The Armour Archive

RalphS

Symon Fitz Gilbert wrote:Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap -AC-DC,.

::Runs for cover!!::

ROTFLMAO!!!!

RalphS

Something heavy going down - Golden Earring
I am the sword - MotÃƒÂ¶rhead
Sun and steel - Iron Maiden

and of course:

Born to raise helms (or was it hell?) - MotÃƒÂ¶rhead

RalphS

I prefer to use 4 mm rivets for most projects. They should normally be cut to the appropriate length in place, which may vary depending on what you're riveting. Leave about the same length as the diameter of the shank, for setting the rivet. Patterning is a whole art by itself. In general, use it as...

RalphS

RalphS wrote:JT, could you add the tutorial to the essay section?

RalphS

one more

RalphS

ide realy be intrested in those patterns, could you send them on? With all the problems they have, and of course in Katjas size. Make sure to trim the length of the pieces over the shoulders, and push in those parts a lot towards the neck. The rest of the patterns is still in rough shape, and not s...

RalphS

I don't think I've seen many do armor for women except in three ways: 1. Hiding the armor as much as possible 2. Being silly about it (breastplates with nipples, etc.) 3. When the women can stuff into an historic pattern breastplate. I'm glad to see a fourth option exists. The human body is quite c...

RalphS

There has been a lot of discussion on this in the past, use the search facility for the Archive to find a lot of interesting stuff. Just to give you some idea, I'm working with one of my pupils on her gothic cuirass: m When fitted properly, the whole part above the waist can be rigid, without signif...

RalphS

Ralph, were you the one asking about feminine gothic armor a while back? While the curve is up a bit high for most gothic pieces, since I assume she has less of a gut and more of a chest than I, that's a great way of doing it and keeping the lines. Or curves, whatever. Yep, that was me. We basicall...

RalphS

RalphS

Seems like your problem is not in the temper, but in the steel. Take another nail, heat it fully to red,check with a magnet whether it is not magnetic any more, and quench in water. Now put the nail in a vice, and bend/break it. If it bends, the steel can't be hardened enough to be used as a drift/p...

RalphS

Turned out really cool! You managed to catch the telltale features of a sallet, despite the odd proportions the customer dictates.

I keep thinking of the muppets, and goblin city in Labyrith when I see your pictures.

Great job!

RalphS

http://www.astro.lu.se/~ralph/pics/tmp_ ... age027.jpg

RalphS

How about an induction forge?
http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/indheat.html

RalphS

Should I take that as an offer that you'll help me as a striker?

I made a special hammer just for this purpose!

(image shamelessly linked from http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~dispater/ ... allery.htm)

RalphS

It's finally done now (has been for some time, but I didn't get a picture online till now): [img]http://www.astro.lu.se/~ralph/pics/DSC03065.jpg[/img] Summary of the experiment: It works Total loss in weight, inlcuding grinding and trimming, a little over 0.6 kg, leaving the helmet somewhere around ...

RalphS

Thanks for all the positive reactions! The whole idea behind this tutorial was to show how to cut sheetmetal with a hammer and chisel, and show a few of the capabilities. I didn't bother with any of the (better) alternatives, or design features. I just grabbed a piece of scrap from the scrappile, di...

RalphS

To quote a friend of mine who does live steel fighting in his gothic suit: "At the waist it should be tight and comfortable (it gets comfortable after a few minutes)"

RalphS

Looking good!
Have you been working hot this time?

One more thing I'd put a little more work on is the bottom nose part, but it's just a personal taste: make it curve inwards quite a bit more, like in http://www.astro.lu.se/~ralph/pics/lege ... C02388.jpg

RalphS

Sheetmetal can be cut using many different tools, see m for a wonderful overview. Unfortunately, the cold chisel and hammer method suffers from severe prejudice, claiming that it's slow, noisy, and leaves a horrible finish. It may not be the fastest, or most quiet, or most beautiful way to cut sheet...

