The Armour Archive

Thomas Powers

I'm going to get that in Spanish and have my wife calligraph it for the shop wall!

Thomas Powers

Don't forget Cap'n!

Thomas Powers

I find I have more fun at events when I have a comfortable camp I am limited to a small 4 cylinder imported pickup *and* I have to bring the forge, forge tarp, bellows, anvil, charcoal, scrap metal, etc. So what I have found is to make multiple use items. A good wooden box can be a seat, a table, fo...

Thomas Powers

One of the reasons that beeswax was relatively expensive and so was not used for a bunch of tasks we can use cheap paraffin wax on And why I have to tell aspiring writers "No the bars for a medieval jail cell would not have been coated with beeswax to keep them from rusting"

Thomas Powers

4140 is pretty much the workhorse of steels for things that take a lot of hammering on

You can mess with the heat treat parameters to tweak it as you like it.

Thomas Powers

Preheat a petro bond mold??? What are y'all smoking!

Vent!, make sure the sprue is large enough to get hot metal through it *fast*. Far better to file the sprue mark down than to have a chilled sprue casting.

Thomas Powers

Saplings are generally far stronger than kiln dried cut lumber

Thomas Powers

Fingers! I have a quite period set of them---nicely worn and scared, one crushed; but I'm not willing to sell any of them

Thomas Powers

Kingmakers like blademakers use a lot of different sized wheels 1/2" dia - 12" diameters for the blademakers I have known personally. I went with the Bader because that was what the swordmaker I trained under used and we did a lot of slack belt work on guards---including the stupidly dangerous techn...

Thomas Powers

Folks please remember that most smiths NEVER did any arms and armour work; like taking your Lamborghini to a local shade tree mechanic---they didn't have the skills to do a job your life depended on! (I was quite pleased when the tour guide at Marksburg pointed out that even though they had a smithy...

Thomas Powers

What about some of the Ti alloys?

Thomas Powers

Will you be at Battlemoor, Outlands Labourday? It's just a rough chest, the original mastermyre chest was probably NOT originally a tool chest but one "repurposed" or even "looted"? for the task.

Thomas Powers

I had my shirt hot blued by a gunsmith; it did start wearing off after about 20 years

Thomas Powers

I don't read russian but I can still recognize Мастермире as "mastermyre" and there is a lovely book in english on that chest and it's contents; no need to go to a russian site... I use a variation of it as my blacksmithing tools toolchest. A bit rougher in construction as as a woodworker I'm a grea...

Thomas Powers

Cheese glue ala Theophilus? (IIRC)

As for tooling "Knives and Scabbards" seems to show an awful lot of tooled leather scabbards.

Note most garment leathers are not veg tanned and so not good for tooling.

Thomas Powers

What about "The Knight and the Blast Furnace" Alan Williams on the metallurgy of armour?
(as you didn't specify what aspects of armour you were interested in)

As for languages I well remember a rude waiter in Paris (a requirement I understand) who claimed to know no English so we argued in Spanish...

Thomas Powers

And don't forget the Decameron!

Thomas Powers

Over at anvilfire they was once a thread on stake tapers; IIRC they ended up with around a dozen or more tapers reported in by folks taken from old stakes they had. I picked up an old earth mover blade once just because it had heavy duty sq holes along it that would fit stakes I had. I Plan to mount...

Thomas Powers

The use of steel was very spotty in earlier times (Sources for the History of the Science of Steel" is a great read on how they finally figured out what makes iron into steel---in 1786 a frenchman finally struck his forehead and said *it's *CARBON*!) Note that LOCATION makes a big difference. Merv h...

Thomas Powers

Have you seen the Advocate (The Hour of the Pig)?

Thomas Powers

Like "coal" meant charcoal in medieval times and the rock coal was called earth coal, mineral coal or even sea coal (as it washed up on some coasts)

The names have remained the same though the meanings have changed to afflict the innocent.

Thomas Powers

If you visit over at iforgeiron.com you can dig up my standard post on how to find anvils: Basically it is to talk to EVERYONE you meet! If you want to pay low prices you DON'T want to buy anvils that folks are advertising trying to sell for *money* you want the thousands of anviols lurking in garag...

