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.

Nervous.

We leave for Crown in half an hour. I just hope I'm not a 2-and-out chump today. An amazing win would be awesome; I just hope it's not an amazing loss.

EDITED TO ADD:

Final 8. Not terrible for my first Crown in more than a decade, I guess. I just wish I had made it one round more. Lots of people had nice things to say to me, which is appreciated. I didn't make a fool of myself or Serena. Guess that's all that matters. In six months, we do it all again.

Final Crown prep

My helmet is currently drying in the garage (I repainted the bars black). I took the wire wheel to the dome earlier today. It's certainly not a mirror finish, but it's much better than it was. It had some rust on a few spots, but most of it was just patina. And I know it sounds like BS from someone just too lazy to keep their kit spotless... but I like the patina. That's why I think I'm sold on getting a mild helmet, not stainless (and the cost savings, too).

The trip to Tandy Leather today was a big success. They had everything I needed (and much more). After the sad trip to Cleveland Leather, it's nice to go to a fully stocked, well organized and well lit store. It lacks the charm of Cleveland Leather, of course, but that's a price I'll gladly pay to actually be able to pick up what I need.

Right now Serena is in the basement painting the household device on my shield. It's going to look sharp. She also needs to mend my fighting pants; tonight, I hope.

I need to dye the straps on my body armor tonight. Tomorrow I'll finish that second sword (or tonight, if I get ambitious). And that's it. Except for the fightin'.

Armor is a go

Fought in my re-strapped elbows tonight, and they felt good. And my sword felt good. Matter of fact, everything felt good tonight. So I'm as ready for Crown this weekend as I can be.

Came across these photos recently of the last time I fought in Crown.

Look at that squire belt! So new and shiny! And dig the thrusting tip on my sword... no such thing as "low profile" tips back then. This was about 14 years ago, I think. I made that basket hilt myself, if you can believe it.

Fearsome! I bartered for that chainmail drape, and it lasted maybe a couple months after Crown. It was some soft metal (brass?) that just couldn't hold up. And I didn't know how to knit chain to fix it (still don't). And check out that giant leaderboard in the background. They trooped that monster out for several Crowns, then it went away. Too bad, it was really impressive. They did up your name in fancy script on a slip of cardboard for the slots... I still have mine in a box somewhere.

Me and Sir Amaranth. He killed me shortly after this photo was taken, knocking me out of the tourney, I believe.

So, yeah, it's been a long time since I've fought in a Crown. Had no real desire to... until now. I'd love to make my wife Queen of the Middle Kingdom. Man, she'd be a great queen.

Only four days to go.

Elbow update

I hadn't intended on tearing apart my elbows, but after Baron Wars I needed to replace both straps... and when I looked at the leather "articulation" on both, I saw the leather was starting to fail. so I popped out all the rivets and redid it. And while I had it in pieces, I dyed the leather black. Put everything back together last night, and it looks good.

But it doesn't feel good.

I was worried about the buckles, so I replaced them with newer, slightly larger ones. When I put then on in my basement they felt clunky, like there was a lot of stuff bunching up in the inside bend of my elbow. That might also just be the new elbow pads I bought (for the first time in maybe 8 years). I suspect it's the pads. Tonight I'm going to go with my old pads, I think, see how it feels. But these new pads will work great with my new naruchi, when they're built.

I also cut a length of rattan for a second sword. I'll get that finished Friday, I think. All that's left is painting my shield (which my lovely lady has volunteered to do) and scraping the rust off my helmet (probably a bigger job than I think). Oh, and I also fixed the thumb on my new gaunts. I pounded the crap out of the rivet, so I don't think it's going anywhere.

I'm happy to report that last night's repairs involved drills, boxcutters, razor blades, screwdrivers and hammers... and I managed to get everything done without hurting myself in any way! Now that I've written that, I'm sure I'll tear off a hunk of my arm while I'm buffing my helmet.

Notes on Baron Wars

Fought in my new (or more properly, improved) gaunts... and managed to pop off a thumb the very first battle. I don't know how it happened; I was in a bad spot in the first field battle--which isn't uncommon, because I'm a rather weak open-field spear--and I was pushed back over a pile of bodies. I went down hard, and there were immediately three guys (the same ones chasing me down) helping me up and saying "Your gauntlets broke--here's your thumb.") I was pissed, but managed to affect a repair and get back before the next battle began. And naturally, when I say repair, I mean I wrapped a bunch of duct tape around the damn thing. I really wanted to avoid duct tape on these things, but I even more so wanted to keep fighting. I see what happened--the rivet on the thumb cap wasn't peened down as much as it should be. My bad. I'll clean them up tonight and pound the crap out of it.

I also broke straps on both elbows. Since my elbows are only held on with one strap, I again had to wrap duct tape all around to keep them on. Fortunately, the second one broke just as fighting was ending for the day. Regardless, now I have to replace both straps. But, better to happen at Baron Wars than this weekend at Crown.

And making naruchi has gone to the top of my to-do list; mostly because I got the shit beat out of my forearms this weekend. I'm going to take the leather I had earmarked for greaves and turn them into arm protection. I also need to look for a smaller metal buckler to wear on my left hand when I'm fighting spear. I'll try to pick one up at Pennsic.

Last things to do before Crown: cut a second sword, and grind the rust off my helmet. I’m also going to try to get to Tandy Leather and buy some brown dye and dye all the straps on my body armor. And replace the shoulder straps with prettier ones, if I have time. And that's as good as it's going to get, I'm afraid.