The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

Bring a magnet, some old ones were brass over steel

Thomas Powers

one quibble "crucible steel also known as wootz" is backwards. All wootz is crucible steel however not all crucible steel is wootz! (and wootz is the harder item to make)

Thomas Powers

If you mean curled like a pringles chip, a light thwap with a wooden mallet would flatten them, silver pennies were suprisingly thin.

It's just a chisel is cheaper, more portable and easier to position just right.

Thomas Powers

In one of my miscellaneous books from museums I have an article on very ornate crossbow quarrels that were done as presentation pieces to the church. I was most interested in the engraved heads and do not recall the shafts and fletching. Unfortunately I won't be near my research library for several ...

Thomas Powers

Boudicca

Thomas Powers

When measuring by weight, you choose the half that makes the scales balance.

Thomas Powers

You think that rulemongering is big in the SCA, go visit some Amish *factories*! It's amazing what you can do with pneumatics run from a compressor driven by an engine.

Thomas Powers

Just be glad he didn't know Klingon

Thomas Powers

YES! NO! MAYBE! depending.

Thomas Powers

The lower the quality of wrought iron generally the higher temp you work it at so bloom is worked at welding heat to form it into a muck bar. Real tricky if you have inadvertently gotten a hot short alloy (presence of sulfur will do it) and you end up with something you can't properly work hot or co...

Thomas Powers

My not so distant ancestors fought tooth and nail to get off small subsistance hill farms; typical age of death for the men was in their 50's often with severe medical issues that farming with animals often happens. (Of course there was a great-great uncle who died of blood poisoning after chopping ...

Thomas Powers

A companion of the order of Dr Who

Thomas Powers

Well as I tell people "If I was alive in the medieval period---I'd be dead!"

And of course medieval smiths didn't make their own iron save for some rare isolated Norse farms where they did run a bloomery and work the products for their own use---the exception that proves the rule!)

Thomas Powers

one quibble you work a bloom at welding heat not red heat!

Thomas Powers

Any particular aspects you are interested in? No need to mention "The Knight and the Blast Furnace" if you don't have a burning interest in the metallurgy of armour, for example.

Thomas Powers

Yes throwing a completed piece in the fire would be about as visible as torching a race car and not expecting the driver to notice. As to cut straps: I would assume your squire would be tasked to go over the straps before use---like a pilot's preflight walk around and for much the same reasons. I st...

Thomas Powers

Coal forge, charcoal forge, propane forge, torch, induction forge,....you use what you have or can construct or buy.

Thomas Powers

Heat is your friend doing a lot of things! If you want to be hammering for years to come; anytime you start to think "perhaps I should use a heavy hammer" replace that with "perhaps I should work this hot"!

Thomas Powers

European walnut is a blondish wood rather like the sapwood of American black walnut. American white oak is a whole lot closer to european varieties than red oak is! I tend to cringe when I see black walnut and red oak in otherwise *nicely* *done* medieval furniture.

Don't forget Beech!

Thomas Powers

Many of the better blacksmithing conferences have a hammer seller or two onsite. You might check with the local ABANA affiliate for when their next conference is and if they have a regular hammer vendor there I really like to heft a hammer before shelling out money for it. But I'm lucky, one Quad-St...

Thomas Powers

An Expendable apprentice tool for sure!

I like heating a steel ball up till glowing and letting it sit where I want the dish---cleaning up with a gouge of course it is a bit smokey....

Thomas Powers

Any thought of Ireland with the 1000 anniversary of the Death of Brian Boru? (Viking related...)

Thomas Powers

Some folks just like living on the rolled edge!

Thomas Powers

first things first: WHAT COUNTRY ARE YOU IN?

Thomas Powers

HF cast iron ones are know to the Pro's as ASOs Anvil Shaped Objects and not anvils.
The soft cast iron will dent *under* hot steel being worked.

Thomas Powers

If it's close to the hilt it's probably the maker's mark. IIRC Swords and Daggers, Eduard Wagner, has a page of such marks and there are probably hundreds more

Thomas Powers

And please don't use gage without qualifying *which* gauge system you are talking about. Far better to use decimal inches!

Thomas Powers

What kind of finish do you want to put on it?

Thomas Powers

English anvils were weight stamped in the CWT system: 1st digit x 112; 2nd digit x 28 (quarter hundredweight or 2 stone, should only be 0,1,2,3 though some mistakes have been documented); last digit(s) are residual pounds and should be between 0 and 27. Since anvils are often priced on a per pound b...

Thomas Powers

The knight and the blast furnace is over 900 pages, large format and can be used for impromptu body armor-----against modern handguns! Hard to find---I don't lend my copy Have you read "The Burnished Blade" Schoonover, Lawrence fiction; but still one of the best descriptions of smithing in medieval/...

Thomas Powers

Remember that a "single" person making armour is about as accurate as having just the surgeon and no one else in the cardiac operating room, (also holds true for bladesmithing!) As for famous armourers look into Helmschmied, the Negroli's, the role of the german armourers at greenwich. Actually ther...

Thomas Powers

*shiney*!

Thomas Powers

why does the soundtrack of "Chariots of fire" run through my head...?

Thomas Powers

Is the government still handing out wild horses to pull it for you?

Thomas Powers

How do you plan to mount them? Hardened plates tend to be hard to drill or punch.
The HAZ from laser is extremely narrow and should not be a problem.

Re: need brass

Re: X-post: Hammer-in Nov. 2-3 in Wolcott CT

Re: Cutting Coins

Re: Cresting Arrows

Re: Badass Women Warrior Names Needed.

Re: Cutting Coins

Re: Living it. Would you for real?

Re: Medieval(ish) Backgammon

Re: Newbie Hot Rolling Question

Re: Need help with historical fiction idea development

Re: Living it. Would you for real?

Re: interesting take on armor

Re: Living it. Would you for real?

Re: Need help with historical fiction idea development

Re: An Introduction and Question

Re: Need help with historical fiction idea development

Re: Newbie Hot Rolling Question

Re: Hammer selling sources?

Re: Wood species for clear finished furniture

Re: Hammer selling sources?

Re: Dish cutting find

Re: Re-Enactments in Norway 2014?

Re: Need help with historical fiction idea development

Re: in need of some tools

Re: Anvils

Re: Heraldry Question: Fox Rampant Wearing Crown?

Re: steel conversion/equivalents?

Re: Finishing Stainless Armor

Re: Anvils

Re: Need help with historical fiction idea development

Re: Need help with historical fiction idea development

Re: Hrafnagrima

Re: Chariot style hand cart.

Re: Chariot style hand cart.

Re: Recommended thickness and material for lamellar plates