Armour

#1

Hi all,

So I used to be a re-enactor and I’ve had a growing interest in armour over the past few years. A few months ago I went and did a course and made these gauntlets. These are based on historical examples of italian export gauntlets of the middle of the 15th century. Obviously they need a little finishing still but I’m pretty pleased with them and I really enjoyed the process and I’m keen to work on these and a few other armouring projects. I’ve started patterning out the arms and I’m really keen to work on those :slight_smile:

I just signed up a week or so ago and I haven’t been to the workshop yet but I’m hoping to have some time to pop down this weekend and start figuring out what’s feasible to do in the space. These were all cold forged with hammers, anvils and dollies of various shapes. I’ve picked up a few of my own hammers and recently picked up the piece of railtrack for an anvil so I have quite a lot of what I’d need myself.

Does anyone have any experience with armour? From the open evening I went on a few weeks ago, all this seems a lot more manual than the machines in the metal shop but I’d be interested if anyone has any experience with sheet metal or similar projects.

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3 Likes
#2

Awesome! Not exactly related but I’m planning on doing some metal handwork which requires a lot of peining and filing, so you’re not alone in that respect. Welcome to the community!

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#3

I have no-useful knowledge*, but I’m super interested so please let me know when you will be about.

*I’ve done a bit of blacksmithing and I’ve cast a bronze sword

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#4

Do you have a link to the course? I might want to make some armour for a cosplay soon.

#5

This weekend for sure - not sure when just yet but I’ll post here. I’m super happy to share what I know! This is the only piece I’ve done so far but I have a lot of resources on the topic I can share. The techniques you need for armouring are pretty simple even if they build up to something quite complex

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#6

It was at West Dean college - looks like they don’t have the course listed at the moment but here’s a link to the teacher https://www.westdean.ac.uk/tutors/jon-kocel. He was a last minute replacement but he was absolutely great - really enthusiastic, never negative and a lovely guy. What kind of armour are you thinking of? I’m happy to help if I can?

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#7

I used to have business making 2 stroke exhausts from sheet metal

https://www.google.com/search?q=making+a+2+stroke+exhaust

Some of the skills will be transferable.
But I’m not sure that we have the correct hardware.

2 Likes
#8

I’ve started planning out a Doctor Doom cosplay for next year. My plan is to 3D print the metal parts around the arms and legs that would be visible under the cloak.

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#9

Hi :smiley: , im sure I can help where needed, the big ape in the wood shop is one of my many mad monster and evil robot builds, im mostly around Sunday day times and Mondays. Keep well . Brian D=

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#10

Oh very cool - I used to ride a Yamaha Yb-100. It’s a nice article, did you write it?

A lot of the skills would transfer - marking out cutting etc. The actual shaping it pretty straightforward and I’ve got most of the tooling necessary - you either shape the sheet around a positive or negative shape with various hammers - regular ball peins, raising and planishing hammers will do it and I picked up a job lot recently on e-bay. I saw the metalshop has panel beating kit - various hammers and a couple of dollies.

What I really lack are the negative shapes. Traditionally, a tree stump with various holes is the kind of thing you’d use - I don’t have one of those but I was thinking about picking up a couple of these oak cubes - one to mount the anvil on and one to cut the negative space in. I’m not inducted on any of the wood shop tools yet though, so that wouldn’t be immediately feasible unless anyone else fancies a crack at it

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#11

oh cool - do you have any reference imagery?

#12

Great! hope to see you on sunday!

#13

So this is what I’m going for…

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I have some 3D printer files ready for it, and actually casting some parts is likely over the top, but it’ll be cool to hear other ways of making them.

#14

That sounds intriguing - what’s the project? I’ve got this idea for making medals at a festival as a kind of class which I’m wanting to make as accessible as possible so thinking of as many techniques as possible - like riveting bits together rather than welding or soldering - so similar techniques on smaller pieces for that.

#15

Ah smells like the 90s - the flare on the gauntlet should be totally out of proportion and only make sense on a comic book panel BUT I saw this the other day on instagram

So jousting armour was a very specific thing - related to battlefield stuff but by the mid 15th century was pretty much designed to prevent harm to the wearer because jousts were done at diplomatic events by people who might go to war with you if they died. The armours were a lot heavier and restrictive. But this gauntlet totally fits with the art doesn’t it?

it might be useful working through some of the practicalities of some of the articulation points at some stage - I’m not an expert but I’ve found some really useful bits out that aren’t obvious when you first have a go.

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#16

you about tomorrow? I should be about to drop down and get a fob and have another look around

#17

Hi El,:smiley: Yes I will be around until about 3PM today . Keep well . Brian D=

#18

Quick update. I popped down on sunday and cut out the forearms and I’ve done a lot of the shaping on one. Roman was very helpful, showed me around the metal shop and found me a couple of metal forms which were super useful - thanks to him!

I wasn’t very well but I’m pretty pleased with these for an afternoon’s work. This is the first time I’ve done any sheet work or armour since April so I’m quite pleased to have remembered as much as I did.

These I still need to slim down at the wrist and flare out the eblow end of the forearm. I may have reached the limit of what I can do on these parts without extra tools - I have half an eye on ebay for bits that would help. We’ll see how I feel after I get paid.

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2 Likes
#19

Quick update before I post about my next steps:

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So a little while ago I started on the elbow assembly to fit the first forearm I built. I managed to rough out the other forearm quite quickly. I can’t really put too much more shape in to the forearms without a round form - I’ll get on to that in the next post.

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I’m quite pleased with this. The plate sitting on the outside of the forearm (any simple joining plate like this are called lames in armouring. This one allows the forearm to twist. When it’s finished, the lame will join the arm with a rivet that sits in a hole but the forearm will have slots allowing the forearm to twist relativel to the elbow and the elbow will hinge on a rivet where the black dot is at the moment.

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I’ve put about half an hour’s work in to the the elbow and it at the ‘bag of walnuts’ stage as my teacher described it. There’s a lot more work to do there but until I had the right shape there wasn’t really much point in working on it.

Next post: the tools I have to work on the next bits!

Happy to answer any questions!

Thanks all,

Lawrence

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#20

:heart_eyes: Keep up the fantastic work

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