The Armour Archive

I finally got back down to the basement and cut out a disk for my next buckler (for Rapier). It certainly helped that I was able to borrow an old Stanley Unishear from my workplace to do it.

It's 18 ga. stainless (don't know the type any more specific than that). I cut it 13" in diameter, and drew a circle 1/2 inch in from the edge, which is where I'm thinking I want the roll to come to. I expect I'll use a coathanger wire core, since it worked fairly well for the 18 ga. mild steel buckler I made the last time (my second ever finished project, which I made for someone's birthday present). This is my first project in stainless steel, except for cutting, and bending, and punching some Lorica shoulder pieces for a friend - not too challenging.)

Yes, I have studied http://www.ageofarmour.com/education/ar ... dges1.html . I've also guessed that this kind of roll is not the easiest to do.

Ultimately, I'm hoping to emboss (again, something new) something like a "Green Man" face onto the umbo. Should be fun, working on a complex-curved surface like that.

Here's the question: Is it worth my while to attempt to anneal it with a plain-old-vanilla plumber's propane torch with the standard pencil nozzle?

You will probably not get a full on anneal with just the torch.

I think that even mild steel takes a bit slower cooling to get a full anneal. I usualy toss stuff in the forge, get it up to heat, then turn the burners off, letting it cool down with the firebrick/refractory inside the still hot forge.

Some other alloys used primarily for hot forging tools need to cool slowly for better than a day or possibly even more. (I'm thinking like H13)

That said, you can probably get a pretty fair normalization on it.

You'll releave some of the stress, but it won't be dead soft like an anneal.

Is it worth doing? There are probably better ways to go about it, but if it's all you got, hell yeah. Unless... you know... you want to crack it.

I've done rolls on 16 ga stainless. The only way I could get them to roll over smoothly was to do them hot. Basically, I used a propane torch (get the larger tip that fits on the plumber's torch) to heat the section of the roll I was working on. It takes several passes to get a good, even roll.

Dan

What he said...you'd have to anneal over and over again anyway, so you'll save time and effort by just doing it hot.

DanNV wrote:I've done rolls on 16 ga stainless. The only way I could get them to roll over smoothly was to do them hot. Basically, I used a propane torch (get the larger tip that fits on the plumber's torch) to heat the section of the roll I was working on. It takes several passes to get a good, even roll.

That sounds like a plan. I do have lots of time for it anyway.
Thanks.

mattmaus wrote: I think that even mild steel takes a bit slower cooling to get a full anneal. I usualy toss stuff in the forge, get it up to heat, then turn the burners off, letting it cool down with the firebrick/refractory inside the still hot forge.

If you plan on having a busy forge day, go out and pick up some of that white sand they sell for kid's sandboxes and fill up an appropriate sized tray with the stuff. If you bury your peice in that, it'll take hours, maybe even a full day to cool, depending on the size of the bit you're working with.

Just make sure to feel the SAND first before you go stickin' any fingers in there

For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of getting to tour a modern integrated steel mill, this is the same method that they use.

Basically the steel comes out of the continous caster into a form that basically looks like a thick piece of lumber approx about 2' x 4' and I forget the length.

It is then placed in a "soaking" pit, which is just a large pit of sand, where the billet then stays for 24 hours to cool.