The Armour Archive

So today I started the Damascus steel gauntlets as my final year project. As discussed in previous thread the materials will be
1080 carbon steel and pure iron (not wrought iron, even less carbon!). The gauntlets will be multi part articulated with some Gothic
elements, requiring about 24 billets of material. I will post pictures of the original ones as soon I get permission from my friend who made them.

Then to the main subject

First day went very well. The first two billets of eight layers were folded an forge welded four times and then spread with power hammer to
sheet about 2-3mm thick. Then the first actual pieces were cut from the Damascus sheet. I was amazed how well the complete billet spread
and how easy it is to make nicks to the plate and one piece may need remaking, but at this point everything is experimental to me.

What kind of differentiation do you get when etching that combo? With carbon migration it seems the two will be quite similar when it's forged out.

The difference can be faintly seen even without etching so no issues with that, will post pictures of my previous experiments with the same layouts tomorrow.

Hal pulls up a chair, grabs a bowl of popcorn and cracks open a beer.

What sort of pattern have you made the damascus into?

Pass the popcorn Hal. Want to borrow my 3d glasses?

Dave

Halberds wrote:Hal pulls up a chair, grabs a bowl of popcorn and cracks open a beer.

Same... I'm looking forward to more pics!

Sorry, no pictures today. Just finished 13 hours work day at smithy and pretty exhausted.

Made great progress today, with four ready billets for spreading. Also my fellow blacksmith promised
to help with the spreading with his 100 kg power hammer, he is vary excited too about the project.

Because of limited time, there will be no specific pattern, except the finger lames, that will bet cut from
64 layer billet forged to shape of single lame with band saw, so the lames will have dense vertical lines, but
it will be all. If this goes well, why not make other pair with distinctive patterns!

For the next one I think that the fingers would do well with a chevron pattern by welding up a bunch of billets twisted in opposite directions

The main plate should of course be heraldic mosaic damascus!

Looking forward to seeing the results. Do you have a sketch of what you're aiming for?

Three more billets plus started a skinning knife for a customer!

Nine plus the experimental one ready at this point, so I am ahead the schedule. Waiting/fearing the spreading
phase at this moment, as it is the one that ruin most of previous work.

I'm so glad you agreed to send these to me for free when they are finished.

Damascus armor reminds me of mithril. Not that it looks alike, but in rarity, worth and shear awesomeness, it compares!

i wish i could afford a pair of these beauties but the custom work you would have to put in for my thumbs alone and the actual cost would cost me my first born, arm, leg, and hands which would be ironic XD

damascus panels in a turkish helm, with inlay in copper/bronze/brass now that would be hot..

Today was the turn of the billets for the cuffs. Those two were really gargantuan ones, with measures of
25x40x250mm and weighing about two kilos (four pounds) each. For skilled bladesmith that is enough material
for a longsword! Thank some greater power those were the ones that large. Our powerhammer was put to the limit
with such material.

Also decided that the rivets and hinges will be brass and bronze, not enough time for damascus ones. Those will be sturdy
enough, obviously these gauntlets won't be used very much.

Samuel wrote: damascus panels in a turkish helm, with inlay in copper/bronze/brass now that would be hot..

+1. I'm picturing the damascus panels, with etched brass or mokume gane other bits.

Beorn se Bacaire wrote:

Samuel wrote: damascus panels in a turkish helm, with inlay in copper/bronze/brass now that would be hot..

+1. I'm picturing the damascus panels, with etched brass or mokume gane other bits.

Hot damn, that WOULD be hot.

15 Billets so far, with three already spread, also had time to finish the skinning knife for a customer.

Today was the turn of finger plates, cut with bandsaw straight from billet. The last weld was not perfect in one of the three cut billets
and about 3cm of it was lost, but all the 64 fingerplates all now cut with some for spare. I ground one to shape and dished it hot
and some tearing occurred, because the weld lines go straight through the thin plate. The perfect solution was to solder the gaps
with brass. Results were huge success. The test plate held very well together and even better, the yellow brass in the cracks makes great addition
to the original pattern!

