Section # 1
Introduction
Materials:
*1-2 straight-sided 55 gallon plastic barrels with a wall thickness of about 1/4" 1/4" flat tubular nylon lacing (200 yard minimum)
* 2-3 square feet of 7-8 ounce vegetable tanned leather
* Four 1-1/2" copper rivets
* Six finishing nails and a small scrap of 3/4" plywood
* 10' of 1/4" soft nylon rope

Tools:
(For Pattern Making)
* Measuring tape
* Six or eight pieces of poster board
* 18" ruler
* Small French curve (optional, but nice)
* Pencils
* Scissors
* Masking tape

(For Working the Plastic)
* Table saw (best), circular saw
* Jig saw
* Drill press, hand drill
* Knife
* Propane torch
* Heavy-duty wire cutters
* Ball-peen hammer
* Lacing hole marking guide (I'll show you how to make it.)
* Sharpie markers (medium point)
* A sharp-pointed soldering iron and a block of wood, or sharp scissors and a lighter.
* 2 rubber-tipped squeeze clamps (Try Home Depot near the cash register - usually about $1.00)

Sources
Barrels:
* Look in the phone book under ‘Barrels, Plastic'.
* Try a local car wash. Their detergent comes in plastic barrels.

Nylon lacing:
William M. Jette Co.
68 Salem St.
Providence, RI 02907
(401) 781-4455

Contact person: Connie
(Ordering Information:) Ask for 1/4" wide flat tubular nylon lacing. Specify color or colors. (Personally, I think red and white look nice.) It comes in 1000 yard spools and there is a two spool minimum. 1000 yards is enough to do about five sets of armor. You might want to go in with some other people when you order, unless you go through shoelaces like nobody's business.

Leather:
* SCA merchants (Linda Steffan is good, and she's Clan (LLSteff@bluefrog.com)
* Mundane dealers

Copper rivets:
* SCA merchants (did we mention that Linda Steffan is really good? You should see her shop!)
* Hardware stores
* Leather dealers

Techniques for Working with Plastic
Read this section carefully. Working with plastic isn't that hard, but it does need to be done in a well-ventilated work area like a garage.

* Prepare the barrel by first cleaning it out with lots of water. Even if you bought it pre-washed, clean it. The last thing you want is chemical burns.

* Next, mark a straight line around the side of the barrel as close to the top as you can, and then do the same with the bottom.

* Using a table saw or circular saw, slice the top and bottom off as cleanly as you can. The cut line needs to be straight, because all of your remaining cuts are based on this line.

* Make a vertical cut to split the barrel.

* When you tape the pattern pieces to the barrel, make sure that you avoid putting them over any logos, numbers. Or symbols which have been imprinted into the barrel.

* When you cut out pieces, make the edges as clean, straight, and smooth as you can. If an edge has a wobble in it or a ‘sawtooth' appearance, use a coarse file to clean it up.

* When you finish cutting pieces out, take your knife (a pocket knife will do) and scrape off the curls and spiral residue plastic from the edges. It doesn't take long, but try to get off as much as you can.

* Using your propane torch, melt the edges of the cut pieces. If you angle the flame to go along the length of the piece, it will go pretty quickly. (Wear work gloves-- the plastic gets *very* hot.) This will give you nice, smoothly rounded edges to all of your pieces. When you melt the plastic it will stink and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the fumes were toxic, so make certain to do this in a well ventilated place.

* If you work quickly, you'll want a bucket of water to drop the pieces into when you're done melting the edges. The water will cool them quickly enough to prevent any ‘smearing' of the still-liquid edges.

Making a Marker Punch:
A drilling marker punch is a small tool to help you position and mark where you need to drill your lacing holes. It will save you many hours of labor.
Take a piece of 3/4" plywood that measures 1" X 2". Carefully measure and mark a line 1/4" from the long side. Now repeat this at ½". Measuring from the top, mark a line at 1/4", ½", and 3/4". You now have two long lines that are intersected by three short lines.

Take your finishing nails and compare them to your drill bits. Find a bit that is slightly smaller than the nail. Take the plywood to your drill press and drill six pilot holes for your nails where the lines intersect. Tap the nails into the block so that the points protrude a little. Don't lose this block. You'll be using it more times than you can count. (SEE DIAGRAM T-1)
Marking the Drill Holes on the Plates:
You need to decide how many vertical rows of lacing you want to use. The more rows, the nicer the armor looks. Five rows is really the minimum, but you can use as many as you care to squeeze in, as long as it is an odd number. (My sode have 17 rows of lacing.) Remember though, that the more rows you use, the more time you'll spend drilling and lacing. Once you have decided how much drilling and lacing you want to do, it's time to use your marker punch with the little nails in it. If you want five rows of lacing on a 9" wide plate, it's pretty simple:

With a pencil, mark a line on the top of the plate at the 4.5" point. This will give you the position of the center row.
Mark a point about 1" from each outside edge.

The outside rows of lacing should be 1/4" to ½" from the edge. If you want the armor to look a bit fancier, add a single line of lacing on the outside edge. (SEE DIAGRAM T-4) This will give you the outside rows.

Measure the distance between the center and edge points and divide by two. This will give you the positions for the inside rows.
Center your marker punch over the pencil mark. Tap the ends of the nails gently with a small hammer. You will now have six little dimples that tell you where to drill. Whenever you are drilling holes for lacing (except on the hai-date), you will be using a 1/8" drill bit. If you make the hole any larger, the lacing will slide in the hole and your plates will shift. Repeat this for each plate.
Drill all of the holes. If you have a drill press, your life will be fairly pleasant. If not, then not.
As you finish each piece, lay it out on the ground in the position it will be when the armor is assembled. This will quickly show you if you've forgotten any.

Lacing Techniques:
All holes for lacing (with the exception if the hai-date) are 1/8". This small diameter will provide enough friction on the laces to keep the plates from slipping out of position. Because the holes are tiny, it's important that you taper the ends of the laces into long points. Either use a hot knife-edged soldering iron to melt the ends into tapers, or cut them with very sharp scissors and use a lighter.

It is easy to burn yourself with melted nylon, so be careful

There are three primary techniques used to lace this armor:
First is hinge lacing, where a piece of leather is used as a hinge to attach two pieces of plastic. The leather is laced onto the plates with a series of small ‘x's' of lacing. (SEE DIAGRAM T-3).
Hinge lacing can be done with a little ‘X' every three or four inches, or you can put a little ‘X' every 1/4". It depends on how fancy you want to be. When you reach the end of the row, tie off the ends and trim them closely. Then use a hot screwdriver tip to mash them flat and melt the knots together.
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