How do I start making armor?

[Evan M.]

Hello everyone! My name is Evan and I am hoping to learn how to reproduce historically accurate 14th and 15th century plate armor and mail but I am not sure where I should start. I would love to attend an armorsmithing class or to take on an apprenticeship, but I also understand that opportunities like those tend to be few and far between.

Other than that, is there anything that a newbie like me should know or is there any specific equipment that I will need before getting started? I do already have a small cast anvil and I am preparing to build a proper forge, but I do not have any fluting stakes or any specialized hammers like the kind I've seen Eric Dubé use. Are they a necessity?

Thank you for your time
-Evan

[C. Gadda]

Hello everyone! My name is Evan and I am hoping to learn how to reproduce historically accurate 14th and 15th century plate armor and mail but I am not sure where I should start. I would love to attend an armorsmithing class or to take on an apprenticeship, but I also understand that opportunities like those tend to be few and far between.

Other than that, is there anything that a newbie like me should know or is there any specific equipment that I will need before getting started? I do already have a small cast anvil and I am preparing to build a proper forge, but I do not have any fluting stakes or any specialized hammers like the kind I've seen Eric Dubé use. Are they a necessity?

Thank you for your time
-Evan

Oh, dear - this is a rather tall order! But I will say you have come to the right forum, at least!

You will need many more tools than what you have now, for starters, though that will depend on what you are trying to do. Late 15th century "Gothic" plate armour, with its elaborate fluting and shaping, requires specialized tools and plenty of experience. Mac and others can attest to that. Mail and Coats of Plates can be done with far fewer tools, though, and might be a good starting point.

Biggest thing you need, though, is a good research library. In terms of armouring techniques you need Brian Price's "Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction". It focuses on the 14th century, which is ideal for you, covering coats of plates, helmets, mail, greaves, etc. You also need to study the original surviving armour, along with Mediaeval artwork. Claude Blair's European Armour, though dated, is still kind of the Bible on the subject. There are many others you will need that would take hours to list. Look forward to spending mucho buckos on books alone - more than tools, actually (I tremble at how much my library is worth...)

So I would suggest getting at least the books above, picking a relatively simple project, getting the needed tools and materials, and have a go at it. That is what I did some 25 years ago when I made a Gjermundbu style helmet and hand forged a sword from a leaf spring. They weren't great, but it was fun!

[losthelm]

Edit your profile to give a general geographic location.
Get a flash drive to keep track of notes and documents.
Pc crashes have lost a lot of images, contact lists, reference materialx and notes over the years.

Pickup a notebook and some pencils and draw/sketch
It helps to develop you hand/eye and understand how to draw 3d shapes.
Work at it.
The same goes for swinging a hammer.

Sketch, try making what you sketched, take notes on what worked, what didn't, and what you will do differently.

There are a few people who have an "open shop policy" listed in the united league of armourers on Facebook.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Let's see...this should give you a pretty good spread to peruse.

Thanks for the links and advice! It looks like I need to search for an English effigy from 1380 to 1390 AD. Plate is more my skill and it looks like that time period is plate-happy.

Well, in that case, you might like to take a look here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=139024
I've been building a similar kit; perhaps you might avoid some pitfalls by seeing the mistakes I made.


Other threads worth reading:

How does elbow articulation work - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177905
Designing a Knee - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177824
Make a Vitus Axe - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=132775
14th century armharness - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=170292
Coburg Bascinet by Tom - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177179
Bascinet prototype and Can Construction - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=170835
Raising Greaves - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177519
Analysis of fabric-covered globose - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176086
Mail - Sleeves and Skirts - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=168360
Early 15th century Brigandine - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=176428
Haubergeon sleeve length and vambraces - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176589
Creating a custom foam torso (for a body model of yourself) - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176431
Thom Richardson's Thesis - A must read for 14th century mail - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=175673
Ideas for Historical-Themed Hourglass Gauntlets - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=174655
Tom B's historically tailored mail sleeve - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=171813
Roundel dagger scabbard - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=172503
Questions on men's 14th century cotehardie and hose - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=172174
Discussion on late 14th, early 15th sabatons - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=169478
Rust prevention tests - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=170738
Discussion on Plaque Belts and their Suspension - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=170488
Material Culture of a Late 14th Century Persona - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27632
Wood for Pattens to Avoid Splitting - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=169049
Books for 14th Century Stuff - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=168287
Rolling and Roping through the Centuries - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=160267
Soft Kit, Late 14th Century - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=157481
A Late 14th Century Gentleman of Arms - viewtopic.php?f=14&t=43175
Late 14th, Early 15th Century Hinges - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=148968
Armor Primer - Decades of the 14th Century - viewtopic.php?f=4&t=128532
Hand-Sewing a Pourpoint and Aketon - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=127780
Mac's Bascinet Typology - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=96532
Questions about the Fabric-Covered Breastplate - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=178435
Comfortable and Flexible - Suspending your Leg harness - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=173292

Sorry, I know that's a bit like drinking from a firehose, but there is a mountain of invaluable information in these threads. Worth bookmarking and reading through a bit at a time.

