The Armour Archive

schreiber

He is looking for information to cast a Mempo for an oriental style helm. He was wondering what material to use, how thick it would need to be and all to be able to serve alone and not crack or shatter upon impact. I don't think it's a question of cost. I think mempo (at least authentic ones which ...

schreiber

Yeah, but you can scrounge an aluminum plate for free. Like my current getup, a solid Al candlestick held upside down in a machinist vise.

I could probably think of 100 things that $30 would buy that would be more useful for armoring.

schreiber

I think it's a matter of scale. Unless he's making 1:10 models of battleships, then his shear isn't going to be rated for armor thickness metal. I'm interested in seeing pics since I haven't seen this type of shear before. Perhaps it's an alternate configuration for the hand-cranked circular serrate...

schreiber

Some other notes.... I assume that this is a practice piece. You have some shoulders in the background which you are finishing, so I assume there are rounds of planishing & grinding in store for these elbows? If so, it needs to be done before articulation, since the planishing is going to change...

schreiber

If you have a bargrill welded to the helm (of course you do, it doesn't happen with movable grills) then wrapping a piece of leather around the bottom bar will eliminate ringing.

schreiber

So I guess perhaps I should have asked what can be done to speed up the polishing process automatically. I am not looking for a fast fix just something to leave me with some fingertips at the end I have a bench grinder and am wondering about what wheels are available for it, for the small pieces I ...

schreiber

If there is one thing that putting my shop together has taught me, it's not to jump the gun. I'd ask some questions before offering advice: -Have you made armor before? -If not, are you planning to? -If so, have you figured out answers to the roughly 14,359 other problems you run into in the process...

schreiber

I don't do any production work, so I longer rivets than I generally need. I also have a pair of hoof nippers. When I'm setting a rivet, I put it through - possibly the wrong way if I don't have room inside for tools - and clip it off at the length I need. 3/16" of soft iron is no match for 14&q...

schreiber

So do they pull out the teeth before they try to turn them, or is it some kind of wacky 5-axis machine that spins your body around the tool? If you didn't get a lathe and it's actually a dental flexshaft tool, I'd suggest that it's more valuable in that form, and the motor probably doesn't have enou...

schreiber

I imagine when the 15th century mafia takes over the SCA, we'll start seeing nice cheap Italian-style sallets showing up for sale. Strife: www.tinyurl.com is your friend. Glad you found a non-spuntop. You would have either quit fighting or suffered miserably for 3-5 years in it before finding out th...

schreiber

AFAIK the Unpronounski gambesons are pretty bulky, short-sleeved things, right? For the money, you can't beat dryer lint. Sew a canvas garment with 1.25" - 1.5" channels in it. The tough part is figuring out how wide it will need to be, since stuffing the channels reduces their width. Sew ...

schreiber

I'm in the middle of a similar project. m It's been too darned cold to go out recently, but it's up to 60 now so I'm picking it back up tonight... Here's my humble advice. I know this thread doesn't show much but I've made a lot of unphotographed progress since then. Your metacarpal pattern is too s...

schreiber

Nicely done! Have you thought about doing the temper manually with a torch? I've done small pieces (lamellar) with a propane torch and it worked out really well - just chase the blue around the whole thing. The nice thing about what you've built is that you can also do some serious forging if you wa...

schreiber

If one were to make quilted padding from scratch (going with the oven mitt idea), how thick ought they be? Oven mitts and potholders vary quite wildly in size. Assume regular roll cotton batting. Thanks, Christopher While you're at the fabric store buying cotton batting, look to the left and right ...

schreiber

I do not mean to be rude but I do not believe the assertion that kydex is dangerous. Kydex is the material of choice for custom knifemakers and holstermakers. A cursory search brings up numerous tutorials by hobbyists who regularly heat it in closed environments in toaster ovens or kitchen ovens, an...

schreiber

Before commenting, we should ask what they will be used for.
I think all of your answers so far have been from an SCA combat perspective.

schreiber

Ditto on oxy-propane. If you don't already have a torch, you can expect to spend about 10 times what you think you should have to spend on one. They are NOT cheap, at least not when you add in good regulators. I don't do any raising because I don't have a rosebud. I use torches for welding, annealin...

schreiber

I tried using cotton batting in the beginning because I'm a cheapskate and cotton is much less expensive. The problem I had with cotton batting is the same problem you'd have with dryer lint. Cotton compacts much more than wool. The batting is marginally softer than the lint. It would be great for p...

