The Armour Archive

Hello,

I'm looking to acquire more 'official' armouring tools. I sent a request already to Iron Mongers site, but I figure while I'm waiting for a response, I could at least try here too. Here's my WTB list:

Big metal swage block - like on Iron Mongers site - the $300 one

Dogleg offset planishing stakes - big one, medium, small.

Pexto stake plate

Roper Whitney #7

Beverly Shear B-2

Post leg vise

T Stake

Bickhorn stake

'Anticlastic' stakes - big medium small

One way or another, I'll be purchasing most of these within a month or so.

[Updated a few items due to advice in this thread, thanks!]

I have a really nice old bench vise I just picked up. Im not sure where you are so shipping might be an issue unless I can get it in a flat rate box.

For most things on your list Halberds Metalworks

bigfredb wrote:For most things on your list Halberds Metalworks

Thanks, I may contact him later if I don't find much here in the forum.

Lewellen Godwin sometimes has dishing forms.
Clang and stoke wood armoury also have some tools that may be of use.

Ebay can be your friend for some of this stuff. If you search within a radius of your location, it can make a big difference in overall price of heavy items, as you may be able to pick them up. Search for Pexto or Peck-Stowe for stakes, etc.

I see RW #16 and #17 punches go pretty regularly for $300 to $400 on Ebay, and less if you're patient. There was a nice #16 that went for $250 just a few days ago. Before you commit to a 16, though, consider the tooling. It's "special" compared to the common tooling for the #7, #7-1/2, #8, and WAW #2, and is a lot harder to find. IMO, the RW #7 is the most generally useful punch for armor work, and tooling is easily found, both new and used. Any punch that's not mounted to your bench should be held in a vise whenever possible. "Nearly-instant bench punch".

Depending on what sort of work you'll be doing the most of, you might want to avoid a Beverly B3, also, as it's size makes it quite cumbersome for most armor jobs, and it won't cut tight curves well. It's good for heavy helmet tops, etc. The B2 is the most versatile for armor work.

For post vises and many other sundries, check the ABANA page and find your local blacksmithing group. Get in touch with them and see what you can scare up. They often have "tailgate" sales at their various events, and there is nearly always a post vise or 2, at least around here (WV).

Good luck with your search, and happy hammering.

Updating your general location may help.
There maybe things on Craigslist or local auctions can help.
On eBay its often worth asking if sellers will ship.
Sometimes there is an additional fee if it needs a crate or special packing.
Often a plastic bag and can of spray foam works to stabilize odd shapes in flat rate boxes.

Stake plates are odd tools, it seams sizes and tapers varry a lot.
If you have a welder it usually takes an few hours or so to make one or two.

Leg vices often need a little work, iforgeiron.com or anvilfire.com have instructions on rebuilding or building them.
Metalmeet is another forum that may help you find tools as well.

Some repeat/reinforcing.

I have a Pexto stake plate. It doesn't work for most of my stakes. I use a custom made simple one for most of them. My really big stakes use a wooden stand. Certainly works for the last 10 years, and it can be an easy to make temporary one if you decide you want to move up.
I have a B2 and a B3 (and a harbor freight fake B1). The B2 is the all-around general work horse. I only got the B3 because I wanted to play in gauges above 12. Starting with 1/8" plate, the B2 wasn't really the right tool.

I own a blowhorn. Have for years. Never use it.
My bickhorn is a tool I use almost every time I am in the shop. But mine is "special" - a bit odd, it doesn't have a round horn so I can use it for all sorts of curves. If I didn't have it, a piece of RR track would do most of what it does.
I use #7 and #8 RW punches along with the Jr. Easy to get tooling is more important than you think until you own one. My buddy owns several of the bigger ones, still almost always uses the Jr, and 7/8's.

I have never used a normal vice, the leg vice does the trick for everything I need.

Lots of different forms of offset (and straight stakes) - I can't argue against those. I have more than most people and still work to find the one that is right for a particular thing. But you can do a lot of work with a few hammers and a flat surface. Personally I think that is more the way they did things the longer I look at the insides of real pieces.

No grinding tools? You will want some. And hammers. And files...

Wade

Thank you all for your input. I've now updated my list to reflect some of that wisdom.

I've been peering around on ebay, craigslist (search tempest) and even farmers auctions. Trying to find a competitive buy is a bit rough for some of the items... just have to wait out on some of them.

Pexto plates and stakes can be purchased from Roper Whitney directly - they bought out Pexto quite a while back.

Galileo wrote:Pexto plates and stakes can be purchased from Roper Whitney directly - they bought out Pexto quite a while back.

