Thorin Oakenshield Build - one bite at a time...

D

Dreamforge

New Member
I am in the process of building a Thorin Oakenshield (from the Hobbit) as accurately as possible. Hoping to have it ready for the premiere of There and Back Again; maybe even to travel to Wellington for it...
Chipping away at it one bite at a time after the kids go to bed!

Pieces to make/assemble: Bracers, demi gauntlets, gloves, shirt, maile shirt/armor (ahhh!), long vest, overcoat, pants, boots, Dwarfish ring, Blue ring, key, chain, belt, belt buckle, oakenshield, Orchrist and scabbard.
Two years should be about enough time!

For the bracers:
1. I found a nice clear screenshot of the Bracer (to get a film-accurate pattern).
2. Printed it out to proper scale.
3. Filled in the pattern insides in black (to make it easier to trace)
4. Cut the pattern out
5. Transferred it to leather pattern paper (and scanned it for future use)
6. Press transferred the pattern onto 10 gauge leather and cut it out
7. Hand pounded the pattern into the leather using a stippled tool (without edge knifing the pattern - on similar builds that used that I found the pattern was too 'clean' compared with the nice rolled edge of the pattern in the screenshot).
Voila! One bracer!

Now to do it all again for the other one and then start on the demi gauntlets. Once I've got the two bracers and demi gauntlets done, underbracer pieces to sew them all down to and the straps ready - then dye the leather, harden it (probably boiling very briefly, then waxing) and sew it together. One bite at a time!

Wish me luck!
 
From making the bracer - notes to self (and anyone else doing this...)

- Remember that when you boil leather it shrinks 7/8 to 2/3, depending on how long you cook it. So your pattern should be about 3/4 too large for the final project.

- Always remember to add width for punching holes for sewing.

- Moose hide takes a whole crap load of dye to get the correct color. Use waaaaaay more than you think you need.

- When painting wax on a project, remember to have the piece hot in a 200 degree oven when applying the wax (otherwise it just paints on a giant layer of white)
 
Re: Thorin Oakenshield Build - Bracer is complete!!!!!

I finished the bracer! Woohoo!
So since the last post I:

  • Boiled the leather in a pot filled with 130 degree water (exactly 130 degrees, on a digital candy thermometer) for exactly 30 seconds.
  • Pulled it out of the water and molded it on my husband's arm (he was wearing a gambeson because it's hot and wet) - putting a layer of old tea towels between him and the bracer and the bracer and the wide straps we wrapped it in to get the shape just right (including the hand wrapping of the demi-gauntlet)
  • Let it dry over a large water bottle for a few days
  • Made the under-piece and straps that everything would get sewn to out of moose hide (it is horrible stuff, I will never work with it again! stretches and deforms when you try to cut it, doesn't hold an imprint for a pattern and soaks up buckets of dye/the color is unreliable)
  • Dyed the bracer, demi-gauntlet, under-piece and straps
  • Sewed the buckles onto the straps
  • Sewed the demi-gauntlet to the moose, threaded the straps over the moose hide piece, (under the bracer), then sewed down the bracer (only sewing between the two straps and one stitch on the back - otherwise the demi-gauntlet would be sewn down and couldn't articulate and the straps could not rotate, which I discovered is critical for sizing the piece when strapping it to your arm)
  • Put the whole works in a 200 degree oven to heat up
  • Melted the beeswax in a double boiler on the stove
  • Pained the hot bracer and demi-gauntlet with wax to seal it
  • Put it back in the oven at 200 until all the wax had soaked in

  • Sealed the back and the moose with sealant so the dye doesn't bleed
An voila! One bracer!
 
Realized that I forgot to put in detail about how to attach the demi-gauntlet to the bracer. It is really a pain, but I'm into anatomically correct stuff that doesn't restrict movement. The demi-gauntlet is actually not attached to the bracer at all.
I sewed the back of the demi-gauntlet onto the backing/straps piece (only the back), sitting quite deep under the bracer (the picture with the strap out of the way) photo copy 16.JPG. Then the strap that holds the sewn part of the demi-gauntlet goes over the demi-gauntlet, but under the bracer. This was it is completely flexible for combat. As you can see in the pictures, it flexes upwards in two pieces, for completely free upwards wrist movement and it flexes downward in two pieces so that the downward movement is not affected (but it still meets in the back so no weapon could enter there). photo copy 17.JPGphoto copy 18.JPG Still need to add the gloves that will make my tiny human hands into big dwarf hands (and fill that space in the demi-gauntlet).

- - - Updated - - -

Finishing the second bracer/demi-gauntlet series. Look how much bigger it is before you harden it! Also, made the demi-gauntlet a bit wider on this one for thumb protection.
photo copy 19.JPG
 
I've also gotten to work on finishing Thorin's great coat. I had gotten the materials and put it off for a long, long time because I was so worried about working with fur for the fur-st time.
So first I got two matching coyote pelts (had to go through 6 boxes of pelts to find two that matched!) and got a nice leather trench coat from the goodwill store.
I chopped off the head, feet and tails from the pelts (which I must admit was weird doing while sitting next to my fluffy collie dog) and took off the lapel from the coat.
Then I flipped the pelt inside out on the coat and sewed it down (blanket style) - making sure to push all the fur to the other side so that I didn't sew any fur into the seam (but I did manage to sew my thumb into the seam at one point...)
photo copy 20.JPG
I only sewed it up to the neck line, to let the pelts fall over the shoulders. Then I just hand-sewed a couple stitches in the back to hold them down.
photo copy 21.JPGphoto copy 22.JPG
I was originally going to sew down the outside of the pelts too - but they look really nice standing out from the coat.
 
Here is the finished product (sorry it's black on black and a selfie - I was hurrying out to work)
photo 3.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

The two pelts that I started with...
IMG_0879.jpg
 
Well, I said that I might need to make notes so that I could remember what I did - and OH BOY WAS I RIGHT!!!!! After some very unexpected life events (and moving, so having to turn the house upside down to find the leather pieces again) I'm back at it! I started before the first movie came out and I'm going to finish after the last one is done - but better late than never. Just boiled the other bracer/demi-gauntlet tonight. I'm hoping to get it all done in time for Calgary Expo in April. So wish me luck!
(all that's left is finishing the blue vest, casting/3-D printing the belt buckle/scale mail and finishing the boots)
 
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