Could a Cutting Mat Save You from Cuts (Apocalypse Armor)?
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- Cut resistant materials might be highly sought after as improvised armor in a (post-)apocalyptic SHTF scenario. What about a sheet of self-healing cutting mat as used in various crafts? It's definitely cut resistant, so let's see what kind of protection it could offer in a practical test.
What I used in this video:
Chakram by Wulflund
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Baryonyx machete (no longer available)
• Review: The Baryonyx M...
Shirasaya katana by Hanwei
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Viking axe
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Other improvised armor testing:
Duct tape
• Testing Post-Apocalypt...
Glued paper
• "MAIL" Armor Like You'...
Book in a backpack
• Is the Book Mightier t...
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Outro:
"Highland Storm" by The Slanted Room Records
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#skallagrim #postapocalyptic #armor #test 
Развлечения
This is the real reason I'm so supportive of my girlfriend's crafting hobbies.
Keep her close when the apocalypse hits.
Not the hot cosplay outfits? :)
@@SkallagrimThat too…
@@licro4792no he's going to use her cutting mats for armour
Might be a neat idea for a series. Exploring apocalyptic composite body armors.
Indeed! My first two thoughts are ripped up carpeting, and thick magazines and such. Ive seen both used as a 'low resource' armor.
Mythbusters tested phone book bullet armor.
Duct tape, magazines, mouse pads, aluminum kitchen trays, frying pan...
I'd try Kevlar jacket and pants as worn by a motorcycle rider! Built-in armor, too!
He needs to make armor like that and test it with the weapons from Zombie Tools
Sections of automotive tires. Wire them, layered like a lorica segmentata, over a leather or heavy denim coat.
Even does a decent (not perfect) job against arrows and war hammers. Thanks Shadiversity!
A mat like this is more slice-resistant than chop-resistant. Would probably do great against draw cuts!
armour dedicated against weebs pretending to be Vergil
Especially if your opponent is wielding an X-acto or Hobby knife.
Makes sense, considering it's designed to be the surface under something being cut with a knife or something.
that's what i was expecting as well
@@bartolinise9153considering what the katana did to it... nah. unless you mean iaido stuff, which despite being a draw into a cut, is not a draw cut.
yes i know i'm ruining a perfectly good joke, leave me alone
Nice. You should try the rubber matting used to line horse stalls. We were changing some of those at the stable where my wife's family used to keep their horse and cutting it with carpet-cutters. It was difficult. Later, we tried slashing at one with a longsword and couldn't cut it. It was pretty strong.
Yeah sounds like a decent gambeson
Yeah, there's a reason people use them for archery target backing.
Or tire rubber (same material, crisscrossed with Kevlar or steel)
Tire armor is a staple of apocalyptic defense, and for good reason. Steel wire mesh inside makes it about as effective as chainmail, it may be slightly better against stabs actually due to how tense the wire is inside the rubber, and the rubber itself being a relatively tough industrual vulcanized type.
69
What I'm seeing here suggests to me that it would be better as a shield than as armor. If they stab into it, as long as it's not into your arm, it temporarily disables the weapon.
If you don't have time to learn how to make a shield the traditional way this might be a suitable replacement for the shrunken hide
Maybe, but I think any Armor would make you less likely to get attacked.
get a bunch of pine glue, layer the mats with that and attach a handle and I could see that. You'd need to find a sewing store to pull it off though. otherwise you mught be better off using it as an insert for something like the chest-ish area of a gambeson or a trench coat. but there are better options
That knife was serrated, and serrations make blades get stuck in _everything,_ so I doubt cutting mat material would be particularly effective for trapping plain-edged weapons. Even an inch of serrations on the back edge of a "fighting" knife is likely to get it perma-stuck in bone or cartilage.
And if you're wondering why serrations are tactical and not just tacti-cool, it's because in modern combat, survival is far more likely to hinge on your knife's ability to cut webbing than how easy it is to extract from a ribcage.
