The blacksmith blues...

Ella Mae Morse sings the Blacksmith Blues...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD_6bDfaSPw&feature=related

With a little help from Donald Duck...blacksmith of the ages...grin!

And a little bonus from Tennessee Ford....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4HZOm1cyJ4&feature=related

Vulcan said to Lucifer (Songs for Iron Workers)

John Tams and Barry Cooper sing "Goin' down to Steelo" and "Vulcan said to Lucifer"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTQo1pkvxM&feature=related


VULCAN AND LUCIFER by JOHN TAMS

Vulcan sez to Lucifer, "Tha's fallen into t'neet
It's me as meks this valley ring and keeps these flames aleet".
Lucifer to Vulcan sez, "I'm still the gaffa here
I've signed up another demon and it's 'im you'll come to fear
So it's nowt to do wi' me owd lad." Vulcan sez "I know thee game
I bet Thatcher's got a hand in this." Sez Lucifer "For shame!"
"Come on Lucy, what's the beggar called?" He answered wi a grin
"Maggie sez his name's MacGregor. It wont be t'last you'll hear of 'im."



STEELOS
John Tams

I 'ad no choice, and if I 'ad, I'd still 'av chosen steel.
They can do their worst agenst us. They'll not change the way we feel.
Me father's father did it and I know it's all but gone.
There were a 100,000 of us along the Rother and the Don.

CHORUS: Goin' down to Steelo's, get mesen a start.
Dunna ler it cobble. It'll tear the place apart.
Catch it as it's comin', throw the bugger back,
Keep your tongs upon the metal and your eyes upon the track.

I got a start at Steelo's. Me dad put in a word.
His dad 'ad done the same for 'im. That's how the work got shared.
The mill roared like a dragon's den. The Tongmen prove their power
Catchin' white-hot metal comin' 40 mile an hour.

CHORUS: Goin' down to Steelo's, get mesen a start.
Dunna ler it cobble. It'll tear the place apart.
Catch it as it's comin', throw the bugger back,
Keep your tongs upon the metal and your eyes upon the track.

Publishing: Topic Records

(I love the imagery of the rolling mills and their flying white hot metal!)

Reginald's Armour

Almost done. What is missing is of course, the shoes, gloves, and the backs of the lower legs.

The armour is held closed by hasps.

Here is a hasp under the arm...the hinge flap of the hasp is not installed. Yet.

The pins which hold the shoulders on.

Not bad from the back (above without flash, below with)



Usually the backs of the armour suffers from a lack of attention. Not so here.


Those shoulders look pretty kick ass to me!

Interestingly enough, there is no sanding at all...this is "from the hammer".

And the final view. Not so shabby after all.

Eric's Armour

Jouster's armour.

Still in progress. Will have to shorten the bottom ... oh heck have to do a hundred things yet, but it is starting to look like a breast plate.


A little squeeze in the front to make him look slim....



And the reason for all the drama.....
Yes
That is a fourteen gauge keeled breast plate.

Reginald's Armour Revisited

This is Reginald's Fantasy armour, with some updates. The shoulders are all sixteen gauge, and are supposed to look blocky and tough. It was hard to come up with ways to allow it to actually move with a person inside of it. Took AJ about 4 tries to get it right, and she was nearly yanking her hair out with the frustration. I am pleased to know a person who fought through the difficulties. But now it looks like the picture!



I think the posts look really tough!




And below, you can see where she modified the cod piece to allow Reginald to be able to walk...a swivel hinge.

Dates for Spring Algonquin

GEN0088
>
> Chivalrous Swordhandling
>
> Wed
>
> 04-May-11
>
> 15-Jun-11
>
> 07:00 PM
>
> 09:15 PM
>
> GEN0105
>
> Advanced Chivalrous Swordhandling
>
> Fri
>
> 06-May-11
>
> 17-Jun-11
>
> 07:00 PM
>
> 09:15 PM

Fire at the Hanwei Factory

Looks like things might be getting a little dicey at the CAS Hanwei factory...seems a fire has wiped out the factory and most of the in stock inventory!

Expect sword prices to rise.

Gauntlets

This is a close up of the roping. Not too shabby I think.


These complicated and big items weigh in at a whopping zero point nine pounds each. Ahhh...the magic of aluminum!!!

Sabatons

These were kind of fun. They are in two parts, the heel is completely separate from the shoe. It is held on with the strap. I built those over an existing shoe. The shoe part is laced onto the top laces and is pretty much only a shell. There are two laces which fit between the treads on the bottom of the running shoe in front. You can just see the eyelets.

This is the buckle side. The outside. Well, he has a squire to buckle him up right?

The only really tricky part to this job was making the toe caps identical.

And now the armour fixed up

New elbows. Curve all the way around. Very much difficult to do!


Belts in back to cinch the armour nice and tight.



New cuisses. Lots of outside rolling. Roping was really interesting. But not "interesting" in a good way!


I painted a bit of the roping to see how it would look after it was all painted black. Not so bad all in all.

More aluminum armour

From behind, it looks pretty nice. As you can see by the picture below, it meets up pretty well. The back is a "three piece" back plate, purely for the comfort consideration.
Here is the model, trying on the armour. There were several issues....we found that the armour was hanging a little low...about an inch. The breast plate was good, and fit well under the arms. But the faulds, even though they were perfectly period and correct for this armour, were just too long.
It is too bad actually, because the tassets were sitting just fine, but they did not "look right" from a distance.

Below, the thigh armour was again, just a little too high. I could not even fit him perfectly until I cut it away at the mark.

The shin pads are just fine. They will fit over the sabatons.

As you can see in the above picture, I am inordiately proud of those shin pads!

Aluminum armour.

This is a slightly unusual armour in that it is made entirely out of aluminum. The white colour is primer paint which protects the surface, and not surprisingly, shows the dirt! Eventually, it will be painted black, so dirt streaks won't matter. (thank goodness!)

The top picture shows the inspiration for this armour. It is to be, as much as possible, to look like the armour made by the props department of the 1939 movie of Richard the third, as played by Mr. John Barrymore.
Quite a challenge. Making armour is one thing. Making it look like a picture is quite another. Fortunately, my "two piece" armour is very close to the original, and is particularly good since it allows the wearer some extra mobility.
Come back often...I'll try to post pictures of how this is turning out!