Matt Luke\'s Corbridge B

[richsc]

After two years of waiting, my Corbridge B from Matt Lukes is finished! Great looking stuff, although it is on him not me. But just had to post this example of his work.

[Robert]

Oh WOW! Well, it certainly looks worth the wait. Congratulations!

[richsc]

Since he forged the plates, he says it took an entire month to do, and that he is bumping the price up 50% after mine. As long as you don't mind using mild steel, I should think it will look almost as good. I'll post closeups when it arrives.

[Creon01]

Man that looks good and I'm sure all the details are spot on.

[TFRufio]

Is it iron? I have one coming the end of the month. It is a Corbridge A. I believe that he is, for extra commission, making them from iron.

[Titus Marius Secundus]

That is an excellent piece of craftsmanship. Congratulations for owning such a work. If i may ask, what is the preferred metal, as it seems to be iron by your comments. In other threads many have stated that the metal used for segmentata by the Romans was of good quality, equivalent to today's mild steel. So why not just use mild steel sheet, and hammer the metal stressing it into shape and strength. I believe this is how Brian has made his segmentatas.

Regards Sam.

[richsc]

I asked Matt to answer your questions:

"I do use mild steel because indeed the few analyses of Roman armor iron has shown it to be of very high quality and although the carbon content is lower, our mild steel is still to my mind the nearest available analogue; even true old source wrought iron is more likely to be of inferior quality, judging by the few pieces I've tried, so less realistic. Using real wrought iron would be extremely expensive since it's generally only available in bars, and it'd take a very long time to hammer out 1mm thick plates."

[Titus Marius Secundus]

That was very kind of you to have done that. Thank you.

[richsc]

And it arrived! I just noticed that I have a Dean Cunningham Italic C helmet, Matt Lukes Corbridge B, an Mark Morrow pugio and Vindonissa pattern gladius, Almost an art collection rather than display.

[richsc]

Some addtional notes from Matt Lukes:
"Yeah, couple of people have said mine is not as heavy as others. I've used the dimensions of original plates in every instance possible- the girth hoops, for example, seem to consistenly be about 55mm wide, so that's what mine are. The lesser shoulder guards are actual sizes too. Because we're taller and a bit larger than the Romans for whom the Corbridge corselets were made were, the breast and back plates had to be a bit longer and a bit wider though- and the upper shoulder guards correspondingly slightly longer to fit proportionally. These are realistic variations though- breast, back and upper shoulder plates did vary in length and width for fit, while the lesser shoulder plates are consistenly one size, and the torso hoops only vary in length. All the plates are on the order of 1mm thick, which is what I suspect most originals really were- judging by the rivets on the numerous hinges, buckle and belt bases, and torso loops I've looked at. Doubtless there was variation, but I doubt any plates were substantially thicker or thinner. I've not seen any proper evidence of intentional variation for location as is sometimes suggested.

The flare on the lower torso plate's hem is replicated from the only clean extant artifact I've ever seen: one from Carnuntum. It's rather minimal indeed, so presumably is not meant to aid in keeping the belt up. The Stillfried Newstead plates are even less-so as they're not even flared, but simply have copper alloy edge binding for decoration. So it would seem that either the belt wasn't typically worn with armor- and the breaks from reality Trajan's Column has a-plenty do suggest it isn't the best thing to use for support- or little hooks were typically used. Since they'd be easy to hook over one plate, and would do a far better job of keeping a belt up than any hem flare on the armor, it does seem a more likely method to be honest. "