The Armour Archive

daggrim2

I'm afraid that there's all too great a possibility they'd get the Red Baron's engine on the wrong end of his plane.

daggrim2

I'm somewhat skeptical about that first article. No serious mention is made of the possibility that they went west to Vinland, even though no records of their arrival back in Iceland or Norway exists. In 1354, the King of Norway, Magnus Erikson, sent an expedition, led by Paul Knutson, to search for...

daggrim2

Sunlight...not sure. I had some moldy leather, and the sunlight worked, but the mold came back in a couple weeks. I tried alcohol...didn't work. Saddle soap might be a good idea. I had a smelly reindeer hide that I saddle soaped, and now the smell is gone.

daggrim2

I'd agree about the Tandy or Fiebing's white dye. Subsequent coats just reliquify the earlier coats, and the project turns into a gooey nightmare. I would experiment with some spray paint in numerous thin coats. The thin coats are misted on as tiny droplets, so they do not form a monolithic layer th...

daggrim2

I've been reading this with interest, and for the sake of refiniing one point in the debate; to Engenulf I'd say that not every Viking ship landing was a raid. A merchant crew, or a ship seeking shelter from bad weather, or a warband on the way to another destination might not want to risk hostiliti...

daggrim2

Pics of the Viking circular pouch.

daggrim2

Well, I made one, and I like it, but I have one suggestion. I ended up putting the knots in the cord back where they are in the original picture. Whenever I tried to tie the pouch up on my belt, the pesky knots were always in the way. I strung it up on the belt as you suggested...awesome because it ...

daggrim2

Much appreciated post. I'm going into my shop to make one . I've always been baffled at how difficult it was to get access to a pouch like this tied around my belt. Brilliant!

daggrim2

I make leather helms, and have sold a number to Dagorhir fighters. I've made over a hundred leather helms, and you can see my website at "http://leatherhelms.com". Mostly they are historically based spangenhelms, with a few horns thrown in the mix.

daggrim2

Aah, thank you, man. The immersion advice is very helpful...makes great sense, and clarifies why it's better than coating the surface. I'll surely try it out. Sounds like you have the concept dialed in. Combining the TB3 immersion and Acrylic in separate treatments is something that was way back in ...

daggrim2

Well, I just started out doing it that way. I was afraid that the immersion would leach the color. It does to a small degree, but dyeing before hardening might actually be a smart change to make. Much easier to dye flat leather than curved leather. Always trying to improve the process.

daggrim2

I'm using the immersion method of CB, then drying thoroughly. The Balm helps restore oils to the leather which may have been leached out. Just a step to insure the leather won't crack or degrade after the customer has spent a lotta money on something. The deglazing part comes because the glue doesn'...

daggrim2

As promised, here are the results of my looking for an alternate method of waterproofing leather for an assembly line . A) Method: Dye over Glue (Titebond 3) Cuir Bouilli by immersion Dry Leather Balm Deglaze with alcohol after Balm is absorbed Titebond 3 brushed on. Glue/90%, Water/10% Dye Results:...

daggrim2

Kilkenny, good on you regarding the glue not used for hardening, but for surface prep. I think you must be right. Looks like the best one step hardening/rainproofing for a production line would consist of cuir bouilli by immersion in a glue/water mix maybe 25/75. Alternate would be brushng sno seal ...

daggrim2

Satheian, I received the byrnie today, and it's a perfect fit. The quality is more than I'd hoped for, and the 3/4 sleeves, and mid thigh length make it a very fair deal. Thanks very much. Now I gotta wear it around the house for a few weeks to build up my twig body. Gonna need a shield bearer now. ...

daggrim2

'preciate your guidance, Kel.

daggrim2

Thanks Kel. Maybe brushing some heated SnoSeal on all sides of the finished, dyed pieces before assembly would be the best way to make the helms waterproof. That's be something I could do on my benchtop as one of the standard ops. I do like SnoSeal. I tested a few products for rain proofing at one t...

