Boris Petrov Bedrosov-

You've got some skills. You really do.

Nathan
Thank you very much!
I really appreciate that.

Gregory
I have missed your question once - sorry for that. So, let me answer it now.
The shield, however, is not flat. It has some curvature - not much, but it has. To be precise - 7 cm at 58 cm wight at the bottom. The reason is my shield-press, which obviously is shallow (you can see it - I think I posted a picture of the blank in the press during the glueing process). I consider some enhancement to make the press a bit deeper.
As I said, now I hesitate about the combat shield - should it be the current round one, or to make another winged shield. If I decide to make a new one, I surely will glue it over more curved surface - I think over a barrel, which is currently within my reach.

Meanwhile, while working on the dagger, I managed to make a guard and pommel of this training sword, belonging to a friend of mine.

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You could find some more pictures here: http://bbedrosov.snimka.bg/hobby/galeriya-moi...6.22509354


The grip still misses, because the owner's intention is to make it himself.

If you remember, the last time we left the cuirass in a condition like this:

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Starting the work over it again, my first intention is to fill the trapezoid gaps under the armpits with maille.
The two sections

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were not hard to be done.
And here

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they are expanded with full three-ring strap, waiting to be riveted in place.

Now, the trapezoid sections are riveted in place:

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And two closer views:
* to the whole section

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** and to the horizontal "seam"

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where the rows of maille change their direction - from running vertically to running horizontally, something that can be seen virtually everywhere in authentic armours of combined maille-and-plate type.

The connection of the sections in vertical direction (i.e. to the holes in the plates) turned out to be a tricky business.
My first intention was to connect each couple of interlocking rings (they are interlocking, because the edge of the section runs diagonally) directly to its corresponding hole. The little test I made

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showed me, that this idea is not good.
Returning to my collection of pictures of the "real things", I found out that the old armourers usually used an additional ring (which I immediately called "parasite ring"), which is connected freely to each outer ring of the section. And then the seam appeared natural and was easy to be done:

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This picture:

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shows even closer view to the connection. I hope, you could easily distinguish the "parasite" rings and how each two of them are connected to the corresponding hole.

From the remains of the maille-shirt I cut the sleeves for the cuirass.
First, they were marked:

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The easiest way for me to do this was to use short pieces of threads with different colours. On the picture the red threads guided me where to cut, while the blue ones (unfortunately, barely visible) marked the reference points - beginning, end, middle, ect.

Here

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the sleeves are already cut, but still remain as a one piece. Minutes later, I divided them in two in order to facilitate my work during the next step.

The next step was to expand the sleeves.
I wasn't very sure exactly how much they needed to be expanded, so I expanded them with different amount of additional rows. Here:

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the left sleeve (which actually is on the right) is expanded with seven rows, while the right one (on the left) - with eleven. The cuirass was assembled for test-fit

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which revealed

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that:
* the cuirass looks good;
** the 11-rows expansion is good, but 7-rows is better, although I still think the truth is somewhere between - may be 9-rows will be perfect;
*** I need to close the neck-opening, which is too big now (actually, this procedure is already in the to-do-list);
and last, but not least **** my belly has become almost enormous :mad: :mad: :mad:

This kind of armour is not really my cup of tera or my interest but I'm very impressed with the work so far Boris!
I think it's very kind of you to show the whole process to all the people here. Great job with everything!

And byt the way, don't worry about the belly. You're not like me and try to squeeze into a gothic cuirass of the late 15th century... Waistlines and all ar nice features but does not fit my figure. You just look impressive!

I always get really excited when I see this thread is updated, and it was most certainly warrented this time (not that it wasn't previously). That armour always looked like it was going to be pretty darn cool, but the end product is just astounding. Boris, you are a legend and an inspiration!

Yesterday I finished the sleeves

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and started to connected them with the torso.

After finishing this step the to-do-list includes:
* to check once again the expansion and add two more rows of rings if necessary;
** to check the neck-opening;
*** to make and attach the collar;
and **** to re-work the ends (the cuffs) of the sleeves. Often the sleeves of the Ottoman maille were fashioned and cut with diagonal pattern of the cuffs, not straight as elsewhere in Europe (I'm afraid, I didn't manage to explain this correct). This means that the sleeve is shorter at the inside (towards the body) and longer to the outside (towards the enemy). Apart from nice appearance, this is a way to make the cuirass lighter.

So, the torso and the sleeves are now assembled:

* front

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** back

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*** and some more detailed pictures of the seams (front and back)

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To be honest, I expected this to be one of the most daunting steps of the cuirass, but it proved to be far less difficult. I almost enjoyed assembling the parts.
The test-fit #2 showed that, apart from attaching collar and cutting the edges of the sleeves (steps that will be done anyway), I must re-work the neck-opening just a little bit.

This is simpy excellent! The brass fittings on the darkened steel really brings it out.
I'm also a fan of plated maille and have been thinking about making some and this thread is very inspiring.

I was also intrigued to see the bone shaped dog chewing bones being so nice to work with for shield edging. I've used the scrolls but thought these form pressed ones were unuseable. So these are actually made from good quality calf skin? I just have to try this.

Johan,
Actually I prefer to use scroll chewing bones too, but strangely they disappeared from the Bulgarian market approx. a year ago.
My experience with pressed ones shows they work very well also, but you need some luck with them - sometimes they were pressed so hard during manufacturing, that the hide is torn at some places.

The cuirass is almost ready. I finished this step several days ago, but I was waiting for a better weather - sunny, with no dark clouds, in order to take the pictures without the flash of my camera.

* front
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** front with locks and straps done
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*** a look inside (I think it was never shown before)
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and **** back
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As you see, finished skirt is lesser than the planned (and made) one. When I connected the torso and skirt, it's lower edge was under my knee-cop. Obviously, I have made some mistake calculating the lenght of the skirt - I didn't expect the maille-and-plate to "stretch" almost the same manner as "pure" maille.
This forced me to shorten the skirt by cutting one of the rows.

What was left before complete finishing of the cuirass is:
* to add a short strap and buckle just over the upper-front plates (in order to close the collar)
and ** to lace the collar with tiny leather straps passing through the rings (such lacing is sometimes seen on the authentic armours and I suspect its purpose is to made the collar more rigid while protecting the neck of the warrior from the metal rings)
These are planned to be made next week.

MY GOD that's one sweet plated maille! :D


I actually bought a chewing bone of the layered pressed type to try it out and compare to the scroll & knot type. It seems they're thinner calf skin and something like parchment more than rawhide, at least the one I got. Maybe I got lucky, but also they seem to come in various qualities. The big tan ones seem to be better than the smaller semi-transparent ones, which seem aged or made from a different animal or part. Very nice to work with. I imagine one could make all sorts of craft stuff out of it. Knife sceaths, stiff leather details, and of course shield edging.
But this is just the cover layer I mean, the inner parts seem just smaller less useable pieces than the large ones from the scroll chewing bones.