The Armour Archive

This was done for a friend of mine - my shop finish is planished, wire wheeled to satin finish, then oiled. There is some file work on the straight edges, which I dont think photographed well

It looks real... Nice helm.

If I may add, I like to crease the nasal a bit myself.
It gives it strength and a nice style.

Your client should be proud.
Thanks for the pics.

Hal

Coming from you thats a great compliment
I gave the nasal a slight overall dish - next one will be creased with a bit more hammerwork.
I have been in a serious funk for quite a while - so this is the first time I've laid out a project, swung a hammer, and watched something grow on my bench in about five years. It feels real good, but I am as rusty as all hell on several techniques.
Hadn't realized the picture was so dark so

Ah yes better pic, thanks.

Hummm away from the hammer for 5 years?
How can you stand it?... I hammer every weekend if I’m not making tools.
It is like a drug... I need it... I Jones for it.
Sort of hard to explain, know what I mean?

Anyway, glad to see you back and keep up the good work.

Hal

Did some repair jobs for friends, did some fabrication around the house, but no real projects - I was dealing with a massive level of disgust on seveal fronts.
It is a story I'll tell you sometime with a decent whiskey & a good fire
I'm figuring to make at least a few hours a week to get some items I've always wanted to do out of my system, and maybe start taking a few comissions again, but my livelihood comes out of an office, not an anvil - at least for the time being
I did figure out that I got spoiled on my finishing technique since most of the comission pieces I was doing were for a Japanese household who wanted pieces delivered primed, and painted so a satin finish under lacquer was just fine and dandy

Not a bad piece... the shaping could use a bit more work...

also... it appears that the rivet heads are flattened on the outside. If you create a small domed indent in the surface that you pein the rivets on, you will retain the clean shape of the round-head rivet. It looks a bit nicer that way.

Overall, nice work!

Thanks - I've got a bad habit of setting rivets, and using a heading tool afterwards to clean them up - this batch of rivets didn't work as well with my header as I assumed they would.
It really has been a very long lay off, and I am concerned that my skill set has seriously deteriorated - time will tell on that one.

You're skills haven't deteriorated... they never really do.

Perhaps all you need is a bit of "doing" to polish them up again?