1580's Augsburg Cuirass

[Johann ColdIron]

Appreciate it Otto!

First pass on the fauld



Then plotting the hem &bump roll.



Then really needed to be sure it was fitting me properly before proceeding. Was able to get over to Wades for a bit of socially distanced test fitting.







And it works! The arm harness functioned well and did not appear to get caught up on the Cuirass. Needed to open the left one just slightly as it was cupped a bit more than the cuirass could accommodate. Hanging the arms off of the steel shoulder straps works incredibly well. It takes all the weight from the arm harness and transfers it to the hips/body rather than weighing the gorget down on your collarbones. The gorget just free floats under there in a good way. The side hinges maintain the body opening much better than I expected. Not having the leather belt there allows the waist opening to remain consistent and not constrict. I thing the Augsburgians were on to something...

[Scott Martin]

Coming along nicely - I'm hoping that COVID is under control this summer so that I can finally come down for a study session (and bash some metal on the side...

The side hinges maintain the body opening much better than I expected. Not having the leather belt there allows the waist opening to remain consistent and not constrict. I thing the Augsburgians were on to something...

My breast and back uses pins on the sides for the closure - basically a keyhole slot and a pair of rivets welded into the backplate. It sucks when I gain weight, but really does work better than a belt (which I put over the pins to make it look right, and hide an ugly weld on the backplate - my best attempt 25 years ago). On the flip side, I still fit into my harness, which puts me ahead of many of my contemporaries

Scott

[Johann ColdIron]

Coming along nicely - I'm hoping that COVID is under control this summer so that I can finally come down for a study session (and bash some metal on the side...

That would be great. Would be nice to meet you in person and chat armour!

The side hinges maintain the body opening much better than I expected. Not having the leather belt there allows the waist opening to remain consistent and not constrict. I thing the Augsburgians were on to something...

My breast and back uses pins on the sides for the closure - basically a keyhole slot and a pair of rivets welded into the backplate. It sucks when I gain weight, but really does work better than a belt (which I put over the pins to make it look right, and hide an ugly weld on the backplate - my best attempt 25 years ago). On the flip side, I still fit into my harness, which puts me ahead of many of my contemporaries

Scott

One nice feature of this system is the three hole adjustment in both the sides and the shoulder "straps". Built it to fit my current doublet in the center one. I figure the large is for mail and the small is for when I forget the doublet and have my rapier doublet on which does not have the gorget underpadding. Technically I could gain or lose a few pounds and it would still fit.

But yes, the cuirass is a motivator when it comes to snacks and/or exercise...

You remind me that I need to make a new belt for this. It is just big enough that my traditional 16th cent sword hanger belt will not fit. Many of the portraits do show them slung off the belt rather than on the hips.

[Johann ColdIron]

After the test fit confirmed a few limits to the fauld I plotted the hems and rolled the flanks. Saved the center for last. Quick word about faulds. In the late 16th century many flair OUT way more you might think. Most I surveyed after Wade pointed out mine not doing that were at least at 45*. Part of this is to allow movement the other is to accommodate the voluminous pants of the time. I did find that John Smythe's harness is closer to 30* and more in line with mine. But flair them more than you think you have to.



Here is the finished hem complete with flush roll and valley with roping. Flush roll will allow the additional lames of the legs to lay flat on top of this lame rather than getting jacked up by a bump roll.



And on to Bracing! I put a shaped 2x2 in horizontally under the gorget to support the sides and act as a clothes hanger of sorts. This is through bolted through the gorget and the shoulder straps at the arm harness suspension holes. There is a 3/8" rod running in the center vertically to act as the "spine" of the system.

[Johann ColdIron]

Top view showing the clothes hanger view and the lifting eye for the heat treater to use as a pick point. This is going into a 27" deep kiln on a crane of some sort. Nice that the bracing does not have to support the piece from "feet" during the heating process. That would mean a much more involved armature.



Kind of like this inside view. I welded the braces in mutual support nodes kind of like a roll cage. Tacked many of the individual bars to tabs that are bolted through the existing rivets holes, or directly to the bolts in those holes. Also used some of the Beam clamps that Chris Gilman suggested in his Harness thread. They are quite handy. Thanks Chris! Tried not to weld directly to the work piece edges as I only have a MIG and tend to make more work for myself when used on thin sheet.



Here it is ready to go to the heat treater. Just barely fits into this tote. Had to cut the ends of the Beam clamp bolts flush and slot them for a flat head. I'm going to run self tapping screws through the top to keep curious eyes out of it on it's trip. It's been a LOOOONG trip to get this far. Very excited to get this back, clean it up and start using it!

