[MR] Armoring kits? Would they be useful?

[david wendelken]

In the process of making a fair bit of home-grown steel armour over the years (not master-work quality, just beginner quality!), I learned that the hardest part of making a lot of the simpler items (the ones new fighters need quickly and cheaply!) is simply cutting out the sheet steel with a jigsaw and then filed down.  Drilling all those holes isn't fun, either. It takes forever!

There are some nifty tools that cut the steel faster, but the cheapest is around $140 with shipping, and that puts it out of the price range of a lot of new fighters.  Whitney punches cost a noticeable amount of change, too.  And, not everyone is near to a friendly armourer to borrow this stuff...

Coincidentally, I'm doing some consulting work at a custom manufacturing facility in Md at the moment.  I've asked them to work up a price quote for what it would take to produce armour kits for barrel or spangen helms, gorgets, half-gauntlets, knee and elbow cops (and lames).

The idea would be that the kit would include instructions, patterns, and all the steel parts pre-cut out by machine.  Where appropriate, the steel parts would be pre-drilled for the rivets.  

The person making the set would have to supply a ball-pean hammer, a drill or punch, a stump, and something to use as plate for hammering rivets against, rivets, strap leather and buckles - plus some elbow grease.  The instructions would tell them where to get these items via the internet or their local hardware store.

It appears that the actual process of having this company cut and drill the steel is pretty cheap, but there is a setup cost for the programming time to run the computer-controlled cutters and drillers.  The programming cost (a one time fee) can run several hundred dollars or more, depending upon the complexity.

A sheet of 4'x8' mild 14g steel is around $40.  That should be good for at least two to three sets of the above items.  I suspect that the cutting/drilling cost for a sheet will end up in the $10 to $40 range.  If enough folks thought it was a good idea, the programming cost would be spread over enough helms that it wouldn't matter.

Realistically, that would mean that a new fighter could get a helm, gauntlets, gorget, and knee and elbow cops for less than $100, including tools (except for a borrowed drill), straps and buckles.  They could do that now, of course, but they would have to spend an extra weekend or two just getting everything cut out, filled down, and drilled.

The kits would make it a lot easier on folks who are willing to run an armouring workshop to help out new fighters get equipped.

Would this be useful to folks?  I do not want to run it as a business and I sure don't want to spend a lot of money making something that people don't want.  (If some group thought this was a good idea, it would be fine with me if they wanted to run it! I would even help fund getting it started.)  If I have to run it, it will be a non-profit enterprise, so please don't fuss at me for advertising!

I also don't want to drive our current armourers out of business.  But I suspect that they would end up selling even more pairs of bascinets and such because we would end up with more fighters, each of whom would want, over time, to improve their gear.

Please reply to davewendelken at earthlink.net, as I don't want to annoy folks with lots of list traffic over this (assuming, of course, that anyone cares enough one way or the other to comment!)

Yours,

Andras Salamandra0