The Armour Archive

Brian W. Rainey

That sounds like a good idea, Brian. Not much happening in Jan/Feb...except gearing up for Gulf Wars! LOL What would you say to a leather workshop/class. I can custom it to fit into a time schedule and focus on whatever you would like....let me know. A course on leatherworking would be great. You r...

Brian W. Rainey

My new shop is in Maryland, you know that. You planning a road trip? I'm thinking of hosting a workshop sometime in the late fall, maybe early spring.....gotta get some stuff together, etc. My shop is way to small for something like that, so I will be coordinating some stuff. I'll let y'all know wh...

Brian W. Rainey

Thomas, Thanks for all of your effort with this. I have been in contact with Chris, and he says there is a MOB meeting this Saturday. If I can, maybe I will try to go out there. If not, maybe I will call Terry and see if I can arrange a time to pick some up. I'm really looking forward to aquiring t...

Brian W. Rainey

Bump!

Brian W. Rainey

Durin Bloodaxe wrote:Eric downloaded a patch from Invision that will prevent any further instances of this happening.

Until the next hole is found!

Nothing is safe in cyberspace.

Brian W. Rainey

I just ordered my copy of the dvd! Any idea how long it will take them to ship? Right now we are sitting at two-three days after the order. I wil be getting the backlog worked out starting tomorrow. I will be picking up more blank DVDs and starting the process over again. The interest has been bett...

Brian W. Rainey

Uilleag is your man.

Brian W. Rainey

Brian, Would it be better to use oil to quench tool steel? I have herd that using water to quench tool steel can cause cracks. Water would be easier, as I am not sure what type of oil would be needed. William Yes, quenching in oil can be better. However, I doubt that you would get any cracks or sig...

Brian W. Rainey

Erik, An easy cure for ths is to heat up your tongs until they are a bright orange colour and smack them with a hammer. This will help to flatten the top and bottom enough so that they will sit flat on the surface of your anvil. This will keep the hammer from slipping off when they are struck. Woul...

Brian W. Rainey

Erik D. Schmid wrote:That way you would be closer to many of the most colourful people in the armouring world.

Why are my ears burning?

Brian W. Rainey

Here is my answer from Erik Schmid... he was nice anough to dig up the information that I had misplaced.

Erik D. Schmid wrote:I had to go through my old receipts to find the address for it. They are still in business. The website is:

http://www.artmetalco.com/accueil-uk.htm

Now, if you are looking for wrought iron rather than pure go here:

http://www.realwroughtiron.com/index.asp

Brian W. Rainey

I'll tell you what..

I will be in your neck of the woods next week. I can bring up my #7 and #8 bits and we can see which ones fit! Then, if there is a match, you can order the correct ones from Roper-Whitney!

I think my #7 uses #8 dies and #? punches.

Brian

Brian W. Rainey

Roper Whitney is the company that can supply you with the information/parts that you need. m From my experience with odd Whitneys, the company has stayed true to the footprint of the dies/punches. Therefore, replacement parts for older models are usually readily available. Simply call them up and as...

Brian W. Rainey

I never expected to be cut out of being a buyer, though. However, as I told my supplier, I taught the Indians how to make it, I can easily teach the Pakistanis, Mexicans, and Phillipinos how to make it, too. Ultimately, I hope my contribution to the reenacting world will be to have brought a highly...

Brian W. Rainey

Brian, It would just be for decoration. I think it would look more authentic than a steel helm. I'm not in the SCA, so I don't need it for combat or anything. If I have to make sheet as opposed to just buying it, I wouldn't even try. I just thought that if I could get ahold of some, that it might b...

Brian W. Rainey

So do the lames attach to the rider? An excellent picture of rivets that would have been used to hold the fingers is in: Danske Voldsteder fra Oldtid og Middelalder , Vilhelm La Cour and Hans Stiesdal. The gauntlets are also shown in: Armour of the Battle of Wisby , Bengt Thordeman I do not have th...

Brian W. Rainey

That might be kinda cool, actually I think I might try to get ahold of some wrought iron to work with. I really like the look of the iron helms. What would the helmets be used for? Also, if you can't get hold of sheet (I cannot find my reference) then you need to MAKE sheet out of pieces of wrought...

Brian W. Rainey

Are you going to have a forum also? Not planned at the moment. If we do, I think that it would be primarily for group happenings. There are more than enough Forums at present: Archive Arador MyArmoury Sword Forum I think it would add to the confusion. I know that I currently get dizzy simply thinki...

