The Armour Archive

So far as I can tell, the hardening went well. The helmet came out of the kiln and 1450°f and went into the 100°f quench. It spent about 20minutes in the range at 500°f.



I'm now waiting for the kiln to cool to 750°f for the final tempering. I'll have a look at the helmet to see if it needs any sort of corrective bracing for the temper, but it looked OK when it came out of the range.

Mac

OK. That was 20 minutes at 750°f. I checked it over before the final tempering, and everything looked good.



That was the last item to be heat treated.

Mac

Mac wrote: That was the last item to be heat treated.

Mac

Congratulations this is great news!
I am sure that is a big relief for you.

huzzah! I'm both pleased and a bit saddened that your project is nearing completion.
We shall all miss the updates when you're done!

But we hope you'll share your NEXT project with us in a similar manner! Be it woodworking, casting, or . . . ?

Thanks, Guys! I'm really far from done, though. I'd be surprised if there were not at least two more months of work.

Mac

I got the greatest part of the rough grind of the visor done this evening. Most of this happened with one of those hard discs.



The corners of the eyes were squared up with a file.



I was pleased to see that fussy hammer work paid off here, and I was able to get the "shelf" pretty smooth with a file as well.





The construction hole, having served its purpose got closed up in the usual way. The outside was countersunk, and a short length of rivet stem was selected from my little container of offcuts.



The inside was peened up with a ball hammer, because it only has to stay in place and not necessarily look nice....



...the outside was peened with a the flatter face of the hammer till it filled the countersink...



...and the surface ground till it was smooth. It's always surprising how the low carbon steel of the rivets takes a duller, whiter finish than the tempered spring steel. This will be less noticeable when it is smoother, but it will never just go away.



Mac

I got some work done on the helmet skull today in spite of being a bit under the weather. Most of the heavy work was done on the hard disc.



This evening I started in with the belt sander. I'm using an 80gr belt on a curved platen to get all the areas that are more or less concave.



The results look OK, but I'm loosing my edge, and I thought it was time to quit. Besides, my arms need a rest. This is biceps tendonitis work if I'm not careful.



Tomorrow I expect the do the concave parts of the visor, and then change over to a flat platen for the convex parts.

Mac

Yesterday I got some more of the belt sanding done on the concave areas of the helmet skull and visor.





The combs could probably have been done with a flatter platen, but the curved one has less chance of gauging.



For the ends of the visor comb, I had to remove the guard from the nose wheel of the belt sander. I like to keep that guard on there as much as I can, especially with coarse belts. It keeps me from abrading through my shirt if I blunder into the tool.



I did some work on the convex areas as well, but did not get the pics. I'll snap some this morning before I go any further.

I'm still not feeling well, and have a doctor's appointment this afternoon. The heat's on in the shop, though, and I will git some more work in this morning.

Mac

Here's the helmet skull after the 80gr on an unpadded platen.



And this is what the visor looked like. There are still some un-beltsanded areas up toward the pivots, and a glaring spot that I can't reach right there in the middle of the forehead.



I've been going over things with the same (80) grit and a padded platen for that last hour or so. Pics to come.

Mac

I've gone over the helmet with that same 80gr. belt, but supported by a padded platen. This removes the inevitable faceting from the hard platen. The next step is a Trizact 65 belt. That's a pretty big jump, and it will only do it with hard platens. I'm using platens with more curvature to get into any area that is concave or even just flat. When that's done, I will go ever everything with the same belt on a padded platen to homogenize the surface.

The helmet has come to be rather slippery feeling as I get rid of the 80gr scratches. I had been working bare handed because the leather gloves won't grip. That is it's own problem, though. Once my hands get covered with fine steel dust they are too slippery as well. In addition, the dust is very sicative, and I am already having the usual winter finger tip splits. I tried using a pair of disposable nitrile gloves, and that seems to be a pretty good solution. They are grippier than bare hands (especially if those hands are grey with steel dust) and they are keeping my hands moist. I'm going to try to remember this.

I'll post some pics when I get done with the Trizact 65 belt.

Mac

i"ll send you some gloves to try.

I personally like the nitrile gloves. What I use at work (commercial hvac) are maxiflex gloves. Its nylon/licra knit gloves dipped in a "microfoam." They also print nitril grip pads onto the fingers and palms. They stay sticky for awhile, however I have never tried cleaning them to make them last longer. Company supplies our gloves because we go through a pair of them about every two weeks to a month depending on what stage of the job is. If you want me to send you a pair to try out, I can do that.