RalphS

I've got an entry for the June AotM, any chance of entering it before the end of the month?

Or with other words: bump!

RalphS

The ridge splits from single into a double ridge (see the linked image), and then joins into a single one again, which continues all the way to the tail.

See also
http://www.astro.lu.se/~ralph/pics/lege ... C02393.jpg
for a good idea of the split ridge.

RalphS

As always, Beautiful work!

3 mm is a nice thickness to work with, isn't it?

What's up next, Bornholm, 18-23 July?

RalphS

Fun project!!! Pity you already cut out the eyeslot, it limits what you can do with respect to more shaping. A couple of distinguishing features which are not strong enough or not present at all on your sallet: * side profile: the flare at the nose could be more distinct, curving in a bit more * sid...

RalphS

Yep! But it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, and it doesn't have to be complicated. The latest "stake" I made was a leftover bit 1/4 inch semi-hard 1040-ish sheet steel. I slightly rounded one end with the anglegrinder, and put a truncated rounded bevel on it. This tool I used to clean up the ...

RalphS

The more I learn, the more I realise that many of those nifty tools I thought I needed really aren't all that nifty or needed. I frequently use simple pieces of (relatively heavy) barstock held in the post vice as a stake. Just pick some stock in the right dimension, cut or grind at the right angle ...

RalphS

From http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=36356

Halberds wrote:I will cut my losses and toss it down the creek.

Must be almost 1000 years old. And with the bronze rivets, galvanic reactions would eat huge holes in it over that period of time. Looks way too good to be that old. Would be interesting to see a metallurgical analysis of the metal!

RalphS

Well, it's done now. Here are some animated gif pictures showing the helmet all around. Big files, a couple of MB each: m m The blank I used was about 50-55 cm in diameter, circular, a little bit too small, so I had to stretch the brim a bit. The thickness at the edge is pretty close to 2.0 mm all a...

RalphS

Wait! I know, I know! *bounce* *bounce* I'm gonna make platemail from this gasoline drum I have standing here. Since I don't have a gun, I can't shoot it. But I'm impatient and have an anglegrinder, which I'll use to cut the top off. I poured all the gasoline out, and there are hardly any drops left...

RalphS

Still looks a bit plump, IMHO. Of course it depends on your hand size, but looking at the painting I get the impression that the width:height ratio is way off in your gauntlet (when the "length"-direction is along the arm). Take a look at the guy in armour, with raised clenched fist. He seems to be ...

RalphS

If you just want to stick to a perfect hemisphere, the math is simple. I'll assume you'll use 4 panels. For a diameter D, each panel should be pi*D/4 wide at the bottom, and pi*D/4 long at each standing side, and pi*D/4 high in the middle. This is going to be quite difficult in 2 dimensions, which m...

RalphS

[img]http://www.astro.lu.se/~ralph/pics/DSC02180.jpg[/img] Still not completely done in this picture. Cost me SEK 3000 + 25% VAT, about US$500, and a few hours with the anglegrinder. Cost the shop way too many hours, since they had to redo it twice to get it right. Weight about 30 kg, 80 mm round st...

RalphS

James, I know all these things. If all this depended on plain old ignorance I could kind of accept it. But this was simple stupidity. Right afterwards I hardened a cervelliere, which behaved perfectly. No detectable warpage. I changed the single bar in the helmet to a double one, so I could easily t...

RalphS

The helmet cracked over one of the rivet holes, and over the sharp edge between the brim and the top. I guess I'll get a chance to practice brazing, and repair it in a mediaeval way. And I'll give it a try to get rid of the warp after that. This was Arnes C45 I used. May I suggest that you quench in...

RalphS

Beautiful!
It looks like it ended up being very thick.
Do you have any inside pictures you can show?

There is only one thing I would have done differently, and that is to sharpen the tip of that tail some more. Otherwise it's perfect!

Cold chisel tutorial (long and many pictures)