The Armour Archive

mattmaus

Yeah....

I'm thinking that as is it has a nice feel to it.

Something about the rougness of it says "I will kill you, and it will not be a pleasant death"

mattmaus

brunoG, your use of metrics indicates you're European. Helmet thickness depends on where you go I guess. 2mm is about the same as 14 gauge if I remember right, and the majority of guys armoring for SCA use run to 12 gauge. Slightly thicker than 2mm. There are some nutters out there going as heavy as...

mattmaus

Thomas Powers wrote:Quenching a true mild steel from a good red will make it softer!

Thomas

Than what?

mattmaus

You're armour-fu is strong mattmaus... The table you made looks awesome sitting next to my chair, right by my front door. That's not armor-fu. That's "fyne skill in the noble craft". Been hanging out with Otigiri too much and started a kabuto this weekend. That might qualify as armor-fu. Glad you l...

mattmaus

Nice. They made so much of a deal about Legolas taking out one, along with the attending Haradrim, but Eomer did the same thing with one spear toss... People who are just good need to show off. Genuine bad asses are content knowing that they're bad. To my recolection the spear toss was worth 2 when...

mattmaus

sparrows beak, sold and shipped.

Spangen, elbows and one pair spaulders left.

mattmaus

Bascinet, and one pair of spaulders sold, and shipped.

Do not resist.....

there is no need for that.... give in to temptation.

mattmaus

If you drift a hole in them like you do for tomakawks, you could probably grind a very nicely weghted planishing hammer, with a small raising peen on the back. No way man.... that's just crazy talk. If you try it, you'll put the eye a bit far back, and split the old dry handle. [img]http://www.whit...

mattmaus

Have a bunch of stuff available. This is all sitting in the shop ready to ship. A pair of Elbows: [img]http://www.whitebatarmory.com/avail/elbow1.jpg[/img] m m 16g cr mild steel Would like $40.00 + $8.00 S+H to continental US. * * * * * Spaulders/Pauldrons [img]http://www.whitebatarmory.com/avail/pa...

mattmaus

You might also do a search for architectural metals. Many of the railing and flagpole places have hemispheres available relatively cheepses. Somewhere in my pile of junk I have a catalog for a place that sells steel hemispheres up to a 12" diameter, and I know they had brass or bronze, as well as st...

mattmaus

Yeah.... take it back. Find scrapped ones that have outlived their life as a keg. I'm with losthelm on this though too. A beer keg as useful metal. Useful for what exactly? For armor? Probably not. By the time you cut the thing open and flatten it out... don't htey have like raised ribs on them too?...

mattmaus

Couple minor points. When I talked about the flash rusting, it was with muratic acid not vinegar. The rust that I encountered was an amazingly light coating that as I said wiped off of the plates with a shop towel (or onto my hands, I looked like I dipped my palms in cheap self tanning stuff). Almos...

mattmaus

Not trying to be a butthead but... It looks really lumpy in the picture. You say it's not... so I'm curious to know what you finished it with? Wire wheel in a drill maybe? When I used wire wheels to finish my stuff it always looked like that too. Regardless of how smooth it really was. Got to keep a...

mattmaus

Besides special/different tooling the tolerances are tighter, scaling to the project. If you're off 1/16" on something that's more than a foot long, it's not so bad. When you're 1/16" off on something tiny, it makes for a huge gap.

mattmaus

One of the local Duke/laurel types has told me several times about a period Morion he got to get a good look at. I'm a little curious to know what period... he's calling period, but anyway... On one side of the comb, it was a riveted seam. On the other side, it was stepped, with a chisel engraved li...

mattmaus

I guess that depends on how picky you are about fit. I have made myself lots of armor, and I've tried on allmost all the other armor I've ever made, as part of the construction process. I've been pretty much exactly the same size since I was 23. I have a pretty good idea how big I am, and how big my...

mattmaus

I'd like to point out something that people seem to be missing. I think all aspiring armourers need someone like Robin as a customer. Think of all the scrap steel that could be saved just by the nature of the small parts being made/botched by the learning curve. Only because by the time you make ar...

mattmaus

Alcyoneus wrote:I think I recall hearing that it comes from an old German word meaning 'to strike'.

I've heard something similar Fok, meaning to beat about the head and shoulders with a small stick.

The uh... other stick apparently came later.

mattmaus

Something to notice with just about every post on this topic... It's a regular practice. Every time I put it in my bag... every couple weeks... whatever. In my experience, it doesn't matter so much WHAT you use, oil, wax, polish... just that you use it regularly. If you wait till the whole thing is ...

mattmaus

I've used muratic to strip mill scale as well as galvanization off. If you do this, all of the regular acid precations blah blah... BUT I will add that it likes to flash rust. Every peice I've stripped this way has rusted right up, almost before my eyes. I assume that when you strip it like this the...

mattmaus

I like the blind rivets better. I initialy thought that the brass may look more... cohesive if the rivets on the fingers were also brass. But that would probably be too much. Also... my opinion may be skewed by the fact that I don't much care for yellow metals. They are both very nice looking gaunts...

mattmaus

Cheap source for a multitude of stuff. Exactly like that, they are useful. Need a specialty chisel of any kind? Go at them with a grinder. One of the cool things about them for making tools that you hammer on is the head. If you are clumsy and stupid like me the fat flat head on them gives you some ...

mattmaus

Sir Andreas Eisfalke wrote:Use slooooow speed. Cobalt drill is best. Cool with water, NOT oil.

But water doesn't burn and give you the nifty little smoke trails when the chips fly away.

mattmaus

Nice stuff...

I'd try making a bottle opener too... but... I wonder how many 12 packs you had to go through to make sure it worked right.

mattmaus

Auction is over and not a single bid.

Understandable, as this one is big. Will be listed on my in stock page, so if you have any friends with a pronounced cranium looking...

mattmaus

It's 8:00 Monday Morning my time. Auction is over, and Kjyl has the high bid.

mattmaus

Not hard at all....

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=36790

I've yet to really use or mount mine yet.

One of the other local armorers uses his to make the rings for wire cage basket hilts.

mattmaus

One last bump before the weekend, and auction end Monday morning.

mattmaus

One last bump before the weekend, and auction end Monday morning.

mattmaus

Bascinet shell #1 is available again.

Bascinet shell #2 is still available.

and Bowl#2 looks to be the only one left.

mattmaus

bumpage to ye olde toppage of ye special page.

mattmaus

Another bump on this one.

mattmaus

Kjyl has the high bid at $280

mattmaus

Ok,

Bascinet shell #1,

Bowl#1 (salet lookin thing)

and

bowl#3

are all spoken for pending payment etc... ya'll know the drill.

Paypal is straightened out on my end, so that's ready to go to.

mattmaus

what time period is it? Is it Norman? I am looking for a Norman conical, (I know this isn't a conical, but it is interesting) I may bid on it, but not sure yet.... It's 'speculative norman' maybe.... here's how it got put together. I kinda felt the urge to try a somewhat conical pattern. I saw some...

Bascinet, Spangen, Sparrowsbeak, and more for sale cheap.