And, last for this post, if you are not already watching (AA's own) Ian la Spina's videos, you need to subscribe.
https://www.youtube.com/user/neosonic66

[Evan M.]

Edit your profile to give a general geographic location.

Oh my bad, I forgot to add that I live just outside of Dayton Ohio. Sorry about that

And thank you guys for the reading and research recommendations! I do already have a handful of books on the topic of armor including Armor of the English Knight by Dr. Capwell but I am very happy to have learned of a few more!

[Kristoffer]

Keegan, perhaps Macs cobweb thread deserves a spot in the "worth reading" category?

[losthelm]

In your area its worth talking with stokewood armoury, his shop is about 90 minutes south if Dayton.

quad state blacksmithing conference in the fall or the united league of armoures conference both would be useful if you can swing a long weekend.
The forging covers armour workshops and some notable people and is fairly small.
Quad state is much larger but deals with blacksmithing and blade smithing.

A number of us also participate in groups like the SCA, Armoured combat league, or Similar.
The equipment used is often modified from historical designs for a number of reasons.
Budget, maintenance, and materials for the weapons used are the big ones.

[Matthew Amt]

Well, I got started with scrap steel from trash piles and dumpsters, like shelves and the back panels from washing machines. A ball-peen hammer, and sandbag (leg from bluejeans, tied shut at the ends), and a few basic tools like metal snips (*offset*, left/red-handle and right/green-handle, Wiss brand or better) vise, sabersaw/jigsaw, drill. Something anvil-like is excellent. Goggles, gloves, and earplugs!! Seriously. At some point I cut c. 5" holes through a couple pieces of thick plywood and glued/screwed them together, for a "dishing stump".

You will also LOVE a better dishing hammer, metal punch kit, angle grinder, couple other things. But in the meantime, find some metal trash and start hitting it. You will NOT have Gothic armor next week, but you'll learn a lot. And the materials are free.

You can do a lot without heating the metal. But a forge or torch will definitely expand your capabilities. Read a lot, find all the pictures you can, listen to the folks who have gone before.

OH--something I've never had: PATIENCE. If you find a good source, lemme know... And breaking down to make or buy the right tool for the job will save you WORLDS of misery and time. Might be why *I* never tried to make my own Gothic armor (though partly that's just the mood swings that dragged me into the ancient eras!).

Hit metal! Have fun! Try to be a little careful. And come here every day.

Matthew

[Mac]

Keegan, perhaps Macs cobweb thread deserves a spot in the "worth reading" category?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=169445

You'll need to set aside a few of hours to get through it all

Mac

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Keegan, perhaps Macs cobweb thread deserves a spot in the "worth reading" category?

Oh, absolutely! That list was just focused primarily on the late 14th century.

Dusting off the Cobwebs - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=169445

[Mac]

There are lots of "how to" video series out there, but these may well be the best of them.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTiLMb ... rug/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/SgtViktor/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiaOdg ... lofmAHUhrA

Disclaimer.....
--This list is not definitive. I've probably missed a few.
--I do not lend a blanket endorsement to all of the techniques in these videos, but these guys are all making reasonable decisions and producing armor that is a cut above.


Mac

[Evan M.]

Thank you guys so much for all the great info! I have been reading and watching everything I could find related to armor for the last couple of years but it is starting to sink in just how much more there is to learn. Which is awesome because I've never been able to get enough!

Keegan, perhaps Macs cobweb thread deserves a spot in the "worth reading" category?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=169445

You'll need to set aside a few of hours to get through it all

Mac

Oh trust me, I know! I found your thread about a month ago via one of Tom Biliter's FB posts and I'm still reading (and re-reading) every chance I get!

In your area its worth talking with stokewood armoury, his shop is about 90 minutes south if Dayton.

Oh cool, I didn't realize there was any armorers so close! Thank you!

Thanks again everyone!
-Evan

[The Iron Dwarf]

there is also a thread by Gustovic titled something like 'my journey to professional armouring'
it is a good read
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=171361

[Indianer]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I started a thread recently, pretty discontent and desperately searching for a way. Failed. But there are many great pieces of friendly, honest and understanding advice in it. Mayhaps worth having a look. It really depends largely on your age. link

Btw, I admire Roberts work. Both Roberts, in fact. Know few else...you´ll see what I mean when you are familiar enough.

Other than that - search the forum, heed older members words. They are all professionals here.

