The Armour Archive

schreiber

Found places that sell kaowool. How do you wet it down and sculpt it like cement? Steve I don't think you sculpt it. You just attach it to the wall of the forge/cone/whatever. I've seen people put large wires through it & such. If you want it to stay put you need to get a separate hardener/rigidize...

schreiber

Regarding flame retardancy.... well, there is a LOT of organic compound solvent of some sort in Canvak. It outgasses for a couple weeks. Until it's done, it's not really wise to spend a lot of time in the tent. I imagine the flame retardancy may be a negative value during that time. Afterward, I'm n...

schreiber

Ours is 13.5' in diameter--was made to scale to allow for forced perspective when filming the army "camp". The large original ones slept soldiers radially around an interior conical stove. Wow, way interesting. Makes total sense. Tentsmiths says Sibley's patent called for an 18' footprint and 12' h...

schreiber

AFAIK Hamilton Dry Goods is still the cheapest place to get Sunforger, but it's a crap shoot whether they'll have any. Hamilton's site links directly here: http://periodfabric.com/sunforger-tent-canvas/ However........ I'm not convinced that Sunforger is always the best option. This Spring I'll be m...

schreiber

Are they one-offs or do you need a run?
If it's a run, then you really ought to contact a professional casting house. They charge a setup fee, and then AFAIK it's still priced by weight after that, no matter how many pieces.

schreiber

For the money you'd drop on a B3 I'd be looking at metal bandsaws as an alternative.

schreiber

Regarding deck sealant... Back in the mid-90's when I was first getting into tentmaking, I heard some really negative things about using deck sealant, and I'm glad I steered away from it. Canvas is by its nature waterproof. You can buy natural, untreated canvas and make a tent out of that, and it'll...

schreiber

If I made the rules, anyone wearing this kit would be required to paint the helmet light purple.
To accurately reflect his contribution to the game.

schreiber

Wasn't really thinking the sewing machine thing through. Well, to harp on it a bit more.... Flat-felling a seam produces a minimum of four layers of canvas. In places where you're going to sew two seams together, like on the ridge where the wall seams meet, that becomes 8 layers of canvas. If you f...

schreiber

PM sent... I have finals this week but I'll make time...

schreiber

To me building a tent is like building a helmet, I wouldn't bother doing just one. I do both tents and helms, and I'll support this... it's the "if you're going to invest in the tools then it's horribly expensive to make one" type of thing. A serviceable tent can be made using an older machine. You...

schreiber

Huh.... is it even a Roper Whitney? What's the total OD on the punch and on the die? The #8/#2 dieset is 1/2" total OD on the punch, and 7/8" total OD on the die, with IIRC 14 threads/inch. At 18" it's short for a #8/#2 - they're longer than that, and the #2 definitely has a straight bottom handle l...

schreiber

I can't tell for sure but it looks more like a RW #2. The #2 had gear teeth on the handle, whereas the #8 works on an eccentric. The #2 is nice if you punch one or two holes of a particular diameter and then have to swap tooling. But it sucks for repeated punching because opening the handle too far ...

schreiber

I was going to suggest getting a cutoff blade for a circular saw, but Johann has the right of it - no need to waste discs and material. 3/16".... the other possibility is that if you have a torch of any kind that burns oxygen you could normalize lines on it and then pay someone with a giant shear to...

schreiber

As someone whose entire collection of tools has to fit in a 1-car garage, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

schreiber

Wow, sharp.
How thick is the steel?
Do the wrist plates overlap?

I can't help but wonder what they'd look like if you let the steel russet. Maybe it'd blend in with the cuff and look like gloves.

schreiber

I will never be able to make the same amount of money armoring that I can make dealing with people's computer problems, and I have yet to experience anything related to typing which requires five stitches... ...so since I don't need to get X amount to eat this week, I generally just let the market d...

schreiber

I was quoted $90 for a 18g mild steel cold rolled sheet and the freight and guillotine services were free and a good bunch of blokes so im glad to have that sorted. I don't know what kind of dollars you're talking about... if it's USD then that's a really good deal considering freight and cutting c...

