The Armour Archive

Mad Matt

Dammit I was typing a big how to when it all dissapeared. Here goes again. Listen to Robert he's an armouring god. But don't be afraid to experiment some things work better for some people then others. Now I use copper belt head rivits. The factory (flat) head of the rivit goes on the inside against...

Mad Matt

Gotem and sent you an e-mail about them. Lemme know if you still want me to post the pics and if you want me to post what I e-mailed ya here.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Nice job. My first suggestion is to send it all to me. My serious suggestion is patience. If you take your time and don't rush things you'll end up with things being much cleaner. Ie. the little lumpys in the flutes and the repousse won't be there. But still much nicer then most armour I've seen. Al...

Mad Matt

And then there's the fence sitters who swing both ways if ya know what I mean (wink wink).

Course I'm one of the stupid beginners Gundo mentioned.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

IIRC Christian Fletcher's got a real nice one with pictures on his site.

Arador's got a big one too.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Ok buffing questions from me. I've got a 3/4hp 8" bench grinder that I bought from princess auto for $70 CDN. This is gonna be my buffer as soon as I get the guards off of it. I've got 4 different compounds. So far only 2 wheels but I know better then to mix compounds on the wheel. The wheels are 1/...

Mad Matt

Samuel the answer is no. Steve SOFC bought one to try flattening chainmaille rings. Much less pressure required and it didn't even work for that. What you need is a power hammer I don't think you can do it with just pressure. ------------------ The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy. M...

Mad Matt

gmt-05:00 Eastern Time (Canada and USA)

Is what is says on my computer.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Just a note 16gauge works great. You MUST curve them though or they'll bend every time they're hit.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Malakai avoid litigation easily by simply not putting a return address on the package.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Sure I can do that. It'll have to be a link to a page with the pics on it since crosswinds doesn't allow direct linking. Also my e-mail's screwed up. So you've gotta send the e-mail between about 10 am and 6 pm. Since I can only get e-mails when the server in our office is online. If it's sent outsi...

Mad Matt

Ok first thing I have to say is drywall. Drywall is cheap. Fumes from burning or melting styrofoam insulation are extremely deadly. (read they'll kill you fast). Cover it with some drywall. Other then that nice shop. ------------------ The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy. Mad Matt's...

Mad Matt

Actually they've just been putting their shop and things back together after some renovations and reorganization aimed at making things more efficient. They're not super quick with e-mails unless you're upset about something. But you can almost always reach them by phone during regular business hour...

Mad Matt

Did you ask WS if they'd do it? It's likely that they would be willing to.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

I believe White Mountain Armory is taking orders at the moment and He makes fantastic bascinets. Also Westlig Stjerne is taking orders but I believe the wait is about 6 months or so. And I also know that they're going to be making more historically accurate occulars. Ie. the sharp squared edges inst...

Mad Matt

I've never seen em. If you could post or e-mail me a pic I'd both greatly appreciate it and be able to offer construction advice.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Oh and if you put in a center crease (not flute but a crease I'll explain the difference if you want) it's both historically accurate and it makes the sabaton much stronger from the top. I know you're trying to go for something really accurate here so I'll just mention that mike yancy's pattern whil...

Mad Matt

Well I generally use 17 gauge. I think that 18 gauge will work just fine. If you use 14 gauge your sabatons are going to be VERY heavy. In sabatons almost the whole foot has a double layer of steel on it. Perhaps depending on how deep and how long you make the toe plate you may want to use 14 gauge ...

Mad Matt

He's using it for NERO which is a LARP. So SCA rules don't apply. Wow acronym city. Also boffers don't chip paint.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Ok sorry Gaston lemme be a little more specific.

LARP.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

[This message has been edited by Mad Matt (edited 06-14-2001).]

Mad Matt

Just a plain ol curved heater. I've never used aluminum before so I don't know but Dkardal is planning to make some shields at my place this weekend so finding out what kind of aluminum he needs is kinda important. Also what gauge is recommended (boffer combat so I assume 16 is fine.) Also a lot of ...

Mad Matt

Damn it's only a 41 hour drive each way. And I'm in the same country. Funny thing is the directions mapquest gave me told me to drive through the states a lot of the way.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Well I did send you an e-mail but I'll explain buying metal here. Look in the yellow pages under steel. Start making phone calls but start with the ones that mention non-ferrous in an ad. Ask them if they've got it and if they can slice it into more manageable pieces. Measure your car you'll probabl...

Mad Matt

Oh and polished and repoussed would be even cooler but I don't think aluminum is the easiest to do the repousse in. Not to mention repousse is hard to do and takes a bunch of time.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Well I've got an airbrush but no compressor and I might have paint for it somewhere. I don't know how to use it though. I've got an 8" bench grinder that I bought to use as a buffer, I've got buffing compounds, I've got a 4.5" angle grinder but I've got no buffing wheels although I'm hoping I'll be ...

Mad Matt

I can get aluminum and then you'd be able to slap a shield together this weekend when you're over. I'm basically broke right now though so I can't pay for the material. I'll e-mail ya and we should be able to figure something out. ------------------ The budding mid 14th century German Transitional g...

Mad Matt

Aaron: Thanks for the compliment. Now the other way to look at the "my friend wants to start his own armory" is that this statement means his friend wants to put together a shop so he can make some armour and not necessarily sell it. First on the list of things he'll need is something to cut steel w...

Mad Matt

Also bandsaw replace blades MUCH more often.

The whole dismemberment thing.

The noise thing.

The sawdust thing (you'll never ever get it all cleaned up.)

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

Boing!!

Mad Matt

I'm seriously interested. I'm still waiting for my dog to stop growing. At the moment he's still just putting on more weight but his height will basically stay the same. But I am definitly planning to make him a harness or two. BTW I'm not sure if it's true for all breeds but Rotties (which is what ...

Mad Matt

No wonder it took you a long time drill presses are slow. They're supposed to be slow. You want to be somewhere around 3500 rpm with a buffing wheel. Which is what a bench grinder runs at roughly. So take apart a bench grinder and remove the guards and put on buffing wheels. Then be VERY VERY carefu...

Mad Matt

markH if you are the guy who has a hauberk on order from me please e-mail me at graphics@cowdenwoods.on.ca with your full real name so I'll know it's you. I've got a little bad news. If you're someone elce just ignore this. Sorry I've never sucessfully aquired a gambeson so no advice for ya. -------...

Mad Matt

VERY COOL. Here's my suggestions. Post some pattens but only in a rough sketchy form so nobody will try to copy them directly and then try to put something that doesn't fit properly onto their dog's head. Some pointy leather teeth at the sides would look cool especially if they were that yellowish p...

Mad Matt

Just a note to say Dkaardal is honest and he takes very good care of his stuff so they're definitly in good shape. He only uses em for boffer combat so they're not dented.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Mad Matt

The scale is fire scale thus the hot rolled steel thing.

Try muriatic acid.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

What kind of aluminum is best for a shield.