[Scott Martin]

Very exciting - I'm looking forward to seeing how this come out!

I've been remiss in posting gauntlet progress, I'll try to redeem myself in the next couple of days

Scott

[Mac]

Have you got something to keep the fauld in the "down" position? Otherwise it will be out of place is the heat treating is done with the armor sitting upright.

Mac

[Johann ColdIron]

I appreciate your experienced eye looking at this Mac! My understanding of the process the Heat Treater will use involves suspending the workpiece from a Jib crane of some sort through out the entire process so it will not rest on the fauld while hot. So there is a lifting eye on the top end of the "clothes hanger".

The fauld is trapped in two places but I was debating whether it was enough. At the assembly rivets and sandwiched between rod stock in the hem valley at the tips of the outside corners. Here are some pics.




The fauld sits flush with the BP while cold but I am worried about warpage especially during quench that might cause a ripple or other changes. But I am struggling on how to control the center without clamping or otherwise distorting the fauld lame. I did some heat matching with tight clamps and there was a noticeable dent where the clamps held tight and the rest of the lame flowed to rest once relieved of stress. Don't want to repeat that!

Looking at Grenville's suit his fauld based tassets have a center rivet that I could use as an assembly rivet location to control them but Grenville seems to be one of the few that I can find that has that central rivet. An added concern is that the BP's peascod flair has a repaired crack in it right under the nose that is stable now but I am reluctant to add stress to it during the HT by drilling and mounting them together there. I could just drill only the fauld and use a tab to hold onto the BP from below kind of like I did with the front of the gorget. But don't like the idea of a hole in the center of the thinnest part of the Fauld at all. I may be over thinking this.

Any suggestion or tips on Fauld control?

[Mac]

What you have there will probably do as long as it's hanging. The rivet is an attractive option though. If it were me, I think I'd do the rivet, and not have bothered with the grabby-things on the sides of the lame. the idea of a repaired crack on the flange is a bit off-putting, but that's a place where I would not expect any problem in the heat treating.

Mac

[Johann ColdIron]

Thanks Mac! I'll let you know how it turns out. I appreciate the guidance.

[Johann ColdIron]

Got my cuirass back from the Heat treater. Had to go with an alternate since my usual guy was backed up. Sent it all the way to Portland to Stack Metallurgical. They have done armour for Ugo and others so I took the leap. Shipping both ways took more time than their Queue and was as expensive as the work...

Overall looking pretty good. Nice consistent oxide layer inside and and out. BP, Back plate and gorget behaved nicely and have retained their proper shape.



Only the fauld went a bit wonky. It lifted from the ends a bit and puckered where it was trapped by the assembly bolts on the sides. Not sure if my method of trapping the tips of it helped or hurt. Should have been controlled more at the top of the ends but that was difficult to get clamped.





My first attempts at reshaping the fauld by hand over a stake was illuminating. It fought pretty hard. Obviously the temper is doing its job!

Ended up clamping it where the pucker at the rivet hole was and giving it some firm wraps with a nylon faced hammer. Got the kinks out pretty well eventually. Would have preferred to do the stop temper technique Mac showed in his blog but my kiln is just too small for this. Hence why it went to Stack in the first place!

Knocked off the flakey part of the oxide layer last night with the wire wheel. It is pretty stubborn stuff. PB60 on a buffing wheel only grudgingly cuts it. Going to be slow going till I get all of that gone. But I am looking forward to getting it assembled for Armistice.

[Scott Martin]

Looking good John!

I find that 320 grit zircon does the best job of dealing with the scale while removing minimal material, although it is important that you refresh often since once the grit is no longer "sharp" it slows considerably. I used to use 240 (which lasts much longer) but it removes significantly more thickness, and a lot of the material I am using 0.005" is more than I want to lose to abrasives.

My current treatment on carbon steel is to do a coarse (240 grit or 320 grit) pass before treating, then a 320 grit pass to remove firescale, a 600 grit pass to take out the scratches and then polish with white tripoli. If you are working on a large piece (like a breastplate) you may want to consider mounting a muslin buff on an angle grinder. This gives *insane* cut speed, and you need to be careful not to overheat, but it polishes really fast to a hard bright shine. Make sure to wear protective equipment and a respirator, because it's also incredibly messy

I mostly do the "pre treatment" grind to find any high / low patches since (as you have noted) once it is heat treated the steel isn't going to move. I failed to do this on my first piece, and went to planish out a small dimple. After going up to a 2 lb hammer to "planish" I realized that something that took a few light taps on stainless was entirely futile on treated carbon steel!

