A New Beginning

It's just a new blog post...nothing too exciting.  :)

Ok, it HAS been a while.  Soon after my last post I got a new job with a 1-hour each way commute that cut seriously into my blogging time, not to mention sleeping and other recreational activities.  In August of 2013 I moved to Copperas Cove which reduced the commute but I just haven't gotten back into the habit of blogging my projects or the group efforts at Open Shop. We have lots of new fighters up here and Open Shop has typically attracted from 15-30 participants each week.

My wife is encouraging me to keep better notes on my projects and this is a handy way to accomplish that purpose while possibly inspiring/encouraging/goading others, so I will try this again and see how it goes.

So, my beloved lady enjoys both 11th century Scottish/Saxon culture and learing about rapier fighting.  I got her a shiny new mail shirt for Christmas (see RingMesh ) so clearly she needs a nice 11th century rapier-legal helm to go with it.  Right?

I started by adapting a spangenhelm pattern to fit her and be a bit more conical in profile.  I made it out of 18g. stainless to minimize maintenance and be sufficiently durable for both rapier and possible cut-and-thrust use.

Then I ordered some stainless perf-plate from Online Metal Supply through Amazon . I got a 12x24 sheet of 16g. 304 stainlesss with 3/16 holes, which should be enough for several projects. I trimmed a rectangle of perf plate to give a slightly rounded look and then gave it a 2-dimensional curve to tuck in nicely behind the nasal of the helm.  Then I coated it with vegetable oil and baked it at 550 degrees to give a dark brown finish.

Next I shaped a piece of chrome-tanned leather to attach to the bottom of the faceplate and tuck under the chin  to eliminate any possible shot path.  While I was at it I made a couple of leather pieces to wrap around the sides of the perf plate to make it more human-friendly.  Willoc prepared a batch of leather dye using tannin, cutch and fustic and we dyed it to resemble the color of the faceplate.  These pieces will be attached to the perf plate with copper rivets before the faceplate gets riveted to the helm.

I made a leather piece for the back of the head and on the second try got it to fit correctly and overlap the faceplate on the sides.  Since we had previously made a hardened leather gorget (see earlier post) we tooled and dyed this piece to match.  Next it will need to be soaked in glue and baked to harden and seal it, before riveting it to the helm.

Here it is with the pieces set together as if they were actually assembled.

There is still more work needed but I'm making progress.  I hope you enjoyed the update.

8-16 and 8-24...Shop productivity continues

On August 16th we had a sizeable crew for spaghetti followed by Graine' assembling her first latigo vambrace with aluminum splints, Cameron making splints for his vambraces,Wolf working on his helm liner, Graine's friend whose name I've forgotten discussed armour plans, Deidre added many more rivets to her helm, Wyllow dyed her weaving samples, Belle worked on  documentation for her bardic entry for Laurel's prize, and several others worked on other projects.  I've lost track partly because I didn't ever bring out my camera and get pictures, so I have nothing to jar my memory.

Jackie and Gunna and Evie and Artorius all sang songs well into the evening with various others joining in as other projects allowed.  That was a first for Open Shop night and a very pleasant change of pace.  This was also Artorius' last Open Shop before he returns to UT Arlington for the  fall semester.

On August 23rd I took pictures!

Wylow made a delicious potato-leek-cabbage soup, and Deidre added some cheese biscuits and garlic lumpy bread.  Evie and Gunna and Abby brought cinnamon rolls to bake.

It was Abby's birthday so I gave her a set of pre-cut pieces for aluminum gauntlets and elbow cops.  One of the cops was already dished and she got a start on the second. Later on she and everyone else helped Belle with taste testing some throat-soothing drinks with rosemary, lemon, honey and other ingredients.

Meanwhile Gunna and Evie finished in the kitchen and come out to the livingroom to...plot a coup d'etat? Or maybe just read Facebook.

Colin evaded the camera but he stopped by to get some leather gluing advice and to drop off a generous donation of used and unused armour bits.

Troy came to his fist Open Shop night and completed an armour plan for a late 14th century knightly-class man at arms from southern Germany/northern Italy.  He then cut out several plates for his Wisby-style coat of plates.  I had some donated steel knees and elbows in the shop that would both fit him and be suitable for his portrayal, so I gave them to him.  It was his lucky night!

 Troy's mom dropped in to see what we were up to.  She is originally from Argentina and has childhood memories of carding and spinning wool on her grandfather's ranch.  Wyllow showed her some of the projects she has been working on. Then Wyllow got back to work preparing her display for Laurel's Prize Tourney.

Frosti stopped by to show us his new tunic and visit with folks.

First Thursday in August - Period Cooking Night!

We got off to a great start with a slow-roasted chicken stuffed with venison sausage. As you can see, the photographer did not get there before the ravening horde, I mean, before the first diners started in on the chicken.

For a side dish we had the cabbage that was cooked with the chicken and more sausage, and a Roman sauce with tumeric and laser. On the table we had another Roman sauce with frutum and mustard seed. Both were excellent!

Wyllow managed to get some work done on her gorget earlier in the week:  She dyed all of the roping lines with iron to get a dark brown near-black color.

