The start of a Journey: professional armouring

[Gustovic]

Hello everyone.

My name is Augusto Boer Bront, I'm Italian, I'm 20, and right now I'm studying in Sweden at HDK Gothenburg http://www.hdk.gu.se/en/programmes-cour ... t-ba-level

I started being interested in armour at age 14, when I first started reenacting in my little town, Cividale.
With the years I learned a lot on how medieval armour is supposed to look like and function properly.
After high school I had the unique opportunity to start attending an art oriented university in Sweden, with a heavy craft influence. Here at Steneby we have one of the biggest workshops in whole Europe, if not the entire world.
Long story short, I want to become a professional armourer, and not a generic one, but one of the best, at the same level as Jeff Wasson, Per Lillelund Jensen, Jiří Klepač, Albert Collins and others.

I know, it sounds arrogant, but in Italy we don't have any good armourer, and it would be nice to become a good representative of my country. I still have to decide if I really want to go back in Italy or stay In Sweden though, as I have the chance to take the Swedish citizenship fairly easily. I'm perfectly aware that it's a tough job, hard to make a living of, but I'm young, let me dream for a bit =).

The main focus of my work will be 100% historical accuracy. This means using period correct techniques and tools. I've read now both "The Knight and The Bast Furnace" and the PHD thesis from Nickolas Dupras, two key texts to understand how medieval armour really was. So in the years I hope I will be able to develop a good way of dealing with the fact that I don't want to work with modern power tools, such as grinders, welders, etc...

Again it's a very tough decision, but right now I'm really convinced that this is one of the few things I would be happy doing for the rest of my life.

But enough with the premises, let's show some steel!

Reading Dupras' thesis, I was struck buy the fact that armour generally was worked mainly from the inside, and the outside was not worked for the main shaping of the object. In fact nearly every limb piece presents signs of curling, but not raising, as I would have expected for something like a "tulip" shaped closed cannon.
Curious to see if that could be done on steel, I took a 1,5mm sheet and started banging. With surprise, the forming of a gutter shaped cannon came fairly rapidly.

The main challenge though was to make the anatomically correct shape of the forearm.
After two day of trials, I finally managed to curl the cannon in the tight shape without hitting the outer surface, but just hammering on the inside.

Here you see the tool I use. For this and all the other projects I plan to use only historical tools (that I'm gonna do myself too =) ), so no fancy stakes and hammers =)



and here's the incriminated object







here you can see the curling marks



and here is the cannon with my arm. Bear in mind that this is just a tryout, so I'm gonna use my bareskin limbs for sake of simplicity, rather than already taking measurements with arming garments and mail.







and some images of the cleaning up (planishing, filing and sanding, all done by hand with love =) )






So, here it is folks, the beginning of a (hopefully) long journey. I'll try to keep this thread as active as possible. This summer I'm gonna go back home, where I have a very small workshop, so I cannot guarantee that the objects will be that more interesting than if I have been doing them in Sweden.

Please, if you have any good comment or suggestion, come forth!!

[Konstantin the Red]

And so, Augusto, you develop an artist's eye, to make fine wearable sculpture. Bravo! Outstanding, as the American military says when something is of the highest excellence.

Another book to read, also in English -- yours is very good, and I am impressed with your command of idiom -- is Brian Price's Techniques Of Medieval Armour Reproduction: the Fourteenth Century. Around here we abbreviate it to TOMAR, and discuss it a lot. (You'll also find discussion of what became of Brian Price -- and it isn't pretty. Very unfortunate.) At least, after reading it, you would know what many of the people here know -- you know where their general level of armor-making knowledge would be.

We do have a couple of Italian correspondents besides yourself. I suppose you already email Signo, who is the most active one. (I think you're better with English verbs than he is -- he tends to treat them like Italian verbs instead!) A fine fellow.

Looks like the University insists on keeping a very neat shop, which is a very good habit to be in. Tidy, neat workshops work well.

[Gustovic]

Lot of space and lot of time. Next year i plan to focus better on both art and armour stuff.

TOMAR, it was the first book I read, actually. It introduced me to the concept of raising, more than everything. It was a good starting point, but it was something like three years ago, when I din't have access to any workshop.

Thanks for the support, I really need it =)!

[xwingace]

A lot of people say 'do what you love', but very few actually do. Chase the dream as far as you can!

[Paladin74]

Absolutely; good luck, man.

[Theo]

Your vambrace looks really, really nice. And good luck.

