Metalworking Intro

By: Staff Writer, Published: 2006-02-13, Parent Category: Metalworking

Introduction:
Unfortunately I do not know much about working with metal, so this section will be brief.

Metal Fundamentals
Metal thickness is measured in gauges. As far as I know you need 18ga steel for SCA combat, or something of similar rigidity. Similar rigidity could be found in 20ga stainless steel and 16ga aluminum. Steel will rust, aluminum will tarnish (with a dull white film), stainless is stainless. If you're making decorative armor you could also use brass, bronze, or copper. If you're rich you could use titanium.

Plate Armor:
Also called Plate Mail, this armor is the typical "Knight" armor with shaped metal plates riveted together and strapped on the body. I have no idea how to make this but I assume it involves either a hammer and a strong arm or lots of machinery.

Chain Mail:
This is perhaps the easiest type of armor to make, its just very tedious and time consuming. Chain mail is also fairly ugly as an armor and is usually worn underneath other armor types. It looks pretty good under various types of leather armor. For more info on chain mail check out our chain mail page.

Brigandine Armor:
This armor looks cool and yet is still fairly easy to make. Instead of shaping metal plates you use a lot of small square or rectangle ones that are riveted on a shirt of leather. You can buy the plates pre-made and so all you need to do is punch holes in them and rivet them to leather. See more detailed information on our Brigandine Armor page.

Tools and Supplies:
Head over to the tools and supplies page for detailed information on metal tools and suppliers.

This article was written by Staff Writer.