Big Furry Hat

This was a simple project I did a couple years ago. It was winter and I was at IKEA and they had sheepskins on sale for $12 each. I thought great I will try to make myself a hat. I did a little research and found that remnants of sheep fur hats have been found but their are no intact finds (you know that whole organic decay thing). Although the evidence for the hat is there for Vikings dating it to earlier periods was tough. Then I found that there was evidence for the hat in Denmark as far back as 100AD. The Tollund Man wears a patch work leather and fur hat. This is not the upturned panel style hat I wanted to make. I decided that if it was cold enough they probably wore something similar.

The next step was to design a pattern for the hat. I took measurements of my head and got some paper and tape and started to work out a design. I cut panels from the paper and taped them together until I came to the 5 panel design I used. Then it was just a matter of transferring the pattern to the skin, cutting out the pieces and then stitching them together. For the sewing I used a heavy linen thread. I like the results but the hat was a little tight at first because I did not take the added padding of the fur into account. The hat makes my head really hot in temperatures above 30 degrees Fahrenheit and it is big. If I make another one I will use a skin from a sheep skin with shorter fur..

It was my first attempt at a hat and the results are not bad. It has been the source of jokes from some clan members because it was really white when I first made it (see pictures below) and like I said before it is big. Yet I did see people who made fun of it wearing a similar hat at Samhain, 2006.

Chainmail for armor

So, this is the story.

I decided that I was not going to fight in chainmail armor because it adds no protection for SCA rattan fighting and it is heavy. Well chainmail is period and looks good. So, I have decided that I will add chainmail accents to my new armor. If I put a bit of chainmail here and there in just the right places it will look like I am wearing a chainmail shirt under my cuirass.

We all know that chainmail armor is made from flat rings that are riveted. So, I took the small anvil I use to make rivet heads and added a couple more holes and made a jig to flatten the rings and keep them rounded and a tapered hole all the way through the anvil that I could use to round the rings and cause the overlap for riveting. Well it worked great but it was is time consuming. I have abandoned the idea. Maybe another time.

I however did not decide to abandon the flat rings.

I used a regular smooth face hammer to flatten a few rings right on the anvil. This works great if you have good hammer technique. The only problem was how plain it looked.

Then I started looking at my hammers. I found one of my 3 pound had rings in the surface to prevent slipping when striking a spike. I decided to give this hammer a try and found it made a cool pattern on the rings. That was all it took for me to decide this was the hammer I would use to flatten out the rings.

Now I am doing the rings in the most simple fashion. I am laying the ring on the anvil and striking it flat with the hammer.

My chainmail accents on my armor will be bronze chainmail made of flattened rings butted instead of riveted. Maybe sometime in the future I will do riveted chainmail but not for this project.

Chainmail

Well, since this is my first post on craft projects I decided to start with chainmail.

Chainmail is easy to create and something that can be done in front of the TV. If I already have the rings cut, I can link together a box braid chain in an hour or so.

The first thing you need for chainmail is the rings. I figured it would be cheaper to make my own rings. It was also easier than trying to find rings in the size I wanted.

I made a simple spindle from some 2x4 scraps and a steel rod. You can see the picture and get an idea of how to make it. You do need to drill a whole in the rod to insert the end of the wire you are using to make the chain mail. Very simple and low tech.



You coil the wire around the spindle and make a spring. Then you get out the snips and cut the spring into individual rings. This cutting can be time consuming. Some people use a saw to cut the rings which makes a cleaner edge but I prefer to use snips.

This picture above shows the rings cut from a couple coils.





Now all I need to do is make some chains from the rings I have created. And here are two of the first chains I made.