[Halberds]

Thanks for the pics.
It looks like you have your work cut out for you.
Roll the edge and you will be good to go.

Best of luck on your quest.

Hal

[Signo]

Ciao Augusto.
I would suggest you to think very well what you plan to do. Obviously you are young, and have options that most don't have, so you have space to make plenty of errors in your life.
So you should really think if it's more important to do what please you, or make it for a living. I "live" on this forum from long ago, and the years have seen tens of armourers that wanted to make it for a living, fail miserably, dragging innocent customers with them.
The problem is that your "plan" appear faulty from the start.
You said you want to use period techniques and tools, but any of the serious armourers you cited would tell you that we don't really know what those techiques are and how those tools were employed. Then you say that you don't want to use powertools.. why? Period armourers used plenty of powertools!
In short, you are planning to start a business that will wear you body, and that won't let you produce fast enough to sustain yourself or maybe a family if someday you plan to make one. there are not many people that can buy custom made armours of so high specifications as those you plan, probably even less considering that you are just starting to move your steps in this craft, and learning will take years.
My 2 cents are to find a part-time job, and devote the spare time you have to armouring, and more than this, remain in sweden, Italy is not the right place to build a job of that kind, unless you plan to be an hobbyst.

[Gustovic]

Signo, thank you for your kind words and suggestions.

Maybe I should clarify a point. My "no powertools" policy is more of an experiment, since I have at least two more years as a student. So I just want to see how much time it does take to actually make something and if the quality of the product is worth the effort.

And I know that powertools basically replace apprentices that would have worked in the workshop.

And it's not entirely true that we don't know that tools and techniques they used. Reading Thom Richardson's thesis "Armourers's tools in England" and Nickolas Dupras' "Armourers and their Workshops. The Tools and Techniques of Late Medieval Armour Production" (which thesis you can both find here on the Archive) we have enough hints on how more or less our ancestors shaped sheet metal to follow the human body.

And again, I'm an art student, so my future is screwed anyways =)!

[The Iron Dwarf]

Gus here is a thread you should read
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=169445
though im not into making armour it is a thread I always enjoy and have learnt from

[Kristoffer]

...we have enough hints on how more or less our ancestors shaped sheet metal to follow the human body.

Except they did not work from sheet metal like we do today..


Additional threads worth reading trough unless you already have not:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=170835
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=169446

[RandallMoffett]

Xtracted,

That is not entirely true. At least from the 14th century on but I will not hijack this. If you have questions I can point you to some info so pm me.

Gus,

I can only say best of luck. It is not an easy field to make it in and most who do find you need to be just as good as a businessman as artisan.

RPM

[Gustovic]

Well Xtracted, that's not entirely true.
In the inventory of the tower of London in 1344 we have listed a pair of shears among other cutting tools, that were used to cut the sheets in a rough size before the filework. And these shears still exist (and work!!).
In another account we have a XIVth century lawsuit in England where in a town citizen was complaining that the near armourer workshop was too loud, as there were people hitting lumps of metal with sledge hammers to create probably the sheets that are gonae be used for armour.
So we have both instances were the armourer would have sheets already ready to cut and forge and where the armourer, if with enough apprentices, would hammer them out from raw steel ingots.

Today I tried to speed up my game, and come to interesting results.
First of all I tried curling and edge on a scrap piece, and failed miserably =).

First bend

Second bend

Third bend

And curl -.-...




I will have to figure that out in the future, I guess... =)

Anyways, today I also tried to make another cannon. Instead on using 4 hours like the first one, I managed to make it in one (without cleaning, though). And I have to admit the the result is even slightly better. Of course the difference is that in the second one I already knew what to do, while with the first one I had to figure out everything. Another difference is that the first one was initially curled cold before forming the anticlastic curves, while the second one was entirely done on the forge. And that's why today pieces have such a nasty surface. In the coal I was using there was some coke left so i guess taht was the main cause of the rough surface.

Pictures!

This was after half an hour of work. Not bad =)!



Beside yesterday's one








And after 30 minutes more...








And here you can see the difference of thickness between one hour (or more) of cold curling (top) and hot curling (bottom)





Beside the first one (top), again




And finally, the fit (a little bit tight on the broader part of the forearm. Nothing that a couple of hammer blows can fix )




Sorry for the loads of pictures, but I'm trying (on a friend's suggestion) to document and show as much as possible, as an exercise for later in the years, especially dealing with art stuff.

