The Armour Archive

We tried the 4th last year.......ohhh was it hot.....and I was only watching.

How hot was it?.....

It was soooo hot, that when we got the newbies to stick their tongues to the metal dishing forms, all you heard was sizzling!

All this week and next week is supposed to be 73* - 96* and mostly clear. I'll have the front area of the shop covered out another 12', we'll have one of the big carport tents set up as well as one of my pavillions...depending how many holes the rats have eaten in it! Saturday night will be designated heat treating night and casting night.

Cool! (Well, it's going to be hot, but I'm excited about the casting.) I'll try to remember to bring some molds, soap stone and a crucible.

Krag, do you you mind bronze in your forge?

Muhahahahah...you haven't seen the "new" crucible furnace! The one we used for heat treating armour last time has been finished. I've melted iron, steel, cast iron and all sorts of bronzes and brasses. I can even turn cat litter into glass...Muhahahah. The world is mine Muhahaha! ...all bow bfore the powefful maker of cat-litter glass!


P.S. You don't need a crucible. I have several containers/crucibles for non-ferrous metals.

Dude! I am sooo bringing cat litter!

This I really have to see. We could get into all kinds of trouble with something like that. How big a pour can you do in steel?

None, with propane prices what they are! Hah!

I've been trying to do some wootz crucible damascus steel melts. Unfortunately, crucibles that can be used for this have eluded me! There's a lot more details into the use of crucibles for this than I care to go into typing, though. At ~3000*F cat litter turns into a smokey brown glass...as does almost any pure clay!

Cast iron is a pain and takes too long using a crucible furnace, so I don't do it. Brass, copper, bronze...I can probably do about 10-15 lbs if I really wanted to. I plan on doing some bronze pours around steel barrel liners for some small cannons later this summer. For SCA hilt fittings and such, I can melt pretty much any metal you have. If you got bronze from a scrap yard, I probably wont melt it. Beryllium bronze is way too common in these. Everdure can be bought for about $2-3/lb, or you can mix regular 360 brass with copper and make your own "colored metal".

What I have is silicon bronze that I got from McMaster-Carr, so mine doesn't have the manganese Everdure has. Sounds like your source for Everdure is cheaper that what I paid. Where do you get it?
I don't know much about beryllium except that it's really heavy, and it's used in missile guidence systems. What does it do when you melt it?

It off-gases metal vapors, you breath them, then you die in about a week when you drown in your own body fluids. If you don't die that way, you get severe nervous disorders as your body shuts down.

All I have on hand is copper, brass and britania pewter...and about 1000 lbs of pure lead. Despite all the couch-saftey experts, lead works wonders in small amounts with some alloy combinations. I haven't messed with melting stuff in a long time. The last time I had a really pretty zinc fire as I vaporized some brass and the fumes ignited. I hope the fumes killed some mosquitoes!

I want to cast a langseax fitting set and a saxon cloak pin/broach. Other than that...it's just fun to melt shit.

This event sounds like it is going to be insane. Wish I could be there.

I hope everyone takes lost of pics and posts them here in a "Texas Armour-in Aftermath" thread so we can all see the madness.

I'll bring my 10' ez-up, if it's not needed to shade a work area I'll use it next to or over my tent if I don't end up sleeping inside.

We hit 100* yesterday...but never fear, we're supposed to get a cool coastal breeze for this weekend and it shouldn't get much over 96*.


OK...sit down and hang onto something........I'm cleaning, yes cleaning up the shop this afternoon. It won't be spic 'n span....but there should be a bit more room than last year.

Anyone want a dishing stump? If so, make sure you have room in your vehicle. They've checked a bit, but still have useful surfaces to put a dishing depression in. I'm not sure how many of the gas cylinders I have left. Probably 4 or 5 CO2 and three Cl.

Be careful of the Cl! might not be empty an all...

Can we please not repeat the green gas again, I know it kills the skeeters, but.....

Don't worry, any Cl tanks will already have been vented and cleaned. Anyone need about 200 gallons of ferric chloride?:)



For all the first-timers, y'all understand the directions well enough? We come up nicely on mapquest. Watch for deer on FM 1179 if coming in early morning or late night. For some reason they were getting smacked on the road this week.

Forcast actually says highs of 84/86 on Sat/Sun with only a 30-40% chance os scattered storms. As usual, it will rain for 30 minutes on Saturday. Probably while the welding machine is set up.

Krag:

Change of plans. I'll be working this weekend. Sorry, neither I nor my friend will be there.

Krag wrote:For all the first-timers, y'all understand the directions well enough?

Yeah, though there's no Hwy 60 that I can see on mapquest; it wants me to go all the way up to 79 instead of taking 21; I guess it favors major highways. I've taken 21 to Bryan once before.

Rivets, sand paper, drill bits, safety equipment, any hammers I can acquire between now and then, leather and associated tools, stuff to make patterns, am I missing anything? Does the scrapyard take credit cards or should I bring cash? If I buy steel from you, I assume you'll want cash?

If I hit a deer, want me to call you so we can have a venison feast? I'm not putting a bloody deer in the back of my station wagon.

