Lorica plumata scales

[John M McDermott]

Is "parade armor" supported by any references? How do those references square with Roman squeamishness about the military appearing at public functions (as opposed to battle) in uniform? <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

A bud of mine and myself are in the process of making a plumata shirt. We currently have about $1000 invested between materiel and tools not to mention the time to cut, rib, punch and shape 2500 bronze scales, cut 2500 niclesilver scales, wind and cut 2.5km of bronze wire... ugh<br>
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Anyway, our progress is up at members.socket.net/~firemsn/plumatapics/plumatapics.html Time and world events are against us lately as I am in the military, but we WILL finish this<br>
<br>
E <p>There is nothing like a little night time entertainment, especially when it involves stockings, garters and a lot of contact....<br>
Thats right... We're talking HOCKEY</p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

I agree the 1 mm scales are probably some of the thicker ones<br>
Some scales Ive seen are paper thin [some or all may not belong to plumata tho] <p><img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.martin/forum/mark.gif
" width="100" height="100" align="right">
</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=vardulli>vardulli</A> at: 2/2/04 8:07 pm<br></i>

[Anonymous]

RLQM is sposed to come out with some plumata in the future. It'd be interesting to see what it looks like.<br>
<br>
Dave <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Ghaaa... never post at work while several things are going on at once lol<br>
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Anyway, the test peice we made is supprisingly sturdy. Initially, we only made butted for scale size and hole spacing experiments, then we made a small patch of riveted to see if we could do it. That riveted is supprisingly strong. We only used a .5mm copper wire for the rivet, yet it took quite a bit of strength to get one to pop using a spring clip remover tool thingy whatchacallit (the ones you squeeze to open). We havent "abused" either patch as yet. There are plans to wire it to a leather backing and see what it can take. Sorry, but we just can't bring ourselves to it We fear it may take large quantities of alcahol to build the needed courage to damage something that took that much work<br>
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With the construction, the scales are overlaped top and bottom by 1/3 as well as left and right by 1/3. This leaves the small portion with the srtengthening rib exposed. Throw all this over a backing of riveted maile with leather or heavy linnen behind that and, imho, it would give pretty decent protection against the weapons of the day.<br>
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The flexability of this stuff is amazing. I wrapped it aroung my finger and still had free motion with flexing it. It does not like to be rolled inside out on its vertical axis (left to right), but isn't so bad on its horizontal axis (bottom to top). I think a finished shirt could be easilly rolled into a rather compact tube for storage to avoid damaging your hard work.<br>
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Eh, these are just my observations and minor opinions here hehehee I hope to learn a lot more about this stuff as time goes on with the construction.<br>
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Take care all,<br>
E <p>There is nothing like a little night time entertainment, especially when it involves stockings, garters and a lot of contact....<br>
Thats right... We're talking HOCKEY</p><i></i>

[deepeeka]

Hi

I am interested in developing a plumata for commercial purposes. A practical plumata. Help, resources, images, ... welcome.

[Doc]

Hello Gagan,

There is no practical plumata. You either make it exactly the way it was or it is a fantasy piece. This armor was very intricate to make.

If I can dig up my old file on this armor, I will give you some information. It has been some time since I read the data.

[deepeeka]

From what I have been able to read on RAT, and elsewhere, that this is a very unpractical armour. It is both heavy and expensive. Do you think there will be a demand for this type, if we do make it for the mass market.

Gagan

[Doc]

This armor is heavy and very expensive to make because the pieces are very very small. The scales for instance are the size of thumbnails.

I cannot speak for others and how prone they are to puchasing this but first you have to determine if you want to make something that just in the mail will require significantly more links than anything in mail that is currently made.