@@irrelevantfish1978I don't think the serrations were much of a factor here, other than the back edge of them possibly increasing friction on a very small part of the blade. What trapped it was the fact that the mat cracked rather than a piece breaking off, which caused it to pinch the knife when it was pulled. If they had angled up or down when pulling, it would have come out much easier.
4:39 It feels like "Craft Store Lesbians Vs Mall Ninjas" is a campy B-Movie that should exist
I’d watch that
You mean like Lesbian Vampire Killer?
this should 100% be your next series. testing out materials, combinations, even things like you mentioned where you said it might work as scales or have a more robust backing etc etc.
Do a retest when it's warm! I wanna see if it does any better! This might be why bone or horn might be better than plastic!
... for some reason i now want Warhammer models out of bone... thats some Khorne sheit right there.
I liked this. I'm not an end of the world prepper, but I love seeing the creativity it brings. I'd happily watch several episodes about repurposing items like this. Suggestions for such experiments: Metal mixing bowl helmets & saw blade chakrams.
My current post-apoc armor idea
is Motorcross Protective Armour ( ABT Plastic)
OVER a Gambeson (or Air-Soft vest )
nowhere as good as actual plate, but much lighter
Motorcross combined with Baseball Catchers gear would be my choice.
Or maybe a weighted vest for Fitness stuff. Some of them come with Front and Back hardened steel plates. But they would probably be way heavier than normal bulletproof plate is.
@@No.Good.Nickname Th fitness vest seem to put the weight low around the abdomen/hips. You can get plates seperate and put them in someting like a plate carrier to give chest coverage. I cant speak as to weight comparison with real plates.
Me laughting with rifle:)
@@joe125ful Plastic lasts forever (sadly),
so this is also good for our descendents. When your ammo runs out, what kind of blade will you carry ?
IF you go for SHTF Zombie-Apocalypse armor, a test of the mad-max style "Car-tire"-West or shoulderparts is a must. If you use the right tires you basicly have steel cables covered in rubber. That should do fairly well.
I have a cutting map from back in the day (i think it is from the 70/80s) and i have one from a few yrs ago. The one from back in the day is made of a diff material that self heals and is almost impossible to cut. It is more rubbery. The one from a few yrs back is basically some sort of hard plastic that is subpar. So i would be interested to see this experiment done with an old cutting mat. O, also, the old one doesnt dull ur blades but the new ones do.
I have one of those old ones too that was for cutting clothing patterns with a rotary blade. The difference is that mat cost like $80!
Yes, that sounds like it would work much better. This mat is just too brittle, especially at colder temperatures.
I think I know what you mean. Is the mat a dark green colour with a yellow line (wen looking at the edge not the face of the mat) on the bottom?
Failure is always an option. Adam Savage. We learned sometching even though it did not go as planned
This has me thinking about other improvised armors. It’s been years since I’ve checked in with the walking dead but there should definitely be survivor that wears one of those bite resistant wetsuits spear fishers wear. A cutting mat might not protect you from a sword but it might protect your forearms and neck from bites.
Literally 1 day after the breakout, everybody would be walking around in bite resistant armor. You could make an anti-bite suit with magazines and duck tape. Plasticized paper stacks are surprisingly strong.
Hell, loot a furniture store of their rugs and you are golden, might take a few tries to make yourself one that doesn't limit your mobility as much
@@mani21axe40I'd just loot a motorcycle gear shop. Lightweight and bite proof. There is still a risk overheating in warmer climates.
@sethsevaroth not to mention overheating from activity. Even a light jog or cardio that gets your heart rate up to a zone 3 point for a minute or two, in uppers 60s weather could get you sweaty in gear like that
@@alexanderrahl7034Yeah, some people used to wonder why the characters on the walking dead didn't all wear leather to protect themselves from bites, forgetting that for the first several seasons the show was set in Georgia, where it gets very hot and extremely humid during the spring and summer.
