The Armour Archive

Sean Powell

OK I'm not a "Higher" marshal but this is my oppinion. As usual kingdom standards or how the kingdom standars are interpreted may yield some differences and some locations will hit hard enough that not even the present helm design will be sufficient. That said: "Bars used in the face guard shall be ...

Sean Powell

Ask anyone who ventures into my shop. I LOVE my Jigsaw. It's a 5/8 hp Dewalt. When It isn't cutting sheetmetal in places that my HF shear can't reach it is cutting plywood shields or threaded rod or car bumpers or just about anything else. The rough machinists rule of thumb of TPI for a blade is you...

Sean Powell

For your first helm you do a sparow-beak armet with rolled eye slots and a mirror polish?... whats your second project? full suit of maximilian gothic? OK Someone has to say something other than "Nice work" or "Purrrty". You might want to dish the area near the hinge pins so they match the curviture...

Sean Powell

Drill Press. No seriously. If you arn't expecting to do a lot of work with it then a cheep corded drill press is less expensive then most battery powered hand drills. Swing the deck to about 45 degrees counter clockwise and 45 degrees to the left and lower it a lot. Clamp on a 2x4 to the deck so the...

Sean Powell

I really like the kit you built for Derek. Are those roled cone elbows or did you dish/raise them that sharp?

Sean

Sean Powell

I'm going to run counter to the recomendations to keep trying Spangens. Not that spangen helms arn't a good second stage project but there are other options that may keep your enthusiasm up. A 5 panel great helm is also a good step up project. Only the top needs to be dished and depending on how wel...

Sean Powell

schreiber wrote:Huh. Nobody else owns a pair of hoof nippers?

It must be a farm country thing. I have a pair and I love them. I've been known to mistreat mine on the anvil with a hammer on really stuborn rivets. Works like a charm.

Sean

Sean Powell

The problem with polishing Titanium is what to do afterward to prevent the oxide from forming. If you don't have a brine bath and a voltage supply to passivate it, it will be dull grey rather quickly. Now if you DO have a way to passivate it you can do all sorts of funky colors since the oxide layer...

Sean Powell

My old shop teacher used to cast lead hammers in alluminum tunafish cans. There is no seam for the molten lead to seep out of. Aluminum has a higher melting point and you tear the can away to dispose of it. It worked well for him. I've been thinking about casting myself a lead hammer or two. Anybody...

Sean Powell

The "domed" edges of a spangen panel are indeed to compensate for the pull inward during dishing. One way to draft the patern is to draw the triangle that you started with. Next take anything with a 90 degree corner and place it ontop of your triangle so the peeks overlap. Position the 90 degree por...

Sean Powell

Hmmm. I know the toes are a work in progress but the choker is so much more well defined and the toes kind of blurry and indistinct. Also, is it just me or does the skull for the toes look like it has skeletal chipmunk-cheeks? I hope that I'm wrong. So few people do any form of repose work that I th...

Sean Powell

I have heard of japanese "spangen" helms that were made from 16ga across the top. Apparantly the shingle like layering of spangen panes insured that there was never a space that wasn't covered by 2 seperate pannels riveted together. It passed. This is not a 100% guarnetie that all marshals will pass...

Sean Powell

Step one is to determine if it is a hardened alluminum or a coated steel. If a magnet sticks to it, it is steel. You can also check it with a grinding wheel. Alluminum will NOT throw sparks but steel will. Assuming that it is steel you can check for zinc with a little vinnegar. The vinegar should re...

Sean Powell

I'm FAIRLY certain this or a slight variation on it will work. I believe it is similar to the heading process used for the copper nail heads in the first place... Get or make 2 new smooth jaw faces for your vice. Clamp together and drill a hole allong the parting line near one end. Only go part way ...

Sean Powell

Hello, I just wanted to come back to this thread and comment about the time it takes to build a helm. I'm helping a newbie construct one of Zweihammers kits on occasional weekends. While it might be possible to build said kit in only two days to do a nice job of it requires much much more. Obviously...

Sean Powell

Propane (blue container) is good for cooking hotdogs and hamburgers. Map Gas (yellow container) is better for heating metal. I usually use it for bending 3/8" and 1/2" bar-stock. Map Gas plus oxygen (red tank) will get hot enough to braze but not realisticly to weld. It will also run through Oxygen ...

Sean Powell

Typicly 2 pieces, hinged on the left and buckled on the right for right handed fighters. Some people equip gorgets gorgets with 2 buckles so the neck can be roughly resized for lending between multiple newbies (or after the inevitable increase in neck size from wearing a 10lb mass on your head while...

Sean Powell

I've been thinking of buying sheet plastic for a shield, among other things. Mord. I'm personally not a big fan of plastic shields. In a strength to weight ratio they are fine. In a stiffness to weight ratio they suck. Unless the shield has a strong compound curve I suspect that a solid pole arm sh...

