The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

Our Vicar's first name is Morril---which gave him quite a lot of grief in high school; so much so that he goes by his middle name now!

Thomas Powers

Nope that is a dishing/sinking hammer *NOT* a raising hammer.

(and forging a raising hammer from a ballpeen would be a lot more *fun*)

Thomas Powers

But is he *morally* naughty?

Thomas Powers

You should see my heelless anvil with the hardy prosthesis! "Damaged" blacksmithing equipment is often far cheaper and often the "damage" just means it's *better* for some ways of working---shorter postvise holds stakes at a comfortable working height. Heelless anvil is great for heavy striking wher...

Thomas Powers

Don't forget that old block hammers used for masonry work have sq to rectangular faces and the chisel back end can be modified and used armouring too!

Thomas Powers

For excessive amounts of information on cementation "The Cementation of Iron and Steel" Giolitti, Federico will surpass your fondest dreams. *Lots* of information on experiments tried---cementation with diamonds, in a vacuum, usw.

Thomas Powers

In CA, Find where they are bulldozing an orange grove for housing and get some stumps there...

In NV I'd talk to a tree company and see if they run across any. (and yes there are tree service companies in Las Vegas NV)

Thomas Powers

ISTR that they were used in quite rainy Scandinavia.

I'll see if the book I have on central europe's log cabins has anything on them.

Thomas Powers

Have you forged any large ballpeens into dishing hammers yet? It allows you to get faces *larger* than the hammer face starts out of and to make a nice shallow curve on them. Weygers book "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" has examples.

Thomas Powers

Quenching it in oil will have no effect on it's carbon content; but may make it softer as it's a gentler quench. If you are not going to case harden it then you need to start with a higher carbon wire. *MUCH* easier to get these days than back then! Then you will need to harden and temper the maille...

Thomas Powers

You take the tower(s); I'll sneak around back for the liturgical loot! (Isn't that a cross visible on the top of the right hand tower?)

Thomas Powers

Note that sometimes you find postvises with the post truncated for one reason of another. These are often cheaper and can then be mounted at a convenient height to hold stakes with a short leg prosthesis.

Thomas Powers

It's black powder; it can *swim*!

Thomas Powers

The slitted contact wheels are more aggressive grinding. I don't know how aggressive you need or want for armour making! (grinding 3/8" thick D2 with a 36 grit belt and watching it disappear as you look is sometimes needed in blademaking...)

Thomas Powers

If you were going to do the work in making a stable multistory tent you might as well have built a post and beam structure.

Thomas Powers

A whonking big postvise can be handy for stakes as well.

I have one stake holder designed to hold stakes with the stem horizontal that bolts through a workbench with 4 1/2" bolts---machined from steel by a silver smithing friend who liked to use the ends of stakes a lot.

Thomas Powers

Send in the metal detectors and ground penetrating radar!

Thomas Powers

I think you'd cry a lot if you knew how *little* I had in my anvils.

I will suggest you be sure about your interest in the craft before shelling out top of the line new anvil prices!

Thomas Powers

OK for us stick in the mud Americans 1 kilowatt = 1.34102209 horsepower So I have a top of the line belt grinder a Bader and they came with 1.5 to 2 hp motors on them so you motor size looks great. (I use it for blade making primarily) I can't speak of the VFD as I don't use one, they came out with ...

Thomas Powers

5/8" allows you to dish really really deep without overly thinning it!

Thomas Powers

One problem is that people do not specify the gauge system when they say "16 gauge". It's like they think that there is *only* *one* *gauge system*! One of my old metal books has a cross correlation from about 5 different systems *and* mentions the allowed tolerances for each one. Folks use decimal ...

Thomas Powers

Remember that hardness can also correlate with the possibility of edges cracking off. Can't say anything about new anvils all of the dozen or so I have owned have been old ones Now for the type of work you want to do a double horned anvil with one round and on square would be a help. (For a london p...

Thomas Powers

Deleted as too cliched

Thomas Powers

Foe Paw!

Thomas Powers

Because *we* control the vertical and *we* control the horizontal and *you* cannot help yourself!

Orbital Mind Control Lasers set to *plaid*! Vogon Torpedos set to "sestina"!

Mwa-hahahahahahahahaha

Thomas Powers

Where are you getting your mare's milk?

(My daughter just started vet school so I may hit her up for some after she's well on her way...)

Thomas Powers

Note that kickplates have been debased over the years often being brass plated other metals, so bring a magnet with you to the scrapyard or read the fine print carefully if you are buying new. (a small file can help you check at the scrapyard too.) Never pay brass scrap rates for something that's 98...

Thomas Powers

I had my hopes since Radomir Pleiner had done such great work in "The Celtic Sword" with quite a bit of information from finds out that way.

He's currently in Praha/Prague.

Oh well good pictures are handy too! Do they contain the information on length, width, weight, etc?

Thomas Powers

Don't know as I would want to trust anything written by someone who doesn't know how the caps key works.

Thomas Powers

How much of the metallurgy does it cover?

Thomas Powers

Cp 1&2 Ti are great to forge, it's a bit hard on abrasives but you can then heat colour them for wild colours! My general camping eating set is hand forged Ti as I can toss it in the dishwasher when I get back and set it to run the on the "Overkill" cycle. I'd gladly trade wrought iron for Ti in gra...

Thomas Powers

Sean, I used to live near a medium sized "ornamental Iron" business that would let me scrounge their scrap bin on a regular basis---they had to pay to have it dumped and I always *asked* first, wore PPE, left it cleaner and better arranged than when I came. I usually took home a couple hundred *POUN...

Thomas Powers

I agree; we have a machine made basis of identicallity vs a hand made basis.

In blacksmithing many items assembled into a unit you find that although each one is slightly different from 20' away they will look identical; but still a "richer" look to them than using machine made truly identical parts.

Thomas Powers

ISTR that David Starley presented on medieval arrow heads at the 37th Congress of Medieval Studies he said he had not found any examples of high carbon heat treated ones.

Have you seen the reproductions that Hector Cole does?
http://www.evado.co.uk/Hector%20Cole/Ar ... index.html

Thomas Powers

Otto; perhaps you should send a sample of that white powder you spoon into your coffee out for analysis....everyone knows that the *vikings* brought spam to the new world!

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