It may complement your skillset well of you start learning about crafting swords too. I did, and for me one could barely go without the other. But start slow.

You have an abundance of information here that is several years of study worth. That can be overwhelming at times. Let it rest then, and reurn when interest is ablaze again.

Have a workshop? Start completing your tools. Ask member "Halberds" here on the forum if you need anything. He might still be in the business. And yes. They are a necessity.

Have fun. -Indi

[Galileo]

You can get by with scrap and a ball pien. You only have one set of eyes, one set of ears - etc. Buy the best you can afford - "Eyes and ears" are required in my shop (garage) when I'm working. My 8 year old daughter walks out with me, grabs her safety gear and puts it on before finding out what I'm going to be doing. Gloves - leather gloves are good, "Impact" gloves are great when using a hammer. It keeps the shock of the blow from doing as much to your wrists and hands. Wear an apron - leather ones are cheap at harbor freight. I know of at least one Archiver that took an angle grinder to the groin (he didn't have his apron on - it cut through his clothes and "knicked" him). Get in the habit of protecting yourself now - it will save you years of pain.

[Konstantin the Red]

Hello everyone! My name is Evan and I am hoping to learn how to reproduce historically accurate 14th and 15th century plate armor and mail but I am not sure where I should start. I would love to attend an armorsmithing class or to take on an apprenticeship, but I also understand that opportunities like those tend to be few and far between.

Other than that, is there anything that a newbie like me should know or is there any specific equipment that I will need before getting started? I do already have a small cast anvil and I am preparing to build a proper forge, but I do not have any fluting stakes or any specialized hammers like the kind I've seen Eric Dubé use. Are they a necessity?

Welcome and well come, Evan. We've fielded this one before, though we haven't had it in some years now. Apparently the would-bes (we get them) seem also to be reading some of this forum before deploying their keyboards -- it allows them to ask specific questions on this thing or that, or something specific about tools.

Others up-thread have pointed it out: at Square One the biggest thing you need is Information. Capitalized.
Now a few broad-brush strokes: 1) Fifteenth century is based upon fourteenth century, but refined and full of cleverer metalworking tricks.
2) Working metal hot is useful for certain advanced tricks, but a lot of the hammering is done cold; you can work cold to good effect, it just takes more effort and some more time.
3) 14th-c. plate harness is highly protective and rather simpler to work up. 15th-c. plate is not for first-timers, but makes a superb goal to work towards; 15th-c. mail is by comparison actually pretty simple, and moderately distinctive, which is unusual in mail: mailshirts that look like haburgeons, but with long sleeves substituting for a haburgeon's short or half sleeve. 15th-c. mail was for the more lightly equipped troops, such as the infantry. Not necessarily the wealthy gens-d'armes in full plate, known by then as "white harness" because it was shiny. At some point they may have taken to bluing or painting the stuff -- lots of dark armour in 15th-c. artwork.
5) Functional but only sketchily period-detailed harness may be built following such things as Paul Blackwell's armormaking tutorial online; download it. It will introduce you tools: you need a)metal cutting capability (electric saber saw or a bench shear); b) metal bending capability (hammers, hard or soft, preferably both); stakes (may be improvised from masonry/brick chisels and cold chisels); finishing/polishing and edge finish/polish capability (files, or power sanders, probably a combo of both). It's a beginning, suited to the smallest understanding of how to get cold metal to do your will.
6) Have a place you can make a goddamned mess in. And clean out easy.
7) You won't really need an anvil except maybe to set rivets with; stakes held in stumps or holders have much more to do with cold shaping steel sheet. A torched-off length of railroad track will do you as well and in a few ways better, being narrow and able to get into tight tubular whatsits. There are some of those.
8) Not all effective armour need be steel plate. A lot of lives got saved with wearing quilted cloth jackets, to which for SCA may be pointed and strapped the SCA-required minimum of hard bits. a) below your steel helmet, a rigid gorget, of metal, hidden plastic, or hardened leather, which is remarkably great stuff if you're willing to shell out for this expensive and incontestable material; b) rigid elbows, steel is best, with or without fans to these elbow cops according to taste; c) rigid kidney plates, often done in two halves hingeing at the spine, which is okay -- they go halfway round you at belly level, and some SCA Kingdoms mandate that they circle your belly all round, which is not crazy; d) martial-arts cup, which you buy; e)hand protection such as metal gauntlets or armored wrists plus welded steel basket hilts (much cheaper) on your swords; f) rigid knees, fanned or fanless.
8a) Between all these hard or steely bits, there is a longsleeved kneelength gambeson of quilted, layered-together cloth armoring all the rest of you, preferably linen for coolness and strength. This you pretty much will have to hand-build yourself, but can with medieval tailored-in-quarters style be quite handsome in wear. So in addition to hacking away with metal and leather, there is also cloth, and a surprising amount of it.
9) in re that quilted gambeson, you tie armor pieces onto it with bootlace, and buckle them in with strap and buckle. Laces, called points, hold armor up, while straps and buckles usually hold it in. You will use both, with plate pieces. Being steel, armor is dense enough that you pretty much have to hang it off your body's shelflike parts and its particularly narrow parts. One of the most effective ways to do that is to make a sort of closefitted cloth jacket for beneath the metal layer to do the holding-up; our forebears did not seem to think of outfitting their warriors with loadbearing harness of belts and straps -- essentially, they went with, well, things like vests.
10 and last) There is NOTHING like wearing your armor and trying to sword fight in it to teach you what armor should do. Plate armour looks the way it does because those shapes are the ergonomic ones, to move with you and yet still cover you. There are a couple-three spots that are just about impossible to completely armor: your armpits, and the general zone of your 'taint. But for either, you can work up *some* protection. Maybe shelter is more the word.