schreiber

InsaneIrish, can you give us a source for where you got that pic? It's a mix of styles possibly covering 200 years. The word "corrazina" is often used to specify a covered breastplate from the late 14th century. I have read that the word actually means just "breastplate" or somet...

schreiber

I'll second (or third or fourth, at this point) the suggestion to start with charcoal. I usually have a heck of a time with coal. We were playing with some a couple years ago, trying to smelt malachite. There's knowledge on how to deal with coal which you don't get from family barbecues. We didn't h...

schreiber

The easiest way I've found to do this is with an existing pattern, like Konstantin said, and fulled wool. Fulling is what you are never supposed to do with wool. Get some really heavy material like you'd make a cloak out of. Then wash it on hot, and dry it as hot as your machine will dry. What you e...

schreiber

I haven't had an injury in a while, except for a blood blister from the #5jr slipping while trying to punch stainless with a worn out punch. If I'm doing a bunch of monkey work on something, I usually stop it for a couple days and think about what I could do to get around the monkey work. For exampl...

schreiber

First, I rarely grind anything, and when I do, I do it outside. If I need to do edges of metal, like cleaning up after cutting, I use files, since they're just about as fast, they're much quieter, do a better job, and don't throw metal particles all over everything. When I do need to grind, I try to...

schreiber

Ah, I remember being in my early 20's.... Now, don't take this the wrong way. I was there. I had a marriage, a kid, a house mortgage, and a real non-industrial job all get in the way, but I've been hobby armoring for the last 10 years. I now have a shop appropriate for dishing a breastplate, and eve...

schreiber

I'm pretty sure I read it online. I don't argue with books, so touche'.

Although if you could cite me what books you've looked at I'd like to know - not because I'm a smartass, but because I want copies in my shop.

schreiber

Remember that when tempering time is a factor as well as temperature. All the tables I've seen say that you can substitute heat with time to a certain extent. If the powder is baked for a long time then my guess is 450 is definitely enough to affect the temper. Maybe not much, but I'm betting it'll ...

schreiber

Avery, this is the one I use: m It is pretty different than your usual Victor/Harris setup. It is much hotter, for one thing, and the flame is smaller. It uses far less gas, and it comes with a video tutorial on how to use it. I have used mine to weld bargrills with little effort, all the way down t...

schreiber

I'm a huge fan of the torch. It'll do clean bar welds and clean butt welds on sheet, with minimal grinding. And you can see what you're working on with lightly tinted goggles. And you don't have white hot sparks showering all over everything. It is not for production work, since welding takes easily...

schreiber

Hey Halberds, thanks for that idea. I could actually just make an adapter that way and put square stock in it. The blacksmith idea is kind of a bust. A blacksmith made the crappy tapers I'm having to grind. And though I do my own work, the guy who made these is better than I am. I got some gonzo sta...

schreiber

I am one of the handful of people on this forum who actually bought a stake plate. I love it and want to use it more but I have two questions. 1 - is there an easy way to clean up crappily made stakes so that they fit properly in the plate (besides hand grinding - looking for a trick here) 2 - is th...

schreiber

I got a couple of these. The dollies as stated are valuable if welded to a stake-ish piece of steel. The hammers as stated are light. They work pretty well for me on 18g mild, I have to oomph 16g mild, and helmet-thickness mild and stainless, well, I may as well be using a flyswatter. They are ugly ...

schreiber

the auction wrote:We offer shipping to all 48 continuous United States via FedEx. Shipping costs will be paid by the buyer, and will be added to the invoice during checkout.

Sending 100 11"x96" sheets of 18g steel through FEDEX?
I can't believe that's cheaper than buying it from admiral.

schreiber

Und was kostet die Maschine, und werden SchrÃ¶der die nach Ãœbersee absenden? My guess is way too much, and no. But that's something along the lines of the bead rollers I've seen that'll do the trick. Jiri, if you don't mind me asking, what thickness are you working with that you're able to use your...

schreiber

Where do you find a bead roller that will do 16ga stainless? You don't. That's the problem. Anything rated that high goes for broke and will probably do 12g stainless, from what I've seen - but they're huge 3-phase industrial machines that are most likely only legally welcome in industrially zoned ...

schreiber

And sewing machines are the modern incarnation of the devil. Oh, the modern ones are, sure. Get yourself a metal-cased machine from Salvation Army. The reason they're evil is because the ones you're using are made of plastic and prayer. The new ones won't even sew canvas for very long without tuneu...

Making stakes?