During Open Shop she added a band of indigo on the outside edges as a test.  If this goes well she will add some red (brasil?) to make it purple and then dye the area inside of the roping the same way.  She plans to use buckthorn on the roping itself to make a golden yellow.  The resulting gorget will have the heraldic colors of Calontir where she first started playing in the SCA and where she learned rapier fighting in the secret rapier underground movement back in the '90s.

Many of Wolf's plans came to fruition this week as he picked up his beautiful "custon Iolo crossbow". For any fans of the Ultima computer games or the Myth Inc. fantasy books, yes, Iolo is real and he really does make crossbows. Verra nice ones! This is his new target bow, but he plans to commission a combat bow as well. 

Notice that Wolf also finished assembling his half-gauntlets.  Here he has borrowed a pair of my deerskin gloves to wear in them.  The supple deerskin is great for swordfighting or shooting or anything else where you want leather protection but you still want to be able to feel what you are doing.

We welcomed first-time visitors Bastian and Tib and Rene'  to Open Shop night.  Tib and Bastian came to work on gorgets while Rene came to provide moral support.  And to read!  As you can tell from the back-drop, this is a good place for reading.  Bastian is making a late-period steel gorget from 18 gauge stainless, while Tib is going for a brigandine-style gorget using pale grey/beige leather and hidden aluminum plates.

Cameron managed to dodge the camera by hanging out in the garage and working on the aluminum splints for his vambraces.  The new (to me) belt sander provided by Duke Hoegarden made this process much faster!  Cameron also showed us his new recurve bow but nobody took pictures of it!

Evie and Gunna and Artorius hung out in the kitchen and baked cookies.  The 3-layer pin~ata cookies with frosting and M&Ms in the middle were awesome.

Ben sewed up all the channels in his new helm liner and began stuffing them with cotton balls.

Dierdre took the night off from peening rivets in her helm to work on a weaving project indoors in the air-conditioning.

Wyllow also did some weaving, finishing up a sampler of several shades of red from her recent dying project.

Tristan and his dad managed to avoid the camera by working in the garage on modifying hid gorget, but we caught his mon doing some hand-sewing on one of Tristan's shirts.  I know I heard their names again last night but I'm afraid I didn't do anything sensible with them like write them down.  Tristan has turned 16 now and is ready to get authorized on the adult field for armoured combat.  I'm looking forward to having him in the War Company with us this fall!

Open Shop 7-26-2012

We had a small but dilligent group on the 26th.  I have made arrangements to work with a pair of visiting Barons from Elfsea (Fort Worth and surrounding communities) on a Saturday in August and I wanted to have some spring-stainless vambrace splints ready to rivet on, so I got an early start.  The 20 gauge (.038 inch thick) 410 alloy is a joy to work with, because it forms so nicely and then it hardens so well when you heat treat it.  I don't have a swage block with the right curve for forming splints, so I cut one end of a wood 2x4 and hammered the metal into that.  My heavy dishing hammer left quite a few tool marks in the metal so I needed to do some planishing to smooth it back out.  If these were not intended for hidden armour I would want to use a different technique, like placing a section of pipe over the splint and then hammering on that to keep the curves smooth and even.  Here are the splints before curving or drilling the rivet holes:

 After curving them I took the splints to Gaston's shop for a little forge action.  Heat treating left forge scale on the splints in an odd, almost damascene pattern.  But after a little brass-wire-wheel work they polished up to a smooth black look.  Getting really aggressive with the wire wheel could get this back to shiny silver metal, but why?  For hidden armour or anywhere you want a blackened metal look these will be fine.

Wyllow was focused on preparations for the Steppes Artisan competition.  Here she has laid out a mock-up of her table arrangement.  How much wool CAN you get on one table, in how many different shades of red?

 Josh worked on strapping and assembling his gorget and half-gauntlets.

Wolf got some instruction and borrowed a leather-sewing needle so he can finish his half-gauntlets at home this week.  We also cut out helm liners for both Wolf and Ben.

 Ben cut and beveled a gorget.  Next he will need to burnish and then harden it with glue and baking.

Evie and Gunna avoided the camera but they made delicious medieval French Toast, with a hint of rosewater.

 ...and that was a night well-spent!

3 Weeks of Open Shop catch-up, 7-5 through 7-19

 For Crown Tourney they specified a particular size and shape of honor shield, which gave me a good excuse to make a new one.  I started with a 1/4" birch plywood blank cut to the specified size and sanded, then painted it with gesso to get a smooth white surface.  I took some original line art that Nora drew for me and reduced it to 45% of the original size before cutting it out.  Then as I traced it onto the gessoed surface I reduced the amount of fur detail by about 50% as well.  I made up one good "ray" template and traced it repeatedly around the shield.  Then I painted the shield from the middle out so that I wouldn't accidentally get my hand into the wet paint.  The only place the gesso still shows is in the hound's teeth.  With the red eye and tongue this looks like a very fierce war-hound indeed.  Note: the "gwyn" in Maelgwyn clearly derives from cun which means hound.  The "mael" is less clear but may be from the same indo-european root as maelstrom, malevolent or possibly mallet.

