The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

So I don't need to bring any to battlemoor? My small pickup is sighing in relief...

Thomas Powers

Anybody know someone who needs some pearls on their circlet?

Thomas Powers

How much for the herringbone cotton? I have some heavy wool in the same colour and pattern that I use for brats and could use some forging trews...

Thomas Powers

No I don't smoke....

ID; tell me are you on dry land and in the same country 2000 miles in any direction from where you are at?

Thomas Powers

No he sent the exact size of steel I needed to make the tool holders for my large screwpress.

The USPS flat rate boxes are a real joy for smiths as they are quite cheap and are shipped priority mail so one or two day service---it was under US$20 to ship 68 pounds about 2000 miles in 2 days!

Thomas Powers

Unfortunately as I recall the max shipping weight of a USPS flat rate box is 70 pounds. I didn't believe their ads and asked as blacksmiths LOVE them and we can approach the limit easily---I once had a 68# box shipped to me with 2 pieces of steel in it---box totally gone save for the shipping lable ...

Thomas Powers

Note: I can forge the hook closed through a chain link if anyone has a wandering apprentice that needs to be localized...

I think you can see the 100 cast into the ball; though when we weighed one it weighed in at 106 on the scrap yards "buying" scale (unlikely to weight heavy!!!)

Thomas Powers

Actually the 9"'rs are on the smaller end of my larger ones...boy they sure get heavy fast!

Thomas Powers

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I can send a pic to emails---my address is my name---no caps or spaces at zianet.com

Thomas Powers

I am firmly in the camp of "Ought to be able to use medieval materials and medieval tools to produce medieval items of a high level." However I am quite happy if they reserve that extra effort for special projects and use appropriate modern shortcuts for the bulk of their work. After all a master of...

Thomas Powers

Was your fulled wool still with the natural oils? I don't know of ANY place making it that way in recent times! (Or are you comparing apples to oranges and yelling FACT!)

Thomas Powers

Cultivate a relationship with a scrap yard---My local one was just waiting for me to walk in to sell me 6 9" cast iron balls yesterday

Thomas Powers

As is my want when in town I visited the local scrap yard Saturday morning and had the boss welcoming me and saying "I was just thinking of you!" (How well they know my peculiarities....) The had just gotten in 6 9" diameter cast iron balls---I spent my entire August allowance and bought them all. T...

Thomas Powers

It's out of your time period but a helm with Negroli inlaid into the brim in gold would do it...

Thomas Powers

museums usually put the countries primary language on top and any others below. So this was probably an English speaking country. One of which is known to do everything in both english and french.

I would not be surprised if this was from a Canadian museum.

Thomas Powers

Portland OR Craigslist has a lincoln welder a "Tombstone" for $125 this will soundly beat any HF stick welder from Portland to Pennsic and *back* I use one that may be older than me (and I've been in the SCA 35 years this fall and joined as an adult!) You are not going to learn how to use one any yo...

Thomas Powers

dog legging steel strap is rather trivial and can even be done cold. It helps to have a good sized post vise or one of the massive old chipping vises and a large ball peen hammer With a little more work you can cup the strap too so it's ( to hold the wooden insert better and feel better on the hand....

Thomas Powers

beverly shear hands down! it's *quiet*!

Thomas Powers

We were forging not photo-ing. As soon as they were heat treated and wiped clean they were packed for the trip back to CA. I'll see if he will post some pics after he gets handles on them. Yes this is a desert we are supposed to get 9" of precip a year, late we have seldom made that, last year was a...

Thomas Powers

My apprentice visited from CA and so Saturday afternoon we fired up the forge and made 3 dishing hammers and a hardy for his anvil and it was fairly cool and cloudy too! Nice when you are using a 9# sledge on a 500+ pound anvil...

Thomas Powers

El Ditto! and Danke I still find random Lynch hammers at blacksmithing conventions every now and then relics of the days when they were selling them by the pound at those events. Generally MUCH more expensive nowadays; but when they aren't---they're MINE! (One quad state I bought 11 lynch hammer hea...

Thomas Powers

Don't forget Florida either! San Augustine was founded in 1565 and served as the capital of Spanish Florida for 200 years (Wikipedia) well before and after the johnny come lately brits! The town I used to work in was *named* in 1598 by Onate and the Santa Fe palace of the Governors is the oldest con...

Thomas Powers

I pay 20 cents a pound at the scrap yard I gave directions too. Of course it is time wandering the piles (and finding things like stakes, stake plates, mill balls...) and you don't always get what you want. If I need to order new stuff the local windmill repair and construction place will gladly pig...

Thomas Powers

I get mine about 220 miles north; then turn right and take the first left after the cattleguard and drive 6 miles---you can't miss it!

or location location location

Of course I keep my spare metal gauge in my truck along with a file for removing burrs

Thomas Powers

"antique" is 100+ years for basic items so NOT ANTIQUE!

Thomas Powers

There is a necromancer!

Thomas Powers

Hie the to the backyard metal casting forums and learn from folks that specialize in casting!
backyardmetalcasting.com would be a good place to *start*.

Thomas Powers

"Centuries old" in the same way that "This is my great great great great grandfather's axe" We've only replaced the handle 16 times and the head 4! Wooden drop hammer shafts usually don't last to the century mark and the heads do wear out in use. Probably there has been a hammer mill in the same loc...

Thomas Powers

lye from wood ashes is quite corrosive

Thomas Powers

And I'm going to lay in wait for accdntprone on his way back...

As a blacksmith the B1 I got for US$35 is just too light; a B3 is what I dream of but am too cheap to buy...

Thomas Powers

Just wait a year or two; teenage kids will put lines on your brow in no time!

Thomas Powers

RR bolts also make nice dishing hammers for hot work. (and they can be turned into a hammer with out access to a forge!---but it sure is easier and better to use one!)

Thomas Powers

towsacks are made from tow

Thomas Powers

Arbor presses don't have the great pressure spike a screwpress generates as it bottoms out and reverses direction. This helps "squirt" the metal in the die; a straight line force graph doesn't do near as well. I mainly use mine for blacksmithing; nothing like slitting 1" sq solid high carbon steel i...

Thomas Powers

Blacksmiths are actively importing fly presses made new in India these days they tend to be expensive though. A LOT of screwpresses were once used in the NE United States in the clock and jewelry businesses and you can sometimes find them in used machinery dealers stock---often you have to ask thoug...

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