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Armour & Weapons For SCA Armour, Click HERE. |
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Greetings
Friends and fellow craftsmen and craftswomen!
On this page you will see a variety of projects made at the Knight's Armoury. I first got into armour as a teenager making maille, then was trained in plate armouring by Master Roy McDaniels of Chesapeake, VA, a self taught armourer with over 20 years of experience. Armour is absolutely fascinating to me. Making armour has been a life's obsession, though I do not devote all of my life to it as some other colleagues out there. After 21 years of growing into the art of armouring, I have attained the skill level of an Accomplished Journeyman. There are surprisingly few tools at the Knight's Armoury with which I and my friends attempt to create armour above average in detail. We have only one raising hammer donated by Master Cadwallon (Charles Davis), two ball peen hammers, one brass hammer, one copper hammer, two leather mallets, three steel dishing bowls, one 175 pound anvil, a lead block, a Makita electric shears, a fine Scotchbrite polishing wheel and grinding wheel on a grinder, a 1/2" belt sander, one 3/8" drill, a small drill press, a small Sears band saw, a 9" planishing steel ball, a 4" steel "ball on a stick" stake, some cardboard and scissors and pens for patterns, a Whitney punch, a 3000 RPM large Bosch rotary grinder, two hacksaws, a small rotary grinder/sander, two polished tack hammers, two polished planishing hammers, several hand tolls such as chisels and files, and a medium duty oxy-acetylene torch. This meager collection of tools is all we have to make everything you see below, and it pales in comparison to the armoury shops of Valerius, Cadwallon, James Gillespie, Robert Mcphereson, and the other notable armourers out there who have made making armour into more than just a casual hobby, but rather a life's work. It also shows how a versatile a small collection of tools can be and just how much can be made with them. Future additions to the tools in the armoury will allow for better smoothing and finishing work, and may lead to the use of medium carbon steel (with the addition of a kiln or forge) in an attempt to create the thing, hard and light exacting copies of medieval armour, which is the eventual aim. Because so much of the work is done painstakingly by hand with such few custom tools, prices for those few paid commissions are relatively high compared to other armouries, but there seldom is a waiting period more than a few months, and this wait is only because of personal projects that are always underway here. Mostly, historical replica armour is made here. There are few SCA pieces made and most SCA work is repair or additions to current harnesses for fellow SCA friends. Anyone who can visit in person and spend time in the shop will be trained to the extent of their interest. I freely share my techniques and secrets with anyone willing to learn and create. Time spent and any projects I and they cooperate in working on together here are made for only the cost of materials. I do not charge apprentices or customers for my assistance if they actually show up for some quality hammer time. This invitation extends to anyone who can make it here in person. I get no enjoyment in making things solely for money, only for the fun of making it. If it is closely historically based, different in style than other's projects, and especially fun to play with, then it gets made here. (A good example in the full sized ballista... I just HAD to build one of those!) The armoury is located at my residence at 628 Cross St., Anoka, MN 55303. I can be reached via e-mail at ksuleski@isd.net or via ICQ #4546017 online. Projects include historical and recreational society armour, medieval crossbows, and now siege engines, both full sized historically exact artillery, and soon SCA "combatapultas" designed after Greek arrow throwing catapultas for recreational artillery. I invite all those interested in opening a dialogue at the intermediate (Journeyman) and Master level to contact me. I love to talk shop. Oh yeah.. Special thanks goes to Evan Morris, another Journeyman armourer who has supported some of my more intensive projects with his skill and occasional financial aid. DARIVS ARCHITECTVS
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More pictures are always being added to this page. Hold your mouse over each picture for a description. Click on a picture for a larger version. |
Go HERE to learn how to make Roman Armour and equipment. |
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GOTHIC GERMAN ARMOUR |
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MAILLE |
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BASIC ARMOURING SKILLS: Fluting |
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Fluting is a very necessary basic skill. You have to make some basic tools for this. Unlike the deep flutes I have made in the past, I have found from examining real armour suits that flutes were not as deep as I thought. I used to make 3/32" deep flutes as measures from crest to valley. They should really be much more shallow. A tack hammer is used to make the edge sharply defined and straight, without wobbles, along the line of the flute.
This metal working technique will allow lesser skilled armourers to
produce finely detailed and fluted gothic style armour. The skill is
basic and the only thing separating a plain piece from a beautifully
fluted detailed piece is the time you spend chiseling, sharpening,
sanding, and polishing more flute lines. Sure, you can use a
machine roller to put a line-like rolled dent in plate, but the effect of
using such a roller doesn't look the same as hand formed fluting, which
enhances the appearance of the armour without making it look like it
machine tools were used on it.
