The Armour Archive

The Iron Dwarf

thanks Horsefriend
looks like a good tool
it is good to know that others exist and are in use and that dies can be got.

The Iron Dwarf

it already works and maybe I will get some punches and dies for it ( and manage to unscrew the die in it ).
it cost me about $3 maybe a little more

The Iron Dwarf

at a local car boot sale this morning I found a punch that looks like a roper-whitney but it is old and has the following on it: PARKER KALON CORP NY US and on the other side it has No. O.X. METAL PUNCH PAT'D JAN 2119 wonder if this was what the RW started out as it has a punch and die in it that lo...

The Iron Dwarf

a press is not hard to make, either a hand pumped one based on a bottle jack / porta power or body dozer kit or even a powered one with a ram and motor / hydraulic pump. I made mine in a few hours from a frame I made, a ram, a 3hp motor, pump and oil tank and a little control gear. I can carry eithe...

The Iron Dwarf

dishing with a press even into urethane will thin the metal a bit but it will do it more evenly than hammering would do. you could start with thicker metal and dishing thicker stuff is easier than thin stuff, I can dish 3/8 thick easily and get a deep even dish each time but 18 gauge would often cre...

The Iron Dwarf

still only 2 interested, if we dont get more soon it will not be going ahead so if you have friends who are not on here but are in England and would be interested or if you post on other forums please spread the word. as well as what you could learn from being on the course you could also get any of...

The Iron Dwarf

if the winner opens the box and thinks aw crap this is junk. He can box it back up and return it for a refund.

from what I have heard your stuff is always good ,
I bet even the catfish in Hal's creek have good armour ( ok it may have a little rust and some bullet holes

The Iron Dwarf

have 2 people so far interested, one from here and one from another forum.
if this is popular we will do more next year

The Iron Dwarf

A friend of mine whom I share a workshop with who is an experienced blacksmith has offered to run a course over a weekend if people are interested. it will be held during december if there is enough interest and could be covering anything you want that he can do, he is not a reenactor and does not d...

The Iron Dwarf

Murdock wrote:I'm finally building a helm

SO far it's not so bad

just a great helm but still

that is more than a lot of people will do so good for you for actually doing it, you will learn by doing this and maybe in the future you will make better things

The Iron Dwarf

agreed a lot dont want to learn and as well as that I dont know enough to be able to teach. at 2 events a year though I do set up a forge for those who want a go but I expect material to be wasted so mostly bring stuff from my scrap bin and tools to be damaged so I only take tools that are not worth...

The Iron Dwarf

later this month in central england there is an event known as ILHF and a few weeks later one called TORM, there are many armourers at both. at ILHF lancaster armouries will be trading and I know they do some armour in kit form so that could be a place to start. ( and if you are in front of their pi...

The Iron Dwarf

I empty old CO2 tanks and extinguishers with my mig welder, generally about 20% of my gas is free

The Iron Dwarf

I empty old CO2 tanks and extinguishers with my mig welder, generally about 20% of my gas is free

The Iron Dwarf

never cut an acetalene bottle and be very cautious with any fuel gases

The Iron Dwarf

Something I've thought about for a while is the possibility of forging dishes, say by heating up a 1/2" round plate and dishing it against an anvil. But that'd take a serious forge, and probably a couple sets of hands. I was thinking along the same lines a while ago by getting a plate hot and ...

The Iron Dwarf

most of the people I know are happy with the bottom of bottles, mind you I have sold some that have been an inch and a half thick and I also have an oval dishing donut that is about head sized and over 2" thick but between us there is a little water and shipping costs are quite a bit

The Iron Dwarf

open the valve carefully, do this outside. if nothing comes out hold an airline on to it for a few seconds to hear air going in and then take it off to check air comes out ( this is to make sure the valve is not broken ). if all is ok you should be able to unscrew the valve, as helium is non flamabl...

The Iron Dwarf

great work Pitbull

The Iron Dwarf

here is a hammer I picked up last weekend, I guess it is a large dishing hammer, the faces are nearly 3" in diameter and have different radii, weight is 8 pounds
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/hodgesaargh/DCP_1834.jpg[/img]

The Iron Dwarf

I am planning on starting an auction later this week of two related items, it will not be a major auction as few of you are in the same country as me and shipping will be quite a bit to the US or other places but I will see how it goes as a single thread. the items in question will be huge ball bear...

The Iron Dwarf

for dishing you may want to take a grinder and then a flap disc to the flat side of your hammer head to make it a very large radius this will help prevent the bag of marbles effect. today I picked up a dishing hammer at a sale, it is massive and the radiuses are probably about 3 to 4", I guess ...

The Iron Dwarf

get some scrap brass and practice all the methods mentioned and see which works the best for you.

I would punch the round ones with a center punch and try a small sharp chisel for the lines or maybe a small hacksaw for the lines

The Iron Dwarf

abrasives vary a lot from one brand to another, cheap ones are generally not good, I always use the more expensive zirconium rather than the aluminium oxide as they do the job faster and last far longer I dont do much belt sanding but the belts I have are made by klingspor as are the flap discs I use.

The Iron Dwarf

2 plates with a long slot between them , like 5" by 1" slot that is deep. 4 ball stakes each with a female thread at the bottom and a selection of shims with a hole in or washers with a countersunk screw to fix them to the bottom of each stake then strips cut as shims to space out the stak...

The Iron Dwarf

delivery of the 16" 8" and 6" balls should be in 11 or 12 days.
need to make lots of room and get all my friends round to get them in the workshop.

The Iron Dwarf

nice one Hal

The Iron Dwarf

at my place we do a lot of cast iron welding, with the right welder and the right rods it is easy. most of the stick welding I do is with cast, dissimilar, or HC rods, I use less 6013 rods and I think there is a 7018 rod in the holder at the moment. done gas welding on ali but thats all todays jobs ...

The Iron Dwarf

hope it goes well

The Iron Dwarf

agree with Hal on this.
before you do important stuff you will prob have to do a lot more than the simple stuff you need when applying for the job, welds will be tested for faults and weaknesses.
tell them you use mig but want to learn stick as well

The Iron Dwarf

there is more skill in mma ( manual metal arc ) than in mig ( metal in gas ), what you need is some practice but there is no time for that. unlike mig where you push ( except for gasless ) with arc you pull it towards you. depending on the power, type and size of rod, material etc try to keep the ti...

The Iron Dwarf

well if I was hjalmr there are a few quotes above that I would save and would pass on to prospective customers if requested.
I am not an armourer, or fighter but going by what has been posted if I was asked about low cost bomb proof helms I would have no problem recommending you

The Iron Dwarf

here any 16 gauge sheet will normally be 1.5mm
18 gauge is 1.2mm
20 gauge is 1mm

yes they want to make it as thin as posto make more money.
if in doubt about thickness check it when buying

The Iron Dwarf

maybe a thread on reveiws of oldest and most battered kit is needed, like 5 years of beating the hell out of this and is still good or needed a repair at 3 years. there are lots here who make great looking and functional armour and lots who make ugly as hell but very functional armour at a great pri...

The Iron Dwarf

it may be easier to do it yourself, many here can assist you with what you need. simple shaping is not that hard and you have all the pieces there and know how they need to fit. I am not a blacksmith or armourer but can form metal to shapes I need either hot or cold, by hand or with a press, simple ...

interesting punch I found today

Forgework courses in december ( England )