Half of the fingerplates now cut, shaped, sanded and waiting for etching. I had to change the direction of the
pattern, because the thin forgeweld lines didn't like bending, now the pattern is horizontal but the completed thumb
looks good that way too. Also to fill up possible cracks, every plate was soldered with brass before sanding and the
yellow brass lines in the finished thumb looked great. I will take my camera to smithy tomorrow and upload some pictures, so
be patient.

Thumb lames ready for right hand, other waiting to be etched. The ferric chloride that I used was too mild,
but next week I will make stronger one and a etching vessel that can be heated for faster process.

Wow. Pretty sweet looking.

Looking forward to see the final product. So far looks very good!

Only five billets to be spread. Some delamination occurred, but with brass soldering it can be repaired.
For the first time it feels that this can be really done!

Beautiful!!!

That finger part looks great!

Question tho, Damascus is -besides looking cool- supposed to be superior in quality I hear, correct? When you speak of delamination and brass soldering, will that not compromise the structural integrity? I am not convinced this will be stronger than plain steel gauntlets. Correct me if I'm wrong, cause I admit I know little about the subject.

Regardless of the answer, I still think it will be bad ass

Soldering the gaps with brass is very efficient way to deal with them. My teacher, who used to be professional welder
always says that the soldered seam should be at least as strong as the material itself. So the soldering is just a way to deal and fill the gaps.

No, they won't be any stronger than plain steel gauntlets as damascus steel don't like any hitting cold, so they will be just for show.
Even in knife plain wrought iron/carbon steel is actually worse than pure carbon steel, because is there are any wrought iron spots on
the blade, they wont stay sharp. Lamination is the key though.

The idea behind this work is just to experiment with combining materials and techniques in a new and innovative way.

They look beautiful so far.

Back pre 1000 patternwelding was a good method of dealing with very non homogeneous irons/steels helping to lower the amount of inclusions, make them smaller as well and help to even out carbon differences---once the layer count is fairly high it takes about 4 times to welding heat to get an even carbon content due to carbon migration.

However the time, fuel involved, waste of metal---you lose through scaling every weld! and the possibility that every weld could be a failure point if it's not perfect means that as soon as better more homogenous steels came along pattern welding was pretty much dropped save for "decorative" uses. So in Europe around 1000 CE (according to The Sword in Anglo Saxon Europe. H.R.E.Davidson) and a long quiet time till they started experimenting with it decoratively and for gun barrels in the late 18th century and another peak of interest in the folk crafts of the early 20th, etc.

Nowadays you probably will have a better blade from a good alloy monosteel; but not a *prettier* blade!

It was a long day again, so pictures tomorrow. All smaller plates now spread an most of them cut.
The blanks seem to be still too thick, but with large belt sander and P60 belts it will be no problem.
No further delamination, I think it was just one bad billet.

Bad news is that the etching solution performed badly today an I will have to make a new one tomorrow
maybe with better luck. This is crucial for the work, as the buffing wheels will mess the beautiful lines
between the different layers. I really hope that the new solution will be better.

Some technical difficulties with the pictures, but now all the plates are cut and ground to thickness. Left fingers are all ready
and right waiting to be sanded and etched. Basic forming of the cuff plates also started today continuing today.

Bad news is that I couldn't get any correct size brass rivets, but the buckles will be cast bronze and hinges brass.

Most of the fingers are now done and today I started the wrist and cuff plates. Wrists were fine but cuff still looks somehow weird, nothing wrong
with it physically but the shape needs still work. Tomorrow I will try to pre-assemble the right one with nuts and bolts and maybe start the left one.

The right one is nearly finished. Only three wrist plates and thumb plate to go! Also the left fingers are completely ready. Currently the main concern is to find etching vessel large enough for the cuff plates. One full week to the return, so it will be a close one.

You see the thing is, we want to be seeing pictures of all this.

+1

Where's my pics....