The Armour Archive

Cap'n Atli

Having the tools you need, a place to put them, and the time and accesability to use them makes all the difference in the world.

Well done, and good luck!

Cap'n Atli

I'm a little late coming in here. DO NOT trust any site that starts with smacking an old, cold, leaf spring with a sledge hammer until it's straight. You'd be better off and safer wuith a club or other blunt, heavy object. For the pommel, most of us do it with a drill and a lot of work with needle f...

Cap'n Atli

I will note that they have black anti-fouling paint these days, far less jarring than bright blue. Do you even need anti-fouling paint? Do you keep it in the water over the week, or just take it out and haul it ashore when you're finished fro the day? If so, a quick scrub with a sponge should suffice.

Cap'n Atli

Looks like a nice boat.

I'm still waiting for our Maritime Historian to come back from travel, because this has got me currious too.

Cap'n Atli

Wadded up newspaper, about one full page; then tinder and kindling. I actively set aside dried pine cones, sweetgum balls, wood shavings and turnings, corn cobs, twigs, splits, pieces of old tobacco sticks, pistachio shells, and all sorts of combustibles; and handle it just as if I were starting a f...

Cap'n Atli

Before investing a lot of time, effort and money in refacing an anvil, I'd go for minimalist intervention of planishing the puppy. My 100 kilo USSR version (way back before the "little ones" came onto the market) wasn't as soft as these, but still has benefitted from some of the initiial planishing ...

Cap'n Atli

It's sort of an "Old Blacksmith's Trick" to give each of your neighbors a pot hook or some other small useful item, to head off any complaint about coal smoke or noise. It can also lead to paid jobs, like hinges on a neighbors barn, or bell brackets. Good will is sometimes cheaply bought, and always...

Cap'n Atli

It seems to me that the problem with flashy, historic, well known helms like Coppergate or (especially) Sutton Hoo is that they are too identifiable and too tied to their time period to be anything but what they are. I would welcome a Sutton Hoo for a filming on our ship (with the right head and tai...

Cap'n Atli

A timely bump. One of my friends asked me to identify some of the items (she was mystified by the thief "catcher"). In the church furnishings I did fine with the pulpit and the cross ( that one was easy! ) but IMG_0180 had me stumped. Not being able to see whether the top is solid, I guessed an alta...

Cap'n Atli

Uhnfortunately, fiber or plastic egg cartons share with carpet in being a fire hazard on verticle surfaces. Works fine in a small sound studio, but not so hot where your forging or grinding or otherwise striking sparks. The styrene will just add deadly gasses to the conflagration during the vertical...

Cap'n Atli

m One of my friends has pulled this up and likes it a lot; but wants to know if it could be used for migration period. I don't think so, at least not without major decloning, which would sort of muck-up the reason for purchasing a fancy ready-made helm. Still, are there similar migration-age analogs...

Cap'n Atli

Do not hang carpet from the walls; it's a big fire-safety no-no! (Burn down more forges that way... ) First questions: What is your workshop consteucted from? Where is it in raltion to the rest of the structure or other structures? Second questions: Is the soundproofing for your neighbors, your fam...

Cap'n Atli

"Talent is so irritating; in others."
(Uncle Atli's Very Thin Book of Wisdom)

Really nice work! I'm forwarding the site to some of my reenacting and blacksmithing friends, just to show them what real talent looks like.

Cap'n Atli

Cedar buckets are traditional on small craft for ahem sanitary needs. By the time I was growing up, enamel/steel buckets were in the ascendancy. The yew berries (and other parts) are toxic, but not horribly so; mostly just nasty and sticky when the local bully smeared them on you. This is true of th...

Cap'n Atli

One factor is how well mounted it is; a good mounting on a heavy stump at the right height increases its effectiveness. On the other claw, you can sometimes do light copper work right in you lap or with a small very portable stump. It all depends on the project. I keep about three around my forge, a...

Cap'n Atli

From: Early Anglo-Saxon Buckets by Jean M. Cook "The Online Corpus shows that in 43 cases the wood was identified as yew . Reliable identification of other wood types is exceeding rare: ash, blackthorn, cedar, conifer, fir, maple, oak, and pine in 19 cases altogether." As I remember, linden was also...

Cap'n Atli

Charcoal burns just as fast as mineral coal, on a pound-for-pound basis! You go though fuel something fierce, that's just the way it is (and was). You need a good deep fire, deeper than bituminous. (You need a deep fire, and a constant air blast for anthracite.) If you're trying to heat a large, fla...

Cap'n Atli

It's not enough to simply dress the part, you need to know what was involved in going viking.

