How to Make Armour - Leather Vambraces

today I'm going to show you how to make a wax hardened leather vambrace for sport fighting so let's get started just a reminder everybody that you can find this pattern as well as many others and artwork on my Etsy shop you can find a link right here you can also find that same stuff on my patreon account month to month it refreshes every month so have a look at that and he'll if you want to support the channel even more I've got shirts I've designed linked below the video hey this is one of them right here I'm biased but I love this shirt check it out let's get started as I was saying you can find this pattern on my Etsy shop we're just going to go through cutting it out and punching all the holes using an 8 to 12 ounce leather on the upper parts of the arms and I'm punching out all these holes with a 5/64 inch punch the holes are spaced so the 4 and 1 punch that I often use works with this but I just fired around it really quick with that 5/64 inch punch any rivet holes that I punch are usually 1/8 inch drive punches and that's because I'm usually using 1/8 inch rivets either brass or copper now if you're using rapid rivets to put these together which is fine you may want a slightly smaller hole because I layer these van braces I usually use a 12 ounce leather it says 12 to 14 there but I would try and do 12 you don't want it too heavy that it doesn't form nicely just a heads up that I released this pattern on my Etsy n patreon about a week before I released this video so if you're looking to stay up to date on all the patterns that I released I'm probably gonna end up putting them up on my Etsy and patreon before where the videos done again I'm just gonna flyer on the edge here with that 5/64 inch punch now all we have to do is cut out some straps again the rivet holes are gonna be 1/8 inch but the holes for the buckle tongue are gonna be 5/32 so I've got 5/64 inch for the stitch holes 1/8 inch for the rivet holes and 5/32 for the buckle holes there you go now that we've got the paper pattern complete it's time to start cutting some leather out my go-to place in town here is Lonsdale leather so I get almost all my tools and supplies from them so you should check them out if you have some time there'll be a link here and in the description down below for you now I'm using an 8 ounce leather here once again this is 8 to 12 but I like to air everything slightly on the lower side for me 12 ounce leather on the upper plates for these arms wouldn't be as big of a deal as a 14 ounce leather for the lower piece so if you've got a 12 ounce for the upper pieces I wouldn't worry about it too much now when it's time to start cutting all this out the 8 ounce is one thing but this 12 ounce is gonna be quite a pain in the butt make sure you strop your blade repeatedly even if it's a fresh knife blade always strop it you'll get an extra edge on it and that'll help me cut through all this pretty quick as you can see here when I'm beveling all these I am using a number to beveler and then when I get on to the heavier leather I use a number three I've got a pretty good tip on how to sharpen your bevelers that are finally given up the ghost so I'll link it here if I'm able to videos are only allowed so many inserts for links so I may not have enough but you can definitely find it in my video list a stitch groover isn't absolutely necessary but it'll definitely help protect your stitches if I had not had all the holes all pre-designated then I could stitch groove and punch along with diamond punchers or my four and one and be able to track everything well but because I already have the holes there I just went over it so it would protect the stitches so some of this takes a few passes to get through make sure you're strapped your blade again and then strop it again even if it's brand new like I was saying before it'll really help you cut through this heavy leather this is a twelve and a half ounce I think if I remember correctly again I'm using a number three beveler for this heavier hide it works pretty good you could go up a little higher if you wanted to but I thought the three was a good spot this video has a few things like this so I would totally throw out this whole piece because of this groove but I just thought I would leave it in because it goes to show you you always got to double check your hides I should have checked the back of this and I can't ship that to a customer with a giant groove in the back like that on top of that it may hit the wax and warp because it's got a different thickness and the rest of the little hides so you're playing with fire if you put everything together and then go ahead and wax it so I was crossing my fingers that everything would turn out okay I'm using 5/8 inch buckles here and I could have used a strap cutter but decided to just cut it with my blade and the ruler everything turned out fine having silver pens on hand is pretty handy for black we know here we're gonna have the rivet holes be 1/8 inch and the tongue holes for the buckle be 5/32 inch obviously you need two of each of these to complete your one arm now we're gonna make some keepers most of you are gonna want to stitch these together but you're just gonna wrap it around both pieces and check the size you're just gonna mark it with a stylus or however you want to mark it then you're gonna cut it now what I do is I cut two so I cut the one that I'm going to put together and then the one that makes sure I know the size so if this one was wrong then I would just get rid of the second one but because it's fine I'm gonna use the second one either to make more or I'm gonna just put the second one together now this is a great little stapler I've been using it since I worked on Warcraft and I just got to do is tap the staples a little bit to make sure they're