 

Here are a series of progress pictures for the 16th century gorget for rapier fencing that I've been making for Wyllow.  First I made an s-shaped stamping tool in order to achieve the roping effect.  I cut and shaped a piece of 18 gauge mild steel and then cut a notch in the end of a short length of 1/4" rod stock to receive it.   Note that it is held together by pressure...no welding or even soldering was done to make this tool.  In the picture below you can see the sharp flare at the bottom of the neck piece which allows it to nest with the outer collarbone-covering piece and prevent gapping once the pieces are strapped together, while still permitting considerable freedom of movement.

 Here we have Colin's new gorget, with an extra flare at the bottom of the front piece to make him comfortable and a stainless steel plate over the front of the throat to make me comfortable.  My theory is that the front of a gorget should hold it's shape under impact in order to transfer the force to the muscles on the side of the throat rather than crushing the trachea.  Others are welcome to have their own theories...I like mine and I'm sticking with it.

 

We did an initial dying pass with iron disolved in vinegar to get this shade of black, but Colin decided he wanted it darker and re-dyed with a modern dye  before final assembly.

 In these last three pictures you see the final product in its native habitat, keeping Colin safe while he shoots anyone who would oppose us.  (Hi Gaston!)

With a gorget it is often wise to try the design out with the specific helm that will be worn with it, because an otherwise successful design just might not work with any given helm.

 Here Gunna enjoys the peace and contentment that comes from eating beef-and-barley porridge.

 Wyllow helps Frosti plan out his new tunic.

Kambreda (the artist formerly known as Nora) scares Gunna away from her unfinished porridge by grinding carbonized chicken bones into a fine powder for use in paints and other pigments.  The bones were placed in a nearly-sealed metal container and burnt in a fire to reduce them to ash without enough oxygen to actually burn.

Soon Gunna's porridge will be too cold and she will not want to eat it all up.   :)

 Meanwhile, Wyllow and I asked Kambreda to draw up a pretty capital U for our letter of intent to enter Crown Tournament. Her art and creativity far exceeded our expectations.  Kambreda didn't even know that the unicorn was part of our current Queen's heraldry.  The Queen was delighted when she saw this and exclaimed that she was Kambreda's newest fan.

 Gunna has decided that this sofa is just right for braiding and arranging Belle's hair.  She is sharing techniques she learned in a recent Kings College class taught by Jean Marie (who doesn't love us anymore, 'cause she never comes to Open Shop like she used to.)  Wyllow and Belle took notes and used the methods Gunna had demonstrated when they prepared their hair for the opening procession of Crown Tourney.

Wolf bevels and burnishes the edges of his half-gauntlets to get them ready to soak in glue and bake.

Josh is soaking his half-gauntlets in the glue bucket here.  Once bubbles stop coming out of the leather it is time for baking.  The second gauntlet got a lump of undissolved glue on it, requiring more rinsing in the glue solution to prevent an unsightly mess.

Here Wolf is placing his half-gauntlets back in the oven for another 15 minutes of baking before we adjust the shape again.  Soon they will stiffen up enough to hold their shape and we can let them bake without further adjustment until they are mostly dry.  Next week he will need to sew on a palm strap and sew together the cuff to complete these gauntlets.

Artorius and Jenna play chess while Gunna helps Belle design an underdress (13th century Norman) and Cameron ponders the wisdom of a 6th century BC Greek set of armour.

Maria cuts out part of her new dress with advice from Wyllow.

Linden is all set up for leather tooling and seeks inspiration from assorted reference books and costuming manuals.

Ben is trying to add enough padding to make his new helm fit his head.

Ben is using blue camp-pad foam as a temporary measure to pad his helm until we can make up his linen helm liner.  He purchased this used helm on the Internet and didn't realize quite how large it would be.  It will get him on the field in his own gear for now and perhaps later he can buy or make a more fitted helm.  Below you can see Ben and I starting to lay out his linen helm liner.  Pay no attention to the bald spot on the top of my head.  It is clearly an optical illusion or a trick of the light, and in no way indicates that anyone in this picture is getting old.

Deidre has made significant progress on assembling her Vendel-era Valsgarde 6 helm (7th century Sweden).  Soon she can add the nasal, cheek plates and face guards.  Then she can begin pillaging helpless villages throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

To quote the noted scholar Robert E. Howard:

"Serpent prow on the Afric coast,
Doom on the Moorish town;
And this is the song the steersman sang
As the dragonship swept down"

See http://www.calonsong.org/CalontirSongs/thorsson.htm

Daniel has taken his turn out in the heat and managed to hammer out some elbow cops that are nearly ready to strap.  Clearly the heat was too much for his shirt and it has caught fire.

And if we give her a few moments away from helping everyone else, Wyllow is sure to be caught red-handed once again as she works to interpret and implement a complex recipe from the Plictho.  I think this one includes madder, brasil, cochineal, calcium carbonate, oxalic acid, and pretty much every trick in the book except eye of newt.