[Konstantin the Red]

What an anvil of 100lb and up is designed to do is bend red hot bar iron/bar stock efficiently. It's a different set of smiths' tasks from dishing and raising sheet metal. Now, an anvil is damn good at making horseshoes, chains, and steel tools for other professions; armour bashing is rather sideways from that.

A heavy steel block or thick chunk of plate does the sheetbasher about as well most of the time; a London-pattern horned anvil is terrific for bending red hot bar around some desired radius. Smiths cut hot barstock hammering it onto a hot-chisel, which is a squatty sharp wedge affair often plopped into the square hardie hole on the anvil to make a long bar into two shorter bars. It's not the sort of thing moderns are used to seeing, but it's routine for the blacksmith. Rough as a cob, too, but it works fine.

The simplest steel helm an armourer can make, and very like to succeed first crack, is the 13th-century barrel helm of five plates, counting the top cap. The whole affair is riveted together; supremely low-tech. You can mock the thing up with cardboard, tape, and scissors. Brass paper fasteners for rivets if you feel like being deluxe.

[Halberds]

Welcome Evan.

Most will recommend spaulders as your first piece.
you can dish the pieces in the ground with any rounded hammer.
Use metal that you can cut with tin snips.
Most important thing is to have fun and learn.

My first piece was dished in a clump of grass with a ball peen hammer.
I used cut off nails for rivets.
I penned them over a trailer hitch ball held in a vice.

Follow your heart and the good advice of the Armour Archive.

Best of luck on your quest.

Hal

[Friethjoph]

Welcome to the forums!

Ok, let me get one thing out first: I am more a scholar than an armorer (academic type), but there is one thing both academics and craft have in common:

Start Simple
I know, there is the temptation to go out and wanting to replicate that grilly blackened and gilded armor in high gothic style... But that is a masterwork! It is a good motivation, but until you can do a masterwork yourself you will have to learn, refine your technics and to do that: Start simple.

Starting simple always means: learn the basics of the craft first. In case of armoring this is learning what tools you need (and the others helped you with that already to some degree), and then learning how to handle them. Grab yourself a sheet of metal, your ball peen hammer and a treestump with a depression and make something simple. Something you can be proud of... a bowl! Jsut dish a boowl or two. Yep, start with... I dunno... shield bosses or nasal helmet pieces. At some point the metal starts to ring different, you might start to feel how the metal needs to be struck or if/when it has to be heated to relax after the pounding you gave it.

Then, armoring is not just the metal side. Ask the pros, there is quite some sewing and leatherwork involved in a full suit of armor: be it the gambeson under the metal or the leather strap, you will (over the learning) have to look over the edge of pounding metal.

Don't leave the theory behind! It's good to learn all autodidactic, but there are things you better look into before trying them out. This might sound boring, but you might want to check the law around you first - especially the regulations for gas operated devices in your area and noise limits that apply - and if you want to design a project of your own, you will have to do research. So make it a good habbit to at least look up what it historically looked (or might have looked) like before designing your own armor. You should also look into the various hazards of working with some metals - especially trying to burn off zinc can be very deadly.

And very much the biggest point I can stress: Workshop Safety! Get yourself proper eye & ear protection, gloves for working with metal (it gets hot and has sharp edges), a thick apron and cloth from cotton or wool. If you weld, welder's googles/shield. You don't need all of that at once, but safety first

[Konstantin the Red]

Beating out a bowl or two will *really* outfit you to take on 15th-century spaudlers (or spaulders, both are legit from sheer longevity of usage -- and shaky Middle Ages spellynge), which have moderate dishing to their uppermost plate and slight dishing to all the lames below the shoulder cop -- just enough to bulge those lames a little way off a straight single bend, and also not incidentally fit the metal to your person more snugly and neatly. Nearly everything in plate armor has not only curvatures, but compound, multiaxial curvatures. You are not built like the Tin Woodman, and neither is real plate armor.

