Below you can see some of the pieces, all bouged, shaped, rolled and finish sanded. The client is slim and will have a flatter belly armour (that would be the piece at the far left in the picture)so all the blowing out had to be done to the breastplate. This involves a combination of dishing and shrinking. Considering this is ALL in heavy battle grade sixteen gauge steel, this is a remarkable achievement in only six hours.
Below you can see the plaquart (belly section) and the overlapping faulds. I don't like pointy faulds, but this is what he wanted. The reason I don't like them is because the centre lines have to be so perfectly lined up all the time...a quarter centimeter out in straight faulds hardly even show, but pointy ones require a LOT more care. grrrr. Oh well...if it was easy, anybody could do it.
As you can see, in this picture we have got around to shaping the faulds to 12 inch radius wheel, and rolled the arch into the bottom fauld. The faulds need the larger radius because they have to match up to the back faulds. Its okay I guess...and it is perfectly period, but I don't like them as much for SCA activities because the faulds are more delicate the larger the radius. Tight radius faulds are less period, but they are sword proof...Erin's coloured armour a few posts back shows the tight radius faulds. In this case, I made them wider so that they would have more of an overlap, and therefore would hopefully self support better.
The above placquart is actually shaped to a 12 inch radius...the same as the fauld sections....though you really can't see it in this "head on" picture. Items made on the 12 inch ball looks almost flat, but it's not "quite" flat...there is enough radius to allow it to be pretty tough still. The flare was about two inches from the bottom, and it needs to be that wide because of the points on the fauld lames. You can see in the photograph how the flare was made, then rolled as flat as we could get it with the flat wheel. It was a pretty heavy weight on the wheel, as you can see it polished the surface. The wheel was pushing pretty heavily to result in that much polish. Of course, by now the polish has been all sanded away like the rest of the armour...which is sitting at an 80, non reflective grit.
Here is the back plate...the sides all rolled and ready to have the neck roll done. The creation of a back plate is a post all in itself...there is every difficulty one can encounter involved in making a back plate. Fortunately, I know most ways the steel can play tricks on me!
These are the back faulds...again, possibly a little too pointy for my tastes. And I'll be darned if I know how he will ever sit down! But, they make a nice completer piece for the armour. I think I will need to make a fourth lame at the top which will fit more neatly into the body armour.
The above placquart is actually shaped to a 12 inch radius...the same as the fauld sections....though you really can't see it in this "head on" picture. Items made on the 12 inch ball looks almost flat, but it's not "quite" flat...there is enough radius to allow it to be pretty tough still. The flare was about two inches from the bottom, and it needs to be that wide because of the points on the fauld lames. You can see in the photograph how the flare was made, then rolled as flat as we could get it with the flat wheel. It was a pretty heavy weight on the wheel, as you can see it polished the surface. The wheel was pushing pretty heavily to result in that much polish. Of course, by now the polish has been all sanded away like the rest of the armour...which is sitting at an 80, non reflective grit. Here is the back plate...the sides all rolled and ready to have the neck roll done. The creation of a back plate is a post all in itself...there is every difficulty one can encounter involved in making a back plate. Fortunately, I know most ways the steel can play tricks on me!
These are the back faulds...again, possibly a little too pointy for my tastes. And I'll be darned if I know how he will ever sit down! But, they make a nice completer piece for the armour. I think I will need to make a fourth lame at the top which will fit more neatly into the body armour.
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