The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

2 "local" scrap yards : Specialty--SS and non ferrous and a ferrous scrapyard. Been paying 20 cents a pound at the regular scrapyard and way too much at the specialty one. Regular scrap yard smiles when I show up and tells me to wander the piles. Specialty scrapyard acts as if I was a terrorist. Gue...

Thomas Powers

How about a nice classical "naked with a sword"? Far the easiest to do; though there may be some ...

Note that if you have maille you are pretty much saying that you are on the top of the socio-economic pyramid and so will need all the other stuff appropriate for one of the 1%'rs.

Thomas Powers

You can also cut out the "breaths" using small chisels made from masonry nails. You will need a hard surface to cut over. Depending on the thickness a tin block or Al sheet over your anvil face will work.

Thomas Powers

Armour is usually not much of a problem---weapons generally are! I know a person who smiths in a local park, takes his small portable set up in a couple of 5 gallon buckets. Winding and cutting are quiet; flattening might be more of an issue---got a friend with a garage you could visit for an hour e...

Thomas Powers

Yup asking over at a basement machinist forum would be my suggestion.

I once had to remove a set of nuts from some 1" rod that had been on and out in the weather since 1906----came right off with my wrench---gotta love real wrought iron and the desert!

Thomas Powers

Where? New Mexico, England, Ohio, Wales, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Spain. I am a habitué of fleamarkets, junk stores, scrapyards. I try to buy my hammer heads without handles as they are either worn out or misdone. As such my price point for ball peens is usually US$1. Anytime I can find a goo...

Thomas Powers

Note that the effort to "get it right" when making your own mail is generally not much more than the effort to *not* "get it right".

So I strongly suggest you try to get it done as accurately as possible and *NEVER* have to do it over again---till you switch periods/locations...

Thomas Powers

And the numbers of the supporting legs shall be three; do not goeth to four and only goeth to two on the way to three! Also go over to iforgeiron.com and look at the anvil stand thread(s). I'm always sending smithing folk over here for armour questions, it's nice to send someone the other way! BTW F...

Thomas Powers

Would you have a problem spending a dollar or two for an old bricklayer's hammer head and modifying that into a raising hammer?

And I'd not be so fast to abandon hot dishing as it's *fast* for certain things.

Thomas Powers

I much prefer Clay Spencer's tire hammer to the old rusty hammer, (and I participated in a workshop where we built a rusty start to finish!)

Thomas Powers

Metal found within the top foot should have been found with a proper metal detector survey. Sure plowing could turn up new stuff for an eyeball survey but not for a well done metal detector survey I wouldn't think.

Thomas Powers

Something odd going on.

Thomas Powers

WTF they didn't go over it with a high grade metal detector after the first lot was found????

Thomas Powers

Good luck and welcome to the "if I was alive in the middle ages---I'd be dead!" club.

Thomas Powers

I thought those were the usecase for pickelhaube!

Thomas Powers

They made other colours of kydex back in the early 1980's too.

Thomas Powers

The feet and the waist indicates that it is an English anvil, fairly old; but probably not older than the 1820's. Postman has identified over 200 english anvil makers so far, many of them making very similar anvils---not surprising as it was typical that a skilled worker in one place would go start ...

Thomas Powers

That's when having picked up some collectable stuff *cheap* at fleamarkets comes in handy. I recently traded a wilton vise I picked up for $65 ($15 purchase price + $50 boot on the anvil) for a 150# anvil. As I generally use postvises I had not mounted the vise in several years... Now to get my appr...

Thomas Powers

Not to mention that few if any ESL clases cover armour jargon! We have enough problems with native speakers not knowing that...

Thomas Powers

I've seen a dozen go for $10 and under at fleamarkets over the years, stay away from people selling to tool collectors and help keep the price down!

Thomas Powers

IIRC from SCUBA: 1 Atmosphere is about 32 *feet* of water column. so that's 1 PSI...

Thomas Powers

So why don't you all use an oxy-propane torch? Not good for welding but quite nice for heating and CHEAPER than acetylene! It also cuts well. You will need propane tips instead of acetylene ones. Lots less problem with draw rates using propane and easier to source on a Sunday at 1 pm! (The Oxy you w...

Thomas Powers

Collyn, WHERE ARE YOU AT? Hard to make suggestions if you don't know even what country you are in. I've had good luck at Amador Scrapyard in Polvadera NM, USA.

Thomas Powers

Note that these are generally NOT suitable for hard hammering on like a post vise is. They are designed to hold sheet metal while you file on it and so do a good job of *that*.

Thomas Powers

HEARING PROTECTORS!

Thomas Powers

Can they be ground down to fit? Wide is usually easier to deal with than thick!

Thomas Powers

How about a space with some compromises and then schedule a regular XYZ century weekend where you hew to a more authentic line?

(Saturday I was given about 200 pounds of very old telegraph wire that tests as wrought iron so far! of course it would be puddled not bloomery...)

Thomas Powers

Atli; does this mean you *don't* want the plague infested fleas we've hand selected for your Christmas present? (some people you just can't get them *anything*!)

Thomas Powers

Ask the "working people" where to go to eat!---worked *great* for me in Spain, England, Germany,...

Thomas Powers

I always told my wife that if we had a son I would name it tubal cain. It's a good biblical name! She threatened to smite me!

Thomas Powers

"how did southern european deal with the heat?"

Manfully!

Thomas Powers

You do know that desert does not mean "hot"; it means *dry*. Antarctica is a desert.

You might correlate their armour by their general campaigning season and see if they tended to armour up and fight in cooler weather.

Thomas Powers

Shared space: do we all not know a tale of woe that started as a great idea for people to share a workspace? Actually I believe I know *several* such for every success story; often with the tragedy of the commons at it's root. I'm really liking the Artisans Lane concept where crafters willing to dem...

Thomas Powers

Lets see the pritchel hole got added to the london pattern anvil in the 1820's so you'd be several centuries to the good just using a post vise than a london patten anvil with a pritchel... The london pattern anvil is sort of the "swiss army knife" of anvils with horn, heel, hardy hole, cutting step...

Thomas Powers

Great; now can you give directions to your place and when you will be away?

Re: "Scrap" Stainless steel

Re: Celtic Armour

Re: I'm making a brass lantern

Re: Viking age mail questions.

Re: Dam woodruff key any tips?

Re: First Hot Work, Fireproof Dishing Stump?

Re: Viking age mail questions.

Re: looking for a cheap anvil

Re: First Hot Work, Fireproof Dishing Stump?

Re: Design considerations - leaf spring power hammer

Re: More pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard found

Re: More pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard found

Re: More pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard found

Re: Like a Hole in the Head

Re: Kangaroo Leather for Articulations

Re: Black Barrel

Re: Best offer on an anvil

Re: Saw setting vise for filework.

Re: Who can help me

Re: Saw setting vise for filework.

Re: A possibly crazy idea - oxy/natural gas

Re: "Gas saver"

Re: Your balls are showing!

Re: Saw setting vise for filework.

Re: Tool Choice

Re: "american tool company" shear

Re: Historical Hackerspace/Makerspace

Re: The authenticity paradox

Re: Going to France for research!

Re: Historical Hackerspace/Makerspace

Re: How did the men-at-arms in southern europe deal with hea

Re: Metal armour in a desert environment

Re: Historical Hackerspace/Makerspace

Re: Historical Hackerspace/Makerspace

Re: My weapon collection