Even if the bowls you bash out are too ugly/rough to let out in public, you can still use them to hold small parts while you work on stuff that uses them, like the modern buckles you took a Swiss file to and decorated them up à la 1400 AD with lines and notches.

You will use mostly a couple kinds of rivets: dome head and flat head, or tinners', rivets. A few lengths, mostly short. Flush-type rivets did happen, but rarely; for medievals, they were a pain in the ass and were only resorted to when nothing else would do. (They didn't have modern twist drills to make holes with; they did have augers, but for wood.) A large nail, cut down to length, may substitute for that one awkward spot where the rivets you have aren't long enough to work, like where all the corners overlap on a 5-plate barrel helm.

Anyway, the rivets you're using can be contained in that bowl you bashed.

[Ckanite]

I recommend starting with a great helm. It's stupid easy to build. Print out the template, size it to your head + padding. Once you're happy with that (paper is cheaper and easier to work that steel), glue it to the steel and cut it out. Shape all the pieces in various curves till they overlap and don't look so crooked and drill for rivet holes. Then it's a matter of riveting all the pieces together and Boom! You have your first piece of fully functional armour! Once you have that, do it again. You'll find that even through those simple steps, You'll have learned a ton. Now that you have those skills down decent enough, move on to some thing more complex like spaulders or sabatons. Just remember, the first few times you make something, while it may be functional, it will suck. Don't be discouraged. Learn, improve, grow.

[wcallen]

This was mentioned a few times, but it was generally mixed into all of the other advice, so I will separate it out.

Learn what armour actually looked like and how it developed. The first part may sound obvious, but it doesn't seem to be.

Stare at real pieces. Not copies, real pieces. Then stare at more of them. Do whatever helps you most to try to really "get it" - often drawing the pieces can help. Then go back and look at your drawings and the originals together. They likely aren't really the same. Details will be left out, curves won't be the same, proportions will be off. All of that is important in the look of the piece.

Learning includes some reading. If you actually care, then read "European Armour" by Claude Blair. It is a bit of a slog, and it has relatively few pictures, but it is the best actual description of how armour changed 1066-17th c. you will find. It gives you the background to know what you are looking at in pictures and helps you understand how people describe things.

Then look at more pictures. Better yet, look at real pieces. As many as you can and from as many angles as you can. If you can actually touch real pieces, that can offer a whole additional level of information.

You aren't that far from Chicago, Cleveland or Detroit. I haven't seen the Detroit display, but Cleveland and Chicago both have pieces well worth visiting.

This is all part of training your eye and your brain. This will be as important as learning how to bend metal if you want to create a reasonable facsimile of original pieces.

Most of my stuff is later than you really want, but there are a few earlier pieces in the collection. I often have more pictures of each piece than you can normally find, and I can take more when necessary:

http://www.allenantiques.com/Armour-Collection.html

Wade

[C. Gadda]

A question, Evan: what is the motivation for making armour? Are you doing it to participate in SCA heavy combat, for historical re-enactment display, or simply to reproduce the artefacts of the period to the best of your ability? Your answer will influence the direction of your work. Konstantin's answer, for example, touches on many considerations involving SCA combat. Note that some helmets that are great for display can't be used in SCA combat for safety reasons, at least not without significant and ahistorical modifications. Someone simply working up a re-enactment display might be content with an object that takes modern shortcuts though otherwise looks correct (not always, but sometimes true.) Just something to consider.

Also, are there any specific pieces or harnesses that have attracted your eye, that you would really want to make? For example, I'm more Viking Age, so I really like the helmets from that time esp. the Gjermundbu, Coppergate, and various of the Vendel/Valsgarde helmets. So I have a great deal of research material focused on that. If you have a piece you like, even if you don't know any details, post a pic and we can probably get you a lot of information about it.

Ckanite mentioned starting with a great helm. This is a very good idea, particularly a Pembridge style helm, which is solidly mid-late 14th century, relatively easy to make, and good for either display or SCA combat. Also, a full up reproduction introduces a fair number of techniques, to include some metal raising for the top plate. Peter Fuller has a DVD on the subject, which was sold through Paladin Press (which, regrettably, just went out of business, but one can still find copies out there) and I highly recommend that.

[Evan M.]

A question, Evan: what is the motivation for making armour? Are you doing it to participate in SCA heavy combat, for historical re-enactment display, or simply to reproduce the artefacts of the period to the best of your ability? Your answer will influence the direction of your work. Konstantin's answer, for example, touches on many considerations involving SCA combat. Note that some helmets that are great for display can't be used in SCA combat for safety reasons, at least not without significant and ahistorical modifications. Someone simply working up a re-enactment display might be content with an object that takes modern shortcuts though otherwise looks correct (not always, but sometimes true.) Just something to consider.