It would be interesting to see how resilient mail butchers aprons or mail leg protection against boars would stand up against various weapons. It might also be interesting how motorcycle clothes or those protective pants for chainsaw work is.
The chainsaw gear is realtively loose kevlar fibres. They are meant to wrap around the chain to clog and stop it from cutting aka ripping further. They are not meant to withhold cuts like a single blade edge does.
That's right, the fibres jam up the saw and stop it from working. I've seen it happen live to someone who got too cocky.
If we're getting attacked by leather face, however...
Here's a weird idea: Cutting board armor.
preferably one made from bamboo
That is just wooden armor. Unless you are talking about the plastic stuff.
Many materials will do well against a slashing attack simply because the contact area is large. A piercing attack is another matter entirely.
I'd love to see such thick wooden armor tested. Should be quite protective
a shield made from stuff you find in a hardware store
Now this is the kind of content that every man will watch. Doesn’t matter if they’re interested in melee weapons.
The instant transition to ”yeah, uhm” at 4:42 made me snort from laughter! Really nice vid Skallagrim! Short but interesting!
I want more of these. Hobby and Craft material:can it save your life in SHTF scenario
a dozen or so layers of fabric soaked in 2-part resin and compressed into shape (micarta style material) would probably be great in this scenario. The resin is at about every boat and hardware store and very likely won't be looted since people have no idea what to do with it. cotton is everywhere, and discarded clothes would be easy to get your hands on.
If you get your hands on some Kevlar from a Hardwarestore in this Situation, you could probably make it even more effective.
Don't even need to try and find resin, cheap painters drop cloth canvas soaked in wood glue and laminated makes an incredibly tough material.
@@No.Good.NicknameFiberglass, steel mesh and hexagonal tile sheets are also possible inclusions (they're usually all at hardware stores), which could easily boost the durability a ton, but also the weight.
@@No.Good.Nickname I believe car seat belts are low grade Kevlar.
Laminated cloth qrmor is called linothorax and was used since the antices and it is cheap, reliable and resilant enough
Love this vid. Maybe this is a better video length for the algorithm? Especially with content that is really about stuff most people are already familiar with (cutting mat).
2:45 You see, Boris, if enemy can't pull knife from chest wound, you win!
The fact that this did not work as you wanted is what makes this video worth watching... some times failures are just better... also could be fun to revist one of your ides and test them out for this, I like the scale armour ide personaly ;)
Nice idea to test out! I mean, sure, it's almost certainly better than nothing, right. But yeah, to sow something in between two layers would probably be easier. Or just put on 5-6 layers of cloth, which will also be nice to keep you warm in the winter!
Honestly, I think towels or those padded canvas moving blankets would perform better as improvised armor.
Like any experiment, a negative result is valid and useful. It was a fun video, so that counts as a success. I don't know if you've done a test of ancient Greek linothorax armor, but that would be interesting to see, plus, it's not really that difficult to make, even for an amateur. Thanks for making enjoyable videos! Looking forward to more. 🙂
I stiched a vest from a canvas drop cloth with pockets in the front and the back for books on each side. I used paperbacks at the same size/thickness. It performed against a swinging machete really well, but the weak spot was against stabbing. If the tip went between the books it was game over. Hard covers probably perform even better (but they are heavier), and for the religious the Bible is an option for an extra layer of protection. 🙂
Maybe have the Pages overlap in the middle to get rid of the stabbing Problem? There shurely are Some Videos about how much strength is needed to pull two books away from each Other when they are overlaping.
Apocalypse armor? Now, this is my kind of RUclips content!
Edit: after seeing the video, it has occured to me that maybe a sheet of aluminium with a leather or gambeson-esque padding could theoretically work decently without slowing you down.
That, and/or car tires. They're almost indestructible, but also very, very difficult to cut to make armour.
Hell yeah nice test Skall!
Thanks Adam!
And _juuust_ as I was about to hit the comments, you said the magic word I was thinking about: composite. Do it! Do it! Do it!