Thomas Powers

I worked with a professional swordmaker (as in blades $2K and up!) He used an UNDER POWERED buffer set up with a belt drive that would slip if there was a problem. He said the extra time it took was a great investment in his health. If anything went cattywampus his natural tendency was to lock onto ...

Thomas Powers

Oh yes fulling wool fabric even more before making a cloak is a GREAT thing if it' for COLD weather!

I've done it with some upholstery wool; it removed a nasty size, made the hand much much better, and made it wind proof to boot.

Thomas Powers

The anvil fairy just dropped off a 165# Hay Budden at my shop this weekend---my harem grows it's about 1 US ton of anvils so far! (now to go *metric*!) It's in decent using shape and I have US$115 in it. (and a long wait as a friend picked it up on his way home to CA after graduating and it took a w...

Thomas Powers

Unwashed wool can be quite nasty to spin! (and it can be washed in the lock for combing!)

All my wife's shetland wool came as fleeces...

Thomas Powers

For "fine" maille look at the parade example in the Negroli book---ornamented by using various coloured links too. Definitely not suitable for combat though!

Thomas Powers

The Celtic Sword by Radomir Pleiner great in depth work on the metallography of ferrous swords of the Celts so if carbon contents, heat treat evidence, use of phosphorus as a hardening agent, piling methods make you sit up and drool it's the book for you!

Thomas Powers

I've seen a pump crossbow built by the founder of the American crossbow association. Only about 25# "pull" and used only two fletchings as it was a top load slot magazine holding several bolts at a time.

I'd like to see more nice crannequins in the SCA myself.

Thomas Powers

one of my favorite anvils is a 25# tapered cube with a stake forged in one end. It was based on one I saw at the Roman Museum in Bath England and forged and heat treated for my by Steve Parker a true artist with heavy powerhammers. I've pretty much been able to document it to every century from Roma...

Thomas Powers

Coal is a bit over 50 cents a pound around here with a two hour drive each way to get it. In west VA Coal would be the top choice in fuel, ask at the local ABANA meetings about where to get sewell seam coal! Semi drums are generally way too deep for a forge, does yours have slits cut into the sides ...

Thomas Powers

I keep my eyes open for these at the fleamarket and scrap yard; got over a dozen over the last couple of years and never paid over US$3 a piece.

After putting some of the best ones back I have been making the others into "wind bells" and selling them at blacksmithing events.

Thomas Powers

NOT MAGNETS! you can magnetize real swords that way and then they pick up "fuzz" that has to be carefully cleaned off to prevent scratching.

Peace cords are strongly suggested.

Thomas Powers

Try Ferric Chloride; etches most metals but is a lot kinder on you if there is an oops moment.

Thomas Powers

Pretty much all shapes are useful *sometime*. No matter how large or small a cone I have I always end up needing one just a bit larger/smaller!

My favorite is a nose cone from a ballistic missile (penetrator!) Fellow showed up at Quad-State one year with a truck load of ones that failed QC...

Re: Traveling light

Re: Title Stacking

Re: Traveling light

Re: When did Apiculture (beekeeping) Start?

Re: Making armour tools with 4140 steel

Re: Casting bronze into clay

Re: New tent...

Re: 12th Century eating kits

Re: Bader Vs Burr king belt sanders

Re: High quality maile

Re: Hardened and Hardenable Metals Suitable for Making Armou

Re: Viking Furniture

Re: Chainmaile Maintenance?

Re: Viking Furniture

Re: Documentation for glues used in scabbards?

Re: Which books about mediaeval arms and armour do you advis

Re: Fun Historical Stories

Re: New forged stakes

Re: Some Quick Questions!

Re: Fun Historical Stories

Re: Vikings...and corn?

Re: anvil hunting

Re: Polishing machine, buying a new one

Re: Need Some Pointers on Wool!!! HELP!!!

Re: anvil hunting

Re: Pretreating wool?

Re: Extra fine/dense mail

Re: Lets talk iron age Celts.

Re: Help with 16th century crossbows

Re: anvil hunting

Re: Some Forging Questions

Re: Gas cylinder cap planishing stake

Re: Hanging swords on the wall in a 13 yr olds room?

Re: Etching Question

Re: is this cone of use?