Scott

[Johann ColdIron]

Thanks Scott!

I went over everything preheat treat for surface issues for that very reason. Only areas I had to tune back up were where clamping force caused a reaction. At the Fauld and also found some to do where I had the gorget clamped to the BP. But the Gorget front seemed a bit less hard and the work went easier. Perhaps because it was layered under other parts and the heat soak was different. Might not have been an issue if I had used 13ga for the front like the original.

I've never tried Zircon abrasives. I'll take a look at that next go round. Though I do not go as fine as you are. I usually don't go past 80 grit and then a Scotch brite wheel to even the surface. I'm looking for an easily renewable surface in the field. This kit will be used with steel sword blades so it will be perpetually scratched. Also why I am not Bluing this stuff.

I've soldiered on with the PB 60 and 80 grit. It is cutting eventually. Just have to keep applying it to the wheels. I do have some flap wheels headed my way to deal with some deep scratches on the BP from draw filing the center crest and other trouble spots. I could use a 4.5 angle grinder as you suggested but I don't like having to dress the swirls afterwards. If the flaps don't cut it I will likely break out the 4.5 and then dress the areas... with the flap wheels

All gorget parts are processed. I'll be assembling it tonight. Then on to the rest this weekend once I get my lawn tractor running. Something mechanical always becomes needy right when I am getting ready for an event. Must be a corollary to Murphy's law.

I wear all PPE. At my age I can feel the cumulative effect of not doing so in my youth. Also I am mildly allergic to cotton dust. Can't buff if you are sneezing!

[Scott Martin]

I wear all PPE. At my age I can feel the cumulative effect of not doing so in my youth. Also I am mildly allergic to cotton dust. Can't buff if you are sneezing!

That is not so much fun - perhaps I have avoided this by being picky about wearing a respirator.

To avoid the "swirls" you need to make sure to just use the outer edge (last 1" or so) of the edge and use it in a consistent alignment. I almost always clamp my grinder in and the present the work to the grinder instead of clamping the piece and holding the grinder. For the Buff, it will work the same as on a bench grinder (because it is only the edge than can be used anyway) but the cut speed is pretty insane. I probably go through 4x the compound per unit area using an angle grinder to buff, and it sprays shredded cotton and compound everywhere, but generally takes less than half the time to get to a mirror finish, and it is a "hard" finish - very consistent.

With the carbon steel you may want to take one piece and take it to a mirror as an experiment to see what maintenance is like. Since your armour and the blades are similar material, you may find that strikes that used to cause "dings" or scratches in your armour are now reduced scuffs that can be polished out. Since many higher quality armours *were* mirror finished and obviously saw combat (Maximillians gauntlets spring to mind) and we don't see lots of other scratches on them this may have merit. I know that when I went to stainless steel in the SCA, my mild steel armour kept picking up scratches while the stainless just scuffed (which came out in seconds with the polisher).

Hoping to make it out your way in the next year - especially if Wade does another workshop!

Scott

[Johann ColdIron]

It is done...







Now all I have to do is pack. Armistice here I come!

[Otto von Teich]

It turned out GREAT! Well done sir.

[Scott Martin]

We will be expecting pictures of the completed set as worn - and a breakdown of the things you like and what you wish you had done differently!

Scott

[I. Stewart]

Guess I picked the right week to start reading this thread! Outstanding work.

[Johann ColdIron]

Thanks all!

A brief after action report but pics will come later. Didn't have a good chance to take them.

Fought some in the new armour. It did reasonably well though I am going to have to get used to the gravity of the full kit. May need to lift some weights too! I was basically invulnerable to blows to the harness so I had to pay attention to what was hitting me. Felt impact but absolutely no pain. Stabs slipped on the BP unless at 90* to the surface. Need to make permanent steel hinged arm harness mounts on the shoulder straps. My leather shoulder straps and pins were fussy for the guys I roped into assembling me. They installed them in the wrong holes, by no fault of their own, making the arms not quite adjusted right and catching under the backplate. Since it is always going to be some random person helping I need to make it foolproof.

I am also going to have to get used to the solid back and breast confinement. It was a bit claustrophobic after exertion and wanting to breathe with my belly like a normal human. Also learned I can't reach my side hinges to pop myself open. May need to extend those pin retaining straps to a length I can reach. I don't expect to armour myself but would be nice to be able to pop straps when needed.

