The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

Was that registration or pre-registration?

I've often registered at the door in years where my schedule was iffy---have they changed that?

Of course land allocation is based on pre-reg so you need friends who have enough to share, or expect to camp in single camper areas.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Most excellent! I've been turning soapstone spindle whorls based on 200+ ones dug up at Birka---a good person sent me the statistical breakdown on size/shape/weight to me about 10 years ago and I built a special face plate to turn them (All dangers of rock dust and possible asbestos exposure taken i...

Thomas Powers

So how much to run the class right outside Asgeirr's tent early one morning...

Good to hear from you and what ever did happen to the english roller that was in Craig's garage?

Thomas Powers

Thomas Powers

Sorry about the delay, she's been at a SF convention all weekend. I'll try calling her tonight and hope she's recovered a bit...

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Actually a ton would be rather a small ammount of equipment for doing professional pattern welding, my friend's triphammer is 5 tons and my hobby smithing shop move was estimated at 10 tons. Nice blade though! Looks like it was etched with ferric chloride; I'd like to see it with a salt and vinegar ...

Thomas Powers

Actually Dr Williams' descriptions sounds more like piling than folding.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Size of spindle usually depends on what type of fiber you are spinning and to what fineness you are spinning it to. I'll try to get my wife on-line to give a more through answer, she's been a spinning instructor for over 25 years and specializes in the fine even spinning that characterized the craft...

Thomas Powers

How many of us have spent considerable sums on a book because it had *1* item in particular that we were interested in? I bought Sachse's Damazener Stahl just for that picture of a pattern welded rapier from 1600---next year they had it out in english for the same price... OTOH I did a book search f...

Thomas Powers

On the making of stainless steel: Cailean , I asked over at the blacksmiths virtual junkyard, m, where a couple of metallurgists hang out, about the making of Stainless Steel. They seemed perplexed about your "higher temperature" comment too and gave a short explaination of how SS is made. Reading t...

Thomas Powers

Matt PM'd me about the project. It's not "medieval" per se but rather a fantasy set in a medieval type setting---he reference LOTR as an example. So I discussed a bit about how weapons, armour and tactics all interact. How disparate ciultures in isolation can develop independent "styles" and such st...

Thomas Powers

Some people were discussing copying old (out of copyright books) to disk for distribution and were soliciting suggestions. I did a search on one to get the author and title exact and stumbled over this "Book Description: London: 1864. Hard Cover. Poor/No Jacket. Ex Library. pr/nj, at least 4 foldout...

Thomas Powers

If you search out the old Neo-Tribal Blacksmith sites you will find a lot of info on using pitch to set knife handles. IIRC there is also a receipe in "Fortunes in Formulas" or the Scientific American book of Formulas (not a recent book by anymeans) unfortunately my copy is packed for the move. OTOH...

Thomas Powers

Since he has not stated what diameter of ring he will be using I would say the number is indeterminate, or as I am too want to do; give the answer as "5"

minimal number for 4 in 1 and with the links several feet across he can put his head through the center one and...

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Circumferance? or Diameter?

1" circumference is smaller than a penny.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Stainless is not made from ore. Stainless is the alloying of steel with other elements and takes place *after* the smelting part. I still don't get what you are trying to say. Can you refer me to somewhere that says this so I can see what they say about it? (If you want low impurities vacuum melted ...

Thomas Powers

Have you seen the "Knight Lights"; armoured figures with a small light bulb behind translucent shields?

My mother bought a couple for my new house...

Thomas

Thomas Powers

May I commend to your attention "Sources for the History of the Science of Steel" C.S.Smith, and a bit out of the armour period but good info on carburizing iron "Steel before Bessemer, Vol 1 Blister Steel". One other aspect of "natural steels" is that the some ore beds and processes produce an iron...

Thomas Powers

"It is also heated to a higher temperature to drive out impurities." Say *what*?????? it may have a higher melting/forging temp but that is more likely based on the presence of the chromium carbides that have to go into solution. *Nothing* to do with impurities. All steels can be specified for low i...

