The Armour Archive

Gaston de Clermont

Signo,
Is photography allowed?

Gaston de Clermont

Jeff, as usual, you're doing beautiful work. There are a couple ways to do it, but how'd you get the tulip shape around the wrist so smooth? I have a little scar on my forearm from this weird articualtion from trying to copy the same arm harness. I'm not sure if this design can cover an adult's arm ...

Gaston de Clermont

I managed to convince my wife to take a side trip on our vacation to visit Churburg ( m ) so I could see their armour collection. Does anyone have any advice on how to get to check out some of their pieces in more detail? I was thinking of writing a letter in advance, and bringing some white gloves ...

Gaston de Clermont

Martel, As I'm sure Sir Lyonel has told you, you're both welcome in my shop any time. We're getting together this Thursday night, mostly to work on spiffing things up for the event this Saturday. We'll be pounding again on the 15th, and then taking a bit of a break until the 13th of July. The gauntl...

Gaston de Clermont

The coolest, most comfortable padding I've ever used or seen is a tow stuffed linen liner. "Tow" are little broken flax fibers. You can use regular flax to stuff with, or wool (I've seen references to moss being used to, but I've never seen someone try it). Flax works really well because the flax fi...

Gaston de Clermont

Now I almost hope there's a nose bleed at the armour in, but I'm sure hoping it's not my nose!

Gaston de Clermont

Alexis- I'd love to copy your gauntlet pattern. I was really impressed with the work you were doing on it last year. Is there something you'd like in return? Maybe a case of beer? The Lysts at Castleton event looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. If anyone needs to spiff up their gear, make shie...

Gaston de Clermont

My helm is at least 15lbs, and I'm occasionally quite glad to have it. I had a bout when I stepped in, and a notoriously hard hitting duke stepped in at the same time and I caught his quillions square with my snout. The helm weight probably prevented a knock out and a concussion. That sort of thing ...

Gaston de Clermont

I guess I should have addressed the question to Matt- anyway, did you use a jewlers saw? Chissels?

Gaston de Clermont

My own experience lines up with Hew and Duncan's. You can get buckets full of a reasonable metal for your task from any small service station that does tires. Places like WalMart probably won't give them to you due to potential law suits, but the little joints tend not to be so paranoid. I got about...

Gaston de Clermont

Seriously, thanks.

Gaston de Clermont

Kerry,
How'd you do all those inside cuts so cleanly?

Gaston de Clermont

I like my DeWalt right angle grinder. A lot of the motor is in your hand, rather than forward of the trigger. I used to have a Makita that was good too. It lasted for years until the switch and bearings self destructed. Look for something that balances well and feels comfortable holding in one hand....

Gaston de Clermont

I've got a couple pictures of Grifith. One out of armour, and one with Kelson (Grif's the one in green and gold).

Gaston de Clermont

Nice clean and simple lines. How do you get everything so smooth and flowing?

Gaston de Clermont

The relief on the skull was so deep I thought it was a casting that was rivetted on. Did you use any kind of a backing, like lead or pitch? What guage was your steel? You're doing some neat stuff!
Gaston

Gaston de Clermont

Nice work!

Gaston de Clermont

You've made reasonable attempts, and on many rivets those approaches work fine. For a stubborn rivet you might consider using an angle grinder, preferably on a hidden area, or on the leather you're going to remove. Since the curves aren't too extreme on most lorica a bench grinder could work, and a ...

Gaston de Clermont

Kat- sorry I missed your question earlier. No, I don't smoke unless I'm literally on fire. Fortunately for me that doesn't happen very often. I'll be having an open armour shop this Thursday night (May 11th) in south west Austin. It would be nice to get to know more folks before the big armour in, a...

Gaston de Clermont

Very cool video. Thanks for sharing! I'm generally pretty good with power tools, but I'd totally maim myself with something like that.

Gaston de Clermont

Very, very nice!

Gaston de Clermont

It's in Bryan, Texas, which is a bit of a drive from Austin. I have a van, and I'm planning on driving out from Austin if anyone would like to carpool.

Gaston de Clermont

Did you make the skull? If so, how?

Gaston de Clermont

I'm with Thomas on this (honestly I've never seen him give bad advice). I made tongs as my first project and they're very useful. I guess I got lucky since my first tongs are still pretty useful. Maybe they're not a glorious work of art, but they pick stuff up well. Definitely read what you can abou...

Gaston de Clermont

My forge can easily hit the temperatures required to heat treat the aluminum. I've heard that hot aluminum gives off some poisonous gasses though. Does anyone know about the safety precautions required for such an endeavor? Thanks for all your pointers, guys. Aluminum is stranger stuff than I'd toug...

Gaston de Clermont

I recently bought some aluminum which the supplier indicated was 6061-T6 and 0.063 thickness. The thickness was certainly right, but the aluminum deforms far more easily than T6 I've worked with before. Since my metal doesn't have any markings on it, how do you tell what grade of aluminum you have? ...

Gaston de Clermont

That's a seriously cool set of photos. I'm thinking of making a poster out of that for my shop. Thanks!

Gaston de Clermont

If folks need a ride from the Austin airport let me know. It'll will be kind of on my way there anyway.

Gaston de Clermont

My experience is the same is Bruce's. You get hit there rarely, and it doesn't hurt much when you do. That said, I have played at least with an enclosed steel vambrace. I was surprised at how much bigger my forearm gets when it's pumped full of blood. Work out a bit, maybe do some dishing before tak...

Gaston de Clermont

I'm busy with the musical symposium the first weekend in June.

Gaston de Clermont

I'm interested. I learned a lot last year, and managed to build a pretty decent forge. In general earlier is better purely because it was so darn hot last year.

Gaston de Clermont

Nice work guys! Are you welding these? Forge welding? I've been puttering around with the lance rest on the Churburg #13, which appears to fold up rather than detach. Getting the bracket that holds the prong to look and function like the original is a bigger challenge than I expected. So your result...

Gaston de Clermont

There may be some truth to the stresses in the metal contributing to my warping issues, but wouldn't a lot of that stress be relieved just by heating to above the critical temperature?

Gaston de Clermont

If you polish the hammer you planish with to a mirror finish (which sounds like it may be tough with the tools you have on hand) you might not have to do much sanding at all. So you sand and polish just the hammer face, and spread its mirror smooth goodness over your spaulders one little whack at a ...

Gaston de Clermont

I recently did a breast plate that I heated in the forge I built. Warping was a serious problem. I might recommend putting some straight rod through your rivet holes- maybe use threaded rod and put nuts on the inside and out. It's easiest to get the piece well above the critical temperature to give ...

Visiting Churburg

Aluminum grades and conditions