[Gustovic]

Ah, BTW, Mac's threads are always a must for me to follow. I've been avidly following and looking at every drawing or explanation he gave. But thank you anyways! =)

[Kristoffer]

Let me clarify what I ment, I realize I was a bit short.

You are talking about "not using machines" and working "like they did". This means you would have to manufacture your own steel sheets from raw iron, not buy finished, factory made steel sheets like we do today, no?

[The Iron Dwarf]

I think that sheet metal produced historically would have been a lot more uneven than modern stuff, also it would have been 'mild steel' which is very even and forgiving when you work it.
like leather you would have chosen a piece of plate to use by the range of thicknesses it had and where they were, you may want it thicker in the middle and thinner round the edges.
you could get metal in various forms from very poor quality WI to sheet or bars that have most of the impurities removed but even then it would be very different from what you are working with.

every metal behaves differently, try starting from a bloom or work some real WI if you can get it

[Gustovic]

Let me clarify what I ment, I realize I was a bit short.

You are talking about "not using machines" and working "like they did". This means you would have to manufacture your own steel sheets from raw iron, not buy finished, factory made steel sheets like we do today, no?

Actually, I was planning on doing that as well. It's just not my priority number 1 . Maybe next semester I'll try to take a thick piece of steel and flatten it to a sheet. I will probably use a powerhammer though, since there are not a lot of strikers wanting to do that kind of job in my school.

But having a 4mm thick top and 1,5mm thick edge on a bascinet would be a dream. Just need the time and people to do it =).

Edit: for now I'm limiting just to the shaping and the tooling. The quality and the thickness of the steel is another sotuation that requires a little bit more resources and effort. One step at a time, my friend =).

[The Iron Dwarf]

learning about modern steel is a waste, you should be using iron to learn with, they are very different materials

[Gustovic]

Yep, iron is way easier to forge.
But in some cases modern steel is not that much different from medieval steel. Just some more elements here and there, but not a capital difference (talking about mild steel).
And iron is a little bit harder to find, especially in big quantities.

[The Iron Dwarf]

we bought over 5 tonnes for a job a few years ago from sweden I think

[Signo]

The most important "feature" is slag content, much more than carbon or other elements. It's the slag content that from one side will make cold working an hassle and at the same time allow for easier forgewelds, allowing to take several shortcuts in the production process.

[RandallMoffett]

ID,

Perhaps somewhat more uneven I suspect but since as far as I know we have only text and art to go on hard to say. That said I suspect massive water powered hammers were a common feature in this and I know getting them fairly even is not hard. From the art the plates look very much like rather uniform sheets.

Signo,

How common is such iron where you are? Around here most people do not even know if it exists any longer as demand is basically nonexistent.

RPM

[Gustovic]

In Italy is kind if hard to get, basically you have to rip off old fences or gates. =)

But maybe here in Sweden it's different. I'm gonna ask around and let you know.

[Signo]

In sweden there should be some shop that produce it. It's quite expensive, I remember years ago someone mentioned this shop that made steel with traditional techniques. In Italy is almost impossible to get plain carbon steel in sheets, so I don't even dare to ask if someone know wrought iron. Somewhere I've read that wrought iron is sometime used in piping for some chemical application, because some kind of wrought iron have a good corrosion resistance.

[Gustovic]

Yep.

A Norwegian friend of mine told me that in restoration works for example, they used pure iron nails, rather than modern steel, because pure iron resists better to corrosion.

[Gustovic]

I have a question though...

I'm about to forge a couple of stakes following the originals given in Dupras' and Richardson's thesis. What kind of material do you think i should make them of? I would go for carbon steel, but I want to hear you opinion on this one.

Does anybody know of what kind of metal blacksmith's tools were made? Were they steel or regular iron?

[Signo]

I think it depend on when they were produced and the kind of stake, because forged bloomery iron would be an obvious choice for the XIII century, but I think cast iron could have been a possibility for XV° century, for larger items.

[Gustovic]

Cast iron? For stakes? Isn't it a little too brittle? Or there are different kinds of cast iron suitable for making forging tools?

[Signo]

With cast I was meaning more about the molten state of the steel that it's carbon content. Blast furnaces appear to have been able to melt cast iron and then decarburize it before pouring.

