The Armour Archive

Dan Davis

My friend, keep your head down and your eyes open.

Sulfur powder in the boots keeps the sand fleas away far better than a flea collar, and it won't make you sick afterwards.

Dan Davis

Cat,
Johnson's paste wax; comes in the same old yellow can as it always has. Rub it in good, let it dry and then buff away the excess.

Dan Davis

Matt,

I built a planishing hammer out of scrap for my shop; Mine works really well but if I could get it to do fluting I'd be really happy. I'll trade pics with you. Off-line if you want.

Dan Davis

Guys, It seems to me that this is more likely an example of a great bascinet for the joust and an early example having removable neck skirts that are now missing. The straight down aspect of the neck piece as well as the highly sculpted visor shape seem to indicate this to me. Is it possible that th...

Dan Davis

This page with links to PDF documents is an invaluable resource. Open the PDF on helmets and scroll down to page 15 to find the helm you are describing.

EDIT: forgot the link!! http://users.wpi.edu/~jforgeng/HarnessIQP/Downloads.htm

Dan Davis

The chemical name for fluorspar is calcium fluoride in case you can't make them understand what you want. I've never had any problem with using crushed fire scale, but I can see the concern. Of course, I'm using a propane forge now so there aren't many impurities from the fire anyway. Hmmmm.... try ...

Dan Davis

Plain old boric acid can be bought at almost any pharmacy. You may have to forego the big chains and go to a REAL pharmacy to find it though. As long as the roach powder is 100% boric acid it will do fine. Fluorspar can be had at your local pottery clay supplier. Iron oxide powder can also be purcha...

Dan Davis

Ok, a couple of comments and you guys can toss rocks at me now First, Plaque belts and leather vambraces are described regularly in pre-transitional armor. Vastly anachronistic in most applications but still existed and documented. Further, grave effigies from the mid 16th century show that some Sco...

Dan Davis

So you're poking a hole in the side to insert work after you block the top of the cone? Yes, and make the hole just small enough to insert and remove your work. I typically angle my entry hole down and across the firepot so the workpiece hovers in the center of the fire. Once you've positioned your...

Dan Davis

...I still couldn't figure out how to get the coal/coke roof on the thing though. ...Great thread guys. Some methods that work well for me: Build your volcano as noted. Once you've got a good fire going inside your cone put a heavy handful of coke on top and then fill the throat with green coal. As...

Dan Davis

Ralph, As far as I know the Scandinavian countries did not use coal to any great extent. For more info on the rest of Europe try looking for economic histories of England, Poland and Silesia and for books on Northern Germany. You can also look here: http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article?tocId=202987...

Dan Davis

Just to confuse things, there is the coke you get in your own forge, made in a tiny heap of burning coal, with relatively much air. It is soft and light, breaks easily, lights almost as easy as chaorcoal. Sometimes called breeze, though that's a confusing name and can mean other things too. And the...

Dan Davis

A couple of definitions for the newbies: Coal is what comes straight out of the ground. It may or may not be washed when you get it so wash it thoroughly in a large tub of water and then rinse it under a running hose. This cleans out most all of the crap. Coke is what you get after all the volatile,...

Dan Davis

A reducing fire burns much calmer than an oxidising one. Typical are long faint bluish flames or flametips, which is carbonmonoxide burning to carbondioxide. Dan, your suggestion about the point-heating is a good one, it just strikes me as a bit awkward (seen from an armouring point of view) to ign...

Dan Davis

From my experience with a rivet forge you have a very hard time getting enough burnable material into the forge to form the hard dome shell you need. My solution was to add a 8" sheet metal rim to the forge that simply slipped into the lip and was welded into a circle (more or less). An opening cut ...

Dan Davis

Don, I may actually be able to make it this year! Hurray! If I can then I'll see about bringing down a pile of random material with me. When will you be in the metroplex again? I've got a huge pile of wrought iron work to do and Scarborough Faire starting April 9, but I can still find a day or two t...

Dan Davis

Sorry guys, the site's been down. These are going on to Ebay since no one here wanted them.

Dan Davis

Copper and cuprous alloys like bronze and brass harden by mechanical (work hardening) or by precipitation (alloy migration) methods. Work hardening takes place due to vibrations inside the crystalline lattice of the metal and precipitation hardening takes place due to migration of substructures with...

