The Armour Archive

mattmaus

possibly.... Bigest reason I considered it is that I burned the crap out of my hand the other day after hot dishing a pair of helmet bowls, tossed the hammer in the rack, came back half hour later grabbed the head of the dishing hammer, and dropped it RIGHT quick. Basicly I've decided what I want ou...

mattmaus

From what I recall, to anneal H-13 you start it at about 'critical' and drop the temp by 100 degrees every couple hours. Then burry it in sand when you get it near the 900 degree mark. I'd have to check my references to be sure. But from what I recall it pretty much takes the betterpart of a few day...

mattmaus

Hal, Do you own the smaller harobor freight torch, the plumbers torch? Are the fittings the same as the larger one? I've been wondering, and thinking about picking one up, but don't want to have to feed it off of the stupid little bottles, and would much rather run it off of my forge tanks. I'd like...

mattmaus

Anyone have any experience with this? Recently I've been thinking about what I want out of a dishing hammer, and the reality is I'm probably going to have to make it or have it made. I'm thinking about H-13 because I understand that it is "teh r0x0r$" for hot work tools, and I intend to use it for h...

mattmaus

Yeah....

I'm a little scared of a guy that gets a baseball flung at his tender bits and then exuberantly exclaims "YEAH!"

Somethin ain't right in the head.

mattmaus

Sorry... Why does he need a sheild? To expand that further (with a fully SCA perspective, so if this is for something else, ignore or adjust the questions as appropriate): Why don't you want to fight with the weapon styles appropriate to your persona? Is it because the people trainig you want you to...

mattmaus

Rowan of Needwood wrote:Lastly, my persona is supposed to have full plate armor (Wars of the Roses) and no shield. Since I DO NEED a shield,

Why?

mattmaus

Never intended to say that it couldn't.

It's way late in period, but there comes a point where it almost seems that looking cool is more important than being armored....

but like lots of folks, I'm a big fan of the Negroli works.

mattmaus

You will probably not get a full on anneal with just the torch. I think that even mild steel takes a bit slower cooling to get a full anneal. I usualy toss stuff in the forge, get it up to heat, then turn the burners off, letting it cool down with the firebrick/refractory inside the still hot forge....

mattmaus

Eyvandr, I personaly don't want to get into that line of thought. I have enough unfinished projects laying around taking up space, I certainly don't need to keep the finished ones too. Late period vs. early period strikes me like this. I drive a beat up little pickup. It gets me where I need to go. ...

mattmaus

Just a point of curiosity....

What does a spartan need a burg for?

mattmaus

I dunno.... Maybe I'm too depraved allready... Maybe I spent too much of high school paying attention to fantasy art work instead of paying attention in class... Maybe I've read way too many issues of Heavy Metal... Maybe I'm desensitized... But I'm just not seeing it.... Nice art and all... but it ...

mattmaus

Some say being canadian is a problem but valentine, alchemy, truehearth, medieval reproductions and south tower all seem to do fine they're all Canadian. Besides I'm not moving to the states so this one can't be helped. When I mentioned this, I didn't neccisarily mean that it was something that nee...

mattmaus

Take the same square, and dish it like it was an elbow cop. Set it on the floor, dome up, and stand on it. It'll support my weight; at most it'll deform a bit at the corners. Arches are cool. I'm like 170-180 lbs depending on wheter or not I've had my guinesses... I have an 18g stainless globose br...

mattmaus

the ring lord is now selling what he calls a 'ring welder' obviously for welded mail. I did some research on the company that makes it... it's a jewelers thing. They have videos of guys welding gold, silver... and so on. I started looking at it some more.... it's... an under or over (depending on yo...

mattmaus

Radio = background noise.

The only reason it's on is because if I quit making noise and the compressor is off etc etc...

the sudden quiet spooks me.

"What the hell's going on? Something is way wrong..... no noise!"

mattmaus

"If found please return to Tuchux camp" ???

mattmaus

Sir Gaston wrote:I'm glad we have so many "experts" here on this board.