Okay. Here we go: FLUTING
101:
Make a 3/8" wide steel chisel a bit dull by rounding over the edge a
tiny bit with a fine grinding wheel.
You just want to get the sharp edge
off, not round over the entire edge. Take off the corners a
bit so that the profile of the edge is a crescent near the edges, and flat
near the center. This
makes the edges soft and not sharp. Polish the soft chisel
edge until shiny. Make a
similar chisel from a 3/4" wide chisel, except that the profile
should be a shallow crescent all the way from one side to the other.
Now get a block of lead, or the end grain of a softwood stump such as
pine. Take the plate piece
that you have already shaped to near-final form by dishing, and draw the
flute lines with a black, fine-tipped marker on the inside surface.
The plate may be 16 gauge, which takes a lot more hammering later
on, or 18 gauge, which forms quickly but can crack if hammered to many
times in one spot. Make sure that the lines are symmetrical on both sides of the
centerline if a mirror copy of the fluting pattern is to be made on each
side of whatever piece you are working on (such as a breastplate).
If you want to get clever, make a paper pattern folded across the
centerline and having holes in it every 1/2" along the flute lines
and trace the dots onto the metal with the marker through the holes.
Then connect the dots on the metal with the marker by hand. Place the plate on the lead block or softwood, and take the new soft chisel and dent the steel along the flute lines, overlapping each strike 1/8" over the strike before it to make the impression a smooth line and so that the corners of the chisel to not show too badly on the underside of the plate. |
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Now take the 3/4" soft chisel and mount in a vise with the edge
pointed upward. Take the
plate and lay it over the chisel inner side down, with the chisel resting
in the impression of one of the flutes.
Now you need to make a polished tack hammer. Take a square faced
tack hammer and grind the corners round a tiny bit, and the make the edges
rounded also by taking the edges off.
Sand and polish the hammer
to a mirror finish. With the plate resting on the inverted chisel, tap the tack hammer's heel (lower part of the striking face) on the flute just short of the chisel’s support point, which is directly UNDER the flute line. Keep the hammer striking in the area the chisel is supporting but off of the crest line a short distance. The technique with the hammer is described as a wrist rotation, not a movement of the entire arm. You eye should not be on the hammer, instead, you should watch the metal where the hammer strikes, adjusting the position of your arm to move the blows in, out, right, or left. As you strike the metal many times, a sharp line will form at the crest, and a valley will be made along one side of the flute line. Slide the metal over about 1/2" on the chisel edge along the flute line and form a sharper edge at the crest of the flute again with many firm hammer taps.
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Continue
until you have worked one entire side of the flute, then turn the steel
plate around 180 degrees and work the other side of the flute line.
The heel edge of the tack hammer pushes the metal down on each side
of the flute line, and at the same time the chisel underneath raises the
crest line. The face of the
hammer defines the sharp edge of the crest line.
You will have to whack one side or the other at certain points to
move the crest line if it is not straight, or does not follow
the overall line of the flute.
This way, you can adjust the position of the flute line a bit. After about a thousand hammer blows, the flute should be raised slightly above the surrounding metal, with the curvatures of the valleys on each side of the crest having an even shape and depth and surface curvature. Examine at the of the flute along its entire length and ensure that there are no shallow points and that the depth of the valleys on either side of the flute are even in depth. The flute has a faceted, dimpled look. It takes about 1 minute per inch of flute, so it's slow going. The flutes themselves are not supposed to be high ridges surrounded by deep valleys. Instead, the edges of the flutes are sharp but they are fairly shallow. The heel of the tack hammer pushes the metal down on either side of the flute. Moving your hammer blows closer to the top edge of the flute moves the edge away from the hammer, allowing you to adjust the actual location of the flute line a bit, to correct for errors made in the chiseling. If you move the hammer away from the flute edge, more of the face of the tack hammer comes into play. The result is that the face of the hammer helps remove the deeper hammer marks ridges and dings, and also pushed the metal deeper, making the valley deeper (or raising the flute higher, depending on how you want to describe it). Now take an 80-grit rotary sander and carefully sand along the sides of each flute. Do not accidentally round over the sharp crest of the flute or you will have to re-sharpen it with a tack hammer, taking the risk of making the metal so thin at the crest that a crack occurs. Remove all hammer marks, then do a final sanding job with a finer grit and then polish the armour using your preferred method. Take care never to round over the flute crests.