Dan Davis

Copper does oxidize and form Cuprous Oxide at elevated temperatures, but in the lower temperature range you need to remain at temperature for a longer period of time. The net effect for oxidation is almost precisely the same when compared to duration in order to achieve required ductility. 750F is t...

Dan Davis

I plan on throwing these up on Ebay but I thought I'd give you guys first crack at them. The ball stake is a hot-stamped 4130 ball welded to a piece of recycled O-1 drill rod. The entire stake is normalised and ready for heavy pounding. I have two more of these I've been using for about a year, they...

Dan Davis

Krag wrote:
Evil_Merlin wrote:Project cancelled by death...

Ouch.

Huh?

I agree. HUH? Please elucidate

Dan Davis

My suggestion is to pick up a cheap chalice of pewter from a vendor at a renfair, then take it to a local bike shop and have it chromed or silverplated for about $50.00,. I can check around for what's available and get some contact info if you'd like, I'm at a renfair right now so it's not a problem...

Dan Davis

Are you sure that's a gorget? it looks like a pair of wrap-around pauldrons that buckle together in the front and rear, with arms attached to the pauldrons and everything overlaying a leather jerkin. Laces hold the whole thing down onto the chest. This is reminiscent of mid to late 16th century half...

Dan Davis

Drill a hole in the side of your workbench, insert the shaft end into the hole, dress the edges a bit and you have exactly the kind of stake I use to flute batwing pauldrons, except I welded mine up out of a round tooit and a drill rod.

Dan Davis

I have one of the HF shears. They either set up and work just fine, or they have to be extensively reworked before they're usable. There doesn't seem to be any other options. The one I have now required lots of remedial machining and I'm still fine tuning the stupid thing. The last one I had worked ...

Dan Davis

Hey Krag,

Any progress on that steel crucible furnace? Inquiring minds want to know.

Dan Davis

Hey, my B'day is June 27th so that weekend may or may not be good (depends on the wife's tolerance ). Kraq, if you're thinking about getting the blu crusher rolling mill from Kayne and Son PLEASE e-mail me before you do. There are some personal experiences (and e-mails) I'd like to share with you th...

Dan Davis

Heck, I'm in. Definitely. I don't know about teachng anyone anything though. I need a vacation now, so by June I'll be twitchin' pretty good . Greg could use a vacation too. Both of us are likely to come down from the shop for a break from building up to Pennsic. I can bring down a 10 x 20 outside e...

Dan Davis

All of these are good answers, some better than others.

As a metallurgist, I can say that all of these methods work because they are dampening the harmonic resonance of the helmet.

Dan Davis

Hal, It looks like you have about $20 in clamps, $25-$50 in hammers depending on grade (ranging from cheap chinese up to Peddinghaus, I own and use both), a $25.00 dish and a $25-$35 dollar stake. I base these numbers on my own purchases and readily available website sales info. So you have anywhere...

Dan Davis

Hal,
The Cap'n has a point- If I want a barrel helm I'll go pick one up off'n the pile but if I were in the market for a complete kit and instructions you'd be in business.

Dan Davis

Hal, Nice work. That looks a lot like my Pembridge style helm, and they are a bugger to make. You've got to have done one of those in order to REALLY appreciate it Our approaches to construction are a bit different, I think I'll try it your way next time. BTW, stop by the shop next time you're in Da...

Dan Davis

Gruber, All of my discussion has been aimed at quenching armor pieces, except for the little digression into snow quenching. I guess I should have been clearer about things. Yes, the tub of ice water is very effective in hardening sheet metal, but only if you want it to get up to blade hardness. Sam...

Dan Davis

Helmut, Todd pretty much had it right in his post above. You just can't case harden anything with a cross section as thin as 12 gauge steel deep enough to prevent denting and dinging without completely carburizing it. And if you choose to do that you may as well go out and buy high-carbon steel, it'...

Dan Davis

Gruber, I used to live in your neck of the woods, too (North Chicago, to be exact). Ya don't need anything but the snow or ice water. I'd recommend the ice water for quenching mild carbon. The snow trick would primarily work to put a differential heat treatment on a high-carbon blade, the edges woul...

Re. Bascinet

Coal in the Middle Ages

rehardening annealled copper

FOR SALE: two creasing stakes and one 3 inch ball stake

Chalice Idea