Making Lorica closure loops driving me CRAZY!

[Magnus]

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[QVINTVS ARTORIVS CORVINVS]

Me too!! 8)

And you can cut 16 G brass nicely with either a knock-off Beverly shear or the real thing... like butter I say, butter... Muahhahahahahaha :twisted:

[sillious saurus]

Take off you hosers!

U.S. Customs Officer: Beat it, you puck-slapping maple suckers.
Canada Customs Officer: Take a hike, you Shatner-stealing Mexico touchers.

HAHAHA!

Anyway fellas, if it makes you feel any better, my father is Canadian, so I guess that makes me halfsies, eh?

[Matthew Amt]

How did you cut those being they are so thick?

Yup, aviation snips. Get a set of the Wiss brand, with green and red handles for right and left curves, and yellow handles for basically straight stuff. I drew them out in 2 interlaced columns, with the tongue of one on the left being between the bodies of 2 on the right, and so on, if you follow. A small chisel will help with the short angled bits, which can be hard to get the snips into neatly. But good snips go through short bits of 18 gauge pretty easily, though 16 ga may be more of a challenge--you may need the "bulldog" snips which have shorter, heavier jaws.

Also, the hooks, when you put on the lorica, are you bending those hooks at all to assist putting the top and bottom together or are they pretty much hard?

I don't bend them unless I need to. But I carry my lorica around disassembled in a cloth bag, and the hooks tend to snag or poke through the bag and catch on things or just get squished. So sometimes, yes, I have to bend them back in place, but I try to keep that to a minimum!

One thing I have noticed is that it helps to give the hook a slight S shape, like those shown near the bottom of my Newstead page,

http://www.larp.com/legioxx/newstlor.html

The one at far left, especially. Now, those haven't been riveted in place so the base is only bent to about 90 degrees, not 180, since you have to be able to reach the rivet to peen it. But you can see how the tongue is shaped. This makes it a little easier to hook to the collar section, but also keeps it from sliding off quite as easily if you set the lorica down.

I also go to some length to use different metal and/or rivets when making any repairs! I want the new piece to look a little different from the others.

Valete,

Matthew

[PhilusEstilius]

In the past when I have made loricas' I found that instead of brass rivets, it is better to use what is know as Clout nails to fix the brass fittings. These are a soft alloy type nail used for fitting tarred felt to wood rooves, they have a flat head around 5mm diameter and are great for holding the leather straps on the inside. Infact when a countersink is made on the outer face of the brass fitting holes they lock in good, there is also the added advantage that should repairs be needed one simply drills off the head of the nail with a larger drill than the nail shank diameter.