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BASIC ARMOURING SKILLS: Upsetting
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The question came up in a recent e-mail message asking how to do the stepped ridges in the rear neck and fan of a Roman Gallic helmet. Below is a quick explanation on how you can to this with hand tools. For making ridges in steel, I have a roller jenny (edge rolling machine) with a 6" deep throat that can have various wheels attached to it for things like grooves for rolling edges and sharp edges wheels for upsetting sheet metal. Upsetting is the process you want to use. It creates a three dimensional step in the metal. Making the metal edges with a roller machine tool has to be done BEFORE you weld the fan on if you want to use the roller tool. If you are using welded-piece construction and you have already welded the parts together, all is not lost. If you have any skill with fluting armour using a chisel and tack hammer, you can create the steps by hand by making "half a flute" in a sense. Now, your going to need a lead block. Go find yourself several pounds of lead and mold it into a block or brick shape. The nice thing about lead is that you can remold in 20 minutes after you pound on it for weeks and it assumes a screwed up and unusual shape. Take the fluting chisel mentioned on my website, the one with the corners and edge polished over so it won't CUT metal, and put the helmet neck extension part over the lead block. From the inside, chisel the lines where the steps go just deep enough to make an impression on the outside of the metal. Take care that every chisel mark overlaps the previous one by 30% or you will get a shitty line forming. |
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After that is done, take the chisel and put it in a vise, sticking straight up. I hope the chisel you picked out is at least 8" long, or you will have to make a second
dulled chisel from steel bar stock that does stick above the vise 8" tall. This is so the vise won't get in the way of the helmet when doing the next step.
This chisel works best if it is wider and has a shallow curve, to give you
more edge surface to work over and prevent the corners from digging into the
sheet metal. With the chisel resting in the impression of one of your lines, from the inside of the helmet, you will now use the heel edge polished tack hammer to slowing sink the metal on one side of the flute line. Working along the edge slowly with hundred of hammer blows just hard enough to move the metal as you go, the flute line will become defined. This is a slow process, and the more you practice, the straighter your line will be and the move even the depth of the valley alongside the flute line. |
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Now, after this first pass, there may be some areas that are uneven in depth or out of alignment with the line. Go fix these now with more tack hammer blows. Next, You may notice that we do not have a step, but rather a line impression with one side having a valley you just made, and the other side having the line raised above the surface level of the metal, though you WANT it to be flat and level with the metal surface, hence an upset, not a flute. So, you have to flatten that side of the line back outwards. You do this with another tool from the INSIDE of the helmet, with the helmet outside resting on a smooth, flat portion of your anvil. You need a form or tool that has a flat surface on the tip and a sharp edge to follow the line you made, sort of like a square tack hammer with the edges still on the face of it. A piece of square rod cut cleanly and polished on the end without dulling the corners will do. What you are going to do is use the tip of this rod segment as a chisel of sorts to push the metal from the inside until it is flush and level with the highest ridgeline of the line your chiseled. That way, when viewed from the outside, you will see a line edge that drops into the valley of your step. |
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Sand and polish all the hammer marks from the outside surface using a sander that can get inside the step without rounding over the step's edge and wrecking it. You may round the top edge of the step very slightly to get rid of the sharp line you made using the tack hammer, but don't get carried away and wipe out the step overmuch. There you have it.
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ITALIAN ARMOUR Diagrams Click below to view a huge page full of Italian armour harnesses.