Ended up with some bruising from the gussets under my arms and they were annoying. Got to give that some thought. May need to consider adding my voiders to the mix to prevent pinching. Or adding an enclosed rerebrace. But the rerebrace is redundant with these spaulders so I don't want that. Looking at my German armour photos it looks like mail is used more frequently in the slightly earlier harnesses with leather articulated floating elbows (like mine) and enclosed rerebraces dominate the solid articulating examples that come later. Ultimately I think a solid articulated arm harness with pauldrons is the answer but that will have to come later. A burgonet is next.

After chatting with Wade a bit I think the spaulder buckle mounts being in the front may be exacerbating the pinching. I moved them from the rear in an earlier fitting because I thought they were catching on the backplate. But that was before the steel shoulder straps were part of the system. We are going to get together this weekend and diagnose. I hope to press him into photography service as well.

[wcallen]

I am looking forward to getting together. We should be able to check out the buckle placement, and get some pictures.

We can also do a quick survey of new stuff in the collection since... it has been a long time. I at least have some new later 16th c. stuff that is right down your alley. We can let you play with the older stuff too.

More actual armour on the field is a good thing. I don't think that there is a lot of late 16th c. stuff out there in the SCA. Kudos for giving it a go.

Wade

[wcallen]

John came over on Sunday. We played with some of the new pieces I have acquired (oops.. I forgot to pull stuff off of the wall... but John isn't all that into the late 15th c. stuff anyway). And we will have to remember to look at the crannequin too. We did play with the new Francois salade, the little bits, the bracer and the breast, back, gorget and tassets from a cuirassier armour.

Next up is a burgonet. So, we pulled several of them out and played with them. There are lots of interesting subtle differences to study. Skull form, comb form, brim angle, construction details, etc. Cumberland in the RA looks like a good starting point. I don't have a buff, but I do have similarly formed burgonets.

We took my nice new Acme Armour Caliper (John delivered it) to a couple of them. The ones we played with are munition pieces so they are pretty thin. A general characterization would be about .05 in. in the skull, but there is a lot of variation. I found .028, and I found some spots up to .07. One of them is closer to .040. These aren't really designed to stop everything, but they would help keep you from being killed a few times.

Then we put John's armour on and discussed details of how the shoulders are working. A new solid mount at the shoulder (next in plan) will probably make them a lot easier to put on.

We didn't get pictures, it was raining.

It was good to get together. It has been a while.

Wade

[Rene K.]

I'm a bit jealously about that... ;-P

[Johann ColdIron]

I'm a bit jealously about that... ;-P

I am quite lucky to have Wade near me as a friend and armour resource. He has taught me a great deal.

If you find yourself in NC please come through. You would have a place to crash with us and I'm sure Wade would love to share his collection with you as well.

[Rene K.]

I'm a bit jealously about that... ;-P

I am quite lucky to have Wade near me as a friend and armour resource. He has taught me a great deal.

If you find yourself in NC please come through. You would have a place to crash with us and I'm sure Wade would love to share his collection with you as well.

A bit out of reach for me in the moment, but thank you

[Johann ColdIron]

Finally spent some time making the hinged spaulder mounts. Simple through pin style like the rest of the mounts.





Sits pretty well with the spaulder attached, at least on the dummy.



The pins height was about 3/4". Looks tall without anything on it but the originals are tall too. Seems to sit with the spaulder all the way up against the pin though. Not sure if that just means my spaulders need to be tweaked more open or if this is an intentional feature of the system. I expect they can float up and down on the pin as the arm goes through it's range of motion.

[wcallen]

Looking good.
How well do the hinges "stop" before they bend down?
I ask because that would help prevent the nightmare that the old leathers caused when trying to connect the spaulders to the straps.

Wade

[Johann ColdIron]

They still droop to the extent you see in the second picture. I had made the hinges bodies earlier this year before we talked about trying to prevent that.

But if you nestle the post into the spaulder hole and shove- the post pops through far enough to get the pin in. Don't think the helper will have to chase it down from the inside like we had to with the leather. That was unacceptable!

If it doesn't work I'll just make another set.

