Part 6
It took very little time to deduce that I wasn't going to get effective bullet resistance from anything but Kevlar proper. There were some tinkertech materials that would also do the job but those were a step in the other direction. When it came to affordable resistance to ballistic weaponry kelvar was the most practical 'budget' option.
Well outside of trying to home made some kind of ceramic armor, but that had a host of issues that made it utterly impractical.
So I was going to be biting the cost on that one either way, as going without was just plain stupid.
So that was something like four hundred down the sink. I really needed to think of a way to better finance this sort of thing.
Luckily the blade proof aspect of the search went a lot better.
Unfortunately for me, plate armor went right out the window fast. While it was great protection, and probably the best I could manage against a sword proper, it just was to detailed. The plate I cut out from the boat graveyard earlier were going to be no good. Proper plate, even partial plate, was just too work intensive. I wouldn't even be able to order the parts online as this stuff needed to be precision tailored to fit right.
Needless to say, just 'banging out the dings' was also not nearly as simple as one would expect it to be.
So I needed an alternative. Chainmail was a surprisingly good option. It lacked the flaws plate armor had, could be made into fit only generalized measurements, and even provided modest protection from most swords. Some could and would punch through, but nothing the local villains specialised in.
Well, in terms of bladed weapons at least. Purity or Lung could still pretty easily fry me into an ash stain on the ground.
Kaiser might be able to slip something through, but frankly armor in general was going to be tricky against him.
Still chainmail had it's own problems. As I had discovered back in school a good set was pricy. Worse, aluminium chain, the type that fell best on the weight/cost/effectiveness balance, had this nasty habit of shattering into little sharp flechettes perfectly suited for ripping up Kevlar when shot.
So that was out.
Luckily there were good alternatives I would never have thought of.
Such as lamellar armor. A type of armor that was arguably the ancestor of modern composite armors. Rather then rings like chainmail, lamellar armor used a series of small thin plates bound flush against one another so each set was over each other to provide a modestly flexible plate of material that was still fairly rigid.
You could make it out of leather, metal, and/or wood, and layer it repeatedly to increase its resilience. Some of the more effective sets had been used by the likes of Genghis Khan to devastating effect, being incredibly resilient but also very light and easy to repair and maintain.
In short it was great stuff. It didn't have the raw durability or force absorbance of proper plate. You'd feel a hit more if it landed, but it also wasn't likely to cause problems by deforming in from a sufficiently powerful blow, and the ease to make and maintain made it an extremely appealing option.
Time intensive to construct though. It was going to take me weeks to put together a good set, even with the boat grave yard as a decent source of metal to scavenge, and my powers to act as a steel cutter.
Still it seemed to be my best option, and Taylor, after a notable hesitation agreed.
It'd probably take that long to get the money for the vital bullet proof 'padding' that would make the inner most layer anyway, so in a way the added time to make it was beneficial.
Still I couldn't help but think she was somehow disappointed. I guess she didn't like the idea of waiting so long to get proper backup.
Fortunately there was a good way to kill time while she waited.