Brian W. Rainey

Cet wrote:HI Brian,

Thanks for the info. I ordered the dvd's today.

Yup, I'm still running RFH and doing custom stuff as well, mostly in mild and spring 1350 to 1420 or so.

Order received. I will get it out to you ASAP!

Brian W. Rainey

UPDATE!

The Armour Guild website has been updated....

Please see our videos page for more information:

http://www.armourguild.org/videos.php

Brian W. Rainey

Erik's maille is pure iron. While Erik is definitely more qualified to answer this question... I think you meant some of Erik's mail is pure iron. I am aware of one Roman(?) piece that was pure iron mail (I think he was working on it the first time I met him, it was a truly a thing of beauty). And ...

Brian W. Rainey

Brian, I would like to make a norman helm, or a spangen. I was planning to make one of steel to begin with, but I thought that it would be nice to have one made from iron once I know how to do it. I used to know of a place that sold wrought iron sheets. That could be a beneficial way to go, I would...

Brian W. Rainey

Can you post a pic of the helm? I would like to see some SCAisms to legalize a Corinithan helm. The historical pieces that I have seen have large eye "slots", that would surely fail an SCA inspection... Some solutions to making the ocularia SCA-legal would be to put in some decorative barwork, perf...

Brian W. Rainey

Cat wrote:Where would be a good place to find iron suitable for making a helm? I don't need a big piece, I have a small head .

What type of helm are you looking to make?

Mild steel or a medium carbon steel (~1050) is what you should probably be using.

Brian W. Rainey

Well, it sounds like it wouldn't work. I was just thinking it would be nice to make something as close to being historically accurate as possible. From what I've heard, iron is kinda hard to find, and I could probably pick up some cast iron skillets pretty easily. I figured since you use a round pi...

Brian W. Rainey

Wouldn't it depend on how you draw the temper? I mean, if it's all he can get, he can probably draw the temper back pretty far and still have a decent toughness. I am sure he could make the end product workable. However, the trick I would see is getting TO the end product. I tried 1095 once. While ...

Brian W. Rainey

Thaddeus wrote:A question for all you blacksmiths out there, is this setup worth buying?
and if so what would you pay for it?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... otohosting

I like some aspects of that setup. I doubt that I would hesitate to drop around <$500 for it.

Brian W. Rainey

Could you use the bottom of a cast iron skillet as a blank for hot raising a helm? If so, how would you go about cutting off the sides? Thanks, Cat If you mean turning cast iron skillet into a helm.... I doubt it. I would not think that it would work. There are fundamental differences between a cas...

Brian W. Rainey

What I am envisioning is a plate the reaches from the bottom of the occular, roughly just below my nose, to 1 - 2 inches below my chin, and from the front of each ear. So you think that 12 - 14 g. perf plate can withstand that kind of force without reinforcing? We can probably discuss this over the...

Brian W. Rainey

PM'd.

Brian W. Rainey

Anyone can order the video on DVD (playable on computer or TV DVD players) via PayPal by sending $20.00 to donations@armourguild.org. Brian, Does the $20 include shipping? I just wanted to clarify befory I send my order in. William If you are in the US, yes the $20.00 includes S/H! I will be clarif...

Brian W. Rainey

Dan,

I have sources for perf-plate. I will look them up when I get home tonight.

The stuff is NOT cheap, keep that in mind.

Also, unless it is for design reasons, you should not have to reinforce the perf-plate. It is pretty sturdy stuff in the heavier gauges.

Brian W. Rainey

is that $20 per video or $20 for all three? Hey, Cet. haven't seen you in years. I think the last time was at Gulf Wars a few years back when you came down with Ivar. How have you been? Still running Rough from the Hammer? I will clarify the page later today. The videos are full digital quality and...

Brian W. Rainey

Wulfe wrote:You are leaving the mpegs up for those of us with highspeed connections, yes?

Nope. They were the reason we had ~75Gb worth of bandwidth chewed up two days in a row.

Order the DVD, you cheap $%&#^@&!

Brian W. Rainey

OK, the fluting video has been posted in RealPlayer format. This should alleviate any bandwidth concerns. Unfortunately, the quality is not as good as the previously posted .mpeg files. However, there will not be any more crashed site issues. I will work on getting the greave video up this afternoon.

Re: Arador

Re: New To Armoring, Trying Hardened Leather

Re: Forge buying advice

Re: Question about cast iron