When gloves are too cumbersome I use laminate workers tape on my fingers. Especially when working too long with files or multiples of sharp metal fiddly bits. It's a loose weave fabric adhesive tape designed to be a wear layer on what ever body part you wrap. Not a lot of adhesive transfer to the work piece. Can still feel heat transfer through it.

http://woodworker.com/safety-tape-34-ro ... archmode=2


Can also be used to keep bandaids on!

Hmm. John, that stuff looks interesting. I might use it to cut down on the feather cuts from shooting my longbow. But the local Woodworker's supply closed. Boooo... I like being able to see stuff rather than ordering blind.

I tend to just let the tools scrape me up... but I don't do it full time. If I did I would have some callous.

Wade

John, that stuff does look pretty interesting!

wcallen wrote:Hmm. John, that stuff looks interesting. I might use it to cut down on the feather cuts from shooting my longbow. But the local Woodworker's supply closed. Boooo... I like being able to see stuff rather than ordering blind.

I tend to just let the tools scrape me up... but I don't do it full time. If I did I would have some callous.

Wade

It's handy to have! As a part timer my shop callouses tend to ramp up too late in a project to actually protect me. Add in winter dryness and the sides of my fingers crack in the wear spots. Takes forever to heal while continuing the work.

Learned about it from the guys at the cabinet shop I worked at that did laminate surfaces all day. That stuff will cut you just walking by it.

It's a bummer that the WWS near you closed. I used to buy stuff from them. I'll bring some of the tape by to show you.

This stuff is often just called friction tape. It's easy to find online, just search for finger friction tape. like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Treeline-BX2-3-F ... B0002IXVSS
When I worked in a metal tchotchke factory we went through bales of this stuff, but don't over buy it. I found some old rolls in a box from a few years ago, still sealed in plastic, and they had lost their clinginess and wouldn't stay wrapped around my fingers.

I will point out, though, that wrapping up your fingers with fresh tape for each bout at the sander is a lot more tedious than pulling gloves on and off. I bet you can't swipe your phone with it either, though I haven't tried.

Cet wrote:i"ll send you some gloves to try.

Thank you!

Mac

Johann ColdIron wrote:When gloves are too cumbersome I use laminate workers tape on my fingers. Especially when working too long with files or multiples of sharp metal fiddly bits. It's a loose weave fabric adhesive tape designed to be a wear layer on what ever body part you wrap. Not a lot of adhesive transfer to the work piece. Can still feel heat transfer through it.

http://woodworker.com/safety-tape-34-ro ... archmode=2


Can also be used to keep bandaids on!

John Vernier wrote:This stuff is often just called friction tape. It's easy to find online, just search for finger friction tape. like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Treeline-BX2-3-F ... B0002IXVSS
When I worked in a metal tchotchke factory we went through bales of this stuff, but don't over buy it. I found some old rolls in a box from a few years ago, still sealed in plastic, and they had lost their clinginess and wouldn't stay wrapped around my fingers.

I will point out, though, that wrapping up your fingers with fresh tape for each bout at the sander is a lot more tedious than pulling gloves on and off. I bet you can't swipe your phone with it either, though I haven't tried.

I bought a couple of rolls of that stuff a few years back, but never really gave it a good trial. I'll see if it's still in usable condition.

Mac

When things get bad, I just slap on some surgical tape. Same idea.

Today, I'd like to show a bit of the process for making the visor catch.

Here are the holes I made before the helmet was hardened. In order, from right to left we have a large (1/4") hole that will be for the locking pin. The next hole is 1/8" and it will be for the release button. The last is also 1/8" and it will be the anchor rivet of the spring.



The spring will be a piece of steel pallet strapping. This stuff is pretty convenient for most springs. It's reasonably "springy", but yet easy enough to cut with a shears or punch holes in. It can be shaped up conveniently under a hammer as well.

This piece is .033". Traditional micrometers are a pain in the ass to read, but I like to use them as a point of pride.... besides, the batteries are always dead on my Chinese slide calipers.




Here it is compared to the holes in the helmet. I have already punched the hole that will be for the lock pin, but have not yet trimmed the spring to length.



The spring needs to be curved to fit the inside of the helmet. The spring should fit nicely when it is pressed in place as though riveted, but be a little straighter when released. This will provide some spring pressure when the button is fully extended.



The locking pin was made from some 1/4" rod. I have turned a rivet stem on the end and also removed a bit of the surface to make it slightly undersize as well as to get rid of the galvanizing. I used a metal lathe, but this can be done by hand, and the results will by not much inferior. The green mark is where I will cut the pin off of the stock.