Also, are there any specific pieces or harnesses that have attracted your eye, that you would really want to make?

Man, that's a tough one! Not because my motivation is uncertain, but because I have no clue how to explain it haha

I guess I'll give it a try. I have been fascinated with armor, specifically European armor for as long as I can remember. None of the other hobbies or sports that I have tried have connected with me in quite the same way. It may sound a bit strange, but it's almost as though armor is an important part of my identity that I've lost and am now re-learning. It's specific as well. I don't get this feeling for eastern, oriental or ancient armors and not for later armors from the 17th century onward either. It is a strangely specific interest in 12th-16th century armor with heavy emphasis on the 15th century.

I would love to get involved with historical re-enactment like what Reece and Ben from Pursuing The Knightly Arts are doing. But I don't only want to use and wear armor, I really want to learn how to make it as well.

As far as my favorite harness, I would have to go with Dr. Capwell's black harness. I know It's probably not something I will be able to make for quite a long time, but that is my endgame goal for now.

-Evan

[Thomas Powers]

Note almost all of these replies are based on working modern steels; things that date after the 1850's (and much better than medieval and renaissance steels!) Now is your
historically accurate" armour to be made from real bloomery iron and steels; or will you be happy with the modern stuff worked into historic patterns?

I would like to add my vote to attending Quad-State Blacksmiths Round up. Put on by Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil usually the last full weekend of September at the Miami County Fairgrounds, Troy Ohio. It's the largest annual blacksmithing conference in the USA if not the world and has acres of tools for sale. It is also fairly inexpensive especially for out of towners as you can camp on the fairgrounds for a minimal fee.

I try to go every other year or so with a 1500 mile trip---each way! I flew once and had an amusing experience flyback with 50 pounds of top grade smithing coal and a duffle full of dirty clothes and tools, metal, and smithing stuff...

[wcallen]

A question, Evan: what is the motivation for making armour? Are you doing it to participate in SCA heavy combat, for historical re-enactment display, or simply to reproduce the artefacts of the period to the best of your ability? Your answer will influence the direction of your work. Konstantin's answer, for example, touches on many considerations involving SCA combat. Note that some helmets that are great for display can't be used in SCA combat for safety reasons, at least not without significant and ahistorical modifications. Someone simply working up a re-enactment display might be content with an object that takes modern shortcuts though otherwise looks correct (not always, but sometimes true.) Just something to consider.

Also, are there any specific pieces or harnesses that have attracted your eye, that you would really want to make?

Man, that's a tough one! Not because my motivation is uncertain, but because I have no clue how to explain it haha

I guess I'll give it a try. I have been fascinated with armor, specifically European armor for as long as I can remember. None of the other hobbies or sports that I have tried have connected with me in quite the same way. It may sound a bit strange, but it's almost as though armor is an important part of my identity that I've lost and am now re-learning. It's specific as well. I don't get this feeling for eastern, oriental or ancient armors and not for later armors from the 17th century onward either. It is a strangely specific interest in 12th-16th century armor with heavy emphasis on the 15th century.

I would love to get involved with historical re-enactment like what Reece and Ben from Pursuing The Knightly Arts are doing. But I don't only want to use and wear armor, I really want to learn how to make it as well.

As far as my favorite harness, I would have to go with Dr. Capwell's black harness. I know It's probably not something I will be able to make for quite a long time, but that is my endgame goal for now.

-Evan

If that is your favorite armour... you have purchased his book. Right? Lots of good stuff in there.

Wade

[Konstantin the Red]

Evan, to get to Dr. Capwell's black harness, you're going to make quite a lot of armor. Armours. Harnesses.

These are steps on your road. These steps will help you get damn good at shaping metal. This will be practice; lessons learned. Many many people have gone before, and we can guide your footsteps and light your path. Thomas Powers, smithlike, is pointing out how nearly impossible it is to attain to a molecular exactitude without a time machine or a Tardis (and I think you need to be a Time Lord to not merely violate, but not to gang rape, causality). Such tempornography aside, modern steel and certain modern steel alloys will indeed serve for your tin suits -- or perhaps components, if ever you want to traffic in armor pieces to help support your hobby, your calling.

In this company, you are not really all that strange nor unusual.

You'd do your first work in mild, a/k/a low carbon, steel, <0.20% carbon. This is the modern world's wrought iron, and it is highly amenable, biddable stuff. It can be casehardened if you want to take the trouble once you have a forge up as you hope to do. Medium carbon steel, about 0.30% to 0.50% C, makes high-performance plate pieces at high performance prices too. Take some time, years, before getting into this stuff, as you will also need to have, learn, or farm out heat treatment to bring it to its greatest strength after you've worked it and formed it in an annealed state. You can harden the stuff some, maybe about half as much, simply working it cold -- up to a certain limit, before metal fatigue steps in.