Last year it was these are not CL tanks....and this year it is they have been vented already......so we won't be getting any green death clouds?

Kat,
If you're in west/south Austin, take 71 to 21. If you're in north Austin, 79 to 6 is faster...and more relaxing.

If you come in 21, you can take it all the way into Bryan, then exit the FM 158 exit just before entering downtown Bryan and this takes you all the way out to FM 1179. B/CS isn't exactly big if you miss a turn somewhere. I usually try and keep the directions simple for all you Austin types. I know big words scare y'all.





Actually, is was more of a snot-yellow/green than pure green. Loads of fun!:)


OK...Fredrik gets added to the "people to talk smack about because they aren't here" list!

Krag wrote:I usually try and keep the directions simple for all you Austin types. I know big words scare y'all.

I've only lived here five years, and have so far avoided losing brain cells

Going to try to make it there around 11 tomorrow; if I get delayed, where's the scrapyard?

Hi Krag,
Best laid plans to head out early have been sabotaged. I need to pickup Andrew at A&M about 7:00 then will head on over.
Alexis

Hi Krag,

Unfortunately, I will not make it up this weekend. I was looking forward to meeting you and learning a lot. (how to blow things up properly etc... *grin*) I will meet you soon.

Fergus

....and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.........

Not really. It only rained a few times, but it dumped 3-4" of rain each time! It cooled things down nicely, though. Due to wet ground and a missing metal caster, we didn't do any casting (molten metal spill onto wet ground is bad...very bad.)

Did some hot raising, tool/stake making, heat treating, stump cutting, gauntlets, more gauntlets, breastplates, gotgets, bazubands, leather..etc. A Father's day celebration of BBQ, and cupcakes was held Sat evening amidst stories of angry beavers and testicles hanging by a string.

No black powder...although I lit a sting of jumping jacks behind Alexis in the shop at one point.


Being a smaller group this year, it seemed like everyone at least finished one project. I think the prize goes to the great golden digger wasp that dug out three separate caverns and stuffed at least a half dozen grasshoppers in each over the course of the weekend.

Oh yeah...the best use for Cl tanks is mega-windchimes hanging from trees!

At least two cameras were floating around, so somebody ought to have some pics of stuff.

And of course, we talked shit about all those who weren't there...and a few that were.

The highlights for me were learning about Alexis' gauntlet articulation and Krag showing us his beaver. In all there was good food, good armour, and a good time. Thanks for hosting, Krag!

Ahhh...but alas, my big brown beaver is old, dryed up, wrnkled and losing hair these days.

You on the other hand, have a devout dedication to the art of armouring that one rarely sees these days!

No shit and there I was sitting across from Sir Clermont as he pondered the micro-technology and science of dishing vs raising. He was insistent upon learning all that could possibly be learned upon the subject. So dedicated he was, that in order to truly under stand the motion of steel at the instant of impact upon wood that he was willing to back his brand new minivan into a 50' white oak in order to further his understanding!

VIVAT good Sir, VIVAT!


P.S. Someone left a black rubber mallet with some sort of rune or something written on the bottom. I'm guessing it was Maelgwyn's. He's like a sorrority girl after a party...every time he comes to an armour-in he has to leave something behind as an excuse to come back.

We even got to see the hole in the beaver, but alas we didn't get to touch it......

Had a good time, learned how to tullip.....just dosent' seem to come out that way yet.....obvisussly an operator error.

[quote="Krag"] So dedicated he was, that in order to truly under stand the motion of steel at the instant of impact upon wood that he was willing to back his brand new minivan into a 50' white oak in order to further his understanding!

Ahh Clermont how many have i told you Minivans dont make great armor. to thin of gauge. at least try using your Jeep next time. Ahh how I miss working you good Sir.


From Knoch

Hmm... Does that rune look like the "swamp" symbol on a map? Marked with a green sharpie? That would be mine. As you say, just another reason to come back for another visit

At least I remembered to bring the can of wax home this time, and I resisted the temptation to hide the rabbit glue in some corner of your shop. In about a week the aroma would have been impressive and it could take months to find it out there.

I plan to go play with twisting steel bars at Clermont's forge first, then come see you for some welding help when all the parts are ready, probably in August sometime. You can hold the hammer hostage until then. Try not to teach it any bad habits.

I'm trying to finish up the spangenhelm this week. I'll post some pictures.

Who knew oak trees could jump around so fast? If I was better with paint I'd be tempted to replace the damaged body panel with 4130 steel so it wouldn't deform so badly. Oh well.
Maelgwyn- I'm going out of the country for a couple weeks, but I'll be back the second week in July. If you can wait that long we can twist and form your rods then with the forge. It should be a fun project.
I got some good ideas for stakes while I was at the Armour-In that might help me make cleaner creases. Now I've got to get the right stock to make them...
I've been thinking I'd like to host an armour in this fall. It might entice some of the armourers closer to Austin to come, and it might give Knoch an excuse to come to Texas. Did anyone else notice that more than half of the armourers that went to Krag's were from Austin?

You set the Date I will be there.

from Knoch

I took few pics and I think Maelgwyn did too, just not sure how to get them posted.