The Armour Archive

Sean Powell

It is very obvious when you point it out. I am thinking maybe a bit of all three to even it out. Tilt the angle of the comb slightly, move out the chin and flatten the face a bit. Some millimeters on all three should do it I think. Looking at the graz it seems the bar goes inside the cheeks at nose...

Sean Powell

Hmmm I see 2 (3?) issues related to the mechanism of the front center bar. I think you want a leaf spring or similar to hold the bar down as some wise-ass is gonna try and spear-thrust to the top and open it up as a challenge. I'm also concerned that for that length unsupported except at top and bot...

Sean Powell

That's a great design... for a specific radius. There are going to be times you want a deeper dish (knees and elbows) or a broader dish without going to far (Breastplates, smooth curves in the cuise section, even fauld lames). Have you thought about how to change your hammer and dish? If you aren't ...

Sean Powell

So this raises the question for me: "How did Medieval armours determine how thick to make the armour?" And this raises the answer for me "Clinical Trials". The HOW is by looking at the thickness of the breastplates of everyone who survived. There is a story about Henry Ford and the Model-T where he...

Sean Powell

Konstantin the Red wrote:Sugarloaf, not a saltshaker.

That would have been a pre-caffeine transcription error on my part. 2 three syllable words starting with S. The brain misfired on the one I needed. Sorry.

Sean Powell

I have NOT done this myself but when I was considering making gauntlets I also had an old pair of leather gloves that had gotten sweaty enough to stretch and take a natural curve. I had considered stuffing them with pieces of newspaper and a stick, then wrapping them around a stick the size of a wea...

Sean Powell

I like how it's listed under cycling. Well, with drivers around here I think a highly reflective suit of stainless, surgical steel that is hardened might be a good plan sometimes when I'm bicycling. However, it would make me a bit slow pedaling uphill I think. Maybe I can play the theme music to Ex...

Sean Powell

From https://www.sca.org/officers/marshal/docs/marshal_handbook.pdf Pg 13. VI. ARMOR REQUIREMENTS B. Helms 4. The face guard shall extend at least 1 inch (25.4mm) below the bottom of the chin and jaw line when the head is held erect. So, that's a difficult measurement to take without shaping but I w...

Sean Powell

If you are looking for heat-treating data for specific steels at specific thicknesses then you are likely to come up short. It's all interpolation and approximation from other known data. Marks Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers 9th edition has 1040 water quenched but not 1045. The numbers a...

Sean Powell

For what you are doing would a MAP gas torch get the job done? Probably. That's my go-to for stubborn spots. It can do localized heating well enough. It just takes a while to get to orange but there is almost no risk of getting too hot and ruining the piece. Unfortunately some new health issues wit...

Sean Powell

I did not have a lot of success with my weed burner experiment. But I was using fire brick salvaged from a woodstove that was the heavier kind. Had not thought it may have been the thermal mass issue that James pointed out. Put out a bunch of heat but most was not contained by the brick or work pie...

Sean Powell

Ok, this question is in several parts. I bought ye-old HF weed burner for a mix of yard-work and ideally some budget hot armor work without messing with the charcoal forge and not having to build a full Eric Thing rig (since I do serious armor work only occasionally. 1) How do you get these damn thi...

Sean Powell

Regarding annealing titanium in a vacuum. You want to do 2 things to titanium. The first is prevent exposure to oxygen which causes oxides. The second is exposure to hydrogen which causes hydrogen embrittlement. Both of these can be achieved WITHOUT a vacuum if you have access to shielding gas for w...

Sean Powell

Hey guys, another question before I can proceed here: I thought I´d best weld the rod to the round bar. I intend to have the round bar hardened. Should I weld before hardening? The round bar is this warm-working steel . I´m concerned about the weld breaking from stress during hardening. If I made t...

Sean Powell

Interesting tech!

Be careful if you are looking for interior views of things like the sabatons as this is an image mapped on a 0 thickness surface. You still see the exterior geometry but with reversed topography, not interior geometry (so its hard to tell how much lames overlaps)

Sean

Sean Powell

I don't much like the expression "compression articulation". It's not that it's not a useful descriptor, but that the term somehow carries a lot of "wow!" that it doesn't really deserve. This type of articulation is really very simple to understand and to build, and I don't know why modern armorers...

Sean Powell

Yes, in general you want to start at the bottom of the wrinkle and push it lengthwise by pinching it between a flat-faced hammer and an appropriate curved plannishing ball or with an appropriate curved hammer and the flat face of an anvil. You want your trikes to be of consistent strength and just e...

Sean Powell

Do you mean a washer like A or like B? Best, Indi C, Basic flat washer: https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/8ff794a6-c87d-4bf3-8cef-f7844203fbc2/svn/crown-bolt-flat-washers-800452-64_1000.jpg You COULD replace the spring with your washer B (Also called a Bellville Washer or a disk spr...

Sean Powell

So the purpose is like this: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0225/0147/products/035_1024x1024.JPG?v=1427577981 or maybe like this: https://www.ebay.com/i/123753733176?chn=ps The purpose of your proposed pin and slot is to keep the upper piece from moving axially but still move vertically and sit h...