I'll keep this in mind next time a medieval knight walks into our arts & crafts class.
In my limited testing, 4 layers of really cheap, flexible plastic kitchen chopping mats are quite effective at preventing injury from typical stabbing and slashing knife attacks. As with fabric armours, it's the layering that counts, but like fabric, there are limitations. The more force applied per unit area, the more layers you need. However, you can mix and match different materials, there are lots of options. Personally, I find cross layered, medium weight paper (70 to 80gsm) is a very effective material.
You know what, I'd rather have this than nothing. That's a win in my books.
The cutting mat you chose worked pretty much as I expected: best against slices, much worse against chopping or stabbing. But I think you're onto something! If you were to make brigandine or or scale armor using flat pieces of lexan (polycarbonate) about 1/8" thick. I predict it will perform as well as steel with less weight (and never rust). As it's used for many illuminated sign faces the cheapest place to get it would be a sign company - ask for a small, scrapped-out sign face (make sure it's polycarbonate and not acrylic). This material (unused sign faces) would be plentiful in a zombie apocalypse.
This works as intended when it is placed on a flat, rigid surface. Keeps you safe enough if you are a table
I think you are right. As a layer of composite armor it does bring cut restiance to the armor. It would need to be a middle or bottom layer to keep it from freezing. Then should help. Rubber and a cloth should be also be part of that mix to help with warmth.
Now I'm imaging a laminated scale armor made out of cutting mat, a matte scale armor would certainly look interesting.
This was a pretty cool idea.
Could you not make a video about some improvised armor, made with multiple materials? I suggest 6-10mm Plywood, with these mats glued onto or even better linolieoum flooring. Because it contains a grid of strings, that makes it really strong and flexible.
I love nature but i prefer watching it than being in it, so this video really worked great for me.
That was pretty fun to see!
Shad made SHTF armor out of cut up car tires. It held up amazingly well though it was pretty heavy.
I consider your test a success in that you found another material that’s *not* suitable for making body armor. It’s at least as important to know what not to do as it is to know what to do.
Now I'm curious about a warm test.
It’s cool to see an idea like this get tested. With how much more common synthetic materials are today it’s interesting to think about how people may adapt in dire situations. Shame this one didn’t survive the test
I love seeing experiments like this. Will it have any practical impact on my life? Probably not. But at least now I know, "just in case!"
I always liked the tests you do on the channel. I'd love to see more!
Also cudos for the new editing and camera work. I really liked it!
The cut is only the main problem with a very light edged weapons. Heavier edged weapons can still do a lot of damage from concussion and crushing, not to mention being able to more easily cut through thin materials.
might need a revisit in the summer perhaps just to see if it fairs any better
Loving this hairstyle!
Surprising results. I'd've thought the slashes would have stood up better.
The additional benefit of a brigandine style would be that temperature thing. If the material were the inner layer, it might stay warmer due to body heat.
I suggest revisiting this in the summer! Then you can do a series of season armor!
I always love to see practical tests, myself, regardless of the result.
4:03 yeah, I'd think making it segmented would also help in the pliability idea as well, where the pieces have the resistance of the material but the flexibility - and thus, the lack of tension stress - of the laminate or base material, so a blow could land, with the pieces stopping the cut, at the cost of more impact transfer. Brittleness vs pliability, as you mention.
My SHTF armour is in fact my chain mail, but that does push the boundaries of "improvised" to breaking point.
Definitely try this again when it's warm, or in your garage or something. The material cracking was... unfortunate.
2:26 almost made me spit out my coffee lol
I’m not a expert or anything but I like to think about things like this sometimes. Wat about a padding layer, then a shock absorbing layer, then on the outside a material that is capable of ignoring cuts without breaking. The padding wud protect against rubbing on skins and such. The shock absorbing portion wud reduce the impact force to a negligible amount. And the cut proof layer wud be the actual safe functioning protection.