secure but Chelonia Tinch punches for these upper parts we're gonna go around the edge with the four and one and the 5/64 depending so on the corners obviously I'm using the 5/64 because the foreign one can't get to there I've had both my 5/64 inch and my foreign one punch for a while now so it's almost time to get a new set of those because of that I tried something different with this piece and took the heavier leather over to the drill press because of how firm and thick this leather is I felt it would be alright and it was now obviously most of you aren't gonna have a drill press so you can use your 5/64 inch or your four and one just fine probably it'll be easier to use your 5/64 on this heavier leather if you're having trouble punching those holes with the drive punch push the tip into some beeswax to get some lubrication now that you have it all cut out it's time to add some artwork if you want to now if you're going to add artwork to a piece that is going to be waxed you have to let it dry at least 24 hours if you don't you're gonna put it into the wax and if it's still wet you're gonna absolutely destroy no recovery destroy your piece so make sure you're careful let's get going remember that bit of advice I just gave you because it'll come into play later so I've decided to sketch a Thor's hammer with a serpent wrapped around it I'm trying to expand on my art skills only way to do that is practice I'm pretty good with the serpents but serpents aren't really that difficult they're squiggly line that's got nice curves that you just double up so if you're looking to do your own artwork don't be afraid just to keep practicing and playing around with it be patient so I'm just gonna sketch this up then I'm gonna ink it and then we're gonna move on to leather carvings so I'll see you in a little bit here you I've said this before but I'm gonna say it again if you want to improve your artwork and make it look just that much better grab some inks it really adds just that extra level of a finish I've got lots of videos on leather carving but I'm just gonna mention this quickly when you are wetting your leather it's okay to put a bunch of water on it but you definitely have to let it dry a bunch before you carve it so otherwise you're just gonna get really awkward looking lines when you finally hit it with your swivel knife I'll link a video here if you want to check out some more information on leather carving you can also find all sorts of leather carving tools in my Amazon storefront you can check the link in the description down below enjoy the process here and I'll catch up to you guys when I finish this part you you all right I need everybody to pay attention for a quick second teaching time so when we draw back to see this full piece you're going to see that there's a wet spot at the bottom and the top of our carving if you recall what I said earlier about 24 hours after carving well remember this for when we put it in the wax later because this build was all done in the same day we know this whole piece is wet but if you look right here you can see those two moisture spots so if you're waiting for your piece to dry you know that those two spots need to dry the most you know like 24 hours to make your carving pop the most you're gonna want to paint with dyes or use some paints in general being very careful with the black so it doesn't get all over the place it could easily bleed onto your piece now you can fix this up a bit with antique gels and blend it a bit better and that's what I'm gonna end up doing here so I'm not putting a resist on my piece at all I'm just gonna use an anti gel to make sure I get it in all the little crevices and darken everything before I paint it if given the option between paints and dyes I'll usually take dyes but because this is a tutorial video I thought I would experiment with some painting this time around now your paint is going to resist the wax so it won't darken like a dye will but it'll still discolor slightly or at least has the chance of discoloring slightly but it definitely won't be as drastic a change as when you put a dyed piece of leather in a wax pot even a natural vegetable go a very dark brown and that's before you even applied any dyes to it so if you're gonna want a dark brown vambrace definitely don't put any brown coloring on it just let the wax take care of it I've also experimented with using resists and dyes and antiques and then waxing it but it's such a hit-and-miss process for quality once you've tooled a piece not only is there a whole bunch of spots where the wax could seep in you mean with a resist on it it could even seep in through the sides or the back or the stitching holes and discolor your piece so if you have a resist on it it's definitely going to resist in certain spots of your project but in other parts it won't so you're gonna get a mottled awkward-looking unfinished piece once we've got this all done we're going to die this other piece really quickly and then we're going to break out some wax and burnish all our edges now you can use water saddle soap a variety of different burnishing tools including motorized ones bone folders all sorts of different options I like this one here but more often than not I'll use my motorized burnisher once you've burnished all your edges make sure you give it a quick buff to get rid of any marks or excess wax bits this is more important on pieces that aren't going to be waxed obviously now everybody's favorite thing in the world hand stitching I am NOT a professional hand stitcher there's lots of people that have different techniques I use a sewing machine when I stitch things usually so this channel is making me do more hand stitching that I have ever done in the last ten years but it's more important I think to make sure you guys see it done know that it's not that