Greave progress
The greave pattern works pretty well. I cut out a greave in 0.025 4130 and pounded it into shape. It took the kettle stake (which I still haven't mounted in the I beam), two cross pien raising hammers, the straight pein raising hammer, and a couple contoured ball piens to get it to the shape I wanted. I did a bunch of grinding on one of my smallest ball piens to let me do more smoothing from the inside. Even with a pretty rounded face the corners were catching due to the curve of the greave, so I ground the pien side flatter and polished it up. It works pretty well. I managed to damage one side when I didn't notice that my cross pein raising hammer was turned backwards. I gave it maybe 30 little whacks, each one cutting a little chisselly mark, since the back face had a crisp square edge. I ground that smooth on the hammer, and sanded the greave. It made a cut all the way through on one edge and I had to grind in farther than I'd have liked.
Anyway the tulipping was a bit easier in 0.025 than I thought it would be. One approach I'm taking on the second greave is to start the piece tapered like a cone. Just shaping it with my hands so the calf is wider than the ankle worked. Then I'll flare the end. If I can keep that basic curve it would mean a lot less hammering than what I did previously, which was to make the whole thing cylindrical and pound the narrow part in, compressing the metal. Hopefully the 0.025 is thick enough to let me get away with that idea.
I tossed the greave in the forge to anneal it, since I was worried about a few places where I'd worked it back and forth a few times.
Over all, I'd say getting a basic greave of basically the right shape is a lot easier than I'd feared. It helps to have good pictures to work from and reasonably good tools for the job. If you wanted pretty much a gutter greave with a little flare it would be a piece of cake. Interestingly in my little research I found a pretty straight greave in the collection from Rhodes.
Best of all is the weight. My old leather greaves weigh 2lbs each. The new one (unstrapped) weighs 1lb. It's just the front, though I might just run with a front greave for a while. A fully cased set is really the right thing to do for the late 14th and early 15th century which is the era I'm focusing on.
I still can't post pictures.
Anyway the tulipping was a bit easier in 0.025 than I thought it would be. One approach I'm taking on the second greave is to start the piece tapered like a cone. Just shaping it with my hands so the calf is wider than the ankle worked. Then I'll flare the end. If I can keep that basic curve it would mean a lot less hammering than what I did previously, which was to make the whole thing cylindrical and pound the narrow part in, compressing the metal. Hopefully the 0.025 is thick enough to let me get away with that idea.
I tossed the greave in the forge to anneal it, since I was worried about a few places where I'd worked it back and forth a few times.
Over all, I'd say getting a basic greave of basically the right shape is a lot easier than I'd feared. It helps to have good pictures to work from and reasonably good tools for the job. If you wanted pretty much a gutter greave with a little flare it would be a piece of cake. Interestingly in my little research I found a pretty straight greave in the collection from Rhodes.
Best of all is the weight. My old leather greaves weigh 2lbs each. The new one (unstrapped) weighs 1lb. It's just the front, though I might just run with a front greave for a while. A fully cased set is really the right thing to do for the late 14th and early 15th century which is the era I'm focusing on.
I still can't post pictures.
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