Right arm done

I should've posted about it, but I finished the right arm, and have used it in a few practices and tourneys. The cuff wasn't quite working right since it was too long. I had to trim it, which reduced the flare some. It kind of sucked to have to do that since the flare was a pain to put in in the first place, but I'd rather have an arm harness that doesn't scratch up my wrist. The experience has made the Musee de L'armee arm harness, with the rolled cuff both more appealing and scarier, since it would be harder to adjust. I'm probably going to tackle it anyway. I do need to loosen up the rivets a bit since it's not articulating as smoothly as I'd like.

I pounded out a buckler for the tournament last week. I did it in .032 4130, so my 18" buckler was 2/3 the weight of the 14" Mandrake bucklers, which are 14ga. I dug that. I did rush it a bit so the roll wasn't very clean, the boss needed more planishing, and it warped a lot the first time I tried to quench it, and a little the second time. Lessons learned:
An 18 inch buckler fits in the forge, so you can make it in one piece.
Annealing helps a lot.
Take your time on the rolls.
Brace or wire large pieces and add some contours to reduce warping.
The new trash can is good for quenching.
Black paint hides many sins.
Doing a cool blacksmithed handle would be fun and add a lot to the buckler.