About two years ago, an acquaintance of mine from Chicago (and a member of Dark Horde Moritu) purchased a Roper-Whitney #5 punch with clamp, a cheap wooden table, a group of 18 and 20 gauge stainless plates and set out to build herself a suit of Tibetan style lamellar for SCA combat. The lamellar suit utilizes three patterns of lacing from extant pieces shown in H. Russell Robinson’s Oriental Armour and Dr. Bengt Thordeman’s Armour from the Battle of Wisby.

The suit (when conceived) was to be made of four pieces–torso, skirt and two sleeve flaps. This armour protects her from neck to mid-calf and is very flexible. The main difference between the lamellar she made from scratch and most commercially sold lamellar is in the way a number of the plates on the skirt and torso are cut.

If you look carefully, you will note that the lamellae on the torso and skirt nearest to the waist are not square, but trapezoidal shaped. This makes allowances for the curve of a woman’s torso at the waist, and allows for a better fit on the lamellae.

Bogetai tells me that she can make just about any movement in her lamellar that she could in her everyday clothes. The only drawback to her suit is the weight ratio (I think it weighs around 45 pounds, all told), but the manner in which this weight is distributed doesn’t much hinder her fighting ability.

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