The Armour Archive

CLANG

Stainless comes in several different finishes, as you say. Generally speaking, for armoring applications, you'll want metal that has a "2B" finish. It's very smooth with no toolmarks at all (though it will sometimes have a few scratches from being moved around by the industry). It simply looks smoot...

CLANG

Irish, email me if you want to get onboard. I'm planning to do a run of bazubands in SS and mild shortly. I'll need measurements.

CLANG

Hi,

My recent email to you got bounced. If you're still interested in some bazubands, please contact me.

clang@citynet.net

-Mark

CLANG

Hi,

I tried emailing you recently, but got a "user unknown" bounce. If you're still interested in these please contact me. clang@citynet.net

CLANG

Check out the "In Stock" link on my main page. Scroll to the bottom to see pics of dishing hammers made from small sledges. I sell them, but with a minimum of tools, you can make your own from a $2 flea market hammer.

CLANG

Sounds like you're ready to do some experimenting... If you plan to heat the metal at any step, I'd strongly recommend black tie wire. For one thing, you'll just have to remove the galvanization to hot-work coated wire anyway, plus the end result will be the same as uncoated black wire. Like most me...

CLANG

I'm not trying to drum up sales here, but I go ahead and add an integral clamp to the baskets that I make. I've seen a few other makers who do the same. My opinion (for whatever that might be worth ) is that it is a much better method of mounting than hose clamps and/or loads of filament tape. You c...

CLANG

If you want uncoated "black" tie wire, just go to any industrial-type supplier, tool rental place, concrete place, or even your local home improvement store. It comes in every gauge (though most places only carry one or 2 sizes), and is pre-annealed. Quite easy to work. If you want galvanized (shudd...

CLANG

Alconyeus, I almost bid against you on that, but some other ambitions took center court that day.

CLANG

Bit on the narrow side, as I have skinny feet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5327390519

Also have sword/shield baskets listed in case anyone's interested.

CLANG

For what it's worth, here's some info on the punches: The #2 and the #8 take the same tooling-the specs are the same, but I've heard tell that #2 tooling is a little "loose" in the fit. Dies are 7/8-14 thread and punches are 1/2 dia. The common punches that I know: WA Whitney: #2 (Still in productio...

CLANG

Well, I was reading this thread and 2 things came to mind. One-I saw a Japanese fan at the post office that was printed with the American flag. Just struck me as a bit odd...

Nextly, we say katana-toting highlanders are from Clan McYamaguchi.

CLANG

Personally, I'd recommend haunting eBay. The small #5's show up there all the time for very reasonable prices-if you pay a little bit of attention as well, you can get a set with all the dies. Never hurts to have 2 punches-keep your most used sizes in them. BTW-the handle color makes no difference.

CLANG

I've had 2 customers purchase maille from Master Knuut and have it sent to me to install on their helms. His prices are more than fair, and his product is first rate, strong, lightweight-nearly indestructible. For SCA maille that takes a lot of abuse, I think it's the best you can do.

CLANG

Olgier, I think your heart's in the right place, but I really see one main issue that's problematic. (Neverminding the specific names that have been mentioned.) Someone said that if they ordered from Gug the Armorer, they did so because they wanted a product from Gug the Armorer (or at least from hi...

CLANG

Wow-that's gonna put a real tight tweak in my schedule, but I can't POSSIBLY justify missing it. For any of you guys who didn't go to the last one, it's WELL worth the trip. Wade's collection is the envy of us all, and he and Tom Justus are incredibly knowledgable and willing to share. Close inspect...

CLANG

Don't know for sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say the guy at the trip hammer is forging a bloom into a rod or some similar operation. I believe the "pan" is intended to be the flat anvil surface for the second trip hammer over. It's kind of hard to see because of fading, but the guy forging the st...

CLANG

A lot of later period armors (and weapons) have celtic-esque knot work in the motifs. Several years back, a friend and I built one arm-steel articulated elbow with tooled leather vambrace/rerebrace. It was decorated with a design very closely derived from one of the 16th C Greenwich armors (I forget...

CLANG

Cool. Congrats on your new find-you'll never regret spending the $$.

CLANG

Wade, do you know what the padding material is in that lining? Looks like a bit of tow or wool poking out of the back corner...?

Would also love to see pics of your reproduction.

CLANG

Lessee... The dish I use the most is about 2.75" x maybe 0.75" deep. i also have a deeper one for those times when it's required. Make sure the "corners" are nice and rounded off. It's better to smash them round with a hammer than to cut or sand them round. Also, it will help if your dishing hammer ...

CLANG

Peck, Stowe and Wilcox (later known as Pexto) is a long-lived and well-respected company in the history of metalworking. They are probably the largest supplier of stakes ever, and they make quality stuff. I wasn't aware that they made a shear like Beverly, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy it if the de...

CLANG

Why, any armorer worth his salt never forgets any information about armor! Now where was that one great pic of that elbow I was looking for? Just a thought-if you have real trouble with the wing curling in on you, you might have too large a depression in your dishing stump for the project at hand, e...

CLANG

Don't know if you're still looking, but I've got a couple on my In Stock page. They're more like the Chalcis barbutes than actual Corinthians, though.

CLANG

Now, now-some do...

CLANG

OK-had my illustrations confused. That certainly does appear to be a jenny. I've got a book that has a great 2-page spread of that painting, but part of it is cut off-the very edge with the stake anvils and jenny! Typical... I looked in "The Armourers" and there it is-smaller, but still there. I jus...

CLANG

I remember reading several posts where people mentioned that a period illustration shows a jenny, or bead roller. I thought that it was the famous "Maximilian I visits the armory" woodcut, but I can't spot anything there that looks like a jenny... Can anyone point me to it? I'm just curious to see i...

CLANG

Yeah-he brought a lock to the demo that was partially complete-fantastic work. He loves his files.

CLANG

Peter Ross, the head blacksmith at Colonial Williamsburg, VA, did a demo for our local blacksmithing group about 2 years ago. He is truly a master smith, and a great teacher. To the point-he punched any number of holes in thin material (cold) with nothing but a small, flat-ended round punch and a sm...

CLANG

Hi, I was fortunate enough to watch Tom's demonstration as well. It was the fuel for the Italian cuirass. Honestly, I don't remember if Tom started "in" or "out", but it seems to me that he worked both in stages together, starting with the inner crease. At any rate, that's the way I did it. If one s...

CLANG

I used to order from CF regularly. Then, as Fenrix said, they changed owners. The first thing I noticed upon receiving their new (much smaller and with fewer pics) catalog was that the price of 90% of their stock had increased significantly-like 50% higher than the previous year. Their Centaur swage...

CLANG

What about a greathelm? You can make a decent example with little or even zippo dishing or welding, and the shapes are simple to cut out, deburr, and shape. The onliest part the ever seems to give anyone trouble is the crown.

CLANG

Yeah- early armor... Laces for Less is the source I used. I got their standard athletic lace. They have a WIDE lace, but it's 5/8" or almost 2cm. There's no in-between that I'm aware of. The "rising sun" washers are just standard #10's. I made a punch with a guide post in the center and stamped them...

CLANG

My $.02 (and it's worth about two cents...) says that for the same effort, or very little extra, you can make the entire helm from scratch and have a finished product that doesn't look like an army pot with a face welded on...

CLANG

I found that site a while back, but none of the pics would come up-only thumbs. I'll have to check it out again-cool beans.

Chinua/J Lente to the white courtesy phone, please-bazubands

Lynne to the white courtesy phone please-RE Roman greaves

I put tall leather boots on ebay-SZ 9.5

So where's this pic of a medievel Jenny?