schreiber

I've done a number of 3/4" holes in 3/8" plate with my little Delta. Those holes may be the reason there's an almost imperceptible wobble in the tip of a 6" bit now... but it did drill them. Predrill a smaller hole, of course. Then have an oil can right nearby. I like to drill sopping wet with oil. ...

schreiber

Whatever you do, please make sure you've tested it on some scrap before subjecting your helm to it.
You'd be surprised how little effort it takes to turn a good helm into just a handful of rusty flakes.

schreiber

To answer the OT question: I also fight in an integrated bevor sallet, and I love it. As I'm fond of pointing out, my chinstrap is metal, and I'm not going back to leather. Some people have fought in detached-bevor sallets. I don't understand how. I would be really nervous about getting my nose forc...

schreiber

Dougal, I'd bet my lunch money that at least two of those examples are later sallets with integrated bevors. http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=54431 Now this is very interesting... there are two spring pins on this one. Why would that be? The lower one is obviously for the ...

schreiber

Thomas Powers wrote:Please forgive me for my irrational emphasis on the subject.

I'm ok with the emphasis. I simply want to know the truth of the matter.
Is this the story of your friend? It's the only case I have ever seen reference to.

schreiber

Zinc poisoning has always been the most overstated danger on this site. We are all doing at least a dozen more dangerous things about a hundred times more often. If you have a drill press, it is more dangerous than zinc fumes. If you have an awl stitcher, it is more dangerous than zinc fumes. Whatev...

schreiber

Just for kicks I went looking through CraigsList to see what's for sale around Tampa. There's zero reason for you to buy HF. There are a couple small Deltas there (I own a Delta and had to beat the crap out of it to make a 6" long bit wobble a bit at the very end) and lots of larger tabletop presses...

schreiber

I always had luck using temples and earlobes as mount points.

schreiber

Some notes from my experience... My safety goggles are on from the moment I step into the shop until the moment I leave, and if I'm grinding I'll most likely have the full face shield on, since they're cheap and intended for this use. Better goggles might stop things creeping in from the side, but i...

schreiber

I dunno, guys, whereas I'm a big, big fan of the files (they often actually work just as quickly as a power tool would, provided you know what to do with them), this is one case where I wouldn't reach for them. The main reason is because files are part of a two-tool solution. The other half is the v...

schreiber

Will email or text you pictures my mac never seems to resize the photos small enough to post on the AA. let me know if your interested. Well you can breathe easy because no camera manufactured after Bill Clinton was in the White House will produce photos small enough for the AA forum. My suggestion...

schreiber

None of this was around during the time in question. Well the whole thread is hopelessly confused. What we need to do at this point is stop using the term "King David era" altogether. Apparently the earliest archaeological evidence of David dates to as late as 835 BC, whereas conventional dating pu...

schreiber

My liner is stuffed tubes. I make no representations as to their authenticity... only to their function. I made I think 5 trapezoidal pieces and sewed each one into channels. The channels are trapezoidal as well, so after stuffing the top worked out to be like 1/2" thick while the bottoms are closer...

schreiber

Harbor Fright stuff can be crappy but once in a while they serve up usable gear. The reviews on that controller are good. Yeah I got one over the weekend. The good: it works. See below. The bad: First, it's not 0-max rpm. It bottoms out at about 30 or 40% of max rpm. That's good enough to vary a ro...

schreiber

Compared to raw cotton, does the wool padding retain more heat? Does it breathe better or worse? Doesn't matter - cotton is an altogether inappropriate material for padding. It doesn't bounce back... at all. Picture the stuff you pull out of your dryer's lint trap. It seems all gossamer and fluffy....

schreiber

People who have made themselves either a suspension-liner or a quilted hood-like affair to fit their heads and only secondarily to the helmet, attaching said hood thing to the lower edge of the helmet, swear they will never go back to any sort of overall foam padding. I am one of them. I will liter...

schreiber

How many kids?
I married a B cup, but two kids later she's wearing D's.
You might not want to commission a custom breastplate.....

...However, if I was working for you, I would probably see if I could make a Churburg 13 that can have the amount of overlap adjusted.

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Re: Do you fight SCA with a bevor? How is it?

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Re: how to pad or what to pad a helm with?

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