One of the first projects the aspiring armour smith usually
attempts is a breast plate. It is also one of the most difficult.
For a breast plate pattern take the person who will wear the final product
and put a couple sweat shirts on them then a T shirt on top of that. Cover
the front with duct tape then draw the outline of the breast plate you want
on the person. Then cut along those lines to remove it. This will look sort
of like a breastplate but it will have to distort onto a flat surface to
make the pattern. Tape two split paper bags together then spread the duct
tape breast plate on the paper. It will wrinkle and bunch in the middle
but ignore that and outline it on the paper with a marker. Then make a second
outline an inch or more outside the first. That allows the piece to be too
big around the edges so you can trim down to fit exactly. Now make the arm
cutouts slightly shallower. The depth tends to draw material in from the
sides and thus pull the outline of the arm cutouts into the body of the
breast plate. This is the same material that bunched and wrinkled with the
duct tape pattern when you transferred it to paper. Fold that paper in half
to cut the outline so both sides are symmetrical. Place the pattern on a
suitable piece of metal and outline with a marker. Cut the piece out of
metal. Then pound out the depth. This is critical. Warpage is very difficult
to avoid so start pounding around the edges and work in SLOWLY AND EVENLY.
The right and left side and the top front edge are pounded on a flat anvil
in long straight lines to cover the area till the sides and top merge. From
there the center of the front forms an oval. Pound into a shallow sinking
die (ground from the face of a cheap anvil) around and around that oval
till you reach center. The unpounded area in the center will start to look
rather like a drumhead. The sound as you pound will rise in pitch. This
shows the hardness is increasing. Make sure and give LOTS of depth because
that allows the lungs to expand. Then if you want to harden the piece planish
it. Using a flat anvil and a slightly rounded hammer pound flat down on
the metal as if to pack it denser not to shape it. This does deepen the
piece slightly. If you want an extremely hard piece simply omit the sinking
phase and planish depth into the center by repeating passes over and over
till the desired depth is achieved. This may take a number of passes so
be patient. Nothing happens fast when making a quality piece of armour.
Fit the piece to the person as you work. It will be intentionally a bit
large around the edges so you can trim to exact size. Then ROLL ALL THE
EDGES for safety. I can not stress enough how very important it is to roll
every single edge on an armour. It vastly improves the safety and also increases
strength a great deal. In actual combat use a plate is usually cut into
from the edge more easily than cut into the center. An unrolled edge is
much, much easier to cut into than a rolled edge. On a breastplate the upper
edge presents against the front of the neck. This could be lethal if unrolled.
Or if too close to the neck. Blankenshield armours have a very heavily rolled
top edge on their breastplates. At the center a tube maybe an inch in diameter.
And heavily roped. Many quality antique armours were configured this way.
Likewise the lower edge of a breastplate can cut into the arteries and veins
in the thigh and crotch area. Or cut off more valuable anatomy. Especially
if used on horse back. Shearing against a saddle. So most historical breast
plates had a sort of flange shaped into the bottom edge. To achieve this
yourself use the sinking die on the upper three quarter center of the breast
plate leaving the bottom quarter un sunk. Then pounding from the outside
over a shot put or bowling ball you shape the lower flange and the bottom
of the belly. Working back and forth between pounding inside and outside.
To avoid confusion the flange is shaped on the breast plate before trimming
and rolling the edges. The most important quality any piece of armour has,
is “protection”. And the first part of that protection is that
the armour itself not harm the wearer. Of all the armour components the
breastplate has the most propensity to injure the wearer. So design accordingly.
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