The Armour Archive

Sasha

After two days of marking, chiselling, filing, pre-heating and bronzing. Filing back. Filling in more bronze after cleaning out the patch that didn't take and then tempering and filing back fully and polishing and sharpening and polishing again.... All on top of the time taken to actually make the a...

Sasha

Or the fact that they actually WERE importing cheap indian silver jewellery!

It's all too scary.

Sasha

Sasha

Our now baron, Master Gwynfor and the now Duke Elfin of Mona spent a Pensic convincing the locals that the traditional Australian coctail was to take a spoonfull of vegemite in your mouth and then wash it down with overproof bundeburg rum. They managed to convince a staggering number of people... Pr...

Sasha

Thanks for the help.
Any other takes and opinions out there?

Sasha

Sasha

Dish then "crease" (flute) You couyld always raise the entire top over a stake...that way you get the shaping and the crease in one go. Sasha ------------------ "Green Eggs and Hamlet" Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not...

Sasha

QH is quartz halogen. And the shop need not be dark and dim and dingy....you just need the forge bed to have no direct light falling on it. Normal lightbulbs actually put out a very red light....which can distort the colour you see glowing from the steel. On the other hand, if you always have that l...

Sasha

It an arbourtech. They are cute...but they need to be sharpened regularly or they are a pain in the butt. Basically has the same tooth structure as a chainsaw. They are also available in a peculiar extended version that has a small wheel on the end of an arm that plugs onto your grinder. Goes around...

Sasha

Set yourself the tassk of making FOUR helms. The first you will scrap before completion, the second will end up as a dust bin/trophy in the workshop, the third you will wear for training/give to a friend, the fourth will be fit for wearing as YOURS. Keep clear thoughts or notes about every stage of ...

Sasha

I make my own hammers.
It is satisfying, educational and you always end up with exactly what yu want.

Cheap too.

Sasha

Sasha

I take my cue from my lady's studio. She is a musian and needs to spend hours following little sheet music notations form a fair distance. You want at least two "bands" of lighting. I have fluro tubes (get the doubles with reflector backs) for general broadsource light. If you can afford daylight te...

Sasha

Your friend is a little confused. extreme IR will damage the eyeballs. Actually it will dry out the surface and then start cooking through.... The standard lenses do not do too much to help this, the foil lenses do (you can tell foil lenses because they are either metallic gold or silver in aspect)....

Sasha

In terms of workign steel much below 18-20ga...it actually gets harder again. It doesn't have the "oomph" to stay where you knock it.

I would recommend 20ga...there is no significant weight advantage in 22ga...and you get left wearing beer-can metal.

Triple roll your edges!

Sasha

Sasha

None of those really do it for me....and all are way too expensive. I am getting most of my fittings for under 40c Australian...and they are of a higher quality and detail then that (I am getting the swirled flower one that you listed first for about 20c aust). ...and that is after my importer has m...

Sasha

Medieval Jedi helm... "But with the occulars not cut out I can't see what I'm doing!" Sasha ...very tired and silly ------------------ "Green Eggs and Hamlet" Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not do that evil thing. I wou...

Sasha

Hi folks

Anyone know the right concentration of Nitric to get for etching carbon steel.
Fast etching by preference...I can always dilute it for the fancy stuff.

Sasha

Sasha

And as I look at my test piece. with the runes of gold staring back at me from the the brushed silver metal of the same stuff as the axe ...I can only curse a lot. Even annealed, this stuff is tougher then my cold chisel. I would be looking at hot working in every rune and then heat treating the thi...

Sasha

The arming doublet that you have the points sewn to is not a ganbeson and the gambeson is not an arming doublet. The thing you have points form is more like a shirt. it sits close and is tailored to fit well. Gambesons are from a whole different period and are designed to do different things. I use ...

Sasha

The coolest one I found was: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/runes.html

Ignore the bit about "your name in runes" You can enter whole passages.

Just do not use the letter "c"

Sasha

Sasha

PERFECT! The runes will be gibberish in Incelandic but coincidentally spell out words in english! Trade goods! trade goods! get your touristy trinkets here! Genuine Viking axes, look at the runes, get 'em while they're hot, they're loverly! Sasha ...now feeling much better about it all. ------------...

