The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

"Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel" shows the first crank turned rotary grindstone they have been able to find, marginalia dealing with angels getting ready to fight devils. The angels are using the new high tech crank turned rotary grindstone; while the devils are still using the old flat whetstones t...

Thomas Powers

"I just don't throw those things away"

TMI

Thomas Powers

RUN! Re-Heat treating a blade that has already suffered edge damage is most likely to have it end up in pieces! Given that can you find out what steel it was made from? Blunt the edges *before* doing any re-heat treating. Normalize a couple of times straightening any warps till it comes out straight...

Thomas Powers

Traditional methods and tools often require *skill* as well to be useful and *safe*. Modern powertools often try to do away with level of skill hand tools require. I would think such a space would require a full time "specialist" to help and watch for each "area" covered. Now when I bring a couple o...

Thomas Powers

If you had the *first* hot day of the year in May people would NOT be acclimated to the warm temperatures yet!

We still see this today: 60 degF in July/August---it's *freezing*; 60 degF in February---take off your coats it's *summer*!

Thomas Powers

Tertiary sources are generally geological and found before Quaternary sources and after Cretaceous ones.

Thomas Powers

My friend's business was *1* person; hard to get smaller than that!

However a lot of our tax laws are biased towards businesses even *small* ones and if you don't know all the ins and outs you are tossing money down the drain!

I think his retirement coincided with an inheritance...

Thomas Powers

"Okay, so how many people STAND and work, and how many SIT and work?"

Yes! (and may do both on some projects---even the same task)

Thomas Powers

I used to work second shift in an un-airconditioned factory in Fort Smith AR during the summer. Worse our "unit" was located right above the curing ovens for the foam insulation. I remember one day when my step daughter was complaining about how hot her room was at home and I was shivering and looki...

Thomas Powers

I have a friend that was a professional craftsperson for *decades* and he told me that some years the *only* profit he made was based on how his equipment was depreciated for taxes. Also that you need to pay yourself a wage, put into a pension fund and budget money for emergencies. Otherwise you wer...

Thomas Powers

Ferric Chloride AKA PCB etchant will eat most any metal save Ti yet still is not as bad as the strong acids on human skin...

Thomas Powers

I see the problem as so many people think of authenticity as a binary system: Yes:No Where in reality its a sliding scale with the top point almost asymptotically hard to achieve. (just look at the differences between puddled and bloomery wrought iron!)

Thomas Powers

If it's going to share with a car make some sort of "wall" to protect said car. *things* will travel! The old heavy welding drapes would be perfect. Even if you plan to do all your grinding outside; the time will come when you need just a *little* bit done and the blizzard/sleet storm/thunderstorm w...

Thomas Powers

Not to mention the stuff in "Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries"

Thomas Powers

Isn't it amazing what *other* people notice in such pictures?

Thomas Powers

"Cookie Cutter" items are a problem. Particularly for times and places that may be popular; but little physical culture is extant. Also we tend to want "all the neato" items and so you see camps outfitted with more stuff than would be common in one 20 times larger. (I am guilty of this too as I keep...

Thomas Powers

Faster heating means lower scaling too! (and gas savings pay off amazingly quickly if you use it a bunch. I noticed when I was teaching that I was using a tank and a half of propane on my blown forge per day long class---till I relined it and then 3/4 of a tank did just fine---at the original "worn ...

Thomas Powers

can I talk you into a bit of trepanation and a good shake?

Thomas Powers

Olive oil in northern Europe was a bit more expensive than in the Mediterranean. I also don't believe that sperm oil lamps would be in use considering how much burner research using them occurred later... I'm still going with water for the *symbolism* of it alongside the pomegranate. That method of ...

Thomas Powers

ISTR them mentioned by Ahmad ibn Fadlan while he was taking the scenic route. (and not in Gotland; though where they were from I don't recall)

Thomas Powers

Why not give him a horse head on a post?

Thomas Powers

I had one of the punches for my R/W benchmount snap before---of course the person using it was doing Ti scales. They bought two more sets for it and never used the second one.

Thomas Powers

Saw a whitney Jr with 4 or 5 p/d sets for $15 at the fleamarket last Friday

Thomas Powers

Thanks Tom, I didn't think anything they would be using in an oil lamp would be that colour and clarity!