So I need to use this to downplay the idea that stake plates have different tapers.
Pexto and RW plates are going to have the same taper.
Jacob here on the archive has some plates from a company called Bally, and they have the same taper as my Pexto.

What you will find, invariably, is that the taper on the stakes can be all over the map.

Ironmonger rough-forges his stake bottoms to be somewhere in the same zip code as the taper required to fit Pexto. They require a lot of grinding to get them to fit right.
If you can find the stake work of Duncan Metalcraft (used to have a site, has been offline for a few years now), those stakes are superb: he machined them to fit in a Pexto plate precisely.
Of course the original Pexto stakes will fit exactly, too. But as Wade alluded, some of them are going to be pretty useless for armoring. And they're too expensive to just cut the bottoms off for reuse.

If you have a chop saw (or a jig saw and patience) and a welder, then exact-fit stake bottoms can be made easily enough from angle iron. Then anything Halberds makes in a square shank can be welded to them pretty easily.

Don't give up on the idea of a plate. It works like gangbusters for me (and I think I speak for Jacob too). I'd rather that you get one and that we all support each other with ideas and shared effort... 'cause stakes are kind of a solved problem, and have been for over a century, and all we need to do is get everyone proper stake bottoms to make that solution work for all of us.

I only mentioned the plate and stakes because the OP said Pexto.

I use trailer hitch balls until I can get other stuff

Location, Location Location! Are you willing to pay for international shipping? If not LIST YOUR GENERAL LOCATION!

I generally find my stakes and swages at my local scrapyard; they already put stuff aside for me---like the 6 100# balls that showed up one time. It's about 200 miles thataway from where I am typing. US 20 cents a pound. (got a mint condition pexto stake plate there once for under $9 really beat the price of my older damaged one that cost me $25 from a smithing friend in Northern NM)

Thomas Powers wrote:Location, Location Location! Are you willing to pay for international shipping? If not LIST YOUR GENERAL LOCATION!

I generally find my stakes and swages at my local scrapyard; they already put stuff aside for me---like the 6 100# balls that showed up one time. It's about 200 miles thataway from where I am typing. US 20 cents a pound. (got a mint condition pexto stake plate there once for under $9 really beat the price of my older damaged one that cost me $25 from a smithing friend in Northern NM)

Yes, I'm willing to pay! I live in Kansas and it seems pretty hard to find anything related to blacksmithing/silversmithing. I don't have strong connections to anyone in blacksmithing/silversmithing/armouring and as for the SCA group near me, I doubt any of them have knowledge as to where to acquire half the stuff I'm looking - for a cheaper price.

I guess I'll try the scrap yards near here, but I don't exactly want to wait around that long for everything.

What part of Kansas?

Farm auctions yield all sorts of fun stuff if you can get to one. The local flea markets can occasionally turn up useful things too.

I'm in North Central Kansas, myself.

Galileo wrote:What part of Kansas?

Farm auctions yield all sorts of fun stuff if you can get to one. The local flea markets can occasionally turn up useful things too.

I'm in North Central Kansas, myself.

I live in Topeka. I've got a few people I literally just met yesterday that pointed me to a few places. One guy does salvage work, the other is an antique dealer that has some blacksmithing equipment - but doesn't sound that promising currently.

I will be bidding in a farmers auction later in the month for some stuff too.

Pickings still seem slim in our state

Over in Manhattan, the group has a decent small shop in one of the guys' garage. Belt sander, drill press, RW punch, grinders, dishing, a throatless bench shear, etc.

I have both of Llewellen's dishing forms - he has a thread up taking orders for them right now on this board. They're pretty nice. I also have one of Halberd's tool holders. It's 1 inch square and holds a trailer ball nicely (1 inch shank on those).

The post vice will probably be one of the harder things to get around here. People that have them don't seem to ever want to part with them. I've seen one on craigslist once, and it was gone within 3 hours of being posted.

This guy has a pile of stakes and Pexto-related hardware on eBay- bidding will be undoubtedly be pretty hot, but there you go… http://www.ebay.com/sch/carnieboy426/m. ... 7675.l2562

Yeah 4d10h left on those auctions... and everything is in good condition. I wouldn't count on getting any of that for less than full market price.

I spent about $200 on mine, maybe it was $250... and I consider it a really worthwhile purchase even at that price.
However one thing I've noticed is that I tend to use the same two sockets most of the time. I have a really big stake that fits in the large socket, but if I was just starting out and collecting medium size stakes, I'd consider something like this.

http://www.imountainforge.com/shop/larg ... late-pexto

You may also end up making or commissioning custom stakes, and it's nice to have a range of options for size. At some point I'll want adapters for my dishing forms, probably with some pretty beefy stakes.