[johan1212]

Good day
You have an amazing opportunity that few beginning armorers have. That is the fully tooled and ready smithy. I start all my students at the forge. It develops eye hand skills, planing of thought processes and once you understand the forge and fire you can make most any tool you will need. To be come a master of your art you will need a masters set of tools. if in two years you find you have a degree in art out what ever you are working through but have no tools of your own then what. take the time to learn how to make your hammers and stakes. as you use the schools hammers and stakes copy the ones you use the most. you probably wont ever get a chance like this one again. Most of us would give our left nut for a few days in a shop like what you have available for two years. You are a luck young man to have this opportunity. I hope you can make the most of it. you are 20 and a well made stake or hammer should out last your life time. Use good steels in your tools. why make a poor tool that wont last because some historical smith used a lessor material 800 years ago. you know he would have used the best he could get his hands on. good tools make good art but bad tools seldom make anything good. best of luck and i hope see see your posts in the future. Hammer up

[Thomas Powers]

Typically until quite recent times tools were generally made from real wrought iron with steel pieces forge welded onto striking or cutting faces/edges.

I have several of such tools purchased at fleamarkets in Ohio and New Mexico, USA and in the UK. Hammers, pincers, even a couple of full sized adzes.

As late as the American Civil War, 1860's, high carbon steel could cost as much as 5-6 times the cost of wrought iron and so it's use was economized. If you wore out such a steeled tool you could take it back to a competent smith and they could forge weld on another piece of high carbon steel and heat treat it for you.

As to finding real WI in the USA, I have never found much difficulty locating it in the scrap stream (OH, VA, AR, OK, NM, TX, NJ, WI, IL,... My last visit to the scrapyard resulted in over 100# of wrought iron at 20 cents a pound). The Globe Mills is selling some I have been told was high phosphorous. I really need to pay their extortionate price for some to use on early celtic iron weaponry!

In the UK the Real Wrought Iron Co, LTD sells remanufactured WI

And of course the bloomery smelters at Pennsic produce small amounts every year they run the bloomery!

[Gustovic]

Update: Dupras' thesis suggests that the raising stake taken into exam could have a steel plate forge welded as the working surface, while the rest of the stake body could made of iron. The author says that he's not sure and doesn't seem to address the issue of the material used for the tools that much.

So tomorrow I'm gonna try to forge a raising stake out of 1672 steel (SS-EN 10 083-1 - C45E (1.1191)), which should have the same properties as the medieval stake (ish). Having the workshop available until Monday I don't have much time, so I have to make tools out of modern steel, even though the overall properties and performance shouldn't be that much different from their historical counterparts.

In the future I might work with forge welding steel surfaces to wrought iron bodies for my tools, but that's not a priority right now.

Wish me luck!

[Gustovic]

Hello folks.

Just got back from the forge.

In these days I'll be making just tools, as back home I don't have to possibility to make them nor the right material.

So it's a lot about stakes, hammers, etc....

Yesterday I tried to make a decent raising stake, without any satisfying result, as the L shape is fairly difficult to forge without cracking the metal in the inner angle. After talking with a Norwegian blacksmith we came to the conclusion that the working surface was forge welded to an iron bent bar, hence the double curved corner really difficult to forge.

Side of the stake


So today I started forging what Dupras calls an anvil stake. It's awesome to make anticlastic curves and such. In fact I used one of those to make the cannons I showed you earlier.




You can see the whole forging process in the imgur gallery, if you want. http://gustovic.imgur.com/all

Then this Norwegian friend today came with an unexpected gift, another anvil stake (this time a proper one).




It's in wrought iron and of forge welded construction. It seem like it's from the late 19th century, but I'm no expert.

I started cleaning it with a grinder, but I felt like I was abusing it somehow. I still want to use it though....


What do you think, what should do?

[Signo]

Clean it and use it for the purpose it was made for, both of you will be happy.

[Gustovic]

Update time.

I promise, this is the last post about tools. Today was the last day for having the workshop available for making tools, so I had to spend the last four day just doing that. It has been exhausting, actually.

Next week I'll be back home in Italy, so this summer should be about armour making only, don't worry =).

Dishing hammer. 600 grams




Medium/Heavy raising hammer. 500 grams




Raising stake. Here I had to compromise, as the original would have been waaaay to difficult to replicate. I've been actually thinking and trying out for these whole four days.




These are the tools that I'm planning to bring back home (all made by me except the small wrought iron anvil stake)


These are the ones that I've been making for the last 4 days. Exhausting!


The handles of the hammer are not great, as I had very little time to do all this. The tools themselves are rushed, and plus I'm not that good with the powerhammer yet. But they seem to be functional, which is the thing interests me the most.

Here are more images, if you want. http://imgur.com/a/ZeADj/rearrange

Thank, and sorry for the torrent of posts!!