daggrim2

Oddbjorn, that's a good suggestion, but I do 15 or 20 parts like an assembly line when I do cuir bouilli, so I'm looking for fewer steps. I think I'll make up a flow chart of all the techniques I've seen on this forum, or some kind of matrix, and see if I can come up with something innovative, then ...

daggrim2

Hm, so maybe this incompletely tanned, or "burned" leather is what I'm experiencing with the saddle skirting I use for helmets. There are often thinner sections on the ends that are hard and shiny. These I have leaned to use for specific small pieces of the helmet. Also, there are sometimes clumps, ...

daggrim2

I understand the priority of dibs. However, if he decides not to buy it, I offer $175 + shipping for the Medium.
Daggrim

daggrim2

Can you accept Paypal? I can send a payment immediately. See PM.

daggrim2

Satheian, what size fellow would the shirts fit? I'm 165#, 5'10", 42" chest. And the price would be?
Daggrim

daggrim2

The klibanion in my picture is made up of 250 plates, 2.5 by 1.75 inches.

daggrim2

Looks like we need to start a cuir buoilli guild...once we learn how to spell it. Whenever I get to that word I just wing it. I spell like Lewis and Clarke, who had something like a dozen different spellings of the word Sioux.

daggrim2

There's quite a range of techniques here, and it's taking time just to sift thru it all, and to think of new ways to configure the process. Maybe we'll hit on something new and better than anything yet tried.

daggrim2

OK, thanks guys...but for Oddbjorn and Peikko (Suomi?), when do you dye it? It would work best for me if I could dye it afterwards, even a few months later. Anybody else, besides Andeerz , tried that over the top of dried glue? The helms I make never flex, so the dye wearing off that way wouldn't ha...

daggrim2

I'd like to revive this thread to seek some guidance regarding glue hardening. I have been using the method of submerging the leather in hot water in a pot. I use this as opposed to soaking and baking because I usually do about fifteen pieces at a time, so it's a much more efficient assembly line sy...

daggrim2

Be sure to test the floor polish for cracking. I use Resolene. Maybe the floor polish nowadays is different, but when i was in the Air Force, in the 70's, some people used floor polish on their boots, and they ended up looking like they were made of shiny cracked glass. That was long ago, though. Ki...

daggrim2

Just as a note about flex, and returning back to shape, with unwaxed cuir buoilli, if it gets soaked in a rain, it will soften up by maybe 40%, but it will regain it's hardness when dry. So it's important to dry it in the shape you want. If you toss it in a corner, it'll dry into a corner-ish shape.

daggrim2

Can anybody help me figure this out? Over half of the pictures I try to view are just dead links. For example this... Attachments: Viking Helmet.jpg [ 56.58 KiB | Viewed 69 times ] ...is all I got for the picture of my own helmet that I attached. Most of the pics that are posted here look like this ...

daggrim2

Oddvar, excellent analysis btw. Worth printing off as a reference guide. I'll add some helm pics. Glad to answer any questions.

daggrim2

Oddbjorn, in answer to your questions. Yes, the leather remains stretchy for about a minute, and can be removed from the mold in five to ten minutes to dry. Shrinkage is from negligible to 5% for 12 oz leather, heated to 175 degrees. At 180 degrees, the process speeds up, and takes maybe half the ti...

daggrim2

The salad bowl stuff dries hard inside my horns, like a shellac. It may be an oil that dries hard, like Tung Oil. I don't know any more than that, but I think I may experiment with it on leather. It may act as a waterproof coating on the outside of leather. Good idea!

daggrim2

The only product that I know for sure is food safe is salad bowl sealant. I use it to coat the insides of drinking horns after I subject them to a rigorous cleaning. It probably wouldn't seal the leather seams of a jack, but perhaps it could be used over the top of Envirotex, if that's used on the s...

daggrim2

Did Vikings have tattoos? It's cold up dere...not a lot of bear skin . BTW the bear skin may easily cost as much as the helmet. According to the 10th Century writings of Ibn Faldan, a Muslim, the Rus Vikings were covered in tattoos from their fingernails to their necks in a motif he thought looked l...

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