The Armour Archive

I am going to begin making my a set of spaulder soo, using no power tools or nifty things of the present day. Chisels for cutting, drive punches for holes, sandpaper by hand for the finish, ect.

Am I stupid or will this acheive a good result?

If it's a project your doing for yourself, because you love the craft, and the history, it's great. Never, ever, under any circumstance calculate your time vs money. You'll get way discouraged fast.

well i want to one day open an armory that features armor made in this way (once i get the skill to). TO date i have only made elbows and vambraces (stainless) and that was with the help of beverly shears, whitney punches, ect.

my biggest problem i believe will be making the contored lines of the cop with a chisel. Also, does anyone know where I can obtain small 16 gauge sheets of steel.

Most places like Lowes and Home Depot carry 2x2 squares of aluminum and steel in various gauges.

do you know how much a 1x1 sheet would cost me (16 gauge mild steel)

I think that 12X18 cost me about 10 bucks or so. But it has been awhile since I have bought any there. Look in the hardware section that is were it usually is at.

You are in Oakheart, why not ask Waldryk? He might have a piece of ms he'd sell you, or know where you could get it.

Thanks for all the advice. I am going to start this project in the next week or two. THe project looks to have the following guide(please tell me if i have forgotten something)

1. Purchase the steel
2. Mark the patterns
3. Chisel the patterns out
4. Punch holes in pattern
5. De-burr with file
7. Dish Shoulder Cop
8. Wrap Lames
9. Lightly Polish Pieces
10. Test fit
11. Fully polish
12. Strap

"using no power tools or nifty things of the present day."

I was wondering since you are using no modern tools.
what time period were you trying to portray?
Most of the wood cuts of armours shops have shears pictures in them.
so you could skip the chisel.
If you insist on using the chisel I would suggest hot cutting
Dont put yourself thru more work than you need
Have fun
Chris

Why on Earth would you want to do all that hand work, then try to sell your work?

If you really dig using a chisel, fine. But, there are period ways to cut metal without resorting to a chisel.

read the Armorer and his Craft by Charles Ffoulkes. It has a lot of information in it.

I'd also recommend that you punch the holes after forming the metal, not before as the metal is going to move during the forming process so you don't know exactly where the holes are going to end up.

I would just like to say thank you, you guys are a really big help. I look forward to this task, daunting as it may be. I shall be sure to keep everyone posted on its progress, including in-progess pictures.

Ahh sand paper is a pretty modern thing. using loose abrasives with wooden or leather over wood forms would be a bit closer to how they did it in earlier times---a selection of natural stones is handy too.

I've done some knife work using no modern items. On one I recall spending 5 hours of smoothing the blade with natural stones to get it ready for the etch (pattern welded).

Thomas

Sandpaper is going to be used so that i may put a better shine on it, for more rust resisitance. But hey, I may try a bag full of sand.

For smoothing between/before final planishing, use files. They're terribly authentic - and damned handy!