The Armour Archive

Hey everyone.

I find myself in need of repairing the brasswork on my helm, several of the rivets have popped out. I am looking for advice on the best way to rivet them on the inside of my helmet. I am sure you are all aware getting a hammer into a finished helm is quite akward.

Thanks in advance

If you are using brass rivets, you could use a smaller ball pein than if you used steel rivets. There isn't really any trick, it's just a pain. [img]http://forums.armourarchive.org/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

You need a really long ball pein of do-it-yourself construction.

Then, of course, you could peen em from the outside if you are good at shaping the shank [img]http://forums.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Try using a picking hammer.

Hey Ogedei

If you have a railroad spike, that works. Also if you have something like a shotput, you can use it to bash with. Kinda a bit caveman-ish but it does work. But I guess that at the end of the day, caveman, Mongol, what's the difference?

Hrogn

I often use a small ball stake... can't remember who told me that one.

It works beautifully.

I'll second the use a ball-stake as a hammer stunt. You can also cut a cup in the end of a piece of steel that matches the rivet head to make a rivet stake. Use the stake to drive the rivet down against a ball stake and it will faler on the inside. The cup end keeps you from mis-shaping the rivet head and keeps the hammer away from work piece. Beware, this is a 3 handed job minimum. 1 Hammer, 1 rivet-set and 1-2 for the helm.

Good luck, Happy hammering
Sean

I've got two different ball piens for peening rivits inside stuff. One just has the ball end and the other end is cut off at the handle. The other one has a 6" long bar welded between the ball and the rest of the handle. Both mighty usefull hammers.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

My expriments last night turned out that my light dumbbell sans vinyl anvil thingy did a pretty decent job of peening the brass rivets. Only did one cause I was exprimenting at like midnight [img]http://forums.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

I actually had a custom hammer made for this purpose. The blacksmith did an excellent job of turning part of a car front suspension into a hammer to my design. Unfortunately, I designed it slightly wrong. I need to get it altered one of these days.


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Conor
Red Dragon Armoury
I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

Ball stake works well

Donnghal