The Armour Archive

schreiber

Hey, Jacob, you need to get us close up pics of the hinges!
And while you're at it, get us a pic of how you did the chisel work. I'm sure you'll get a few drools out of that.

schreiber

mjaay wrote:Any tips on the best gloves to use?

Try these.
For the money, they get my vote.
I've used them in a couple pairs of clamshells now to great effect.

schreiber

Hold on. Let's find out what the purpose of your culminating project is. I'd never heard of this before (this is a No Child Left Behind artifact, according to Wikipedia) but it seems like the point is to put research into action. Everyone here is interested in armor. Not everyone is so interested in...

schreiber

IMO it would be fairly ideal for SCA combat. Provided we're not talking about anything that can be purchased at JoAnn. My liner is channels stuffed with wool roving, and it's heaven. I think of all the natural fibers I trust wool the most to protect my head. I've taken 7' pole excessive force hits t...

schreiber

Any time anyone says "the skull is x thick" on anything but the most low-end munition armour they are really just providing a point measurement. Thicknesses varied a lot. Point thicknesses is something I've been playing with recently. Two years ago I finally got one of my best friends out...

schreiber

Lookin' pretty tight. Great work! I think that if you harden the leather properly, they'll be fine without padding. However, I would definitely lose those interior straps. Here's what I do with steel clamshells. It works beautifully and should work exactly the same for yours. I put a single strap go...

schreiber

Hey, I"ve been promoted to master now! I don't consider it that hard to do this without a special stake or swage. The problem as Sean pointed out is an issue of stretching the metal. The way I've done it is like this: instead of hitting it a jillion times with a cross pien, I dish the area of t...

schreiber

Actually, on further thought, it's probably a combination of the viscous oil and some that turned to soot that gives it its black color.
Perhaps if you blacken it using some other method first, like leaving it black from a forge, and then do an oil "blackening" just as a sealant.

schreiber

Wut if I oiled a picec up and popped it in the oven? WOuld that do anything? I'm pretty sure that the indestructible crap that gets stuck to roasting pans is the same thing chemically as what you're shooting for with oil blackening. Problem is, in a lot of cases it's not black. I've done a bit of m...

schreiber

The first thing I'd do is view the helm from above, and note the shape of it. Then I'd do exhaustive cataloging of human heads, in an effort to find one that is the same basic shape when viewed from above. After that failed, I'd then go get another helm which matches the shape of a human head.... I ...

schreiber

Now, filing and de-burring the plates takes up a lot of time as well. No, it doesn't. One coat of plates? We're not talking about a brigandine, right? There is absolutely no reason why deburring ~15 plates should take more than one hour. It'd probably take me more like 20 minutes. That's enough tim...

schreiber

Lots of tiny, fragile bones are not a place to skimp. Hands and helms are important, and you SHOULD spend a lot of money on them. I dunno, the last metal gauntlets that came to be in my possession were more protective than most of what people are selling, and cost me a total of about $20. (Plus the...

schreiber

I've seen a good number of aluminum burners, too.... make sure that's not what you have. I could see the reasoning that a long burner would heat up a long piece, but really what you want is an enclosed environment with insulation, and have the air around the piece be 1900f... trying to hit it with d...

schreiber

Dishing is like blowing a bubble with bubble gum. Raising is like an aluminum cupcake cup, only the folds are squeezed together until the metal is thicker, instead of just folded up. I find it's much more difficult for me to maintain thickness on a piece I raise. It always ends up thicker. The last ...

schreiber

Ok, here's the thing - I use the 1/2" and 3/8" punches in my #8 more often than anything else. Mainly because I use it in cutting more than anything else. It makes the inside of cuts go lickety-split. Like if you're doing a greathelm face or a poleyn with a fan - there are right angles on ...

schreiber

Ambrogio wrote:Me too!!

