The Armour Archive

mattmaus

Clearly, you should start an armory and show us how itâ€™s done. No, wait. Iâ€™ll hire you to help me pull my ginormous head out of my ginormous ass. Iâ€™ll pay you 50% of all the money you make for me. I have every confidence in you, quality will go up, service will shoot thru the roof and we will...

mattmaus

My mother is the former governor of Alaska!

mattmaus

Maybe a silly question...

What's the depth on each? or, if you know it, the radius of the curvature?

mattmaus

Heard the tune. Know the dance. *pats the seat on an empty bar stool* S'a pint waiting for you. You've got my sympathies. All a guy wants to do is pour his heart and soul out into something, and make the coolest cool thing that was ever cool. Along comes the many headed hydra of reality to bite you ...

mattmaus

You'll need to futz with it to get a feel for timing. The age of the acid, and temperature can affect it significantly. About 20 minutes in a fresh batch on a warm day. My bath is old, and it's very cold today so when I get up there and drop a piece in I'll let it sit about 45 minutes, maybe more. H...

mattmaus

30% hydrochloric acid Hardware store Brick Cleaner? AKA Muratic? I've had good luck with 3 water to 1 acid. I think I might even be closer to 4 to 1 now because I needed more depth in the bucket (completely submurge your pieces or you'll have a line etched wherever it sticks out above!), and didn't...

mattmaus

I would like to see some pictures of any/all the RftH welded tops. So far the only conical I've seen looked wierd. It looked narrower at the brow then it swelled up then narrowed back down at the top, like something persian. That's part of the weld, and fit process. I got some from Dave, and they w...

mattmaus

A very long time ago (2005 or so) I sold this helmet to someone on the archive. http://members.armourarchive.org/mattmaus/norm00202.jpg It got stolen from him before he got a chance to wear it. I'm like Jestyr. The price that something sells at defines it's value. I also know that price now, vs. pri...

mattmaus

The heat discoloration along the central band suggests a 2 piece welded skull with the spangen bands riveted on.

mattmaus

I think part of the problem is the temp. trying to keep the whole process outside at 34 as a day time high. Yeah. The buddy that was heating his stuff to 200-250 had been trying to do it in the same kind of weather. Bout this time of year. He'd sneak into my garage at like 10 at night and try to ge...

mattmaus

Talk my boss into an extra 3 bucks an hour for me, and I'll take it with the first check that shows up on.

mattmaus

Temperature matters too.... I use the muratic to strip mill scale. With where it's at potency wise now days, it takes about 40 minutes on a hot day, but if it's sub 0 it takes an hour and a half or more. A different buddy was playing with ferric chloride and brass. He was much happier with his resul...

mattmaus

I think a buddy uses El-Cheapo brand aquarium pumps for his aggitation.

mattmaus

AL is about all I've been able to etch. I used the same dilutid Muratic brick cleaner that I strip mill scale from steel with. I think you could dilute a bit more. Mine is 3 water + 1 acid, and very old, and used, and I still got way crazy reaction (bubbles and froth and stuff) from the AL. For a re...

mattmaus

I getcha on the wrap plate, picture makes sense. There is no real reason that the plate would need to hinge so far to the outside, never really thought about it. I couldn't work out how to mount my wrap plate with two hinges without it interfering with the movement of the cuisse plates, I see they ...

mattmaus

I fremember now. I'm not special enough to have apprentices. You gots to be a master to have apprentices. Also... morals help. I'd probably kill off an apprentice. A REAL apprentice should sleep on a straw mat in the workshop, and get a bowl of whatever leftovers the dog turns her nose at IF they wo...

mattmaus

What I object to is people making pieces that look just exactly like a museum piece with artificial aging and then want to carry it in their kit when it would have been only a few years old at most! (and would have been a different style if hundreds of years old and still part of their kit.) Pffff....

mattmaus

I wish I had a camera when I was at Hundred Minutes War a couple weeks ago... would have liked to get a picture of our Mattmaus helms on the field together. The first one I did for Adamo I can't forget... it still haunts my dreams mocking and taunting me.... but refresh my memory... which one do yo...

mattmaus

I like this stuff.

http://www.eastwood.com/greaseless-comp ... -of-4.html

mattmaus

shamrockarmoury wrote:What a steal on this helm.

I dunno bout all that...

Adamo is a good dude, and a VERY good customer. I'm flattered by his repeat bussiness, and I'm pretty excited for him. I think he's gonna like this one quite a bit.

mattmaus

Thorbrandr wrote:I hate asking, but my heavy metal working stuff is not setup yet.

I'd let you use mine. I got no stainless on hand so materials would have to be your own, but... yeah. I think I could trust you to not break stuff, or leave a bigger mess than I do.

mattmaus

I think the a-symetry was generaly attributed to that side being better protected behind a shield but I could be off my meds again.

mattmaus

Looks like Adamo is going to corner the market on cool Norman hats.

Auction is over by my watch, and he has the high bid.

PM on the way... I've had a 'notion' about the mail.

mattmaus

Another thing keeping us busy has been our new brick-and-mortar retail store! http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs683.snc4/62353_10150273861485424_321377570423_14712355_3967150_n.jpg Located at 526 Northampton Street, Easton, PA 18042, we're open weekends - Saturday and Sunday - from noon...

mattmaus

My advice... which you didn't ask for, I know... Spend money on your helmet. My reasons why: 1> it's your head. You can get a safe budget helm, I'm not saying you can't. But.. e-bay spun domes don't fit anyone for crap. Sure they're tanks, but the way they fit makes them silly at best, and scary at ...

mattmaus

Less arguing... more bidding. Few hours left.

mattmaus

It needs to be clean as hell.... and not have a speck of grease or oil on it. I've had pretty good luck recently using brake cleaner. Toxic, dangerous, and bad for you. Kills wasps dead (faster and better than wasp killer). But it cleans the metal good for blue prep. Handle the piece wearing rubber ...

mattmaus

shamrockarmoury wrote:Lead paint so you become crazy

With mercury primer? Sweet! i R have ezzkyoose fer mahz droolink!

Seriously... damned nice hat.

mattmaus

Matt, I am the guy with the three burning towers. Gold and silver per chevron backgound, three flames proper (red with yellow interiors) each charged with a black tower. Like many SCAdians, I noticed your helmet first. I think the only real attention I paid to your surcoat was when I was trying to ...

mattmaus

Little over a day left...

mattmaus

I think I like this better. Still a lot of undercut on the back, but on THIS one if I trim the bottom edge on my sharpie line, I think I can hide most of the rest of it under the brow band (koshimaki?). The pattern will need tweaking for future revisions, the metal just isn't there to push it back o...

mattmaus

I had 2.5" in the top of my original barrel helm... 18 years ago....

It was a silly tall hat....

mattmaus

Garick wrote:Soo.... $500.

Thank you.

Incidentaly, what are 'your' colors? Your heraldry I mean.

mattmaus

Effingham wrote:Try this:

I really did...

but got frustrated digging through anime crap and video games. My google fu sucks.

mattmaus

I don't have any reference material, so I'm going off of memory. I think I probably over-exagerated the flatness. I remember looking at a Laurel friend's book, and us having a conversation about how flat they were... "the samurai equivelent of a barrel helm" I said... I think tomorrow I'll...

Re: Pickling solution

Re: Me too

Re: Shield bosses

Re: News from Reconstructing History