though i recommend The Ring Lord. prices vary but it's all by the pound.

[animal0307]

yea lol I found that site too. but i think im gonna buy about 7-8 pounds of spoiled aluminum wire and make the rings my self. i want to make it all by hand. plus i accually did the math (for once i see why i need math in my life) and i found it alot cheap to make them myself. besides it will be good experance

[duck-lemon]

you can make them heres a link !!LINKETY LINK LINK LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jonny Katana]

This is a very nicely done Instructable, one of the best armoring tutorials I've yet seen. One question - Where do you get that particular dimension of pallet banding?

[armourkris]

I scavenged it from all over the place. I'd recommend looking in lumber yards, that's where i found most of mine. last time i found a bunch i was actually iout of town and ended up buying another bag and checking about 60 pounds worth of pallet banding under the plane. i also found a sweet wok that day. 3/4 inch banding is a lot easier to find and will work as well if you only put 4 holes in each plate. thats what i made m first set with. only problem is that it's a lot more flexible, so it doesn't protect as well.

[mspark400]

absolutely wonderful!! hooray for chainmaille!!! +1

[die_dunkelheit]

It looks cool, but don't count on it to stop anything.

[GorillazMiko]

Way cool! Awesome job, does it hurt when you wear it? Imagine wearing this on the streets... haha.

[Daur-Celt]

Too Cool Sir!!! Another awesome instructable. A thousand "thank you"s Please keep them up. Perhaps you should write a book.

[killerjackalope]

Pretty impressive, what's it like to wear?

[LinuxH4x0r]

Wow, you are truly a skilled artisan. Those look amazing

[gmjhowe]

I am actually really amazed by this, cos i can see the hardwork thats gone into the peice - how long did it take you? Well done!

[Cousin eddie]

that is pretty cool! I used to make chainmail back in my renaissance festival days. Never dared attempt anything like this though! Very nice! Make some gauntlets next! I saw a pair once that was made from highly polished plates bolted to leather gloves. Tried em on at the time & they were too cool!