The Armour Archive

Trying to find out what carbon steel is available in UK or Europe that is good for armour? I have used EN42 but at over 7% carbon can make it hard to work. But can't get it in wide sheets (16" ,400mm Max) and was expensive for the amount of steel.
I have found EN9 (1040/1050) in sheet but over 5mm thick.
Found a source for 4130 in various thickness's in full sheet (4'×8') from 1mm up to 3mm..
Have heard other armourers using CS70 hot worked but not heat treated.
What are everyone using? What size does the sheet come in and what thickness? What are you paying?
Andrew

Think you meant 0.7% carbon or 70 points where 100 points = 1% C

7% is three times higher than the start of cast iron!

Hallo Andrew,

c45 is what a lot of the gents around here are using. I get mine from Naumann stahl ag in Düsseldorf. But I think shipping to UK would be high.

Greetings

Do you know what its din number is? What thickness's does it come in and what size sheets it comes in.
I think ç45 will be similar to EN8 or EN9. Though I struggle to find these in thin sheet.
I started looking at steels after a sheet of 410 stainless came up on evilbay. Had a quick phone around to find out a price new. To find out 410 stainless isn't made in the UK in sherry form but could be airfreighted from us.
As there isn't much feed back from Europe.can I have feedback on 4130 in raising and deep deep raising and hot forming?
Thomas you were right I forgot the decimal point for 0.7%C
Andrew

If you can get 4130, go for it. It is available in sheet from companies selling aircraft equipment. We have one company selling it here in Sweden but I believe they import it from the US and it is very expensive. Many armourers get c45, usually from germany and you need to order large quantities to keep the price down.

I've been hot working 4130 for a few months now, making mostly elbow/knee cops, spaulders and shield bosses.

These are my first attempts at hot working, so I don't have any other metal to compare it to other than mild steel. 4130 has to be annealed often or worked hot, but you have quite a bit of cold working before it stretches through and cracks. Its fairly tough when hardened to 40-50 Rc (about as hard as it gets), but still dents or stretches before failing.

I'm using 0.032" thick 4130 for most leg, arm and gauntlet armor, and 0.050" for SCA knee and elbow cops. My cuisses have dented oh-so-slightly from some of our heavier hitting knights, but I haven't lost anything but paint on my knee cops.

How thin is the c45 and how big are the sheets? Also do you know it's Din number?
The 4130 I was quite for was £70 for a 1mm 4ftx8ft sheet. Which is good compared to en42 at £80 for 14" x8ft about 15 years ago.
Andrew

Hi,

http://www.naumann-stahl.de/index.php?id=14&L=1&catalog

DIN EN 10083-1 and 2
Applications:

Tools, injections moldes for cast iron and plastics, special machinery building
C 45 / 1.0503 + C 45 E / 1.1191

Price was 1 year ago: 224kg for 2,50€/kg + taxes

Steel prices in Europe have dropped since then due to the lower raw material costs. So the price should remain roughly the same or lower.

Regards,

Jan

talk to andy at Furnival Steel - http://www.furnivalsteel.co.uk/ . Reliable supplier, I use him for swordmaking, plenty others do too.

CS70 sheet is a pretty good certainty there. You might be able to get EN9 too.

There's a few aviation suppliers who do 4130 in the UK too. I'll edit this if I remember where.

Hi. Tried Furnivall yesterday. He doesn't stock en9 in sheet. He has bought it in before for another armourer. But minimum order would be 500 kg.
So still looking for low alloy sheet. But may try some cs70 down the line and if a pain to use I'll just as it into Damascus's billets.
Andrew