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Description
So this is a tutorial for making your own splint armour - viking style).

My friend asked me to make a small "how-to-build-a-splint-armour-for-dummies" and thats what I did now.

Okay, first you need to decide, how much money you want to spend for builing a splint armour. If you have just a bit spare money, you could use normal cotton cloth for the basic (like jeans-denim). If you have a bit larger amount of money, you can use soft leather (about 1,5mm to 4mm thick) - whatever you use, leather IS the best material you could use.
When you have your chosen material (I will use leather in this tutorial) you need your measures. The leather need to be twice as long as the length from base of the neck to the middle of your upper legs, and it need to be as wide as the length from elbow to elbow (with arms spread of course).

Okay, now to the scetch:
1. Spread out the right measured leather. Like shown on the scetch mark the middle (blue line) and mark the red lines. From red line to red line, the length should be about half your waist's circumference (add some cm if you have a bigger breast or butt ). Cut off the spare parts, BUT think that you need about 2-3cm (1inch) to pleat the leather later. And dont forget about the hole for your head

2. Now you have the basic surface of your armour, which looks nearly like a poncho. Pleat the edges, and if you like, sew some soft fabrik around the edges of the head hole - your neck will be greatfull

3. As you can see, you have to make some more cuts (red lines). Make the cuts in the front and back as long as they need to reach your belt-line. The armpit-cuts will need to be about the length from your armpit to your collarbone, +/- a few cm. Then pleat the leather again, but be carefull - the part around the armpit-cut need to be very tough, or the weight of the splints might ripple the material there after a while!

Between 3. and 4.:
Before you can put the splints on the surface, you need to plan what splints you will use, how they are shaped, and where to put them.
You can use splints of nearly all kinds of metal and you can use thick and hard leather, too. I used aluminium splints for my armour, cause they were not so heavy as steel splints - and because I got a large amount of them for very little money Normally viking splints are square, but there are also triangular splints or shield shaped ones.
But no matter if you bought your splints or cut them out yourself, you need to make sure, that they have no sharp edges! Savety first!
Now you can decide if you want to sew or rivet the splints to your armour. The vikings did both, so both is historical correct, but the decission is up to you.
Sewing is the cheaper decission, riveting the faster and more relyable - cause stiches wore out with the time...
For the tutorial, lets just say we take rivets.

4. Before you start to rivet the splints to the leather survace, try the leather poncho on, and see how it fits. If everything is fine you still have to think about how you will tie the front and back together. You can make small holes along the outside, and tie both parts together like you do with your shoes. Another way, and a more flexible as well, is to sew leather (or other) strings/straps to the sides (about the belt line), and bind them together, when you wear the armour. Thats the historical use and pretty simple, just like a apron. You can also make some strings to the arm-parts of the armour to held them into position.

Next you lay your splints on the survace and see where you have to put them. The distance between the splints should not be under 5mm - so the armor will still be flexible when worn. The drawing gives you an example how you could arange your splints on the leather, but if you have smaller, larger or different shaped splints, it could look quite different.
When you are happy with your arrangement rivet your splints onto the leather (normally 4 rivets to each splint like shown in the scetch) and after a while you will have your very own, handmade splint armour.

And now: Have fun making your own viking splint armour!

P.S: If you look at my "Toolosch"-picture, you can see how my own splint armour looks like

Description
So this is a tutorial for making your own splint armour - viking style).

My friend asked me to make a small "how-to-build-a-splint-armour-for-dummies" and thats what I did now.

Okay, first you need to decide, how much money you want to spend for builing a splint armour. If you have just a bit spare money, you could use normal cotton cloth for the basic (like jeans-denim). If you have a bit larger amount of money, you can use soft leather (about 1,5mm to 4mm thick) - whatever you use, leather IS the best material you could use.
When you have your chosen material (I will use leather in this tutorial) you need your measures. The leather need to be twice as long as the length from base of the neck to the middle of your upper legs, and it need to be as wide as the length from elbow to elbow (with arms spread of course).

Okay, now to the scetch:
1. Spread out the right measured leather. Like shown on the scetch mark the middle (blue line) and mark the red lines. From red line to red line, the length should be about half your waist's circumference (add some cm if you have a bigger breast or butt ). Cut off the spare parts, BUT think that you need about 2-3cm (1inch) to pleat the leather later. And dont forget about the hole for your head

2. Now you have the basic surface of your armour, which looks nearly like a poncho. Pleat the edges, and if you like, sew some soft fabrik around the edges of the head hole - your neck will be greatfull

3. As you can see, you have to make some more cuts (red lines). Make the cuts in the front and back as long as they need to reach your belt-line. The armpit-cuts will need to be about the length from your armpit to your collarbone, +/- a few cm. Then pleat the leather again, but be carefull - the part around the armpit-cut need to be very tough, or the weight of the splints might ripple the material there after a while!

Between 3. and 4.:
Before you can put the splints on the surface, you need to plan what splints you will use, how they are shaped, and where to put them.
You can use splints of nearly all kinds of metal and you can use thick and hard leather, too. I used aluminium splints for my armour, cause they were not so heavy as steel splints - and because I got a large amount of them for very little money Normally viking splints are square, but there are also triangular splints or shield shaped ones.
But no matter if you bought your splints or cut them out yourself, you need to make sure, that they have no sharp edges! Savety first!
Now you can decide if you want to sew or rivet the splints to your armour. The vikings did both, so both is historical correct, but the decission is up to you.
Sewing is the cheaper decission, riveting the faster and more relyable - cause stiches wore out with the time...
For the tutorial, lets just say we take rivets.

4. Before you start to rivet the splints to the leather survace, try the leather poncho on, and see how it fits. If everything is fine you still have to think about how you will tie the front and back together. You can make small holes along the outside, and tie both parts together like you do with your shoes. Another way, and a more flexible as well, is to sew leather (or other) strings/straps to the sides (about the belt line), and bind them together, when you wear the armour. Thats the historical use and pretty simple, just like a apron. You can also make some strings to the arm-parts of the armour to held them into position.

Next you lay your splints on the survace and see where you have to put them. The distance between the splints should not be under 5mm - so the armor will still be flexible when worn. The drawing gives you an example how you could arange your splints on the leather, but if you have smaller, larger or different shaped splints, it could look quite different.
When you are happy with your arrangement rivet your splints onto the leather (normally 4 rivets to each splint like shown in the scetch) and after a while you will have your very own, handmade splint armour.

And now: Have fun making your own viking splint armour!

P.S: If you look at my "Toolosch"-picture, you can see how my own splint armour looks like