My first thought was "Stop that, you should be 1050 curious."

schreiber

I won't be doing armor workshops for other people anymore. I won't be making gear for loaneror to help out new fighters who are not motivated enough to at least half the work. Well, I've only ever had really good friends in the shop, and I still have problems. Me: The line is clearly there, you hav...

schreiber

I don't think there's much that the ductile iron dishes won't do for you. Ironmonger just got a new foundry lined up and had ample supply of them at Pennsic two months ago. I'm pretty sure the reason you see ductile iron used is because it is much less prone to fracture than cast iron, and the melti...

schreiber

I've noticed that some people stuff a period liner in a helm and then can't figure out why people suggest them all the time. Well, mine is "stuffed" in my helm - but there are three points to be made. First, I used wool, which compacts and rebounds much better than cotton or linen. Second...

schreiber

yes it is Ductile Iron... unfortunately I do not know that it may not work so I figure that it should do fine for what I need. I only work .040 and thinner 4130 and ra410 steels so I hope it wont break. It is a little rough but that should sand out on my belt grinder shouldnt it? Will ductile iron ...

schreiber

i don't think they're protective enough to be safe. i LIKE my thumbs. I find the thumbs on mine to be ok - it's the fingers I'm really worried about. The thumbs have a hard bit of plastic on them, and foam underneath, and the whole thing is rigid. It's actually not bad. But the fingers - they're ju...

schreiber

Yep, I see these every once in a while.
Isn't it ductile iron? For the price I think I would rather have something made of 4140.
I'm really interested in knowing how the anticlastic curves work out on that. You planning on doing any raising with it as well?

schreiber

My solution was to put them in my armor bag as a last-ditch backup, keep my metal gauntlets in order, and generally forget that I have them.

schreiber

Konstantin the Red wrote:Well, PVC is snappable without too much effort. You figure out if it will take a hit or not.

Wearing aluminum maille in full contact combat is a bad enough idea.

schreiber

If cost is the reason you're looking at doing this, then why don't you contemplate making it yourself? Surely that is the lowest cost option.

schreiber

All of the 16 gauge I buy is actually 17 gauge. All of the 18 gauge I buy is actually 19 gauge. Either that, or my gauge is wrong, which I doubt. It would be nice if we could drop this gauge system and simply go by either mm or inches, but I suspect it's not going to happen anytime soon. Bottom line...

schreiber

Don't know about mail, but FF is what I use on my mild sheet to keep off the cancer while it's being stored. It's kind of a problem when I draw out patterns - I have to wipe it down to get sharpie to work at all, and the marks still rub off really easily. I think your biggest problem is going to be ...

schreiber

I talk to my neighbours and try to build a good relationship with them and as such i've never had an issue although they can rarely hear me which is good This. It helps that I actually know all of them. I also bring it up preemptively from time to time. They'll ask what I've been working on, I tell...

schreiber

Here's the best tip I can give that I had to figure out on my own. Stick welders with fixed settings are bunk. You want an infinitely variable type of welder. If your rod is sticking, up the amperage a little. Wash, rinse, repeat. When it's high enough to start buzzing as soon as you get close, then...

schreiber

Oh, shit, dude! Vaprous zinc will FUCKING KILL YOU DEAD@!!@!@!!!! It's true, I read it on the interweb!!!! Replace your hood IMMEDEATLEY!! Do the homework and find out what the fumes really do. BTW Konstantin is right - it's not going to be a problem unless your hood gets red hot. And even then, IT'...

schreiber

I went by eyeball after that, and by holding the piece up to my own shoulder. To get them to join properly, I used a big ball-stake, bolted the pieces together, and beat the livinâ€™ snot outta them. Basically, a â€˜force fitâ€™, I guess. I knew what I was looking for, but I was basically on my own...

schreiber

Any tool that contacts steel when working cold should leave the factory finish intact (like rawhide) or it should be polished so well that it actually improves the finish beyond what the factory put on it.

schreiber

Anybody got recommendations for riveting, though? I mistakenly grabbed a 5/32 drill bit (I think that was the size) when I drilled them out, and I'm at the point of strapping them together. Yeah, here's a suggestion: Get a whitney #5jr punch. Then get another one. Then get big whitney like a #7 or ...

schreiber

So, regarding your piece, Iohne: If this is your first steel piece, then I'm really not sure how you managed to pattern it, unless you raised it and then cut the top line. (Or perhaps it was all a colossal accident and you really effed something up and covered for it with a top plate?) I'm actually ...

schreiber

Here's the shoulder I was talking about. Now, I'm not claiming it's a dead ringer for what Iohne did... I'm just pointing out that what he did was indeed done.

Re: De-burring REALLY FAST