The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

Ahhh "Tow linen" is the short fibers recovered from the hackles when processing flax to make linen from the long fibers. As such it was sort of industrial waste and was used for a lot of cheap not mission critical things. (Tow sacks, low grade rope/twine, cloth that falls apart after a couple of was...

Thomas Powers

Ahhh "Barrow Wits" Since most of the drill presses will come apart you can take an appropriate sized piece of pipe slit it, weld angle iron along either side of the slit on the outside drill it in a couple of places, slide it onto the column and use bolts to draw it tight on the column. (or make two...

Thomas Powers

1018 is 0.18% carbon not 18% Cast iron starts around 2% and even in the iron/iron carbide phase diagram in "Alloying Elements in Steel" (ASM) stops at 5% We often refer to carbon in steel in "points" where 100 points equals 1% so 1018 is 18 points. And if you didn't pay extra to get 1018 you probabl...

Thomas Powers

How do you expect me to ever be able to retire off my burgeoning wrought iron pile if I don't talk it up at every chance?

Well besides the old water tower tank that Ric's been after me to sell him for years as it blisters so well

Thomas Powers

Has nobody mentioned bare feet?

Thomas Powers

So it looks very much like a well seasoned bronze pot used over a wood fire; your point?

Thomas Powers

As to ease of making things being a clue to their date: Casting cannon was well within the greek metalworking technologies and the romans had everything needed to make bluejeans... Yet somehow I don't think they did... Note too that many of Da Vinci's inventions did not work as they required a highe...

Thomas Powers

Nice useful chest!

I assumed you used modern mild steel and not wrought iron?

And remember for the next one that red oak is not very like the european oaks, white oak is a closer match.

Thomas Powers

As real wrought iron tends to fray when working cold and medieval lathes were not known for their rigidity I would expect extraordinary proofs for this method!

Thomas Powers

I fondly remember drooling over a copy of Pleiner's "The Celtic Sword" at Pennsic one year but thinking it was too expensive. Then my sister said "Mom told me to buy you something you'd like for Christmas" (we were in our 40's btw...) Now I am very happy to own it INDEED!

Thomas Powers

Note that Moxon mentions cutting the preliminary groove for the worm drive with a cold chisel and then filing it to finished form. He also mentions casting a nut and brazing a worm into one as other methods using a tap. Ah yes "Small screws are made with the screwplate, yet great screws; such as for...

Thomas Powers

in general they didn't. When they had to the screw thread was filed out by hand. You can also make a screwthread into a low grade tap and so cut the other threads. Past period I'd suggest you look into Mechanic exercises by Moxon, written last half of 1600's and published 1703 and he mentions a scre...

Thomas Powers

Yes an old coal stove could be used as a forge---generally won't be as good as a hole in the ground; but it *could* be used.

Thomas Powers

build a Pole barn carport over it and use that as the bad weather/secure tool storage; then when ready enclose the "carport" and start planning for the next increment!

Thomas Powers

this is the use case for finding US$1 solid carbide drill bits at the fleamarket and keeping them tucked away for such Oops! moments. Definitely use a good drill press as carbide does not abide sidewards forces at all!

Thomas Powers

steam bend them or lay them out on a grass yard on a sunny day to get them to cup?

Thomas Powers

Note that not including the draw weight wanted makes the question meaningless The bow for a 5 pound draw at that length is quite different from that of a 5000 pound draw at that length.

Thomas Powers

solid carbide bits is what I use when I have to drill a hardened knife blade; next step up from that is EDM!

Thomas Powers

Funny but the 6' tall spools designed to handle over a ton of cable do not have thin plywood wheels. The ones I have had had cross nailed plank ends. (Including the one full of 1" dia copper power cable I saw get pushed up several flights of stairs by a large group of Indonesian workers---I still sh...

Thomas Powers

De Re Metallica has a *LOT* of pictures of renaissance wheelbarrows in it and plans for building them; so her's a thought---go *period*

Thomas Powers

Sean; stop blabbing it around or he'll start to take precautions!