Sasha

I'm in the branch right next to your's, brother! Pass me some of those nuts and berries, would you? http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif (Actually, I am really a walrus disguised as an orangutan...I do it for the bannanas....) Sasha ...who has spent years avoiding getting photographed. Hasn't ...

Sasha

I could tell you , but then I would have to kill you. And from what I hear of your fighting, that could take me a great deal of work. http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif If you are lucky then Uther will show you a couple of the items when he gets home from Festival. BUT DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHIN...

Sasha

So here I am, putting a rune serpent on an axe blade that will be given as presentation...and it occurs to me that the roblem with using an online rune translator is that it generates runes for english.... Should I have found an old norse generator and then shifted it to runes? I am uncertain. This ...

Sasha

He looks like a very civilised orangutan that juggles anvils http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif I have just been sorting through 12night West pics on behalf of someone who shall remain blonde and crowned...and all of these opinions are strictly mine and not hers. http://www.armourarchive.org...

Sasha

I have one. It comes with the wheels for running off either a 4inch or 5inch grinder. Use a cheap 5inch. Really. The only problem I have had is that the four little screws that fasten the cover plate on the angle grinder (if you are looking directly at the rotating spindle with all the hardware remo...

Sasha

Sounds like you were on a brain train to nowhere. Don't worry, happens to all of us sooner or later (and usually a couple of times a week). Firstly. If you want to cut of bolts, then you mark them when set and then REMOVE them to cut them to size. Secondly. If you remove the hacksaw blade form the f...

Sasha

I opt for attachemnt by points too. It has the added advantage that with leather armour, you can leave the leather attached to the foundation garment (fighting shirt) and get into armour very quickly. It alos does nopt bind or slide around or descend to block your wrist. Give it a shot. You can alwa...

Sasha

ummm.... I usually find that best results are gotten by cutting across my lap or from left to right on a tabletop, using my body to keep the leather pressed tot he handle-flat. As long as you set the thing up properly, have a sharp blade and cut a straight edge along the one line you are going to pa...

Sasha

I use box-cutter blades in mine. Worth the effort because they last about 20-50times longer then the pissy little ones that come with it. Every workshop should have one. I have seen sooo many newish armourers spend hours cutting straps and belts with garden scissors or rulers and stanley knives....e...

Sasha

You are not going to dye it brown. Depending on the leather you may be able to bleach it somewhat (usually a lighter blue) and then try dyeing form there.... But for practical purposes I would suggest starting with brown leather or painting it with one of the spray on leather colours. You could offe...

Sasha

In answer to an earlier post. I start with a small aquarium that fills with 8litres of vinegar and I have re-used it about 6 or 7 times now. It got a bit weak on the second last time and I added salt to the mixture (1kg bag of coarse cooking salt). The next batch worked fine. The metal tray one of y...

Sasha

Egfroth. No probs.
Mind shipping me a copy of the pamphlet when it is finished?

Sasha

Sasha

I just wrote this for the local newsletter in Ynys Fawr....It may be of use to stick in the essays. I tried looking there for a similar article (after all of our chats on the subject) but did not see it. If it is useful then consider it yours. Sasha A simple way to remove mill scale and light rust f...

Sasha

Thanks for the cleanup, Dragon. ...But I have been thinking a bit about stuff for this topic and have come up with some points (while I should have been thinking about other things like "only pick that up with grips, it has just stopped glowing..."). I plan to actually write "a perspective on armour...

Sasha

Okay, bascot. get comfortable in the chains, don't mind the hooded fellow heating pokers in the brazier, and repeat after me (because you really want to and are not at all coerced). "The detail in an armour make it. An early period armour can require no less mastery then the most ornate of 16thC if ...

Sasha

Actually, this time Sasha's post may make a good essay after a few hours work to make it into something that makes sense. Some kind of sense. Almost any kind. http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif I do not make a lot of sense before morning coffee. I will try and write something coherent and of...

Nitric acid etching question

To rune rightly?

Vinegar mill scale removal