LMFAO!!!!!

mattmaus

The burgonets had a pretty decent run, but are late period. Without really knowing for sure I would say 1520 (maybe even earlier) up through much later, depending on style. I started making them as prototypes for mine, for my landsknect persona. m It was based off of one I saw on the a German site, ...

mattmaus

Spring spring spring it still rusts less than mild. What flavor of spring are you using? I've been contemplating getting started with it because it seems to be the way to go anymore... was looking at 4130 because I found someplace that has it at a decent price, and in what I'd be looking for.... wo...

mattmaus

Matt, One of his books is published by Lindsay technical, with the topic of teaching blacksmithing fundementals using clay as a media. I've never heard anyone else talk about clay as a training aid to hot iron forming. I may have then... I've got 3-4 reprints of the old 1900's era blacksmithing tex...

mattmaus

No...

Not that I'm aware of anyway. I tend to not read nearly as much as I should.

Why do you ask?

mattmaus

If you are going to cross over into some of the Live Steel groups, they do not accept stainless. I had a guy who had to return his entire kit and order it in steel because he failed to ask them what he needed. I don't know that it would so much be a 'live steel' vs. 'living history'. Stainless look...

mattmaus

Designs inherent to the helmet? None. As mentioned previously, a burgonet is nicely suited to helping HIDE it. A visored sugarloaf might do it, with some careful adjusting. Maybe a kettle hat. You can do it with just about anything. It's just going to be a lot more noticable on some styles. I would ...

mattmaus

to nead anealing, Nead? I are gud engrish! try need. Anyway... Lorenzo2, I can see that, and I more or less understand it. What I don't really see is a lot of it happening. S'why the masters are the masters. Also... clay is an awesome analogy for hot steel. It really does move a lot like some of th...

mattmaus

I pretty much never anneal....

I'm a lazy git, and if it's going to nead anealing, just easier to shape it hot anyway.

Yeah... dead soft then, no work hardening, but theres still boughing and planishing.

Works good for me.

mattmaus

Way too often. I start a project, get bored with it, and work on something else till the mood strikes me again. Unfortunately... it rarely strikes me. I've got parts all over the place, and would probably have about 3 pretty basic but complete SCA kits, pluss bits to spare if I ever finished the stu...

mattmaus

depends on who you ask. Stainless work hardens more than mild. A lot more. That's not really why I'd ever get it. Work hardening is... unreliable in my opinion. If I make you a stainless helm, I really can't test it myself to give you an ASM standard or anything on how hard it is. If you want toughe...

mattmaus

You see. I recall doing a really deep dish elbows years ago. I was one of those sixteenth century conicals with the blunt point. Took a while and a couple of annealing to get there. The geometry was correct....but I was suspicious of it. So O took it to the bandsaw and zipped it in two up the cente...

mattmaus

InfinitySteel wrote: I like the strength factor welding them makes. I'm more concerned about durability then speed.

Holy crap! Someone that understands!

Frankly, I think they're faster too. I don't use a press, but if I did I'd probably still do the center weld.

mattmaus

Lots of good tips. Especialy the bit about straps. You should be willing to strap the stuff. Sure, charge extra for it, it takes time and effort. But like Gundo said, cut em long and don't punch holes. Make this an 'option'. I don't like strapping stuff. I figure that most people who would want my s...

mattmaus

Trevor,

The buffe is fixd in place. When I made this I made it for me, and was of the mind "less moving parts = less maintanence"

mattmaus

Awesome as always Jeff.

I don't even joust and I want one.

mattmaus

Clecos are temporary rivets. Takes special pliers to put them in, but most of the places that sell them will also sell you a starter kit that has them. Put holes in 2 peices of metal for temporary assembly, put cleco in holes, pull cleco out when you're ready to polish etc, and then put in a permane...

mattmaus

I don't wear glasses, so what I say might not be worth much. I do have 50's style shop class mega-nerd safety glasses that I wear in the shop. I recently worked on a helmet for someone with the specific intent of him wearing glasses under it. Something I noticed with this project, and using my safet...

Working with air hardening steels specificly H-13

Re: Stupid questions re shields