Thomas Powers

Well if it was wrought iron then it's not the molecular structre rather it's the entrained ferrous silicates often at an interor weld line from the original processing of the material (WI is stacked and welded multiple times in it's processing from the bloom) Working *hot* (much hotter than you work...

Thomas Powers

All iron and steel were commonly re-cycled through forge welding which can result in things like the rapier from 1600 shown in Sachse's "Damascus Steel" book with a blade that looks almost pattern welded but was probably just re-worked steel.

thomas

Thomas Powers

Kaowool is used for propane forges not coal forges. For a forge like that a little clay mixed with ashes and applied fairly dry to the surface would work fine. It's cast iron and so welding will take pre-heat/postheat, special rod and still may crack the thing worse. Check the upright blower for gum...

Thomas Powers

James, the term pattern welding is reserved for when they are intentionally manipulating the pattern that will show up after polishing and etching and does not refer to piling ---stacking up material of same or differing carbon contents and welding it to produce stock for further processing. Now tak...

Thomas Powers

Where and When in medieval times? Just think of what doing a movie set in 1960 America would look like if you used costumes from 1860 India Now apply this to say 1000 year span of "Medieval" and countries ranging from Scandanavia to the Mediterranian! Think how funny it might look if everyone is wea...

Thomas Powers

Actually you *can* case harden 1050, it just doesn't buy you anything in combat not using sharp blades.

I agree that he's probably just talking about hardening through heat treat though.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Remember that the aluminium oxide coating *all Al has is not soft---in fact it's rather abrasive... Why not do the work on a piece of steel that you could harden to a higher degree? As for heat sources; I've forged with a campfire and a bellows made from discarded stuff, just for heat treat you coul...

Thomas Powers

Capt Atli and here I thought you worked for NPS instead of NASA!

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Gaston, you forgot one thing---*PRICE* Why do we not have Ti car bodies--it's better, we *know* how to do it? *PRICE*! Steel was very much more expensive than iron, (at one time and place 5 times more expensive---as a data point). It's also harder to work---especially when every piece has a differen...

Thomas Powers

*everybody* makes knives from the HC RR spikes but they are really a very poor alloy for knifemaking compared to most leaf or coil springs---a sort of neat but stupid thing---like putting horns on a helmet to help your oponnents kill you faster. What did you plan to chisel or center punch? They won'...

Thomas Powers

I remember after I finished reading it the first thing I did was to take down all the "art" books and start scanning pictures for furnature. I like that they give more than one period example most times. The construction is sometimes "modern" but anyone who has the woodwright's books will usually be...

Thomas Powers

Rivet Sets, spoon swage, small kindling hatchets, small adzes

The ones stamperd HC are a bit hiigher in carbon than the regular ones; but still just come in at medium carbon and can usually be improved by using superquench when heat treating.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

Alcyoneus, tell Jarl Asgeir that his old college roomate said to treat you with "grandmotherly" kindness... One aspect of early medieval weapon smithing that many people do not consider is thet the trade in good quality iron and steel dates back to the start of the iron age-- "currancy bars" are fai...

Thomas Powers

The walnut I've seen in european furniture resembles the sapwood of blackwalnut but not the heart wood.

I would not consider black walnut to be a reasonable substitute unless you are using the sapwood.

Thomas

Thomas Powers

For the common blacksmith's pipe propane forge I took a discarded propane grill cart, removed the grill and bolted a sheet of 10 ga steel where the grill sat and fastened the forge to that. Now I can wheel the forge to where I want it, it carries the propane tank too and I built in a tool rack. For ...

Thomas Powers

To import my reply from the other forum, posted after a lucid explanation made by Damian. " Someone who knows something about historical metallurgy!!!! How refreshing! To emphasize a point already made "folding" of steel does not change it's properties except for the tendency to drop the carbon cont...

Thomas Powers

Someone who knows something about historical metallurgy!!!! How refreshing! To emphasize a point already made "folding" of steel does not change it's properties except for the tendency to drop the carbon content and introduce contaminents in the weld zones. Of course they were not using steel they w...