Rusty
Purveyor of Fine Weaponry
This is an attempt to standardize the weight of personal equipment such as melee weapons and armor.
It was the general consensus in chat the other day that durasteel is roughly analogous to steel, at least in terms of mass. We know it's stronger and can be used in a wider variety of applications, but we need a starting point, and that's as good as any. So, with that in mind, I'm going to list weights of steel armor and swords. The original plan was to look for battle ready replicas for sale, but no one wants to list the weight of the damn things, so good riddance. I'll take what I can get.
According to Wikipedia, a full set of articulated plate armor could weigh anywhere between 15-25 kilograms (there are some that are said to weigh as much as 50 kilograms, but those are outliers), depending on what it was built for. The heaviest sets were typically designed for jousting rather than regular combat, so for our purposes, I'd say a we're looking at the 15-22 range. [member="Netherworld"] is probably more familiar with the various types than I am, but that's a good starting point.
Bear in mind, this is medieval plate, with full neck to toe coverage. Most science fiction armor designs aren't quite that complete, opting instead to cover the chest, forearms, groin, and thigh. This excludes powered armor designs, by the way. By eliminating the pauldrons and greaves, I'd say you're saving somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3 kilograms. Further weight can be shed by reducing coverage, though there are definite limits there. Durasteel beskar'gam like what Boba Fett originally wore was probably somewhere between 5-7 kilograms, though I can't say for sure. I've seen plenty of reproductions made from PVC and various other plastic, but I've never met anyone who forged out a set.
Judging by the looks of it, female science fiction and fantasy armor will typically weigh between 1-3 kilograms, as it's basically just a steel bikini. Extensive research was conducted on this portion.
Moving on, a mail hauberk, which is basically a chain mail jacket, was the most common sort of mail armor worn. Nailing down a good weight for one is somewhat difficult, as manufacture and materials varied wildly from region to region, but a good modern reproduction using 10mm wire and butted rings weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 kg. They're typically made of galvanized or stainless steel, which is lighter than full spec, but easier to work with. Riveted rings are more historically accurate, but are much, much more labor intensive and thus much more expensive. Probably a little heavier too. How much heavier is hard to guess, but for a good mail hauberk, I'd say somewhere in the 10-12kg range is reasonable.
Now we get to the fun part: swords.
Swords are easy. For a historically accurate replica, you're looking anywhere from 1-3 kilograms, with three kilograms being you Scottish lowland greatswords. Those bastards were well over 6 feet long and made claymores look like toothpicks. Bronze swords were probably heavier, but I don't see anyone whipping out bronze anytime soon, so I didn't check. Because seriously, who the hell would use a bronze sword on here? They get dull if you look at them wrong.
Alright, now here's the fun part: converting these figures into things like beskar and phrik.
Beskar is probably the easiest. We know typical Mandalorian beskar'gam in the modern style weighs between 10-15 kilograms, depending on the level of coverage. I estimated the durasteel variety to be between 5-7 kilograms. Therefore, we can safely assume that beskar is somewhere around twice as heavy as normal durasteel, assuming I'm not a blithering idiot. I know that's a big assumption for some of you guys, but bear with me.
Phrik is a little harder to nail down. In my head, I've sort of been equating it to super tough aluminum. According to a few different industrial pages, steel is about 2.5 times more dense than aluminum. Thus, durasteel would weigh about 2.5 times more than phrik. Therefore, a set of full phrik plate would weigh about 6-9 kilograms. Or at least that's how I see it.
So there you have it. You are now free to tear my assumptions apart and piss all over my hopes and dreams.
[member="Cira"]
[member="Reshmar"]
[member="Bianca"]
[member="Spencer Varanin"]
[member="Raziel"]
[member="Ordo"]
[member="Netherworld"]
[member="Darth Vulkan"]
It was the general consensus in chat the other day that durasteel is roughly analogous to steel, at least in terms of mass. We know it's stronger and can be used in a wider variety of applications, but we need a starting point, and that's as good as any. So, with that in mind, I'm going to list weights of steel armor and swords. The original plan was to look for battle ready replicas for sale, but no one wants to list the weight of the damn things, so good riddance. I'll take what I can get.
According to Wikipedia, a full set of articulated plate armor could weigh anywhere between 15-25 kilograms (there are some that are said to weigh as much as 50 kilograms, but those are outliers), depending on what it was built for. The heaviest sets were typically designed for jousting rather than regular combat, so for our purposes, I'd say a we're looking at the 15-22 range. [member="Netherworld"] is probably more familiar with the various types than I am, but that's a good starting point.
Bear in mind, this is medieval plate, with full neck to toe coverage. Most science fiction armor designs aren't quite that complete, opting instead to cover the chest, forearms, groin, and thigh. This excludes powered armor designs, by the way. By eliminating the pauldrons and greaves, I'd say you're saving somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-3 kilograms. Further weight can be shed by reducing coverage, though there are definite limits there. Durasteel beskar'gam like what Boba Fett originally wore was probably somewhere between 5-7 kilograms, though I can't say for sure. I've seen plenty of reproductions made from PVC and various other plastic, but I've never met anyone who forged out a set.
Judging by the looks of it, female science fiction and fantasy armor will typically weigh between 1-3 kilograms, as it's basically just a steel bikini. Extensive research was conducted on this portion.
Moving on, a mail hauberk, which is basically a chain mail jacket, was the most common sort of mail armor worn. Nailing down a good weight for one is somewhat difficult, as manufacture and materials varied wildly from region to region, but a good modern reproduction using 10mm wire and butted rings weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 kg. They're typically made of galvanized or stainless steel, which is lighter than full spec, but easier to work with. Riveted rings are more historically accurate, but are much, much more labor intensive and thus much more expensive. Probably a little heavier too. How much heavier is hard to guess, but for a good mail hauberk, I'd say somewhere in the 10-12kg range is reasonable.
Now we get to the fun part: swords.
Swords are easy. For a historically accurate replica, you're looking anywhere from 1-3 kilograms, with three kilograms being you Scottish lowland greatswords. Those bastards were well over 6 feet long and made claymores look like toothpicks. Bronze swords were probably heavier, but I don't see anyone whipping out bronze anytime soon, so I didn't check. Because seriously, who the hell would use a bronze sword on here? They get dull if you look at them wrong.
Alright, now here's the fun part: converting these figures into things like beskar and phrik.
Beskar is probably the easiest. We know typical Mandalorian beskar'gam in the modern style weighs between 10-15 kilograms, depending on the level of coverage. I estimated the durasteel variety to be between 5-7 kilograms. Therefore, we can safely assume that beskar is somewhere around twice as heavy as normal durasteel, assuming I'm not a blithering idiot. I know that's a big assumption for some of you guys, but bear with me.
Phrik is a little harder to nail down. In my head, I've sort of been equating it to super tough aluminum. According to a few different industrial pages, steel is about 2.5 times more dense than aluminum. Thus, durasteel would weigh about 2.5 times more than phrik. Therefore, a set of full phrik plate would weigh about 6-9 kilograms. Or at least that's how I see it.
So there you have it. You are now free to tear my assumptions apart and piss all over my hopes and dreams.
[member="Cira"]
[member="Reshmar"]
[member="Bianca"]
[member="Spencer Varanin"]
[member="Raziel"]
[member="Ordo"]
[member="Netherworld"]
[member="Darth Vulkan"]