Fiberglass boat repair kits are an easy way to make effective homemade armor. Fiberglass is extremely light will stop knives, swords, blunt weapons and even .22 and other low caliber rounds. Just go to the boat section of Canadian Tire, grab a few, they are cheap and have easy instructions.
A bit of protection beats no protection at all
Some impromptu lamellar constructs could be interesting. It's all fun and games after all!
"Where they are the main character" Said a side character.
As a main character, I have pondered the apocalypse armor. There is a type of large flat machinery belt farm stores sell and I always wondered how good that would do. It being rubber/cloth whatever magical material they make it out seems real tough and feels like it should also be able to glue or epoxy things like armor plates, padding, skulls onto it pretty easy.
Ah, you must be the main character of that side quest I keep hearing about. Looking forward to it as a break from the main plot.
As for "machinery belts as armour" question, they are rather easy to cut with a sharp knife, so won't do much by themselves. However, add something hard over the outside and it would be darn good against blades, even if a bit heavy and rough.
@@AgentWest Oh yeah, if you choose the wrong character I get relegated to seemingly B plot side stuff until the big reveal. Then based on certain player choices its an instant win/lose event for the player.
I figured since they needed to be heavy duty those belts would be resistant to that stuff. I just tested a little bit of it and it is pretty resistant to my knife. Not "stop a dedicated and sharp swing from a sword" level of tough but a little bit of Mad Maxxing it's stats could make it actually useful. I would put it on equal terms overall to tough (not hardened)leather. It is bulkier but it wears better and is 100% water resistant, But does not breathe well at all. Maybe using it as a base for some Brigandine would be cool.
@@MagisMagiTony Toughened leather is actually a good comparison, now that you mentioned it.
When I think apocalyptic armour that still has realist I think a long coat with segments of playing and whatever material you can find. Kind of making a metal gamberson. Perhaps improvised metal gauntlets and boots. Thick fabric connecting to a chest plate that's woven random metal prices roughly shaped into a kind of scale armour with fabric underneath. Then maybe some metal spikes on the gauntlets in case beasties want a snack. You could probably use some 2 by 4s or bits of wood to roughly construct a shield if needed of perhaps a barricade. Then some fabric and something else that represents a handle. Then maybe a kitchen knife strapped to a stick or perhaps removing the blade from the handle to make a half decent spear. I can imagine that working in a pinch. Even better if you have tools like screw drivers, hammers and portable survival axe and or machete.
Probably think a little to much about this stuff but who doesn't in this space?
If Matt Easton is the brains of the sword community, Skallagrim is definitely the heart.
Ah. The perfect skallagrim video.
A better option would be rubber conveyor belt material. It's very abrasion resistant, and when you try to stab it, there is a LOTof friction on the blade making it difficult to penetrate. A scale armor made of it would be very tough to cut through, and repairable.
Asking the real questions.
Heh, with a cutting mat I first imagined a mosaic of plastic cutting boards. Might be worth a try. They are fairly light weight but might be more stab resistent, even when cold.
Good video thanks for taking the time to show this !
As a kid i would lug home used tires from a nearby trash heap (mom loved me very much for this) and through 5 hours of cutting them with a hand saw i made "armor plates" out of those tires, never saw something as cut resistant as that, probably doesnt stand a chance against piercing hits though.
I fashioned a brigandine, for a buddy. He was playing around with HEMA on a budget.
We used old plastic 55 gallon drums for material. It worked great .
My apocalypse armor is plastic blister packs and concert bracelets.
Cool concept!
Great test video 👍👍
If you're already building something as sophisticated as a brigandine, you're probably going to have some sort of metal to put into it, I hope.
Please do an indoor test at room temperature. I'm sure the material would be much more impact resistant.
Well as most armor, it would help but is not an invulnerable shell. I'm pretty sure combining it with cloth would make it more effective (like eg. glue cloth to either side, pad it etc) because it clearly does make one more cut resistant. But resistant doesn't mean invulnerable.
You should really try this again in the summer! I think if you wear it, body heat would keep the armour warm enough for it to keep its elastic properties instead of shattering like it did here.