[Scott Martin]

Is this where I point out that coulter pins are an 18th century thing? The "in period" post closure is those fiddly inside pins that spring out a wedge of metal, I suspect in large part to deal with exactly this issue: hole goes over the post and *pop* they are secured. a bit more fiddly to get off, but if you are "chasing" it, then the spring closure is already released. The other option is turning pins, but they tend to be used where you need a snug fit, where the "spring posts" were used where rotation was a useful thing (tassets, spaulders / pauldrons and the like)

I've been doing a think about how I want to get my harness to go together *before* I build it, since the closure system affects the design in many (mostly subtle) ways. This is why my arm harnesses will have turners, to allow me to have a single point of connection to the pauldron / spaulder (using a turning pin and a keyhole slot for this point) and attach to the gorget or shoulder strap (if I go with steel straps) using a spring pin.

I'm still trying to decide if I am using leather straps for the Breast and Back, since this seems to have been the most typical solution until the mid-late 17th century, and I'm aiming for late 15th early 16th century (1480-1520) with Lorentz as my "go to" inspiration.

Leg harnesses will need cased greaves (mostly built but need serious "tweaking") and the german / flemish turning pin arrangement to lock onto the demi-greaves (this is a keyhole for a rivet on one side and a turning pin on the other). This allows the weight of the leg harness to be carried on the calves, with laces at the top to keep the cuisses from flopping forward. Tassest / Faud and Brayette are still under consideration. I anticipate that if I use a brayette that many inspectors / marshals will flip out because they are "not safe" (AKA "Haven't seen it before, and don't want to think or reveal that I don't know the rules here...") which may be a worthy objective in and of itself. I wish I could remember the armour that had an embossed elephant (with trunk) as the decoration on this piece.

Scott

[Johann ColdIron]

The cotter pins... you caught me. Guess that means you are looking closely... They are a left over from the previous spaulder rig. I am using them for place holders.

They will be replaced by solid pins similar to the ones that hold the sides and shoulder pegs. I was worried that they could be battered to the point of not being removable without pliers. Now that I see that the pins will slide flush to the spaulder face and not stick out far that seems to be less of an issue. The split pins on the elbows will be swapped out too now that I am standardizing. Though I have not decided if I will add a keeper there since they are only taken off for maintenance and not for exchange pieces... yet.

The detail is based on some Greenwich harnesses which have similar side drilled pegs for all three hinge locations. No spring pegs on any of them. They sport folded sheet metal cotter pins curled into a round cross section and the lanyard goes through the loop, or straight pins with a loop. Of course there is no guarantee that they are original since they could be easily lost or modified.

In my search for references there were- obviously modern cotter pins, tubular sheet metal cotter pins, straight pins with flat forged eyes, straight pins with centered loop eyes and straight pins with off set to one side loop eyes, oh and sneck hooks. Of all the methods a solid pin with a looped offset eye seemed the most likely to work in all my locations. Especially the front shoulder strap location that needs to sit as flat as possible to let the spaulder glide over it.

I actually have some spring pegs roughed out and could have pushed through with them but I'm not happy with their fit and finish. Especially after seeing the beautiful work Rene did on his. The mortices on mine look really rough and they will likely be replaced with a Mark II version if I decide to implement them.

Good for you to think they entire system out in advance! Mine has taken a few directions I did not expect at the beginning. But one of my goals was to understand why the "Augsburg Notch" was a thing and I needed to learn that conventional buckles didn't play well with the other parts there to realize why they did it. Pretty sure the Notch is designed to be a hard mounting system for the steel shoulder straps and arm harness. Not many examples with the notch and a buckled leather strap to be found that didn't set off my "remuddled" detector.

Arm harnesses with turners have several bonuses. The most notable is not having the inside of the human arm bear against the BP gusset & roll. The other is range of motion independent of the spaulder articulation ROM.

[Johann ColdIron]

Brief after action report:

Went to local Armoured practice. Fought several folks and had some fun. This fighting stuff just might catch on...

The armour performed well. Much better than with the leather shoulder straps. Only caught once. The left spaulder rammed into the corner of the backplate upper corner. I suspect the corner is sitting slightly proud of the gorget and leaving a slot for the spaulder to get stuck in. I need to pay attention to that next time it happens.

No bruising of the biceps so the buckle flip to the rear of the spaulder helped there. No bruise on the forearm either so the buckle must have been pinching all the meat it could get its corners into... Much improved!

Popped two rivets. Top left BP gusset and left fauld rivets. Not sure yet if they sheared or if I just did not create enough of a mushroom on top of their sheet metal washers. I found one and will study it tonight to see if the tempered steel is acting against the shank of the softer rivets or just popped from getting hit. I'm suspecting the latter as I did get some hits in those areas.

