iron cuirass

[nKante]

OK. Finally finished it. I took some liberties with it but I am very pleased with the overall product. I used street sign aluminum in place of iron plates. I replaced the iron rivets with brass screws peened over square nuts, which I think gives it visual weight. I made a set of rigid shoulder straps but they were very uncomfortable to move in. I tried a few things, including chains, but I settled on rawhide straps with attached plates. The worst part was sewing the edging on, which is made of strips I cut from a West African mud clothe I had. The pictures don't show but there are 2 set of 8 grommets on the top of the front plate. Since I was unable to physically measure the person that I made the armor for, I wanted some adjustability when attaching the shoulder straps. That is also the reason I decided to open both sides. I tucked a strip of the mud clothe into the bindings of the shoulder plate to give it some padding.

[Iain]

I'm glad to see this thread coming back to life.

The finished product, if not exactly like the originals, is an interesting take on a little known subject and a visually pleasing result.

I am adding here a couple more originals. One that was on auction some years ago, another from the MET.

In the next post I will add some interesting text from Robinson's "Oriental Armour".

[Iain]

The book excerpt. It deals in part with an earlier topic on this thread of mail over or under cloth components.