Hey everyone, got a question. I really like this style of breastplate and I am wondering how the lower sections of the torso would be put together to give the ability to bend. I've tried looking for more pics but they're all either from the front or back, not really of the sides and none from the inside. Any thoughts? Its armour for Emperor Ferdinand i.

All the rivets you see are either articulation points or mounting points for leather straps.   take a look through this pdf and much will become clear.  there also is an excellent book by ? Price on armour that's well worth getting .  Drat...   links not going through.  but if you google  Basic Armouring by Paul Blackwell

I believe that waste section is "loricated." I could be way off though.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

ToMAR: Techniques Of Medieval Armour Reproduction: The 14th Century

Price, Brian R.

 

And I strongly suggest you ask over at the armourarchive.org a board older than this one and dedicated to researching and making armour  and yes they tend to use the British spelling of armor---armour.

@dogsoldat, i'll try finding that pdf. i think the book by Price you are talking about is "techniques of medieval armour reproduction" which i have actually. Haven't seen anything about sectioned breastplates but maybe the same rule applies for pauldrons.

@frost, i'll look that up as well.

Thanks guys. =)

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but I do feel like I should ask, what other things have you tried to forge before this armor?  Maybe you should try to get the basics down of how to handle the hammer and how different kinds of metal react with heat and how you need to cool the metal down so it doesn't become brittle and break before you are finished the project.  If the metal is too high carbon and you quench it, it will harden and will most likely break with the next heat.  There are a lot of things I would love to start making right now that I'm feeling very impatient about starting but I know that without the practice and more so, the understanding of the metals and techniques that I just cannot start those projects yet.  The best analogy I can think of is like you sitting down at a piano for the first time and immediately trying to play Fur Elise, the only thing you are going to accomplish is making yourself very frustrated.  You may be able to get so far before you have any real issues but with out the basics you can't solve the problems you are ultimately going to run into with forging.