The steel hinges worked OK. Wades suggestion for hinges that only hinge upward would make the spaulders easier to get onto the pegs. They do push down and make it hard to align. There was also significant galling on the mild steel peg shanks. Mostly on the Right shoulder peg. Enough that it was difficult to remove. Going to polish those and maybe make the pins just slightly smaller in diameter so the spaulder can free wheel more. The holes in the spaulders seem well drilled and chamfered but I will check and polish these surfaces as well.

I had replaced the cotter pins with solid steel pins in all locations before practice. The one on the Right shoulder got slightly bent confirming an earlier concern. Not sure if it was a sword blow or the spaulder movement about the peg that caused it. Either way it required a plier to remove the pin. Need to keep one of those in my kit. I was able to get out of the cuirass without removing the arm harness by popping the shoulder strap from it's mount and dropping them together. Going to trim the pin a bit and see if it gets bent again. Ones on the elbows stayed tight and in place.

I may take another stab at the spring pin versions since that would remove the bending pin issue completely at the shoulder. Likely why we see them there but nowhere else. If I need to remake the hinges with built in range of motion limiters they will go on them. Will do another practice before taking drastic action.

[Mac]

Mild steel components can certainly get badly galled and abraded by hard steel ones. When I shifted over to hardened steel, I had to bump my rivet diameters up on great helms because the rivets that used to work with mild steel would now shear sometimes. Likewise, the hardened steel slots on Toby C's demigreaves wore through the mild steel turning pins in one season. (I ended up putting hardened steel rollers/bushings on them... this is not a medieval solution )

For the pauldrons, you might try drawing the temper way back around the mounting holes. Sure, the holes will wear more, but it may be years before it's a problem. Then again, it may never really become a problem. Meanwhile it will save the pins, which are a lot of trouble to replace.

[Johann ColdIron]

Mild steel components can certainly get badly galled and abraded by hard steel ones. When I shifted over to hardened steel, I had to bump my rivet diameters up on great helms because the rivets that used to work with mild steel would now shear sometimes. Likewise, the hardened steel slots on Toby C's demigreaves wore through the mild steel turning pins in one season. (I ended up putting hardened steel rollers/bushings on them... this is not a medieval solution )

For the pauldrons, you might try drawing the temper way back around the mounting holes. Sure, the holes will wear more, but it may be years before it's a problem. Then again, it may never really become a problem. Meanwhile it will save the pins, which are a lot of trouble to replace.

Glad I am not the only one who has run into this! I'm beginning to think it might be helpful to stock some rod stock sizes in medium carbon steel. Working mostly in 1050 now.

Is the Toby suit the one Wade has or the more recent one? It would be interesting to see how you solved the problem, even if with a modern solution.

I have some larger shank rivets that Kristofer gave me at the forging. They are metric but fit in a 9/32nd hole nicely. Their heads are not as sharp as the ones you commissioned but they match well enough. Those might prove a bit more resilient

I'll seriously give drawing back the temper though this area has proved to be an impact zone. Have you ever used case hardening as a solution for galling? I have a life time supply of Brownells Surface Hardening powder that I bought to do retreat frizzens on repro fire locks I've worked with. Since this needs surface toughness rather than springiness I wondered if it might serve in this application?

[Mac]

The turning pins in question were on the infamous black armor. They were that sort we see on all the English effigies, with a rectangular headed pin working in a vertical slot. Any filing marks in the slot became files themselves when the plate was hardened and wore down the pin until it became thin enough to fail.

Case hardening the pins on your armor may work fine so long as you stay clear of the part that must be peened up. If it's easy to do, you might give it a shot and see how it goes.

Mac

[Johann ColdIron]

Fixed the blown rivets and reshaped the shoulder hinges to prep for case hardening this weekend.

Pretty easy process. Heat to cherry red or approximately 1650. Dunk in powder. Repeat. Then quench. I did two cycles. The crappy file I use as a hardness tester now skates on it. We will see how it wears now!

Wear a organic vapor mask and use ventilation. Lot of smoke when you put it in the powder.



Though I was going through some pictures from Wade and realized that the originals have wear that looks suspiciously like they didn't care... just filed them when the got burrs.

[wcallen]

Armour, and esp. armour fittings were a lot more disposable for these guys than they are for us.
We think things should be cheap and last forever.....

Max was always having one or more new harnesses made (who needs a new buckle when you can get a new armour?).

Seriously, let's see how the case hardening works. I expect you can still deform the thing even if you can't scratch it.

Wade