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ARMOURING NEWS |
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7/23/99: Greetings fellow craftsmen and armourers! Since the problems with the ballista have put that project off until next year, I have shifted gears to the continued construction of Roman armour and pila so I have something new to bring to Pennsic War this year. The race against time is one, since Pennsic is only weeks away. The production of bronze fittings such as hinges and hooks for a lorica segmentata is going at a fearsome pace, or at least as fast as fabricating them can be done with simple hand tools. They will be historically accurate at any rate. Many out there might think that making Roman lorica armour may be simple, since it consists of simple bands of iron and leather straps. The time needed to make a lorica is far more than I originally thought, even having worked on gothic German armour as my specialty. It would be easy to buy some fancy brass hinges and parts and whack together a lorica, but if it's going to be done right, the original Roman shapes must be used along with the right material, bronze. Brass is the most popular metal used for the fitting, as it resembles orichalcum, a popular Roman bronze. I'll be using copper alloys (bronzes) such as beryllium copper or silicon bronze to give the fittings the older, redder look rather than the shiny gold-like look as found on many Roman replicas. Bronzes varied widely in color, and it is difficult to obtain the most popular ancient bronze, tin bronze, unless you make it yourself. At least the helmet is finished. Today I'll be forming the waist bands and attaching the front and back tie-loop fittings. I have to get to the steel yard and grab some 19 gauge or 20 gauge steel for the shoulder/upper arm strips. The hinges are finished, but the buckle fittings are still under construction. The day before yesterday I was able to get the 1952 Singer sewing machine out and sew up two Roman tunics for wearing under the armour, or all by themselves if the heat starts to get oppressive. The caligae (Roman hobnailed sandals) are finished and the fit absolutely great. I wear them around a lot since it's so hot up here in Minnesota. I almost fell on my butt when I discovered that hobnails don't grip linoleum all that well. It makes you wonder if they were used in marble-floored Roman buildings by the guards who protected such places. Other projects that are ongoing are a 15th century Italian barbut being made by my apprentice and myself. A few shiny stainless steel gorgets were made for some local SCA light fighters using schlagers. A few crossbows being constructed by friends of mine are laying around the shop awaiting completion. This fall and winter, the ballista will be reworked to correct a few design errors and hopefully we'll be throwing rocks again next spring. We had a blast with it while it lasted and got some great pictures and movie footage.
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Armour News 1/26/2000 The Roman suit of armour (lorica segmentata) and the Roman Imperial Gallic helmet are finished and I must say they fit very well. At the last Pennsic War, it was proven that one could wear Roman armour all day in the intense heat and not be uncomfortable because of its ventilated design. On order from Lonely Mountain Armoury is a gladius. At present, the balteus (Roman military belt) is under construction. The balteus bronze plates are finished and the buckle and end tab and the metal parts fitted to the groin guard strips need to be made. After they are done, then the leather will be cut and the balteus will be assembled. I have to take some pictures of the Roman armour and get it posted here for those of you who are curious. Jon has got his barbute finished and it looks very professional. This was his first piece of armour, and we will get some pictures for it posted later. Armour News 6/27/00 I finally finished my scutum yesterday and am I happy! The scutum was made from two layers of three-ply birch plywood for a total thickness of 1/4". Thin 3/4" wide reinforcement strips of ash wood were glued and nailed to the inside surface, and thin leather was used to cover both sides. The inner side was painted red. The outer side had layer of linen cloth glued to it, which was painted with the traditional wings, lightning bolts, arrows and tablets inscribed with the legio name, LEG XX and VAL. This scutum is curved rather deeply. The shield press used will be used to make more shields later on. Hand forming the edge pieces from bronze took a long time, especially to get the corners and top and bottom pieces to curve correctly. I used bronze because I had a small supply of it and it is far superior to brass in strength and hardness as well as being the correct material to use, despite it's higher cost to buy. I have noted that other using brass where bronze should be have had problems with parts getting bent or deformed from wear and tear over time because brass cannot be hardened very much by working it. The edge pieces were formed using hammers and steel forms made from bent and/or cut flat bar steel forms. Each bronze piece was annealed twice between hammering steps by heating it up to cherry red and quenching it in water. Then a polished tack hammer was used to move the metal closer and closer to the final shape, all the while squashing out any wrinkles with hundred of light hammer blows. The end result was very nice, and the pieces were fit over the edges and clench-nailed to the scutum. Now I have to make two more scuta for Rufa and Alastair... Ug. |
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Armour News 5/4/01
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While I was away
for nuclear training again, I had the opportunity to stop by the Chicago Art
Institute and collect some more pictures of the arms and armour there.
Below are pictures of an Austrian breastplate, a ceremonial German
two-handed sword, two Italian barbute helmets, a cabasset helmet, and a pavise (shield) for a
crossbowman which was attached to a stake driven into the ground for him to
take cover behind.
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Armour News 6/8/03 |
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My apprentice John, has recently been on
his honeymoon inItaly and Austria. He and his beautiful bride Darlene
had a wonderful time. John, being an armourer ever mindful to get good
armour pctures, stopped at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and
Landszeughaus in Graz, Austria to see the armour collections there and
brought back many pictures to share, which will soon be available.
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Armour News 1/8/04 |
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I made this 17th century Italian bodice stiletto for a very special lady. It was made in 48 hours, turned and shaped using a drill press and a large auto body grinder, and finalized with hand files and lots of careful sanding and polishing. It was made from a high carbon steel motor shaft that was rusting in my spare parts box for 11 years. It's a gift of affection for a lady of quality. | |||||
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Siege Engines | ||
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