Sean Powell

Hey Lothar, The Met suit dosn't have anything between the body plates and the "skirt plates" probably because the "skirt plates" belong to an entirely different suit of armor. There is no know surviving iconography showing a skirt split in large vertical pieces and they function poorly in combat. Ex...

Sean Powell

What would you use the 1/2" long rivets on? Pembridge style great helms where all 4 lower plates overlap on the same hole. Actually in the larger diameters I don't use the 1/4" long ones much, just 3/8" and 1/2". Thinner rivets I go lengths of 1/4" and 1/2". While its nice to have a box of every co...

Sean Powell

We made a few baskets back in college. We took a section of pipe and clamped it to a fire hydrant because it was stable and in the middle of no place. Then we stuck a 20' long piece of 1/4" round stock through a 3/8" hole and walked around the pipe in circles. The first few bends went easy but as mo...

Sean Powell

Well, Its a start. Many people think that the key to pretty armor is embelishment. Most experienced armorers feel that the key is SHAPE. Once you can duplicate a piece's shape you can then get on to embelishment. Spaulders are a good project to start with and you obviously know how to cut metal whic...

Sean Powell

1mm = .040" so .1mm = .004". Considering paper is about .003" thick .004" is WAY too thin for armor. You chould be able to crumple it like aluminum foil. For me to order .004" thick metal I would need to order precision shim stock which is usually hardened and useless for armor construction. Double ...

Sean Powell

As it was beet to death in a previous thread I won't pour into the math again (but it was fun last time). Please read here:

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... ght=elipse

or take your head circumference add 3" and round up which was the general consensus after many posts and much trig.

happy hammering
Sean

Sean Powell

What do the faces of your magnets look like? I seem to recal that the magnet I use for picking up debris from the floor of the shop is actually zinc or tin coated. The rare earth magnets I have at work (use them like thumb-tacks for holding paper up to the cubicle walls) seem to be chromed. If you h...

Sean Powell

Well.... if they work "great" for you then ok I'd call it a success. If you learned something then you can also call it a success. Gauntlets are and auspicious first project and I have seen worse first attempts at many things. If you don't mind me asking, what use do you intend to use these for? Whe...

Sean Powell

No personal experience but I was always under the impresion that the chanel was chiseled in with straight sides witch created slightly raised mounds on either side of the chanel (think ring around a crater. the metal has to go someplace). Then a light planishing pass colapsed the side material down ...

Sean Powell

I have a 12" section of tract that I use often. Unlike my regular anvil it isn't hard mounted to a base so I can slide it in and out from underneath any COP or corizina that I am working on. If you have a flat end then the edge with the gradual curve can be a makeshift creasing stake and I have no r...

Sean Powell

Your description hints at an exothermic reaction between oil and cloth; once the temperature reachs the flash point of the oil/oil vapor mixture in a localized area of the material, it ignites in that small region. Since the liquid oil is already highly flammable, whoosh! I was thinking that denyin...

Sean Powell

Do any of you have suggestions that might make this less painful? freiman I like historic armor but there is nothing wrong with "fantasy" armor in all its makes and models. (Including the proverbial chainmaile bikini if you can find a model it actually looks good on.) Some times we need to get off ...

Sean Powell

We've done a number of cops here over the past 2 years. Some in plastic some steel and some alluminum. The most surprising thing that we've discovered was that the plastic ones don't seem to last very long. I'm not sure why but it could be from the lack of overlap. (overlap looks bad with plates of ...

Sean Powell

I always partcularly have liked the painting of Sampson, since somebody pointedit out to me, with him menacing an army of Phillistines whith the jawbone of an ass, while they cower in a corner. Poor Phillistines. Here they are marching into battle and up comes this huge loonie armed with part of a ...

Sean Powell

"You are obviously in an exigent circumstance, so I won't broach the issue of the appropriateness (or inappropriateness) of wearing plastic sport-armor to a passage of arms.... " Heh, I hear you and I feel very much the same way. I just really want to fight in this pas. My time frame and budget are...

Sean Powell

Hello, I have a newer fighter who wants to build an alluinum kite shield to use in practice so he can preserve his wooden shield for demos and fancy events. I've seen many such shields constructed by slitting the alluminum and overlapping the metal to create a shallow cone with the tip near the cent...

Sean Powell

#1 and #2 remind me of some early attempts by the SCA to build non-freon-can great helms. The straight back keeps hinting to me "This is a straight seam, we can combine these two plates and helm construction will be faster." Blech #3 hints to me "I ride my horse so damn fast the wind is bending the ...

Re: I have a new SCA fighter who really wants fantasy armor

Aluminum Kite Shields (SCA)