The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

Please read what I said "if they have no money" Please explain how your class action lawyer gets paid "if they have no money" I think you skipped that part.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

And when we start "guessing" at the "why"; we should keep "The Motel of the Mysteries" in our minds...

I bet they were there for ritualistic use! (old joke)

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Cast iron was not a usefull product until the development of the Stuckoffen in the 14th century. No viking cast iron---not out of a scandanavian short stack bloomery! Yes the chinese had been doing it for a while; no viking cast iron. Any decent history of technology should cover this point. May I c...

Thomas Powers

Most hardfacing rods are *too* hard they are made to resist abrasion. you need a work hardening rod made for impact applications. At least this is the info give at the SOFA anvil repair workshops...I got the specific rods they suggest written down in my daybook from 5 years ago---don't know when the...

Thomas Powers

Tom, of course the extant blades lie also; remember the Treasures from the Tower ofLondon exhibit where the catalogue showed a beautifuly shiny suit of armour and stated the finish was due to the centuries of cleaning and polishing it had seen as the original receipt for it said it was delivered "ro...

Thomas Powers

Boy I love that typo, chains for people who fail!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Don't muck with it an anvil is actually a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment with hard face and soft body and you usually end up wishing you had left the durn thing alone if you mess with it. If you need a *flat* face or *sharp* corners, build a hardy tool that has them and just drop it in when...

Thomas Powers

There is two aspects to this: 1---Money, my father always said "never sue anybody who doesn't have any money---they can't pay and you still have to pay your lawyer" 2:---Punnishment, having broken the law you want to make sure they get what is coming to them. In most small crafter businesses they ha...

Thomas Powers

For that matter, looking at the typical medieval axe you could just stack them and tie around the section between the eye and the blade which was often of smaller crossection that either part to the sides.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

I joined the SCA in the fall of 1978, I've lived in 5 kingdoms---so far. Yes I have experience bad kings. I have also seen someone who has previously been king enter a crown tourney soley to prevent another from possibly winning it---as stated in my presence. Personally I think the other person woul...

Thomas Powers

Depends on which angle you are coming from. Metallurgy/Metallography, History of Technology, Museum studies on conservation, Military History, Medieval History, etc

Most of the folks I have met in the field started with one of these and carved their niche from there.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

One of the things I Instituted as president of a Y1K irish LH group was to tie the "date" to modern times---ie subtrack 1000 years from today's date. Every year when we have our twelth night feast in Januaury our authenticity officer reads us the chronicles for the upcoming year so we know what is g...

Thomas Powers

Well they go to someone who smelted iron or traded in smelted iron and *BUY* it. They would then probably do their own carburization of it. You would not expect a sword or armour maker to waste their valuable time smelting iron!---it's the bloody year 800 not some early tribal culture! As to making ...

Thomas Powers

Sepe, you wouldn't cart around axes for sale with the hafts in, why not just use the eye for stringing them together?

Early bornze axes often had a loop used to help tie them onto their handles though.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Jeff, most oil blackening is getting into the range of drawing temps for a blade. Definitely for a knife; but swords are usually drawn to a higher temp than knives---depending on the alloy. Forge heating is *RIGHT* *OUT* as the edges are thin and will over heat before the center comes to temp! If yo...

Thomas Powers

Having hacksawed 1/2" thick Ti i would not guess that sheet would be that much of a pain to deal with. I would trim the stubs with a grinder. My punch was used to punch all the holes for a set of Ti scale before and yes it did break one punch/die set which cost lest that 5% of the cost of the Ti and...

Thomas Powers

Ahh Gaston, you may be mnaking an error there. if you look at medieval wools you will generally find that at least the early medieval worsted wools are closer in thread count and finess to Armani suit wools than to the coarse "burlap" wools folks think are medieval! Medieval does not mean crude! Tho...

Thomas Powers

The Columbus Met Library has several good books on smithing and the Bookloft in German Village usually has one or two smithing books on clearence, (back in the craft section nearly burried by books on woodworking). Go to the MOB meeting, granted the good looking MOBsters moved to NM; but if you have...