Also a series on fallout style post apocalyptic armour and weapons like that other guy said would be awesome.
Thanks for filming❤️
I suspect not just the temp. but the speed of the impact has a bit to do with shatter vs cut result. These mats are there to prevent table surface cuts and to slow down and or stick the blade if is slips. These are low energy events. A blow from a weapon is much much higher energy and the thin plastic will not absorb it, it will tear or shatter.
I think by the time you sandwich it enough to be functional it will be much more like a Hard Shirt.
One of the reasons steel is so good for armour is the energy it absorbs bending and tearing.
An interesting idea I was told for post-apocalyptic/societal collapse armour were dinner plates; they'd break on impact but are easy to replace and it gives you shivs so you can go from being unarmed to armed.
I really liked this one
I actually really like the free-held camera style while out and about, in this case the woods. If feels like the GunTuber channels, like DemolitionRanch. I have noticed that a moving, handheld camera is somehow more engaging. maybe we trick our brains into thinking we're there, walking with you, as opposed to a static tripod.
It was worth a try, thanks for the experiment.
[Quietly, ditches project making his doomsday armor out of two layers of cutting mat.]
Best video I’ve seen all year
The problem with cutting matts is they are designed to accept the cut without dulling the blade rather than resist the cut.
Great video Skall. Also, commenting for the algorithm
I think the best make shift armor I've seen was Brad Pitt wrapping and taping his arms in magazines in World War Z. I think that should work pretty well against edged weapons too.
Apparently cutting mats are kind of meant to get cut eventually and just be replaced, so not that tough, the idea being that way your knife doesn't get dull, and generally you're not using enough force to worry about going all the way through.
I do leatherwork professionally, and use this type of mat on one of my workbenches... for LIGHT detail cutting. I made the mistake of using it under leather I was cutting with my more serious blades, and cut right through it, and into my workbench, effortlessly, in one pass. No frikken way I'd let my sword or dagger anywhere close to it.
And as far as puncture-type resistance? When I use small-diameter punches, I need to be controlled with the strikes, or it punches right through with very little effort.
Even with taking a lot of care, I go through a few of those mats every year.
For serious cutting, I use 6 or 12mm thick sheets of HDPE, the same stuff kitchen cutting boards use. Might be interesting if you could mold one of those into a chest plate. But, tbh, the weight would probably favor just using steel.
Good video could you please try either newspapers and/ or magazines. With some kind of sticking tape. And could be used for making makeshift armour. Plenty of people have newspapers and magazines, and a roll of sticking tape at hand in the home.
Chicken wire/wire mesh armor would be an interesting test.
I've thought about this too, & I've always thought a *life jacket* might make decent improvised armor; it might not be so good at stopping *piercing* attacks, but the thick padding that's meant to keep you bouyant would probably be a *lot* for most blades that'd be available in that scenario to *cut* through, & it'd doubtless be *excellent* at stopping *blunt impact* .
still a cool test
So my take away is if you have to use this as armor, cut it a little bit and have overlapping sheets and then put it between some other layers.
2:01 Same in Formula 1 by the way, that's why when there is a crash you see all the great many bits and pieces go flying off the car.
What a theme. You are the best.
"May thy mat chip and shatter!"
I think this would work great on forearms and wrists where the damage would not be as much chopping.
Interesting idea to think about. Certainly cut resistant but impact resistance and piercing resistance is lacking. I would be curios to see you make some scrap metal armor. Using things like license plates, muffler parts, maybe some car body pieces, or perhaps metal roofing or flashing. It would take a bit more work and time to gather materials and work to make something, wear sturdy gloves, but these kind of things are everywhere and are something someone could make armor out of. Obviously it's not going to be as good as medieval full plate harness, but I would be curious to see how well armor made of scrap Fallout style would work. You know if you get the recourses and time. That would certainly be a much more involved project, but if you ever get the chance I think it would be cool.