From the strictly functional/nothing else SCA Engineered school of armour design, these rattan fighters are willing to use stainless alloys. More difficult to work and to cut (hell on saw teeth), the stuff is correspondingly harder to dent or to break. Some Creative Anachronists really appreciate this both for an extreme protectiveness in the helmet and for weight reduction everywhere else, because you can use thinner metal than you could with mild steel. Other SCA people simply like that you don't have to oil, wipe down, and polish stainless armour to keep it from corrosion. Very much a user-driven point of view.

Plate harness is wearable sculpture. A mobile, if you like. Again I say, build with an eye towards wearing it and doing something with it. To exclude swimming. Track & field is probably out too.

In tactics, you find armour is a force multiplier. For a couple centuries there, even leg infantry sported half armor, covering vitals, head, and upperworks in general. So you had thousands of well-tinned warriors both foot and horse galumphing about the field, shooting arrows and quarrels -- don't underestimate the punch of the advanced crossbow; it shot pretty slow but it hit hard, and a hundred yards out at that. Firearms essentially became an advance upon the crossbow once powder technology got good enough, with corned powder and better ignition systems than a slow match. Closer in, you got pikes, bills, halberds and both swords and longknives (which differ fundamentally in their respective manufacture) for hitting 'em where they weren't armored. Those who didn't have horses to take care of mobility for them *always* had gaps in their protection. It may be noted that close in, the sword had more varied ways to get lethal than really anything else. Even a hand grenade you could only use once -- and you had to pray to Saint Barbara (among other things, patroness of really sudden journeys) the fuze didn't go out. Halberd and bill were deadly hard hitters, and massed pike tremendous at all-out offense as long as they stayed shoulder to shoulder (pikemen really should have backup weapon systems like sword and buckler for when things go south; they usually did), but the sword kept you dangerous no matter what once you trained with it.

[Konstantin the Red]

There are threads here exploring how to equip, and how to start equipping, an armouring shop. Brian Price's TOMAR book has a whole chapter on good stuff to get into your shop.

You don't need an enormous amount of room. A worktable 36" x 36", heavily built, can serve well as the center of your making -- and a locker or two. But what do you have for space?

You'll get hammers and stakes, and some means of holding the stakes strongly while you hit metal atop them, such as a stump or a pipe stakeholder. A 1" masonry chisel, its edge rounded off a little (r = 1/32"), and its corners also, makes an excellent stake for putting creases into metal.

You speak of your small cast anvil. 'Kay, how small is small? How heavy is it? There is likelihood you'd want more.

Hammers: probably the bare minimum is two hammers, one a ball pein of about 16oz, and one, that may be another ball pein but can just as well be something else, of two pounds' weight or so. For some dishing tasks you probably want something good and heavy, c. 5-6lb for pushing metal about in a big way. Some of us use dumbbells of that weight, using the kind with rounded ends, either balls, or shaped like two aspirin tablets with a handle between them. When a hammer is heavy enough it doesn't even need a handle. Searchbutton also "bowling ball basherizer" for making large smooth curvatures simply.

Almost as simple, albeit calling for use of a hammer that is expensive as these things go, is "soft hammer hard anvil" hammering, using a weighted rawhide mallet, such as is made by Garland Manufacturing -- their split head hammers, which come in five sizes; we favor #2 and #3 mostly. The other bit you need is something smooth and hard to be the anvil. You know -- like an anvil. But a slab of steel plate would do the job as well. So, a rawhide splithead might be your third or fourth hammer; these are unexcelled at making smooth 3-D curvatures simply and easily. That's what their price tag goes to.

That's a rather unspecialized hammer that looks like it is working the center of a piece of metal, but actually works on the edges of the metal, due to that hard anvil face. The rawhide splithead becomes in effect a ball stake, around which the metal gets wrapped and pushed. The specialized hammers you've seen are mostly a matter of the hammer faces being rectangular, very smooth, and gently rounded; the hittin' part is what matters and little else does except suiting the hammers' weights to yourself and to your task. A raising hammer has its rectangular face so as to give a differential control to how much it moves metal in which direction. A circular hammer face just spreads out sheet metal in every direction, radially, making the spot you hit thinner. Manipulate a raising hammer right and you can sort of "noodge" the metal more or less sideways around the periphery of the piece you're working, making its circumference get gradually smaller, and perforce pushing it into a dished shape. That's raising. Theoretically, it's supposed to make the edges a little thicker too.

