The Armour Archive

Scott Martin

I'll take some pictures - I suck at drawing, so I'm building some example armour instead. Slower (especially with my current IRL project actively on fire) but less prone to mis-interpretation and confusion. With the added benefit of having folks tell me how to do things better :) To be fair Mac, we'...

Scott Martin

I am having trouble understanding. :? Can you add some diagrams which illustrate what you mean? You know what they say.... "a picture is worth a thousand words". :D Yup, I'll pull these from one of your sections since they illustrate the point (I continue to be envious of your drawings...) When I b...

Scott Martin

Hi Mac Sorry I didn’t jump in earlier, it’s been a very busy year so far! I recall our discussions at the Texas hammer-in, and that really helped me with artulation, particularly with the “droop” for gauntlets. One of the tricky points to making the articulation “shallower” is that in general the ar...

Scott Martin

Pattern welding blanks and then (hot) hammering them out from billets into sheet works. Make sure to use a power hammer. I'm trying to remember the name of the fellow (New Mexico? Arizona?) who was doing this for a set of armour. He also had a whole bunch of wrought steel (from a penitentiary water ...

Scott Martin

If you are in a major city, you can also rent cement mixers: In Canada they are $41/4 hrs or $59 for a day, and are much larger than the one that Mac linked to. You'll be tossing out the oats when you are finished, so "contamination" of sand or gravel is not a major concern.

Scott

Scott Martin

Having recently had my arm harnesses hit with a bastard sword used at full strength by a blacksmith, which left a scuff (I'll try to post pictures this week) that damage really looks odd. If the breastplate was heat treated, what was it treated / tempered to? Quick ad dirty test would be seeing if a...

Scott Martin

I am using 20 and 22 gauge. 22 gauge is tough enough that a full power sword strike (by a blacksmith) using a toledo steel sword (the real ones, not the tourist junk) left a minor scuff in my arm harness. I recommend 20 gauge for the knuckle plate and the last two plates on the hand (since they have...

Scott Martin

Scott, No one has chimed in. Thanks for taking the time to add to the resources available here. I saved these files for comparison with my own work. Very handy. -A. Feel free to distribute them, I subscribe to Mac's credo that if we share our knowledge it will make each (and all) of us better. I'm ...

Scott Martin

And in case anyone would like the latest patterns for these, you can find them attached in .jpeg format (with a ruler to allow for scale correction) Gothic_Gauntlet_Hand_Pattern.jpeg Gothic_Gauntlet_Cuff_Pattern.jpeg.jpeg For the cuff I have found that ruling the first flute at 3/4" in from the edge...

Scott Martin

I am remain envious of your setup as well - hopefully I will get a chance to meet up with "armour" folks sometime in the near future to talk shop, Patrick Thadden's hammer-in (almost a decade ago now) was a lot of fun!

Scott Martin

Well, not all the beauty but at least more pics of the pierce work and fingers.

Scott Martin

Finished these today, need another 3/8” across the knuckles for a comfortable fit. 1FEC1642-E915-4DAA-8692-595A3466A571.jpeg Wondering what lengths folks use as “average” finger lengths. I needed to add ~1/2” to the length of the plate immediately below the knuckle pivot, and While I was using 7/8” ...

Scott Martin

I'm currently working on some turners, and trying to get the right "balance" between height of the rarebrace and the challenge of clearing the "bump" with the elbow fan. If you pull the rarebrace up to where it was in the late 15th century it gets bulky, so I am trying to put the turner just below t...

Scott Martin

For tempering, liquid lead was also used, which has a melting point of ca. 330°C. This was favored by the English, who apparently had pretty horrible blades until well into the hundred years war. Based on some discussions with friends who do blades this makes an "OK" temper, but is really easy and ...

Scott Martin

And temporary riveting. This is a big deal. If you haven't handled original armour, you often see little "rings" where a hole had been punched during construction and was later filled. Was this a mis-punch? or somewhere to brace during construction or heat treating? Now that I know about this I str...

Scott Martin

Can we have some pics of the inside of the breastplate showing how you attached the gussets? I would expect a "pivot" rivet at the bottom and slots at the top, but can't really make that out on these pictures.

Scott Martin

RWWT wrote: ↑Tue Mar 15, 2022 3:03 pm Roper Whitney Punch w/ 3 punch/ die sets: https://www.ebay.com/mys/active/rf/cont ... X_ELIGIBLE

I might be interested, but this requires me to login to ebay to view...

