The Armour Archive

Archie Zietman

What'd you start working on?

Archie Zietman

more than you ever wanted to know about gas forges:
http://ronreil.abana.org/design1.shtml

Archie Zietman

Hello. Just went to the Gloucester Farmer's Market for the second time, it was even more successful! I sold out 4/5ths of my inventory, made a 200 dollar profit, and had several people approach me about used blacksmithing equipment they want hauled away <grin> A very successful day! Also, I need to ...

Archie Zietman

I have a small fisher it's about 50 pounds (I think) which I use for most things, but I break down heavier stock (3/4 and higher) on a railroad joiner sunk vertically into a barrel of concrete (mass of about 300 pounds). Very efficient, but I absolutely hate the tiny workface (grrrr!) so use the fis...

Archie Zietman

Alors, Aujourd'hui I was finishing up some salad servers and spatulas for the local craft fair, and I had my first adventure with riveting. I started by breaking a drill bit drilling 1/2'' thick stock, so had to drive 20 minutes to my friend's machine shop where i got everything drilled, then drove ...

Archie Zietman

Hello.
I just came across this nicely done video on making a bodkin arrow head. I might try some, once I've gotten commissions out of the way (ugh!)

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=aB0jkfI27 ... re=related

Be merry,
Archie

Archie Zietman

who made the harness?

Archie Zietman

I know how you feel. When you finally get time, you will enjoy it all the more.

Archie Zietman

I used to have on my pooter, about 100 closeups and technical photos of one of his harnesses. (Someone posted them years ago, and I snaffled them) But what I remember is that the tassets were backed in a yellow soft leather, as were the...round armpit-protector things? (I'm an ornamental blacksmith,...

Archie Zietman

iforgeiron.com has a bunch of really good info on everything blacksmithing, lots of picture-tutorials, look under blueprints.
edit: ach! herr powers got there before me!

Archie Zietman

When my hammer heads get loose I take some thin roofing nails, knock them into the top of the handle halfwayup their length, then bend them out over the hammerhead tightly to keep it in place. Works great.

Archie Zietman

Thanks very much you'uns!

Archie Zietman

Hello. So, basically the science department at my school is gathering scrap everything copper and melting down two copper ingots for looking at eddy currents and magnetism in the physics dept. The head knows I'm a blacksmith and I've been enlisted to help with the planning. So here's the setup Does ...

Archie Zietman

Yeah, while I still used solid fuel I used charcoal and corn. Work the corn exactly like coal (outside in, occasionally with a slice) and you're good. If you can get corn it's cheap (like, 5 dollars for 50 pounds where I live) and cleaner than coal (no clinkers except if you don't brush your scale o...

Archie Zietman

Why steer away from charcoal? Where have you heard to steer away from it? Are You hearing environmentalists talk of coal? if so charcoal is carbon neutral made of wood. It's a very clean solid fuel, the first used by smiths and gets plenty plenty hot for doing whatevah yah need to do. Forge is a way...

Archie Zietman

hello.
I am wondering, what kinds of things would a 14th century blacksmith in a small village have made?
sorry if it's a bit of a vague question, just looking for ideas of more stuff to make.
Thanks,
Merry being,
Archie

Archie Zietman

If youc an get up to a light yellow or white heat without loosing your ring in the fire or burning it up, it'll weld easier. (at least, it does for me)

I dunno about the history...:s

Archie Zietman

Hello. I just re-took a look at my copy of "Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction" I've been into artist and functional blacksmithing for the past few years, (money in it in suburban Massachusetts) and I wanted to refresh my mind about everything which got me on the blacksmithing road. Well, al...

Archie Zietman

Anybody know of any? or internet sources with warehouses in the state? Home Depot on the North Shore don't have anything usable or at a reasonable price.

Thanks,
Merry Being,
Archie

Archie Zietman

Hello. I was looking at a pattern for a pair of calligae (roman military sandals) and I was wondering why so much of the leather was sliced away in the sandal? It seems awfully wasteful of leather, with so very much cutting, it would have wasted an awful lot of hide. Was it posisble to fit patterns ...

Archie Zietman

Hello. I am wondering whether anybody has any pictures or information about any kind of woven textile armours (besides gambesons) from anywhere in the world. (Vague but I don't know what to ask). Also, in the Iliad Homer keeps on talking about war belts. What are they, to the best of our knowledge? ...

Archie Zietman

Hello!
Does anybody have a pattern for knee high boots which fit fairly snuggly to to leg? I justs spent Saturday wearing boots for a play, and really like them, and want to make some to wear around.

Thanks,
Archie

Archie Zietman

on the brow, there is a set of holes punched. These holes are in a thoroughly odd place for a pot helm of any sort. The rivet holes look as though they could have been placed on a barbute, if you bend your mind a bit. Why shouldn't it be that the metal used was from an extant piece, whacked into thi...

Archie Zietman

great piece! If you made the skull and the brow/cheek plate from different pieces and rounded the edges it would be really intensely cool!

Archie Zietman

It's certainly easier to have a clean fire with corn, In several fires of corn, I haven't found any clinkers yet.

Archie Zietman

Any dry kernel corn will work, I use cheap cracked corn from the Agway near my house.

Archie Zietman

What I do is crumple one big sheet of newspaper (newsprint, the papery stuff, not the plasticky stuff) into a ball then wrap another sheet of newspaper around it, light the big newspaper ball and toss in into the firepot, burning side down and crank air up ever so slightly so that the smoke catches ...

Archie Zietman

Pyro, you mean charcoal right? Coal you'd have to have a mine nearby.

If pig feed is corn, then yeah, it'll work.

Archie Zietman

Just the kernels. I get them from the nearby farm store in 50 pound bags. It's cheaper than coal around here, ten dollars for 50 pounds.

Archie Zietman

yeah, some of my friends got the willies about it too, but I won't be using it much, I have way too much scrap wood to be burned through to use corn much, but it does work well.

Archie Zietman

Use dried kernels. I've burned cobs too, but they are really light and don't last long at all. Kernels, though, since it cokes into clumps, whether it's whole kernels or cracked corn (what I'm using) it works the same. The smoke is thick and white but burns away, so that's fine. It's a really good f...

Archie Zietman

No, sadly it doesn't. If I put some oil on it, it might!

but then I'd eat it all, and wouldn't get any forging done...

Archie Zietman

Hello. Today I got my first taste of fire and steel in a good few months, I decided to try using corn in place of wood in my forge (which I built to take coal as well) and it works beautifully. It's exactly like coal, except it's not rocks, the smoke isn't green, and there are no clinkers. It sticks...

Archie Zietman

I don't have a scanner, but in Violet le Duc (he took a lotta liberties in his books, but he does have a helm similar) on page 71 of the 2004 edition, if I had a scanner handy I'd scan it, but just to let you know, there is a book which documents something like it.

Archie Zietman

Hello.
I am wondering whether any of you know anything about old potter's studios, especially on throwing wheels. Also, how would they have fired their pieces, wood kilns? In the coals or in the flames? And what would they have used for glazes if anything?
Thanks,
Archie

better than the Wobbly Headed Doll Caper

Adventures in Rivet Peining

Nicely done arrowhead video

Copper Melting for Science Dept.

14th century village blacksmithing

You Armouring Types

Sheetmetal sources in Boston Area?

Caligae manufacture question

Woven armor and war belts?

Knee high boots

Coal alternative

14th-15th C. Pottery Studios?