When you've got your raising hammers, say maybe these were all ground-down, reshaped and polished ball pein hammers you got cheap at swap meets (there are many good budget hacks to doing this stuff) and rehandled maybe, and you've got them polished just as you like them, you are never going to lend those hammers to anybody else -- too great a chance they will mess them up in ignorance, like deciding they'll just set this rivet. Nonono NO -- hand the kid a plain ole ball pein for that purpose, for which it is superb, and make him leave your pretty hammers the hell alone. He can do less damage to your equipment learning soft hammer/hard anvil quasi raising to shape his metal.

[Konstantin the Red]

Most of us start, or started, in cold working on mild steel. Many garage armourers hardly feel a need to go farther. Such technique, and its likely quality of result -- simplified, functional, but don't call it stylish nor sculpture, as the best of harness is -- is found in Paul Blackwell's armor-making tutorial for the Creative Anachronists' game. It's a primer on how not to design stupidly using leather and metal; it can produce homemade harness that is at least sketchily sorta-Medieval.

https://www.arador.com/armour/how-to-ma ... ur-making/

Sketchily-sorta-medieval-style was a pretty long step up from the altogether Mad Max homebuilt harness one often saw on the SCA field. All the more so from inexperienced fantasy-novel readers who at most were like to have about one semester of metal shop in their experience. Then, anyway. There's even less now. So good milord Paul Blackwell undertook to write a tute suited to the meanest understanding, for people who could be relied upon at least to grasp a hammer by the handle.

[coreythompsonhm]

Start off simple and figure out what tools you need for that project. As you make pieces, more tools will present themselves as useful purchases. I built up my tool selection over the years as I needed them.

The best tool purchase is books and info.

[Evan M.]

You don't need an enormous amount of room. A worktable 36" x 36", heavily built, can serve well as the center of your making -- and a locker or two. But what do you have for space?

You speak of your small cast anvil. 'Kay, how small is small? How heavy is it? There is likelihood you'd want more.

For my work space I just have my garage. It's a little cramped but I do have a sturdy worktable in the back that's about 5' long and 2' wide with a small bench vise mounted to it.

My anvil is a 55 pound chinese anvil that was given to me by a friend. It also may not be cast after all. When I was cleaning the old paint off of it I uncovered a few welds which seem to suggest that the anvil was made in 2 or 4 pieces and then welded together. It's not great, but at least it's a heavy piece of metal with a soft face. Also it was free so I'm not complaining

My anvil looks just like this one only mine is not in as good a condition. Hopefully it will work until I can afford a proper anvil.

If that is your favorite armour... you have purchased his book. Right? Lots of good stuff in there.

Yep, that was the first book I got. I also have "Journal of the armour research society volume 1", "Masterpieces of European arms and armour in the Wallace Collection" and "The real fighting stuff: arms and armour at Glasgow museums".
The last two are more like picture books than in-depth studies of armor, so my collection still leaves a lot to be desired.

-Evan

[Mac]

Any anvil is better than no anvil!

Mac

[Ckanite]

I agree with Mac. I started on a #55 HF anvil made of pure Chineseum. I did a lot of work on that thing. I still have and use it; makes a good cutting block.

[Mac]

Here are a couple of essential items that you may not have thought of, or perhaps underrated the importance of...

--A sketch book. Get one and use it early and often. If you have an idea, sketch it out. If you think you might build something, sketch it out first.

--Hearing protection. The sorts of percussive noises an armorer generates will destroy your hearing. The high decibel drone of a grinder or saw will do it as well. The process begins immediately and deterioration is irreversible. I use ear plugs. Some prefer ear muffs. The important thing is to get something you are going to use, and use it.... every time you do something noisy. It's better to be "temporarily deaf" from earplugs while you are in the shop than to be permanently deaf when you are old and grey. Some old smiths seem to wear their deafness as a badge of honor.. it is not.

--Eye protection. I use a plastic face shield whenever I'm expecting things to hit my face... like at the grinder, or when cutting with a jigsaw. Under more usual conditions, I rely on my somewhat oversized (1980s era) glasses. This is not what I recommend, but it's better than nothing. There are lots things that can send debris into your eyes; snapping drill bits, exploding dremmel cutoff wheels, clipped off rivet ends, little snippets of sheet metal that you have removed with an aviation shear.

And while I'm on the topic of injury prevention... Learn to hammer well. If it hurts, you are doing something wrong and it will injure you sooner or later.

Mac

[Aaron]

Considering you are in Dayton, OH, you might want to look at the DRMO sales at Wright-Patterson AFB.

http://www.dla.mil/DispositionServices/ ... erson.aspx

The AFB works a lot with metal given their research, etc....so you might be able to pick up tools, equipment and even scrap steel for almost 90% off, or even more!

Give the DRMO a call and check out those DRMO sales please! You could get started for cheap!