wow, this project turns out to be really impressive.
do you have professional experience in working metal ?

and, what i`m interested, what kind of metal ribbon is this, you used for the plates, and how did you cut them ?

Hi, Gottfried!
I don't have professional experience in metal working. I have always enjoyed working metal, also I have been working metal as part of my "arms-and-armour" hobby since 2006, so this is my experience in metal.

The metal strips, or as you call them - metal ribbons, are cut from sheet metal. As you see, their wight depends only on the number of the holes for the rings. So, during the planning and pattern-making process, I calculated their wight and cut them with powered guillotine - metal-cutting machine, which shares the same idea as the French executionary device - falling heavy metal blade (sorry, but I don't know the English name of this machine). The powered guillotine can be adjusted to cut strips with different wights
So, all I have to do after cutting the straps is to transfer my patterns on them, to drill holes and to cut the individual plates with my angle-grinder.

ah, ok.

do you have to grind the edges of the blades to get them smooth ? cause i could think, they could be quite sharp after cutting and leading to cuts in your fingers...

Yes, of course I grind the edges of the plates smooth. I call this process finishing.

And something still hot :lol: from today - half-a-row from the skirt

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This will end up in an awesome piece of armour.

As I am working parallel on the different elements of the set, from time to time there will be a kind of a jump through my current work.

So, today I started with the cuisses and the shield. Although I have a round Ottoman shield (known as kalkan), for this project I decided to make a trapezoid one, known throughout the Empire as a delii (or deliya) and often seen on contemporary sources:

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Actually, this type of shield was well-spread not only in the Ottoman Empire, but also throughout the Balkans and in the Central Europe (as you can see on the picture - both the Muslim and the Christian warriors in the middle wear such shield).
After cutting three sheets of 4 mm plywood with a jig-saw

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I dumped them for about two - two-and-a-half hours in hot water and glued them together, using my shield-press

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What kind of glue did you used? You will cover the shield with thick cloth glued on it after the first gluing and curving phase?

Usually, I use standart wood Polyvinyl acetate glue.
And the shield will be covered with glued cloth after it is dryed.

Although I like my current cuisses very much

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I figured out that it would take approximately the same time to re-work them with riveted mail, comparing with making new ones.
So, after a little hesitation, I decided to make a brand new pair, with more rows of smaller plates, a construction usually seen on the authentic examples.

Again, everything begins with pattern-making process

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This time my work was easier, because I used the old patterns as guidelines.
I started my work on the cuisses with the knee-cops. At first, of course, they were cut and finished:

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And this is what they looked like after dishing and planishing:

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Boris,
I have been following this thread every time it bumps, and have been meaning to tell you that this stuff looks superb. I am very limited in my knowledge of this type of armor, and enjoy seeing this set being built. Great job! I can't wait to see the finished kit!

Luke

Nice work Boris, I'm really impressed by the work you have done so far. Keep it up!

By the way I've found a photo of an Ottoman trapezoidal shield, I'm afraid I can't remember which museum it's in, or where I got the photo from:

@ Hisham Gaballa

I believe that that shield is hungarian or austrian (is painted in red and white, colors of both Hungary or Austria) and I also believe that it is in an austrian museum, posibly Graz armory. This type of shield was extensively used by light cavalry in Balkan countries, Wallachia, Transylvania, Hungary, Austria and Poland too.
Here's another one from the Metropolitan museum in New York.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...ield_1.jpg

@ Boris

Awesome work!