Scott Martin

<SNIP> With a modern punching tool (like the RW #5) the punch and the bolster (die) stay aligned more or less coaxially. With a hand held punch and bolster, this is all left up to operator skill. I think the relationship between closeness of fit and stock thickness is important here. With thinner s...

Scott Martin

I'm imagining cutting strips then Whitney punching the center point to rivet size then running through a larger punch to shear the outside circle then dapping it into something like a grommet set. I made a pile of washers for Mark (deGaukler) because he needed tiny ones for a belt reproduction. I f...

Scott Martin

The technique you are looking for is repousee and chasing. Jeff De Boer could do that, but I suspect that he is as (or more) expensive than Ugo. You may want to drop Jeff Wasson a line, IIRC he has done embossing, as has Jacob Selmer, although Jacob is more into architectural work. Chris Gilman may ...

Scott Martin

I always enjoy your work Rene - and usually get an idea or two on how to improve my own as a bonus. Perhaps you will inspire me to finish my gauntlet tutorial so that you can comment on what I am doing wrong. Since it is intended to be the guide I wish I had 25 years ago, so it is much more detailed...

Scott Martin

I was planning on using 1,25 mm mild steel (18 gauge?) because that's what many of the original articulated couters seem to be made of. Possibly I was thinking of having the mild steel carburised because I can't get 1050. Then I just started ruminating about how robust these things are on the origi...

Scott Martin

What material are you using? I used to make my elbows out of 18ga stainless steel, until I had one caved in by an An Tir Duke... Now I am a bit more neurotic about getting the shape right, so I'd be happy with that thickness in stainless. I also do 18Ga for 1050 carbon steel, but mostly so I have ex...

Scott Martin

<SNIP> As Scot says, the effect of tempering is one of time and temperature. This same sort of relationship exists in the formation of temper colors as well. The result is that one really can just use the colors for most work. That's not good enough for modern industry, but with practice, uniform s...

Scott Martin

I'm going to have to find a better oven alright, mine only goes up to 300 degrees Celsius. TL:DR you can use lower heat for longer time and get the same results. Tempering is a combination of heat and time. If you can't temper at a higher temperature, you can leave it to "soak" for longer. When we ...

Scott Martin

Got sucked into Chris' site (a regular risk) and thought that this would be a useful link for folks: http://diligentdwarves.blogspot.com/2019/12/heat-treating-armour-modern-way.html There is also a tribute to Mac (and Toby and Jeff and a few others) on the Blog. Don't visit this site if you have som...

Scott Martin

Ugo was Casehardening mild steel with some of his deeply engraved work and I have not heard of any crack issues. Though I am not sure how much those works of art are fought in! I can (second hand) answer here, since I spent a bunch of time "interrogating" Ugo about his heat treating process once I ...

Scott Martin

No really, Galileo's a bot (the sinister Cylon kind)

or was it a bend sinister? I always get those confused...

Scott Martin

We could resurrect the "Hammer in" thread for the immediate post meeting discussion on Acanthus leaves. I also recall Ugo's reaction on Jacob's boob repousee...

It was indeed an excellent event, I learned a lot and met a bunch of great people in the flesh.

Scott Martin

I'll have to think about this one - I suspect that shipping would be a significant chunk of the overall cost...

Scott

Scott Martin

Just kicked out a brief post on finishing gauntlets for Christmas. Here are the two pairs so far completed: http://borealissteel.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2_Pairs_done-768x1024.jpg A quick (and incomplete) set of lessons learned: If you are using carbon steel, then 22 Gauge is a good thickness f...

Scott Martin

I have updated the post on making gadlings, which can be found here:
http://borealissteel.ca/making-gauntlet-gadlings/
Currently working on the post explaining how to make and assemble the fingers.

Scott

Scott Martin

It would appear that I am more than a tad behind on updating this thread... Gauntlets pass the "Business card" test, as Dean was abe to get his drivers license from his wallet while wearing gauntlets. This pair is based on the Wallace A254, later versions are trending more toward the A62 in Vienna. ...

Scott Martin

Perhaps Tom B. can be persuaded to take some shots after he takes possession of them. He has been known to take some nice photographs. Bonus points if he can take photos and compare them to the "inspiration" in Vienna (hint hint). The gilding on the knuckle plates is gorgeous, so I may need to trac...

Scott Martin

The circles may be most easily made with a beading punch, although those look like they are in the ballpark of 1/16" to 3/32" if that is the case, you may find that a nail set (if you can still buy them) will work well. That was my plan for the circles on the cuff edges, which you used a "negative" ...

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