The Armour Archive

Hello! This is my first post, new to the archive and sooooo new at armouring it hurts. Anyway, I'm trying to make a basket hilt out of plain ol sheet metal-16 gauge-making it in two pieces to get a deep dish, since I can't even begin to raise yet. I quickly found out I can't weld either-yet, so I'm wanting to throw a band over the seam and rivet the three pieces together, kind of like a spangen helm.

But I can't seem to get them to fit.
They just don't match up. Am I making any sense? The arc is different, or the general shape or what have you.

I'm dishing into a stump, wondering if maybe the depression isn't uniform enough.

Any suggestions?

Welcome to the archive Droog.

Hard to say without seeing what it is.
Yes bands do hold things together.
Can you take a pic and attach it with your post?
Click on the bottom of your post to add a pic from your files.
If not just keep pounding on the outside and inside until it looks like what you want.

I have never made a basket hilt before, perhaps some here can be more helpfull.
Have fun and don't get to frustrated.

Hal

Welcome,pics help. You will find lots of helpful people here. Amateurs - pros,be patient and enjoy!!!

If I understand your question right.
Tack weld the ends then start at the side thats off the most and work toward the center. Don't let the other end get too out of sorts while your working. Some times I weld three or four spots that all match up, then go back and match the rest.
It can get frustrating untill you get the hang of it.
Sedric

To get curves that match, first step is make a jig -- a piece of about anything rigid that has the curve you desire -- sheet aluminum, manila folder, cereal box cardboard, on which you mark and cut out the curve. Using the jig as your gauge, hammer on the pieces until the edges you are trying to match up end up both matching the jig's curve. You'll be at least close. Dishing alone isn't going to do it; you will have to hammer on the outside of things too, so you'll need something to hammer over as well as something to pound into. A sledgehammer head or a hitch ball with the flat spot ground to a curvature can do the job -- anything that's fairly roundish and sturdy enough to hammer on can get it done.

I've never tried doing this on a rounded lump of polished basalt.

Final refinement will be to temporarily attach the bits with screws or strong clamps and then hammer both bits together -- hammering them over a ball or mushroom stake is best, and over a ball stake that is close to the same radius as the curvature of the metal pieces best of all.

If you're pretty close, you can rivet one end permanently with a rivet or two, then hammer on the rest of it if it's not quite lying right yet, then get another rivet in, and so on, from one end to the other. Rather like fitting a spangenhelm panel -- you can get rivets or screws in, tight enough to control what the panel does while you wrestle some other part of it into submission -- and then riveting.

Thanks for the advice-all of it so far. This basket hilt is my first piece-I chose it because the pattern is much like spaulders-two football shaped halves with an opening on one end-and I've heard those are excellent pieces to start with.

After banging around with it for a while, I gave up on trying to get a band to fit and went straight to welding-when I get it closer to completion I'll put a pick or two up-heck, I'm not shy-it is my first piece. My welding is horrible but in the course of trying to get the two pieces close enough to weld, I've experienced the lessons you've given me.
Sometimes it's all about coercing-

Hmm...and I thought if I hammered, the pieces would just fall right into place....

Sigh....what a noob.

Thanks again.

droog wrote:
Hmm...and I thought if I hammered, the pieces would just fall right into place....

Sigh....what a noob.

Thanks again.

The truly frustrating thing isn't thinking they will fall into place - it's watching the guys who are really, really good who make it look as though they *do* just fall into place - and then finding out that they lied to you

I have one of the world's ugliest basket hilts sitting on a stick out in my kitchen right now - the result of my first attempt to make a basket hilt much like you are trying to make. Learn as you go - the things you find out about moving metal now will serve you well on your subsequent projects.

Gavin