No vessel, no Viking; get thee to a rowing bench!

www.longshipco.org

groups.yahoo.com/group/longship-company/

www.vikingagevessels.org

groups.yahoo.com/group/vikingagevessels/

Don't drown!

Cap'n Atli

Try: m I prefer "bit" for the cutting edge, "blade" for the main part, "eye" for the socket, and only use "poll" if there's an actual thickness of metal at the back side of the axe. Just my personal preference, but pretty clear and useful. Other terminolgy may vary- different ships, different long-s...

Cap'n Atli

I recently discovered (when she announced her upcoming resignation) that the Secretary of the Interior was younger than I am.

If we last long enough, we'll all be working for kids!

Cap'n Atli

If you have a forge, you might as well experiment with 5160 car spring and then buy some new stock for the primary project from a local dealer or a place like Admiral Steel.

No medium carbon steel, no sword:

http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/armor ... words1.htm

I'm sure others will chime in.

Good luuck and let us know how it goes.

Cap'n Atli

Vermillion wrote:Very interesting ! But the website looks like it has not been updated (or at least the information is out of date) for a very long time. It talks of the "plans for 2003".

If you click on the French language button, it's updated to 2005, AND the links all work.

Cap'n Atli

4. Copper-alloy chain , suspended on chest from brooches nos. 1-2. Length about 30 cm but broken. Similar in construction to the chain, no. 5, in grave 64: it is double linked, with alternate pairs of plain and riveted rings. At either end are iron rings. KAS615. I wondered if the chain and brooche...

Cap'n Atli

And from medieval Russia, another forge scene (please excuse the bad reproduction). From Metallurgy and Metalworking in Ancient Russia by B. A. Kolchin, Moscow, 1953 (translation (c) 1967) Published pursuant to an agreement with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation, Washin...

Cap'n Atli

What are these? m Halv I second this question! Birchbark containers with captive landsharks, of course. Stain: Oil finish with added pigment, such a MinWax. Enables you to color wood in a number of hues while showing the grain (unlike paint). As for paint, I'm experimenting with flowers of sulfur f...

Cap'n Atli

NEKKID GREEK BLACKSMITHS!

Cap'n Atli

Can we add to this ? hope so Any other illustrations are certainly welcome. I will point out that, in this case, it's be blacksmith's "evil wife" forging the nails forthe crucifixion. The rest of the details look good. Apparently, Tubal Cayne is wearing boots. However, one scholar identified them a...

Cap'n Atli

Stain vs. Paint

The advantage of stain for reenactment is that it gives an "instant age patina" to the wood; but even though they might have oiled the woodwork, did they stain it?

Have to run, more thoughts later...

Cap'n Atli

Olaf, any idea what that axe head is based off of? Looks rather modern to me, but I'd be thrilled if it were based on period examples. The utility knife is pretty slick too. Dave Seems to be within the technological and stylistic context; here's are three axes are from Mastermyr, Sweden. Numbers 2 ...

Cap'n Atli

ITALIAN (Top) Sixteenth century. Bellows operated by a man shifting his weight between the two. (Bottom) Bellows operated by a treadle arrangement. Note that it's still arranged for a two person operation, although it wouldn't take much to reverse the treadle leverage. Ah, the advantages of a large,...

Cap'n Atli

Tools from the grave of a 10th c. Norwegian weapons smith: 1) block anvil 2) sledges 3) light cross peen hammer 4) "turning" hammer 5) charcoal shovel 6) tongs 7) tongs, about 24" long metal shears 9) offset 10) " " 11) cold chisel 12) punch 13) mold (?) 14) draw plate (?) 15) nail header 16) Hardy ...

Cap'n Atli

1) "Furnace stone" or "bellows shield" from Snoptun in Jutland. Soapstone, about 8 inches high X 9.5 inches wide, circa 10th century. Given the size, this was probably for a small metalworker's forge. The hole is about 7/8th inch across. The face is of the demi-god Loki, associated with fire. 2) Sig...

Cap'n Atli

See if this works: ROMAN (Top and middle) First or second century, AD. Note twin pipes from the bellows shield, apparently joined at the nozzle, supplying air to a roofed forge. The smith sits at a block anvil of considerable size. To the right (continued below) are tongs, hammer, a spearhead and a ...

Cap'n Atli

I promised Cedri, about a month or two ago, to post some historic blacksmith pictures. Please note that I will later be posting a picture of "Nekked Greek Blacksmiths" from home, so this may not be Work Safe. So, here goes: First one of my favorites, Tubal Cayne as depicted ca. 1360. Note the leathe...

Cap'n Atli

Here I am as Thegn Edward:

MRL Does Coppergate; Opinions for a Friend...

Historic (Classical and Medieval) Blacksmith Pictures NWS