Knee cops...in transition

These are the knee cops I am making for Mr. Albrecht. The raised flutes were flattened between them, forming a sort of plateau in between them. They need a little more grinding work to make them look nice though. I personally like the "hammered" look of the flutes, but I suspect Mr. A. will not. Maybe he will leave a comment here....
After the pieces were made, I sanded it all over with 240 grit. You can see how much shinier the 240 grit finish is compared to the untouched plateau. Mr. A. wanted the shining armour of legend, and was more than a little taken aback by the discovery that although I could do it, a mirror finish would pretty much double the price. We compromised...a fine grit finish, a lot more pieces for the money, and stay within budget. He can always get them mirror polished sometime in the future, but this way, he gets the whole suit!

The articulation (shown here only half done and with pop rivets no less,) but by the time I write this post, they are all fully articulated with proper solid steel rivets in place. The bottom lame is solid brass, and shows really well. Each 16 gauge steel lame is compound curved to a 10 inch ball, though of course, such a flat profile is hard to see in the picture. But it doubles the stiffness. This won't dent or squash on him.

The inside of the leg armour. I decided to just go ahead and make these out of sixteen gauge steel...there is no particular compound curving in them, and they will need to be tough enough to be tossed into the trunk without squashing.
The outside...showing the cut outs for the hinges. These are harder to get co-axial than you might think! The top edge is flared outwards, just to keep his pants from getting cut by the top edge.
And a closeup of the knee cops. Looks nice...good articulation. Hmmm...possibly the best articulation I have ever done.
Well then!!!!
Stay tuned for more installments.