hard and that all my patterns make it so that you could hand stitch them so it's a learning process for me it's a learning process for you guys as well I was a little worried about this piece because as I've said before 24 hours after you carve it is the minimum for when you should wax it so I've had it resting on top of my wax pots lid just being nice and warm and trying to make sure it's totally dry before I put it in the wax spoiler alert I was unsuccessful in making sure it was completely dry but hey we've got all this stitched up now it's time to put it in the wax I used to use a mix of beeswax and paraffin wax now I just use a high melt point paraffin wax be safe when you're doing it use a ventilated space with a crock pot never move any kind of wax filled object when it's melted I don't care how safe you think you're being make sure you leave a timer on all sorts of stuff I put it in the wax at 250 degrees Celsius for three minutes now this is not 250 degrees Celsius I figured it would be fine it's 300 degrees Celsius as we know from my comments previously it's got some moisture content still I'm not impressed with the 300 I'm thinking to myself I should pull it after 2 minutes specifically because of how hot it is now I run into a problem because I'm showing you guys how you can make these FEM braces yourselves I have to revert back to how I did them a long time ago which is I wax the piece and put the straps on as fast as I can before I form it and let it set this means I have to move the camera in order to film it as soon as it comes out of the wax so I can get enough time to properly form it this means that not only was my piece in the wax for 3 minutes when I thought I should pull it after - as we know it also has some moisture content these days I let it cool I mount the straps then I put it in an oven for around 10 minutes at a hundred and eighty degrees Celsius and then it's pliable enough that I can form it it's a lot easier and safer allows me to use brass dome head rivets but it also makes your oven possibly unusable if you're not careful or even if you are careful as soon as you have all the rivets set its time to immediately form the piece you may want some gloves depending on how fragile your hands are and if it's coming out of the oven it'll be really hot this was warm but it wasn't excruciating Lee so it may take some time for you to get the form right not too much but if you've got it how you like it and you have space in a deep freeze maybe throw it in there for a bit otherwise double-check it every so often to make sure it hasn't changed shape on you it's good to sand the edges just to make sure it's perfectly smooth because this is where were the most blisters will come from if you're fighting in this get it to like a glass-like polish use really fine sandpaper sanding blocks whatever you can it might be easier to do this if you try the oven method since it'll be perfectly flat and a lot easier to sand constantly until you get it perfectly smooth now it's time to show you the results of our moisture and super-high wax temperature so you can tell right here that it's being just crisped right up it's even split the leather that'll be super hard but also super brittle we don't want that hold on a second don't we have an elbow kicking around here somewhere yeah let's put the elbow on it's pretty simple mark a couple spots for your holes on the elbow or mark a couple spots for your holes on the vambrace depending on how you're doing it then we're going to use paracord we're going to make the tip into a needle with a lighter there's a video here on my channel but how to do that and then you may need to use some pliers to get it through certain parts of the holes don't use the pliers too much you don't want to break your needle I use the same paracord needle technique for when I'm lacing lemmon our plates together once you've got it nice and snug you're going to tie off the end and cut it maybe I'm just gonna hit it with a lighter until it's nicely melted and that's about it well that's about it everybody another video in the bag if you combine this vambrace pattern with the elbow design I did you see the link here then you've got yourself a pretty good set of arm protection so hopefully you enjoyed the video make sure you like subscribe get the notification button and until next time keep on being creative in whatever it is you do

Channel: Dark Horse Workshop

Views: 923,396

Rating: 4.9430742 out of 5

Keywords: Leatherworking, leatherworking projects, leather working, leather armor, how to wax leather, how to make waxed leather armour, how to make leather armour, hardening leather armor, hardening leather armour, leather armour patterns, leather armor patterns, society for creative anachronism, how to make leather vambraces, making leather armor, how to make armour, how to make armor, wax hardening leather, leather armour, larp armor, costume armor, cosplay armor, fantasy armor

Id: _RuhInOYq9k

Length: 18min 45sec (1125 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/yojimbo124]

He never put them on 😩

[u/unlock0]

The para-cord takes away from it imo. Why not a leather strip?

[u/rlowens]

/r/titlegore

[u/TheDemonHauntedWorld]

I get that he was doing a video tutorial... so the quality of the piece was irrelevant. But the "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude was a little put off.

[u/lowrads]

If you're looking for some "dragon scale", the price of alligator hide is less than $10 a foot due to lax demand and a major species comeback, which is largely attributed to a successful licensed hunting program.

Apparently having all them teeth and no toothbrush is no problem for them lady gators given that the wild population has rebounded to about 2 million along the southern US coast, and recovery of caiman populations worldwide.