Sparring armor, ideas?

[SOTJ]

I'm liking the riot armor idea (although not for me, as I hate actually wearing armor). I've seen some pictures of Russian riot gear and it looks brilliant for these purposes.

[Manroon]

Hmm. Not bad. Not bad at all! I'll have to keep an eye out for that stuff, I had no idea it could be had for so cheap. I'd only seen it online, and it's kinda expensive new for that kind of thing I think, plus my local surplus stores tend to be a little overpriced usually on things of that nature. Still, I will keep my eyes open!

[Sularen]

I wonder if I might ask, would any of you say that it's very hard to learn? I know the saber grips were pretty easy to do, but all that was for me was cutting to size, punching some holes, and lacing it up like a pair of boots with a better knot. lol

Not difficult to learn at all.  MOST Tandy stores will have a free open session class at some point in the month, just to show the basics.  This is to convince people to buy the leather they sell.    You should be able to make almost anything you need out of what's called a 'single shoulder' and is, of course, a single piece of leather from the front shoulder of a cow.  These often go on sale for $20 - $25 at Tandy stores and come in two weights.  Without going into the intricacies of weight, I'll just mention that there will be 2 (some stores have 3) thicknesses of the single shoulders.  I really don't think anyone would need more than the thinner weight for lightsaber dueling, due to the fact that lightsabers have no piercing tip (the bullet tip isn't that sharp) or cutting blade.  The thin leather will do a good job of displacing the impact over a larger area and eliminating the sting of a strike.  People do have a tendency though to "Rambo" their leather gear - that is, make it out of leather twice as thick as it needs to be.  I don't know why, but they do.

Anyway, a large single shoulder could make a pair of bracers, a few rigid pouches for your belt, a badass mask, several saber wraps, one of those Stormtrooper Shoulder Dealies (TM), maybe even the center mantle for Obi-Wan's armor in the Clone Wars, and many other items in that range of sizes. 

There are two main aspects of leathercraft: construction and tooling/carving
Putting things like I've mentioned together is construction.  Using tools to cut and stamp designs into the leather is called tooling.  The construction is pretty easy (even if you can't sew) and straight forward.  The tooling is much more of an art form and takes quite a bit more practice to do well.

Sorry... this ended up a lot longer than I intended.  I could fill many threads with leathercraft details, but there's a limit to the amount of relevance to Star Wars costuming and I don't want to bore people by going beyond that limit.    If anyone wants to send me questions about it though, feel free via private message or on threads.

[Master Rel]

Perhaps something along these lines



At a minimum I would think decent fitting safety or related goggles to protect your facial orbs, a mouth guard to protect your pearly whites, some knuckle/hand/wrist cover to defend your manipulators, and a cup shaped shield to guard your family jewels   

[Manroon]

Sweetness on all counts, I'm loving how many suggestions and tips I'm getting! I'm pretty sure I want to do the leather armor when I can afford it. It just looks and sounds so cool.

[Uli-Winn]

Its kind of funny and a little odd, but try using craft foam. Like this:

http://youtu.be/vb6CXGortrQ

Obviously you could use this technique to make armor pieces that would look right with Jedi or Sith garb, and it would provide nice padding against strikes.

[Master Rel]

Its kind of funny and a little odd, but try using craft foam. Like this:

http://youtu.be/vb6CXGortrQ

Obviously you could use this technique to make armor pieces that would look right with Jedi or Sith garb, and it would provide nice padding against strikes.

That armor technique was and is just simply redonkulous!

Great find...point for you Uli-Winn Dixie!

[Master Rel]

I was in the middle of sewing my outfit and now because of that armor demo I am going to stop and rethink my process.

It is a welcome break in the development if the whole look and this gives me cause to look beyond my intended design as well as including other project ideas to the process.

[Sularen]

Agreed, that video is brilliant.

[Uli-Winn]

I'm using that technique a lot since I am working on a fan film, and I need a lot of armor. Its fairly easy and if you take your time with it, it can produce some pretty cool pieces.

I am also using it to produce pieces for my combat outfit. I am going for a mix of Assassin's Creed II Ezio with TOR Jedi Knight armor.

[DarthCooper88]

 (Awesome video Uli-winn point for you!)This is a set that I found online & it gave me some inspiration for some form of Jedi armor.It looks like the whole armor set is made from relatively small pieces of leather , essentially big scrap pieces esily found & a thick cording to hold it all together, (looks rather simple).  For weight, a 10oz. leather (boot leather) would work well, as mentioned above I go overboard in that I like the heaviest grade of leather I can find! In this way I have many more uses including SCA dull edged combat armor. I think it would be cool to combine this type of armor with some of the formed foam pieces to create a multi use piece, ahhhh more projects & not enough time

[Jenny]

You can find instructions for building a Dou like that at the Sengoku Daimyo site, under his "armor miscellany." And though he doesn't respond much to email about the site, he participates on the Tousando forum, where you can also find folks who have actually made such armor, to give you advice and guidance.

[DarthCooper88]

Thank you once again Jenny, a diagram would be helpful, most of the armor & craft that I do is based off of photos that I turn into my interpretation of in blueprint form, if there is a diagram available that makes life sooo much easier

[Darth Unobtanium]

I suppose if the need should arise I could always use my old Lacrosse gear, since it never gets used anyway. I've used Lacrosse gloves is duels before, and they protect very nicely. The only downside is that Lacrosse gear is ridiculously expensive.

[Master Rel]

Such gear can be picked up for a song if you are near a big school that has a Lacrosse sports program.

Especially if you are willing to accept damaged gear and relace it.

I picked up a complete set for my son and again for my daughter for less than $100 for both.