Practical Armouring 101 - Overview

Practical Armouring 101

Overview

Booking form: https://bit.ly/bookPolitUniEvent Booklet: https://bit.ly/EventBooklet

“Lets see the big picture” Anon, circa 1904.


I will be teaching Practical Armouring 101 at the online SCA event “Politarchopolis Uni” using 2 hour Zoom lessons over six weeks in 2020. My aim is to give a person who was interested in making their own armour an introduction to the basic skills and techniques of armouring, with a focus on this student being able to attend every lesson, and at the end have the confidence to attempt their first kit of SCA sports armour.

Lesson Plan

Week One: Discussion held at my PC - Introduction and workshop setup. Students will advise on their intent and goal for the series so I can shape my examples and focus my examples. I will then look at workshops - types of workshops, advantages and disadvantages of each, and the cost benefit of the tools and techniques.


Link: Practical Armouring 101 - Tools and techniques cost benefit analysis


Link: Practical Armouring 101 - Armoury Type

Week Two: Practical skills demonstration based at my workshop. I will give a brief overview of obtaining patterns and using patterns. I will then demonstrate the various ways of cutting metal, and then cleaning up the resulting rough edge.

Week Three: Practical skills demonstration based at my workshop. I will demonstrate the various ways of shaping metal then I will show planishing. This will involve many different tools and methods.

Week Four: Practical skills demonstration based at my workshop. I will demonstrate the various ways of joining metal. There will be practical examples of riveting, Forge welding, Tig welding, and Oxy-Acetylene welding, and videos suggested on ARC and MIG. If time permits, I will go into final techniques such as painting or polishing.

Week Five: Discussion held at my PC - I will lead a discussion on medieval period practice, and how do move towards more a more period in your workshop, and when the period technique is the right choice.

Week Six: Discussion held at my PC - I will lead a discussion on shop practice. After you have made your first suit of SCA sports armour, where to from there? How will you talk to customers who might want you to make armour? What is, and how do I use Bart’s Armour Decision Point guide
What do I charge my client? How do I stay motivated? Why should I make someone else new armour when I could make yet another kit, and how can I use the excuse of “marketing”?