Arm armor update

More progress!

I modified the pattern a bit, made a cardboard template and cut out the leather. I'm only making one to start (the right). If the pattern works out, I'll do the left the same way; the pattern isn't specific to the right or left.

About you see the leather cut to shape, with holes punched for straps and stitching. I forgot to allow a slight overage for shrinkage when waxing (even though I wrote on the pattern "allow 1/4" for wax shrinkage!") but, since this is the first attempt, I just left it be. We'll see how it goes after wax is applied.

Above is the back-end halfway stitched up.

I cased the leather (that is, soaked it in warm water) and let it dry for about eight minutes before bending it to shape, above. That's Lily's mini-basketball in the center; my hope was that it would give the elbow a rounded profile.

Hanging up to dry. I was hoping that it would dry more evenly if suspected from the ceiling.

The next day. It's still damp in this photo and took most of the day to dry completely. An unexpected benefit of tying up the ball inside the elbow was the cool scalloped shape around the elbow. I like it a lot.

Tonight I'm going to wax it and hope to have it ready to fight in come fight practice on Wednesday.

Arm armor

I've made progress on the arm armor (e.g., naruchi). The House of the Wolf leather armor page has a really nice tutorial on how he makes his bazubands. The pattern he's using isn't exactly what I'm looking for, but it's a really nice place to start. I also looked up Duke Cariadoc's "The Perfect Armor" article just to review what he has to say. I like the shape of his bazubands better, but not the pattern he's using. I cut out a pattern the other night, but now I'm thinking I need to tweak it a bit. Once I have the pattern I want, it's a small matter of cutting out the leather and actually waxing it. That won't take long. I'll make a right-handed model and wear it to fight practice a couple of times, see how it feels. If all is right, then I'll make the matching left.

Have to check my beeswax supply, too.