Thomas Powers

If you weld after heat treat then the weld will affect the heat treat. If you weld before the heat treat using a filler designed for welding that alloy it should make no issue heat treating after welding. (and actually when welding higher carbon steels it can be a help to go from pre-heat to welding...

Thomas Powers

Mine was based on the thing booths that had a low turve or rock wall and then the A frame. Lots more usable room fo us "robust" modern folks.

As most sites did not allow building walls, I built a mortise and tenon frame that the A frame tent would fit into.

Thomas Powers

It's warm weather---the windows are open and the bench with the back that flips from side to side so you can warm up both sides is shoved up against the covered fireplace. Heaven must be chilly looking at the angel's cape... Note how *small* the room is as there is a window open on the right side---...

Thomas Powers

Suggestions on how large, what material and the style you want?

Thomas Powers

I would think a torch (or several) mounted on the tool holder would be more useful as it would provide constant heating even if not exactly at the point of work.

Trying to figure out how to get a picture of my stash...

Thomas Powers

No; Just a source I hadn't heard of before and I thought that some folks might want to look into it---I'm enjoying the bloomery thread over "there"!.

I'm a biblio-slut and the idea of a new source that is specific, scholarly and available makes me squirm!

Thomas Powers

I picked up a ball recently that weighs 100 pounds---and is a bit smaller than the demo ball I found at the same scrapyard earlier this year that fits quite nicely in a milk crate (of course not gigantic like a 10-12# one...)

Thomas Powers

Anybody seen this? Brigandines were still in use in the 16th century. A recent symposium describes a number of such examples: "Das Brigantinen-Symposium auf Schloss Tirol." Conference Proceedings ed.K.Spindler * H.Stadler (Bozen, 2004). Came through the archeological metallurgy mailing list after a ...

Thomas Powers

"Lynch tools" OUCH! I still see a few around smithing conventions and if reasonably priced POUNCE on them and sneak off with them (people say I do a quite nice Gollum impression talking about "my precious" as I stroke them..." One Quad-State they sold off a deceased smith's tools and I was digging t...

Thomas Powers

It's *your* tool. However it should not be that hard to find one with a damaged leg and once you have truncated that one it's that way for good. Telling the blacksmith community you want one with a bad leg cheap should be enough---and there will be a collective scratching of heads about the crazy ar...

Thomas Powers

Forging a raising hammer from a ballpeen, I would 1: either source a ballpeen with a larger eye or heat it and use a bullpin to drift it larger; then use a hammer eye drift from both sides to make it fit easily sourced hammer handles. 2: heat the flat face and hammer it rectangular using a straight ...

Re: Historical Hackerspace/Makerspace

Re: Just for fun!

Re: Making a DelTin Thoughter

Re: Historical Hackerspace/Makerspace

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

Re: A vocabulary for authenticity

Re: To be a success, your small business/armory NEEDS....

Re: Show me your shop!

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

Re: To be a success, your small business/armory NEEDS....

Re: How do I etch Stainless Steel?

Re: A vocabulary for authenticity

Re: Show me your shop!

Re: Awesome Example of "period" fantasy armour!

Re: Can anyone identify the objects in this painting?

Re: The authenticity paradox

Re: My scrap-built furnace

Re: Can anyone identify the objects in this painting?

Re: Can anyone identify the objects in this painting?

Re: "Baltic" coil belts....Attention Norman!

Re: "Baltic" coil belts....Attention Norman!

Re: Will a Whitney Jr #5 punch through 16-18ga SS?

Re: Will a Whitney Jr #6 punch through 16-18ga SS?

Re: Can anyone identify the objects in this painting?

Re: Working with 4130 Alloy Steel

Re: Re-examining Modern Viking Reenactor Beliefs

Re: Can anyone identify the objects in this painting?

Re: WTB Shield Boss

Re: Your balls are showing!

Re: Brigandines

Re: I want a raising stake

Brigandines

Re: Any idea how long it takes for a USPS investigation?

Re: Need anvil advice from those in the know

Re: Dishing is my arch-enemy