Sean Powell

Call them and ask for the buckle with plate but without notches. That doesn't look stamped or laser-cut to me. Maybe send them a picture from Wades photos or of a different suit and say "Can you make me 20 for the price you charge for X?" They may want the business and even intorduce it as a line fo...

Sean Powell

Hello, I started the SCA on a college budget in a spun-top helm and some green 3/8" camping mat from an army/navy surplus store. It was probably less protective than even the blue walmart foam. I survived... but if I hadn't I wouldn't be typing this. My daughter is stepping up to Div-3 youth SCA com...

Sean Powell

Mac wrote:
Kerry Pratt wrote:Mac,

Once the stock is up to a level that will hold us, we have to devote ourselves to cutting molds. I might post some pics of that if there is interest.

Mac

Always interested but probably want a separate thread for pewter casters to find and reference in the future.

Sean

Sean Powell

Well! There is my Christmas gift! I'll go tell my wife what she has just gotten me. Maybe this time she will wrap it before I read it.

Sean

Sean Powell

I sort of imagine the owner taking possession of the breast, and walking across the street to the guy who makes lance rests. There, a whitesmith helps him strap the breast on and hands him the lance that sits against the corner of the shop. They discuss what's in stock and talk about pricing. The s...

Sean Powell

Initially, I thought that I would make one prototype with integral hems, and then make a deluxe version with brass. A couple of days ago, I realized that the prototype was significantly less globose than the original, and thought that I would need another prototype to work that out before moving on...

Sean Powell

Here is a notebook page I made about a year ago. The overall view is a sort of "schematic" of the armor, laid out flat like it can't really be laid out. The side view shows the height measurement form Trapp's catalog. I am presuming that it is taken by offering up a meter stick to the armor as it s...

Sean Powell

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to make regular globose BP (or maybe a clay and fiberglass model or maybe a wooden form like Mac uses for helmets) and then take patterns off the form and beat them until they matched with the form. I say "Easier" from someone who has trouble getting a uniform dishi...

Sean Powell

The trimming of the edges of the central plate seems to have done a lot of good, and the addition of plates 3 and 7 makes it a lot more satisfying to work with. It now stand on the table without being propped up and trying it on is a lot more meaningful. I'll probably work on templating the nest pl...

Sean Powell

The shape of the central plate can be thought of as a rectangle.... or can it? Mac Once upon a time you pointed out to me that when a pembridge great-helm is set on a table and it leans to one side that the neck opening comes into contact (or nearly) with the table all at the same time. The arc des...

Sean Powell

I have a sort of nagging desire to build something that everybody gets wrong.... like the Churburg 13 breast, or perhaps a kastenbrust that actually looks like the ones in the pics. Has anyone got an idea about a thing they'd like to see? Mac The thing I see about the Churburg 13 is that people mak...

Sean Powell

I'm not a lawyer but in America there was recently a change in Copyright Law Precedent: "In 2019, the Supreme Court held that registration of a copyright is required as a condition of filing an infringement action. The copyright owner had filed a suit after it had applied for but not received a regi...

Sean Powell

Mac wrote:I got a start on a new piece for the helmet stand yesterday, and the first coat of poly was dry this morning.

Sean P,

Thank you for goading me into replacing the part.

Mac

You wouldn't have been happy with it and gone back and done it anyway. You just realized it sooner.

Sean Powell

If I did that, I'd probably have to cut them off the other piece as well, and replace them all with felt pads. I'm going to have to think about this a bit before I commit to it, since there's no going back once I do it. Mac It's pine. Pine is the cardboard of the woodworking community. You waste pi...

Sean Powell

Pedestal, definitely. If you go with a wooden stand it needs to be a deeper color and ideally shortened to LESS than the width of the steel, probably closer to the line between leather and maile. The pop of yellow and texture is distracting while the black pedestal is more invisible.

Sean

Sean Powell

So for those of us living vicariously through others, how was it?

Re: Burgonet build (critique please)

Re: Burgonet build (critique please)

Re: Dishing a spangen panel on the power hammer

Re: Tod and Co's Arrows vs. Armour Test

Re: Adjusting a helmet for SCA

Re: Making Clamshell gauntlets need some help.

Re: I have joined the elite Nauticalmart crowd.

Re: Adjusting a helmet for SCA

Re: Heat treatment data for AISI 1045 / C45 / 1.1730 steel?

Re: Weedburners as forges for larger sheets

Re: Weedburners as forges for larger sheets

Weedburners as forges for larger sheets

Re: The making of titanium riveted mail

Re: Björns Builds

Re: 3d scanned armour by Livrustkammaren

Re: What is "back thigh" plate armour called? Anyone make it

Re: How to unwrinkle metal whithout heating it up.

Re: Björns Builds

Re: Björns Builds

Re: Buckles for straps - where to buy?

What's the latest best helmet padding available?

Re: Mac's blog

Re: The Bavarian National Museum by Carlo Paggiarino

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Mac's blog

Re: Nauticalmart / anyone else bugged out ?

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: The Palazzo Ducale bascinet.

Re: Once again, time to attend the Baltimore Arms Fair - 201