I must admit that I refer to Moxon's Mechanics Exercises more often than Richardson's Practical Blacksmithing (And Divers Arts more than PB too!)

Thomas Powers

Been forging over 32 years now with a number of different forges: If you are just getting started and for things like raising bowls a charcoal forge is a good one to begin with. Needs little air and you are not fighting the coal fire as much. Easy to localize a heat by placing a shovel of hot coals ...

Thomas Powers

I've run across a number of text books with titles like "Farm Shop Practice" and dating to the early half of the 20th century when the large number of "Agricultural and Technical" colleges were still doing basic Ag training. (I even knew a lady who had a 2 year Ag degree from *Yale*!) Usually dead c...

Thomas Powers

A quick check of abebooks.com shows 2 copies for under US$100

Why amazon?

Thomas Powers

Driving after a long day at work I misread a sign as "Norse Boarding" and thought "Isn't that lovely, Atli will have a place to stay..."

Upon further perusal I saw that it was a leading h with a short riser...

Thomas Powers

spike????

Thomas Powers

me and my wife were drooling but we live 10 minutes from the mexican border near El Paso and shipping would be a pain. (consider this a bump!)

Thomas Powers

As Jan says you have asked "what's the best vehicle for me to get" without telling us if you need to haul 15 people or 15 tons of gravel, if you only need to drive it 10 miles a day or 200; if it has to be manual or stick. I will say that in general to be efficient the forge has to be sized for the ...

Thomas Powers

This one for about $6 shipped at abebooks.com?

Hangman's Diary: A Calendar of Judicial Hangings
Stockman, Rocky

Thomas Powers

what are *YOUR* interests? Tell us and we might be able to judge which of those would best suit them

I notice you don't mention "The Celtic Sword", "The Metallography of Early Ferrous Edge Tools and Edged Weapons" or "The Knight and the Blast Furnace"

Thomas Powers

My wife has a number of "Survival" books; most of which I thought were either stating the obvious or most likely *wrong* as they were written for a different climate than we have.

Thomas Powers

Surviving a plane crash, surviving a tornado, surviving bascinets

Thomas Powers

How to survive other armour to come later?

Thomas Powers

Boxwood "logs" may tend to be on the small size. For knife handles I've had luck buying over sized pen turning blanks at reasonable prices Working it all by hand was reminiscent of working Aluminium by hand...

Thomas Powers

First Warlord and Butch Cap'n of the Raging Queen

Re: Source for linen / tow batting, etc?

Re: New drill press table

Re: Building a 12th C strong box

Re: Building a 12th C strong box

Re: So what is the correct footwear for a kilt in period?

Re: Earliest Cast Iron Pots?

Re: Ye old bolts

Re: Building a 12th C strong box

Re: Ye old bolts

Re: $715 or FREE?? (Italian Renaissance Armour Book)

Re: Ye old bolts

Re: Ye old bolts

Re: Building or buying a Forge

Re: My shop! My shop! My shop is here! :D

Re: Drill vs hardened high carbon steel

Re: Plank kite shield + Convex?

Re: Ballista bow question.

Re: Drill vs hardened high carbon steel

Re: Has anyone here made a cart?

Re: Has anyone here made a cart?

Re: Farm Blacksmithing

Re: Building or buying a Forge

Re: Farm Blacksmithing

Re: $715 or FREE?? (Italian Renaissance Armour Book)

Re: Two Weeks Until Camp Fenby

Re: Vikings legend

Re: 14' DIA YURT FOR SALE

Re: Building or buying a Forge

Re: Lord Judge, have I executed well?

Re: Books

Re: Free preview of my new book on surviving bascinets

Re: Free preview of my new book on surviving bascinets

Re: Free preview of my new book on surviving bascinets

Re: Boxwood Substitutes?

Re: Title Stacking