Thomas Powers

The MOB has had several members of the opposite sex and has *NEVER* discriminated on the base of sex, age, national origin, etc. Many of us are deeply in awe of lady smiths like Roberta Elliot. When some of us smelt iron from ore at Pennsic our "iron master" is Flaxy. So you may swing a lighter hamm...

Thomas Powers

Go to a MOB meeting, tell them you want to build a coal/charcoal forge and need help. They will help.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Cat for run of the mill steel I would check out an ornamental iron fab shop. There is one on the east side that used to give me a couple of hundred pounds a month *free* mainly 1/2" square stock but some heavier, over 1"!, and sometimes sheet metal as well. Unfortunately they are having a downturn--...

Thomas Powers

I'd use 1/8" thick; 1/4", 3/8" whatever you could find; buying steel??? What's that? BTW Terry of the local MOB group could probably show you a good clay bank on the SE side of Columbus, it's where I used to get my clay for various projects. The real cheap kitty litter is also made from clay. You ne...

Thomas Powers

Cat, make a fence for your firepot that only has a 1" gap on the working side and cut a "mousehole" opposite it then fill fuel to the top of the fence and now your hot spot is above the rim of the brake drum. I used a setup like that to forge weld billets in so I know it will work. My air source was...

Thomas Powers

How many of each for a completed bridle?

If this is commercial then the price will need to reflect the actual time spent. Do your customers want authenticity that badly?

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Ralph you at the ATF for the ALMA project??? I'm in ITS for ALMA and will be meeting the Garching DE ALMA folks in Northern Italy in December.

I started last January. Sorry I missed meeting you. Will you be spending time in Chile? I'll probably be down there toward first Science.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

The Mid Ohio Blacksmiths usually camp and feed as a group at Quad-State, helps to hold down costs and is a lot of fun. If Chris didn't try to talk you into going to Quad-State I'd suggest you see how long it takes him to look at a horse shoe!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Check with the local vo-tech program. I had one do several hundred dollars of lathe work for me and the end cost was US$40 into their end of the semester party fund. I think you could duplicate that by cutting the top off a piece of rr-rail and doing the bends hot and then having it welded up---if y...

Thomas Powers

Cat did they tell you about Quad-State this weekend in Troy OH

www.sofasounds.com see the link to conference.

Excellent demonstrators and a blacksmith fleamarket that is truly unbelievable.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Got a cutting torch? Powerhammer? Cut the top off of RR rail and forge to shape. Good carbon/Mn steel that workhardens and can be heat treated *TOUGH*!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

One other aspect of "the road less travelled" is that the known items tend to get "over-used" and what should be a collection of "unique" people tends to look more like a group of clones... Think how funny if would be if time travel becomes a reality and you find out that the piece everyone is basin...

Thomas Powers

Baron Ma, I like your style! There are several documented encounters of medieval people meeting who had the same heraldry. At least one I recall reading abou,t they fought over who got to wear it... I had a typical SCA device that a herald was pushing me to submit cause they had heard that a group w...

Thomas Powers

My new shop was finished 1 week ago; I've been loading stuff in; still have 2 pallets of anvils and stakes and the triphammer and screw press to go.

Did you ever give me a date for when you needed them?

Thomas

Thomas Powers

"mold lines" on things like hammers can be drop forge marks too and the dies tend to leave a ridge. An easy way to see the difference is to touch them to a bench grinder, cast iron has a dim red spark, steels are brighter, more common and have bursts---the more carbon the more bursts---until you get...

Thomas Powers

If you want to forge weld, grind off any rust pitting as it will hold crud when you weld. For light surface rust when welding you can heat the piece to red and wire brush the surface to clean it and then flux with borax. Otherwise---forges love rusty metal, the scale is just more of the same and rus...

Thomas Powers

While you can find industrial coke around the railbeds in Columbus I do not feel that those are examples of it. Unfortunately I shipped all my pieces when I moved, I used it for atmospheric control in gas forges and keeping a welding fire going a bit longer when using coal.

Thomas