The Armour Archive

Rainald

There is also nothing in the function of a cast aluminum cross-guard that would demand 6061 material performance. People in the SCA have used cross-hilts made from 2 pieces of rattan, plastic, aluminum, steel-bars, steel-pipe, rubber, and leather. If you are interested in experimenting with cast al...

Rainald

When I make them I use a CD as the template, it works out be about the right size and makes it easy to locate your center hole. Mark and cut the petal shapes, slightly dish from the front and then use a dulled masonary hammer from the back to get the divisions, worked over a leather shot bag. Work t...

Rainald

damn that's sexy. Whenever I think I made something cool or got skills I go on the AA for a reality check. After viewing that helm I think my latest project and skills are on par with cooking a dried dog turd on a stick on a garbage fire in an escaped felon homeless camp.

Rainald

My work bench is 25" by 58" and 36" tall. It is made of 4x4 posts for the legs and the rest connected with pressure treated 2/6's and 2x4's. It has a shelf 12" off the ground where I store all my dishing forms and various stakes, swage block and assorted armouring bits. It is solid as a rock and I c...

Rainald

Well I opened up the crypts (foot lockers full of armour) this week and was both pleasantly surprised and slightly horrified. Keep in mind these were stored a non-climate controlled building in the Florida panhandle region. The last time I wore any of it was about two years ago. All of the stainless...

Rainald

Why don't you make your own? I have made all of mine out of bolo tie tips.

Check here: http://www.rings-things.com/Products/Bo ... olo-Backs/

Rainald

Any input on this? I call it my green man kit. The helm has a removable visor.

Rainald

Sorry to hear about helm, but is does have a lovely patina now.

If it makes you feel any better I lost a mail hauberk in somewhat similar experimentation circumstances. No really big financial lose but about 30 man hours down the tube.

Rainald

A stupid question, wouldn't work just as well if you filled it up with sand instead of concrete?

Rainald

..shave off all of the fletchings and no one will be the wiser to what bird it came from..... WRONG I used to send in bird remains (beak,feet,feathers or a paste called "snarge") on a weekly basis for species identification to the Smithsonian for 8 years. All in the name of aviation safety reportin...

Rainald

I use a bifurcated gauntlet on my right hand for cut and thrust. it started out as an old demi based on the Rainald pattern on the archive,...[/img][/URL] Very cool, warms my heart to see people actually getting some use out of my patterns. I guess I need to get out of my workaholic mode and back i...

Rainald

... Is this a good time to make adjustments to my fighting style? How should I go about training for crown, or even fighter practice for that matter? I have 3 months and the slowest season to remind people I am alive, make an impression, and drink in all of the fun I can.... Mal I feel your pain, m...

Rainald

As mentioned, I really doubt your legs weigh 30 lbs unless they are made of .25 inch steel. :o You might want to think about wearing a pourpoint or suspension harness to carry the weight of the legs. I used to use a weight lifting belt to carry the weight of my legs... that worked for about two hour...

Rainald

I finally found the picture of a life size cutout someone had at la Prova Dura a few years ago. So know I know what colors to do the rest of him. I did his hair blond, because I was told that The Dude really was blond, but everybody tends to portray his hair as brown. I knew I rrecognized St Colin ...

Rainald

I came across some really cool material for lacing or as a replacement for twine/string/paracord. I went to Walmart and found a spool of tarred, black satin finish 3 strand cord. It's in the fishing department and they sell it as "trot-line" string for about 7-8 $. A trot line means you put a line a...

Rainald

I have had good luck attaching them to a 1" wide strap of fairly heavy leather to the suspension of the spaulder/pauldron. The stay in place (in the armpit) with out much movement at all.

Rainald

I can not leave anything alone, the minute I see any object I think of ways to use/ modify/change it to fit some aspect of my existence. Most of the time it's SCA related, but another major portion is any vehicle I own. I tend to strip down any vehicle I own of any external markings and go from ther...

Rainald

Like the subject sez, I was working on a new breastplate for a kingdom based armour kit and totally punched a hole through it. I have made 3 breastplates so far with zero problems until this. This one had about 2 hours of dishing into it and BAM; a big freaking hole appears. I was so pissed off i be...

Rainald

Lucian Ro wrote:Just purchased a klappvisor and was curious how one might widen the eyeslots a bit? Mine are at 1/4" and I was hoping to make them about another 1/8 " wider.

Definantly use a file, it is to damn easy to screw up with power tools.

Rainald

Some examples of what I'm talking about: I used to have an old satellite dish and a parking sign, now I have an oval center grip shield. I used to have a broken axe handle and a auto shifter knob, now I have a hammer to dish the inside of elbow cops. I used to have a wok, a sewer grate and some reba...

Rainald

Here is a pic of a few of mine. I've added one or two since this was taken.

Rainald

Thanks guys, Ernst I think the first pic is the weapon I remembered. Now I get to try and duplicate the thing.

Rainald

Like the title says: does anybody remember a picture someone posted about a rather odd looking medieval "chopper" style weapon? It had a drawing of a warrior holding it. It had a blade mounted on a wooden shaft . The whole think looked to be about 5-6' tall. The odd part was one side of the blade ha...

Rainald

I have used duct and masking tape to cover an existing object, remove it and then play with to reconstruct a pattern. Not perfect, but it get you close.

Rainald

One hit wonders with sword and shield don't impress me much anymore.
I have more respect with someone who can pick up just about any weapons form and be an assest to their group and a danger to others.

Rainald

I'll be there on Monday if I can get my stuff together in time . I'll be camping at Small Grey Bear and looking forward to seeing many of you at the war.

Rainald

The defination and all looks good but it looks way to skinny up top for a breast plate, if thats what your going for.

Rainald

It's not so much that HF sells crappy stuff, but that they have crappy quality control .... It's really a crapshoot buying from them. I agree, I have had a $19 angle grinder last for 4 years of hard use and then it's replacement crap out after only two months of light use. I managed to trash their ...

Rainald

I had my dog do the same thing a few years ago. I had finished a buckler with rawhide edging and had it on the back porch along with a bunch of armour I was repairing at the time. I looked over and got a warm fuzzy seeing that my dog had decided to spend the last two hours or so just chilling with m...

Rainald

I have actually had great luck on my last sword by gluing the basket hilt to the rattan with "gorilla glue". I always used hoseclamps before until I busted one and decided to try the glue. It's held up for the last four months with no problem.

Rainald

I have also heard that if you strip off the varnish on the handles and soak them in anitifreeze (ethyel gylcol) sp? they last a long time.

Rainald

Excellent work.

And this is why I'll never consider myself an armourer until I can raise a helm like that.

Rainald

Nice Helm!

How was the black finish done?

Rainald

I was trying to repair a broken weld on a friends tonight.

I managed to get a buffing wheel and a package of steel wool smoldering when using the grinder and then dropped a section of railroad track on my foot in the process. But the weld on the helm turned out ok.

Rainald

Use a small triangular file with a point facing down. Figure out the stock removal you want and space accordingly.

Re: Casting SCA Sword Crossguard

Re: Advice on making a besagew?

Re: Roman cavalry helmet repro

Re: workbench math question on size.

Tales from the Crypt

Re: Wanted: Arming points...

Re: Critique My SCA Kit

Re: Epic.. EPIC Kiln - Case Hardening Failure (lots of pics

Re: some things im working on...... ITS ALIVE!!!!!!!!

Re: So what the hell do I do now?

Cheap trick #1 Lacing

Bling is the Thing

Merde, blew through my new breastplate

Re: Widening eyeslots

I used to have:, now I have a

Picture of period pole weapon with scalloped edges?