The Armour Archive

My first question on working spring is, what do you do when you need to weld it? Take a two piece helmet top for example, do you weld with mild steel wire or do you have a source of high carbon welding wire? I haven't seen this at my local welding shop. Using mild wire would comprimise the whole idea of a hardened, heat-treated helmet, right? I know McMasterCarr sells spring steel in smaller pieces as well as Admiral steel, any other sources?
My next question is about case hardening. Wouldn't case hardening work as well as using spring in thinner gauges of steel? Especially if it is hardened both inside and out, and lastly, has anyone done any experimentation using a superquench with armour to see if there is an application here?

I can't really address your case hardening question but for welding spring I use strips cut from the same sheet. It won't work for a MIG obviously but it works fine for TIG. I have used a superquench variation on mild steel before. It was noticably stronger, but it's easier to just use high carbon.

Please, please, PLEASE do NOT say 'high carbon' when you mean 'medium carbon spring steel'. We don't want some ham-handed newbie thinking that if a little carbon is good, more is better. I've said it before, and I'll say it again' NEVER use anything higher carbon that 1050 for helms - or much of anything else, except perhaps with a pearlitic microstructure- and I'd feel a lot better if it was 1045. High carbon heat treated steels that become work hardened can have a lot of potential energy in them, and can fail spectacularly. You don't want that on your head.

but it also helps if you stress releive them as well .. an I do feel u can use something a bit higher than just 1050 .. sorry ..

Kaliban wrote:but it also helps if you stress releive them as well

Very true. There is not much point to selecting a spring or high carbon steel as material, then failing to perform a proper annealing, hardening, and spring temper. You just will not be getting the performance out of the material that you selected it for in the first place.

-Takeda

GO SEE THE THREAD ENTITLED, 'BEST TEMPER FOR HARDENED STEEL'.

a lot of potential energy in them, and can fail spectacularly. You don't want that on your head

.

I keep thinking of an exploding head while somebody is getting whacked, and the idea is rather hilarious. Reminds me of the old moment of zen from the former Daily Show.

I would have to agree with James Arlen on this. I've been working with spring steel for about 4 yrs now and due to some misinformation and my own speculation I though if 1050 has this much then more would be better, so I made some of my first armor out of 1095, followed the forming passes with annealing then hardened and tempered it. I had and elbow cop crack, a basket hilt crack and an a number of micro cracks form on the articulation hole for legs and arms. I then talked to Jim Hirsoluos about it and he just laughed and said why are you using high carbon steel? I switched to 1050 and haven't had a problem since, been fighting in a pair of gothic legs outta .042 1050 for 3 yrs now and have only to pound out the occasional dent from an extremly hard shot.
Ken
vKarms