Cincinnatus

Finished my Flatter. Made the head about a month ago but finally got around to making the handle.

Great job Das!

Finally got the tree completed. I was able to find a string of miniature battery powered LED's to light it up. It is sitting in my wife's office now.

Alexander - amazing work - wow!

Looks like everyone was busy - great looking projects. Spent the weekend making tools. Made the mandrel and hot cut first. Used the hot cut to make the jaws on my first set of tongs. Took 3 1/2 hours to make the mandrel yesterday and then used it today to make my first set hammer. Started making a second set of tongs but ran out of time and energy. Next step is to clean up the hammer after the heat treatment and get a handle on it.

Very nice and love the pattern on the blade.

Very nice! What is the weight on this one? BTW - Ordered one of your cone mandrels which is currently on its way.

Very nice - and the best part you learned a lot in the process.

The knife looks really nice and glad to see you dialing in your process.

I like that technique better that the spring swage - I am making a list of tools to make and this has been added. Thanks for sharing!

Request for more turkeys on the run up to Thanksgiving. Finished these up yesterday.

Saw this out there but never tried the technique you mentioned.

Hans, Always great to see the stuff you are casting and the tools you made. Love the patina on the cast anvil - nice job!

Nice job on the wrench/bottle openers.

John - great Ram's head!

Sorry to hear Das - always tough.

Das - really neat hummingbird - amazing. Finished three more projects for an upcoming competitive trail ride. They are using them as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes.

Simms paper "Roman Chain-Mail: Experiments to Reproduce the Techniques of Manufacture" details the metallurgical experiments of cold punching the rings that matched up with the rings they found. The actual tooling wasn't found but based on experiments. "A set of experiments was conducted to show that punch tools of high consistency could be produced by the technology available in the Roman period and did not require the use of precision machinery. Thus some Roman chain-mail rings could have been produced by a combination of punching and finishing on a mandril. The time taken to produce solid rings was recorded." "It is likely that rings such as these were produced by punching, followed by hammering on a mandril. Experiments showed that as the punch and die start to wear the rings become somewhat distorted. The distortions are easily removed when the rings is hammered on a mandril. ....It can be seen that the experimental ring which was hammered on a mandril after punching is harder than the ring that has only been punched, indicating that some work-hardening has taken place. The experimental punched ring had a hardness value of 146 VPN, which is very close to the 149 VPN of the metal from Sample A. This indicates that punching did not produce any significant work-hardening. The experimental ring that was hammered on a mandril increased in hardness from 146 VPN to 210 VPN which is in the same region of hardness as the Roman originals."

True - I was talking about some of the mail that combined both. Considering this was for a kids costume - I wasn't going to go that far - one shirt with butted links was enough. In the end my son loved the mail shirt and we got to spend time working together on the project. The images are from the paper - The manufacture of a chain mail from the Iron Age found at Fluitenberg - including how they punched the links you mentioned.

I can attest to this - time consuming! I made a coat of mail for my son who wanted a Templars outfit. I spent probably 40 to 50 hours researching the mail and shield. I made the shield by bending three 1/8" sheets of plywood around a curved frame, covering in canvas, and trimming in leather. At the same time made the mail by wrapping electric fence wire around a dowel and then cutting the "spring" of wire into links - making making several thousand of these. I then spent probably 100 to 130 hours weaving these together to make the shirt - learning as I went and making mistakes along the way. Part of this was to make him this costume and have him help me and part of it was to satisfy my curiosity about the historical background of the period. As everyone has said, this was VERY time consuming and involved a lot of research. It can be done but not quickly. Plus when you think that some of the better chainmail had the links pinned (which I did not do) - it must have taken the original armours a lot more hours.

John - Really nice wreath hanger and ornaments. I have never seen a hanger like that before.

Das - really neat idea.

Thanks for the tip. Much appreciated.

Thanks - trying to think of the best way to do that.

Second that! I put on hearing protectors as a kid without looking and didn't realize there was a large beetle in them that went straight for the ear. No harm but from that day forward I check everything before putting them on.