The Armour Archive

Ummmm I tried fluting the wings of my elbow and knees and they came out pretty bumpy. I Followed Gundos fluting essay ( no knock to Gundo, this was my first try at fluting )
I used a rounded chisel first to make the initial flute and then finished it on a sharpened chisel with a hard rubber hammer....still bumpy.
Do I grind out the top of the flute to smooth it or am I doing something wrong??

I never try fluting with a rubber hammer. I always use a steel square face hammer to straighten the line. The rest is a matter of buffing/sanding. But I'm not the most experience... maybe somebody else have a better suggestion.

I have to agree with Jeff on this, a well polished hammer and lot of patience are what is needed here

Ok I feel REAL dumb here.
I dont know why I was trying to finis my flutes with a hard rubber hammer.
Actually I do, I was trying not to mar the surface. However using one of the Ironwood mallets I got from Gundo would do the same thing and probably give me a much nicer flute. *sigh* I hope I can reflatten them...

Chalk that up to a learning experience....
More scrap for the other post!!

If the surface you're fluting is basically flat, and the flute you want is straight, try using a dulled but not rounded chisel, say a 3" brick chisel.
For the finishing on the top side, lots of very light tapping with a slightly rounded square-face hammer [try a mason's hammer, slightly modified] is the trick.

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<B>Gundobad,
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The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally - Flannery O'Connor

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[This message has been edited by Gundo (edited 02-26-2001).]

fluting is great, but how can i make a simple CREASE without marring to hell out of the top of the piece, say a cop or upper leg?? is there a simple way to do this? or do i just put the piece in a fluting jig or something and bang the curves of the flute out with a hammer and chisel.

Don't worry too much about marring the surface when staightening the flutes, it should go with sanding... unless you work on aluminium or if you have a very deep mark.

Caspian: lay your piece on a block of wood, and drivew in your creas ewith a blunted chisel. You can use a slot in the wood to allow for a deep crease, or just do it on the flat wood for a shallow crease. This assumes I understood the nature of your question.

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<B>Gundobad,
Wise Ogre Armory
Wise Ogre Pic of the Day
Wise Ogre Armory T-shirts & more</B>

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally - Flannery O'Connor

A position worth taking, is worth defending.

http://198.144.2.125/Armour/armour.htm Scroll down to Basic Armoury Skills. Darius has added a new essay that seems fairly easy to follow.
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The more I'm online, the more my spelling deteriorates.

[This message has been edited by Dragon (edited 02-27-2001).]

fluteing eh?
i just tried fluteing for the first time today.
also made my first set of spaulders... i must be honest here., they look like shit, well, the firast one does, number2 is completly different, but i used my bro's schools metal shop to make it.
anyways...back to fluting, uhm, i fluted my spaulders, didnt have to much dificulty, i used a masonry hammer, and a stump with a groove. and a bit of patience....
pon a completly different note, would that be Darius ad in Duke Darius? of An Tir?

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