The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

When I was working on my "forged" helmet I didn't use any "modern" measuring devices. I laid out the rivits with a pair of dividers. I wanted something that looked like it was made by a skilled period craftsman and not something made in a modern factory. Unfortunately our "eyes" are so calibrated to...

Thomas Powers

I hope all is well, I spent two Pennsics calling home every night to hear if I had to drop everything and head for Kansas City to attend a funeral. (my wife's parents died on sucessive years---not a surprise but a matter of when it would happen; one was just after I returned and the other I had to l...

Thomas Powers

Doesn't do you much good to play Volgon poetry to them if they are already dead!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

one slight quibble: tow is not chopped up linen; but rather the short flax fibers that are removed in processing flax into linen. Tow could be spun into a weaker scratcher material for cheap items like tow sacks, or used for stuffing, fire starting or other "industrial" uses. Chopping up linen to ma...

Thomas Powers

I would say that by at least the end of the migration era the swords were better than in roman times and would note that the metallurgy of the "barbarian" tribes the romans fought was often quite good. The fall off seen was often in the ammount of metal available as small bloomeries could not produc...

Thomas Powers

We now that there were some women working in the shops due to the guild rules that a woman could only work in the shop of her father or husband. How common this was I don't know but I don't recall any mention of women being able to have guild status (journeyman, etc) *except* that in some cases wido...

Thomas Powers

"Killing with the point lacks artistry---but don't let that stop you if given an opening"

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Ralph at the time these were made they were not using steel just plain wrought iron.

Alan Williams has some nice charts on the carbon content of armour vs time if you can dig them out.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

A knifemaker's trick is that "press-apply" lettering will act as a resist and come in a large number of fonts---they will even do custom sets for you if you are willing to pay! besure the surface is clean and warm and burnish the letters down and watch out with strong acids in case they start to sli...

Thomas Powers

Glen K---no they know that for the particular point in time they are at nobody had recently mustered in, they were in the middle of a long hard march. Must be nice to have through records and extant examples of most things, no? The priest and Bishop's clothes were not "holy" unless they stole them o...

Thomas Powers

The browband is not very long; or perhaps I should say that length is easy in an early forge but width is a pain.

You can forge weld pieces together to get length---but the browband isn't any longer than a cooking spit flattened into strapping.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

I've seen some Morions (sp?) done that way. I believe I've seen evidence of welding in some much earlier helms as well; but sometimes it's a false line based on a weld during the making of the WI plate they started with. When I did my first spangen I forgewelded the brow band and where the verticals...

Thomas Powers

That is a consideration---if people are strutting their stuff vs being on a long campaign. In one group I am a member of our "date" is just 1000 years earlier than today and so aging and new stuff play a role---several years ago we celebrated the coronation of Brian Boru as high king and a lot of ne...

Thomas Powers

Well in 1598 a fellow named Onate wandered through these parts; I may have to Up-era to his time if I get to help out at the museum they are setting up---what's a thousand years more or less... 1920's bootleggers; shoot back in the 1960's my Grandfather's neighbor used to run booze into dry counties...

Thomas Powers

It seems to me that some of your issues are really features---wouldn't you want your tent to look like it had been used before or is all of your kit supposed to look like it's brand new? I've really noticed when looking at some of the pics posted here that sometimes the clothes look spot on but *eve...

Thomas Powers

I would guess that there was quite a brisk market in "used" armour from battlefields. The problem being that fit would be an issue. If you were rich enough to comission an armour yourself you probably had plenty of underlings to wear your hand-me-downs; but among the "munition armour class" I'd gues...

Thomas Powers

Flies? He is a shepard after all...

Thomas

Thomas Powers

it would depend on the helm; some period helms were forgewelded---a lot easier using wrought iron instead of mild steel.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Hmm I'm rather a monomaniac on the use of wrought iron---so I have tio have all my kitchen kit made from the correct stuff, and my personal kit, and any tools and it's *all* for using! Being isolated in my new location will give me more time to get all the proper stuff forged and hopefully learn som...

Thomas Powers

I'm assuming you want them made from poorly refined iron ore like the traditionally made ones are. this makes a difference since there is a relative few makers who can do their own smelting---even in japan! May I commend the sword forum to your attention. You will get a much deeper discusion on this...

Thomas Powers

Folks seem to have trouble understanding that this is going to be the stock of a cross bow and not the prod---they have been giving you information on how to make it into a bow and not the stock. First wax the ends ASAP I mean NOW. I save old candle ends, drippings, etc and have a wax pot for wood, ...

Thomas Powers

Are you sure it's steel and not a cast iron? Cast iron is *MUCH* cheaper to pour, but you tend to beef things up since it is inherently a brittle material, (and wasn't know in the west till late renaissance---I'm still trying to track down when cast iron pots started becoming common to determine whi...

Thomas Powers

start by annealing the blade---it's trashed anyway so make it easy on yourself! If you can't do an anneal draw the temper back as far as you can---you can polish off the colours pretty easily. Use a drill press and fix the blade so it's supported and normal to the drill bit. Center punch with care (...

Thomas Powers

If you have a basement it's fairly easy to buld a press using an automobile screw or hydraulic jack. Two 4x4's spaced and parallel ith 2x4's nailed on the ends to keep them from spreading. Place plywood on and place a 4x4 along the middle and the jack or jacks along it with a 4x4 chunk going to a fl...

Thomas Powers

Atli, I'd be happy to help out folks and I generally bring a forge to events; but since I don't know how a piece was built---alloy heat treat, etc. I'd want the owner to be part of the team re-drifting it. In most designs this can be done without messing with the temper of the edge and will actually...

Thomas Powers

Actually I bought a HF ASO myself---we drilled it out and plumbed it for propane and use it as a stove at smithing conferences; sigh I left it with my last smithing club since I enscribed it with their name... It was dead soft to drill and had so much graphite in it you probably could have used it f...

Thomas Powers

I miss stumbling out of bed and going over to the raised firepit and starting the breakfast fire, sitting around it drying out, waking up, drinking my hot tea and considering how to spend my day.

Fire is good, fire is our friend!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

If you are making your own handles you need to consider things like how it was dried and grain direction. Air dried (for a sufficiently long time) makes for a less brittle handle. Grain should *NOT* run out but go from one end of the handle to the other---VERY important if you are looking for streng...

Thomas Powers

Gray iron = cast iron and so it's not an anvil but merely an "anvil shaped object". What I would expect from an anvil is that it would be made from steel; or steel faced wrought iron. There is a type of anvil with a steel face and a cast iron body of which Fisher is the best brand, Vulcan is another...

Thomas Powers

Damit I missed the battle *AGAIN*!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Sigh, my copy of "Treasures form the Tower of London" IIRC is still packed from the move. I marked *every* box as "study" "Reference" and only a couple of them made it to the "study" the rest are burried in the piles of general book boxes scattered around the house (about 300 boxes of books left to ...

Thomas Powers

With a beard you go with a positive flow system---pretty easy and cheap to build your own and they even keep you cool while using them. Just remember to screen the intake so you don't get any annoyed bees or wasps... Dust of *any* type is bad for the lungs even if it's not coal dust---black lung, Si...

Thomas Powers

No more beans for *that* fighter!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Where the hell is your dust mask! You're too young to mess yourself up and have to give up the fun stuff cause you've trashed yourself.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

The WHOOSH as the hot gasses ignite over the bloomery and you know the iron smelting is well and truly on it's way! Pigging out on crabs friends bring from the eastern seaboard. Waking up to the belly dancing classes being held just uphill of your tent. The Fireworks display they had last year!!! Pa...