Flaring a breastplate for faulds?

[Clay]

How does one go about doing this on a breastplate? I may be doing a gothic-style plackart with a single fauld and wanted to know how you guys flare the bottom of the plackart.

Also, do you dish the plackart first and then shape the fauld, or do you shape the fauld first and then dish?

Thanks for entertaining my endless slough of trivia.

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I'm not being mean, I'm just telling you how it is.
Salinas Swordsman
Darkmoor Armoury

[Alcyoneus]

Do the fauld last.

[Mad Matt]

I've never actually done it before so take this advice for what it is.

Dish out your breast plate.

Once that's done you'll need a sharpish edge on a stump and a shiny good sized metal hammer.

Turn the breast upside down and hang the part you want to fold over over top of your stump. Keep the angle between the breast and the top of the stump fairly small. Say about 10-15 degrees. Beat it down over the stump striking on a bit of an angle on the edge of the stump and up to the top of your flare. Start at one side and slowly move to the other side evenly. Make many gradual passes to do this in.

Now you've got a flare that's not too sharp but the shape is there. Do basically the same thing but from both directions over a sharp metal edge (like the edge of an anvil). this make things nice and sharp.

My experience lies mostly in using this same technique for flatening the flange of a shield boss back out. So it does work and it's the same effect you're going for.

I use my 4# dishing hammer to do this with. One side has a curve diameter of about 7" and that's the face that I use. Basically almost flat but not quite with well rounded edges and nice an shiny.

Also a little tip for keeping the edge of the anvil from marking up the metal when you're at that stage is to just put a scrap of thinnish leather between the metal and the anvil. I usually use a scrap of 4-5oz chrome tan medium temper. If it's too thick you won't get the crispness you want. If it's too thin it won't do any good and will get cut almost immediatly. There is a bit of range above and below what I use that'll work fine. If it's thinner it just won't last quite as long and if it's thicker you'll have to work a little harder to get the crisp lines happening.

Hope this helps. Lemme know if you need any clarification.

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

[Mad Matt]

One other thing. The shield bosses I use this technique on are 14ga and very work hardened by the time I flatten out the flange. If you're using 16ga it's probably better to use a bit of a lighter hammer. Probably something in the 2-3 pound range will work just fine.

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

[jgalak]

According to Brian Price's book, flaring should be done after dishing, and is one of the hardest of the "basic" techniques, right up there with raising.

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Yehuda ben Moshe
mka Juliean Galak

[Vermin]

I do the dishing/sinking first.
Then I lay the edge of the breastplate over the edge of an anvil and hammer away.
I suppose you could use a stake too, but the anvil has WAAAAAAYYYYY more mass and isn't (hopefully!) going to move....
You may wish to use a side with a slightly rebated edge, as you don't want the anvil edge to mar the metal.
VvS

[Krag]

Dish first. It will do all sorts of funky things along the edge if you flare then dish!

I started with a Simmons plackard. I flared mine over the edge of a stump using a 4 lb sledge that has been ground to a more rounded face. After I got the metal to the desired shape (length of flare, corect angle, etc) I went back and put a crisp "corner" at the flare using the edge of my anvil.

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Krag von Berghen
KragAxe Armoury

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[Clay]

Thanks for the information guys. I'll dish the piece first and then flare it out.