Leather Plate 

So you want to create some plate armor out of leather? Great choice,  using plates can make a simple armor pattern into great style of armor.  But before we start we need to look at the two different styles of attaching the plates together.  They are

Laced plates

and

Riveted plates

Riveted plates are more common in the European and Chinese armors more then the Japanese armors, but there are a few examples of this style so it is worthy of note.  This style is popular as rivets are fairly common hardware in most armor workshops and are available in most hardware stores.  There are two main types of rivets,   The run rivets and the set style rivets.

  A gun rivet is the more common style found in hardware stores,  they are less suitable for armor as they leave a mushroom on one side of the rivet and makes the armor rather uncomfortable to wear.  To set a rivet you simply make a hole stick the rivet in the gun place the rivet into the hole and squeeze the gun handle a few times.

A set rivet are less widely carried but can be found at most art and crafts stores that carry any leather products or a wide selection in available at tandyleater.com and some hardware stores.   They work well for armor as they are made to look nice on both ends of the rivet.  To set a set rivet you simply need to make a hole in the leather put the pin of the rivet into the hole, place the cap on the pin and use the setting tool and a hammer to join the rivet. 

The benefit of riveting plates is that you need very little overlap in the leather (I recommend at least 2-3 times the width of your rivet head).  Another benefit of riveting is the ease in which the pieces are riveted together.  You can set a rivet in about 15 seconds from start to finish.  

Lacing plates

Lacing plates together is the more traditional way to join plates together.  Lacing plates does allow for movement between the plates allowing a full range of movement that rivets will not allow.  The down side is that lacing takes forever to do, there is no set standard on how to lace but there are a few more common styles that have been used.

click the picture  for more detail

A. Is a simple but time consuming style.

B. A with a additional row to prevent the lace for slipping or shifting.   The extra row adds a tension to the lace\.

C.  This is the "standard" lacing pattern of most Japanese armors.

D.  Most of the patterns (other then A and B) displayed can be spaced out so you do not have to have lace all away a crossed the plate.\

E. Simpler version of C with out the tension rows.

F. The simplest "Japanese" lacing style, this is very prone to having the lacing get out of position and is not recommended.

G. Sewing style lacing much like a rivet style, where you lace one row to the next so the plates can not move at all.  

Ok I so how do I take my one piece pattern and make it a plate style?

So you are starting with a pattern right?   if not you are a bad monkey and need to make one click here don't worry I'll wait while you do.

So take your pattern and lay it out.

Then cut out your first plate (decide on a standard width for all the plates)

Now cut out another plate and place it with a overlap ontop of the first plate (make sure you have enough leather in the overlap to cover all the holes in your lacing pattern.  (I use 2-3 inches on the more complex lacing patterns but use what works for you).

Repeat for the rest of the pattern

Now you punch out the holes for the lacing and lace

Easy.    (right)

Questions? Comments? Insults? contact the web master at: Ichiban@wakagashira.com