In this pic I tried to show how to mark the location of the anchor rivet. The locking pin is in place in both the helmet skull and the hole in the end of the spring, and the spring is pressed firmly against the inside of the helmet.



Because it's difficult to line the spring up on the hole, I made a series of marks by sliding the spring up and down against the marking pen. This is sort of like using the helmet skull as a compass.



The hole was made where that mark crossed the center of the spring.



With the spring bolted in place through that hole, and the locking pin in place in its hole, I marked the location of the hole for the release button.



For the button, I started with a 3/16"x 1/2" button head rivet and spread out the head with a hammer on a heading die. I usually make these buttons pretty flat and file in a few lines. I seem to have gotten a bit carried away this time though, and made a rose to tie in with the roses on the bessegews.



The button needs to be reduced to 1/8" at the end to serve as a way to rivet it into the hole in the spring. I used my modified visegrips and a safe edged file for this.



Here's a close up of the tool. I'd like to make up a fixture to do this work on the lathe, but it would never pay for itself.



When everything is assembled, the locking pin should protrude through the visor a bit, and the release button should not stick out any more than necessary.



When the button is depressed fully, the locking pin should be flush with the outer surface of the helmet skull. If it pops all the way through, the button needs to have its rivet shoulder move up a bit to effectively shorten it. I refilled it once before this pic, and again once the locking pin was riveted on to the spring.



This is what a temporary assembly looks like. For now, the button will be set aside with things to be gilt.



Mac

[edit... I had the text about the temp. assembly, but forgot the pic ]

Mac, that release pin is astonishingly beautiful for what it is! How will the glit hold up to it being riveted? Also, should the locking pin have a bevel on it to allow the visor to be closed without having to depress the release pin?

Thanks!

If I pad the anvil properly, the gold will do OK. Templating cardboard is typically enough.

The pics don't show it, but I have beveled the leading edge of the pin so that the visor will close without having to push the button.

Mac

I've ran the helmet over the sisal buff with black emery compound, and It looks good.



That's the last item to be subjected to the "brutal" polishing. I'll probably go over everything with a loose buff to homogenize the finish.

Mac

Do you have a pocket watch?

Mac: Is there any way to see the entire harness with helm prior to disassambly for gilding and plating?

wcallen wrote:Hmm. John, that stuff looks interesting. I might use it to cut down on the feather cuts from shooting my longbow. But the local Woodworker's supply closed. Boooo... I like being able to see stuff rather than ordering blind.

I tend to just let the tools scrape me up... but I don't do it full time. If I did I would have some callous.

Wade

Off topic but that's normally a sign you're not nocking high enough. Try 1/4 inch above and see if it still grazes you.

Chris Gilman wrote:Do you have a pocket watch?

Of course I do!



I don't own a watch like the one in the Met pic, but I chose with a Deco case so it would be contemporary with the image.

Mac

bartholomew wrote:Mac: Is there any way to see the entire harness with helm prior to disassambly for gilding and plating?

I'm going to set the armor up for a pre-blackening pic pretty soon.

Mac

Bravo!

Here are some pics of the armor as it currently is. The background is cluttered and the camera's not giving me a sharp focus. I'm not sure what the problem is there. Perhaps I'm not steady enough for the light conditions. Maybe I'll try again with a tripod and shutter delay.






All in all, the armor seems pretty photogenic in spite of the blue tape. It's a shame the shop looks so nasty.

Mac

Now, only gilding, blackening, chainmaile for below, the fitting weapons (as seen in post 22: a sword and somd unidentified polearm), having it all blessed in the name of Saint Florian and finally parading it left? Your work is inspiring!

Thanks Mac. Believe me, I'm looking way past the blue tape!

Bowan12 wrote:

wcallen wrote:Hmm. John, that stuff looks interesting. I might use it to cut down on the feather cuts from shooting my longbow. But the local Woodworker's supply closed. Boooo... I like being able to see stuff rather than ordering blind.

I tend to just let the tools scrape me up... but I don't do it full time. If I did I would have some callous.

Wade

Off topic but that's normally a sign you're not nocking high enough. Try 1/4 inch above and see if it still grazes you.

I am about 1/4 up and I actually don't scrape much at all. But the few times I do can be annoying.

Now back to our regularly scheduled armour.

Wade

Mac wrote: All in all, the armor seems pretty photogenic in spite of the blue tape. It's a shame the shop looks so nasty.

Mac

What shop?