Scott McMenemy

Lol I actually own ToMAR so already off to a good start! It was one of the first resource I got when I started. I also bought the Traditional Bowyers Bible out of interest buuuuut the techniques used were not really possible in the space I had so it collects dust right now.

Wow, this is such a warm welcome. Thank you to everyone who took the time to say Hi and reply. I'm unsure how to edit the title but will look into this when I have a free second to browse the forum. That is almost certainly somewhere. 

 

17 hours ago, Frosty said:

Welcome aboard Scott, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header members living within visiting distance my toss an invite. Lots of information is location specific. 

An old and long passed online friend of mine used to work sheet steel though not human armor 1/2" and up IIRC. His sheet forge was a refractory table, fire brick I think. The forge was a sort of spittoon shaped pot that fit flush with the table top. His burner was aligned tangential to the side and it produced a ring of flame at the table top. He passed the plate around over it using a jib boom crane (I THINK) and had good control of what got heated and how much. 

I haven't thought about Chris Ray's table forge in probably 30 years. Early Artmetal.list days. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

Hey Frosty. I'm so sad to hear about his passing but it really does sound like you have fond memories. Honestly that has to be one of the most pure and amazing things we can leave behind to people. His setup sounds awesome. I doubt I will be able to actually forge tools (It will be reasonably small and not very enclosed minus a small funnel) but I'll do my best to learn about it because it might be my main option.

6 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I use the dome headed RR bolts for making dishing hammers, working hot you don't need the big heavy hammers and the lighter ones are easier on your body.

There are a large number of possibilities for a raising stake; first one I saw in use was made from a piece of RR Rail with the end ground and polished for it's use. Polidor  was raising a beehive helm from real wrought iron using it back in the early 1980's.  I've also seen people raise using a ball stake.

A few of my toys:

               

Almost forgot to mention: look up Armor Forge by Eric Thing I believe there is a write up about it across the street.

I found a mint condition Pexto stake plate at my local scrapyard, bought it for under US$9, also found 99# cast iron spherical dock weights and a lot of trashed oxy bottles to cut for dishing forms.   Sad thing is I don't do much sheet metal work anymore. I still want to finish off my pattern welded spangen helm project though.

Also reply to George: The tools above look great! I have a planishing ball steak and a small 20 kilo anvil (plus a planishing hammer and a few Bunnings hammers I have sanded down to some curves) to work with so I can start mucking around at the very least. 

I have actually made some 15th century pauldrons and and segmented upper arm attached before, and did that entirely by dishing into a stump cold and then planishing them to smooth surfaces so I know I can definitely do it. My thinking is, being an SCA fighter most recently, the 1.5mm steel I can get won't meet the standards if I dish because I'll be stretching the metal, so raising was an attractive skill to learn because it thickens the metal. It also seems like a very valuable skill for the craft to learn from what I have read. At the very least coveted. 

I found my motivation coming from two directions which helps a lot. I want to do more combat, so making my own (I'm in Canberra so my population here is small) made a lot of sense because it is a time rich but low cost setting over time, and I also just genuinely really enjoy the craft. I find it almost meditative and get a lot of p[ride from finishing a project and seeing what my time has produce... even something poor quality warmed my heart with pride.

Hey mate.

It rings a bell. I suspect I have looked at it but some time ago. When I get back to my PC I'll have a look. My big difficulty so far is getting info on how to work out how big to make airflow holes and where the bloody xxxx I can find a raising stake! lol.

G'day everyone,

So I found this forum trying to research the principles I need to know for building a forge specifically for shaping metal into medieval armour (cold hammering sucks!) I decided to join because I was completely blown away by the scope and depth of content!

Any advice on which section to delve into and search for what I am after above would be great. I'd rather not ask a question that has likely been answered many times before.