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Martin Kallander
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 Posted: Tue 06 Aug, 2024 12:22 pm Post subject: Scale armor cumbersome |
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I have been working on a scale armor and the scales feel very cumbersome. Am I doing something wrong or is scale armor just super cumbersome. 
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Dan Howard
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| Posted: Tue 06 Aug, 2024 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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Looks like the plates are a little too thick. Typical thickness of scales was around 0.5mm or even less. In any case, yes it is very cumbersome. Scale is the heaviest type of armour construction. Lamellar reduced the weight a little by getting rid of the need for a backing material.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen and Sword Books
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Martin Kallander
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| Posted: Tue 06 Aug, 2024 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Dan Howard wrote: | | Looks like the plates are a little too thick. Typical thickness of scales was around 0.5mm or even less. In any case, yes it is very cumbersome. Scale is the heaviest type of armour construction. Lamellar reduced the weight a little by getting rid of the need for a backing material. |
The scales are 0.9 mm so yes they are heavy but the finished thing is going to weigh something like 10kg~ so it's not absurdly heavy. My problem is moreso that it feels way heavier than its actual weight, like how a lamellar armor I used to have felt like after I had removed the lacing that connected the plates horizontally. I think I'm making it incorrectly on a structural level that makes it more cumbersome than it should be regardless of plate thickness
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Matthew Amt
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| Posted: Wed 07 Aug, 2024 7:03 am Post subject: |
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The scales should overlap horizontally, more than yours do. That will close up all those potential gaps. And unfortunately it will increase the number of scales you need, and the weight as well. So, yeah, .9mm is too thick!
Also remember that scales will cut their own stitching, just by the movement of being worn. So tie off your stitching thread at least every third scale (if not *every* scale!) so that you don't end up shedding whole rows.
Have fun!
Matthew
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Mart Shearer
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| Posted: Wed 07 Aug, 2024 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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Although it's not the only way to punch or sew scales, the Roman fragment from Carpow at least retained the original stitching and backing fabric, so might be useful.
 Attachment: 42.36 KB
ferrum ferro acuitur et homo exacuit faciem amici sui
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Martin Kallander
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| Posted: Thu 08 Aug, 2024 3:36 am Post subject: |
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| Matthew Amt wrote: | The scales should overlap horizontally, more than yours do. That will close up all those potential gaps. And unfortunately it will increase the number of scales you need, and the weight as well. So, yeah, .9mm is too thick!
Also remember that scales will cut their own stitching, just by the movement of being worn. So tie off your stitching thread at least every third scale (if not *every* scale!) so that you don't end up shedding whole rows.
Have fun!
Matthew |
I have already made 126 0.9 mm scales which were way too labor intensive to abandon just because they're too thick, but I'll be sure to make the remaining scales out of thinner steel. Perhaps one batch of 0.7 mm and then 0.5 mm for the rest? I could put the thickest scales on the front upper torso and have the thinner scales further down and on the back like how chainmail sometimes becomes finer on the extremities?
Currently the scales are attached as close as possible horizontally without being joined together but I could change it so the outermost holes on each scale overlaps.
| Quote: | | Although it's not the only way to punch or sew scales, the Roman fragment from Carpow at least retained the original stitching and backing fabric, so might be useful. |
Yes that looks like a good way to attach scales, having holes in more than just one horizontal row should keep them in place better and make it much less cumbersome methinks.
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Dan Howard
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| Posted: Sun 11 Aug, 2024 7:19 pm Post subject: |
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Just move the old 0.9mm scales to the chest area and use 0.5mm scales for the rest. If you want to tailor it like mail armour then you use smaller scales for expansion and contraction gussets or you adjust the degree of horizontal overlap between scales in those areas.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen and Sword Books
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This is a standard topic