Dec 17th open shop
My progress on the greaves has slowed to a sporadic crawl. I pounded out another hinge, started the crease in the shin and did a little planishing and shaping, but nothing worth photographing. I'll have some time over the holidays to make real progress, and hopefully the muse will move me.
The open shop tonight was fun, and we tackled some new and different things. Jovian's buddy Casey came over to do some work on the lathe:
He's getting me more excited about doing more wood work, so I hope he comes over more in the future.
Robert made some good progress on his first elbow cop. He's working on the dishing a bit here:
Jovian, Maelgwyn and I played with clay, which I'm intending to use as a mold for some bronze casting. I'd cast a nice pewter belt buckle about eight years ago. It worked fine until I broke it at an event the weekend before last trying to jam my ceramic beaker in my belt so I could wander around playing my recorder. It was more stress than the metal could handle. So I've decided to rebuild it better, faster...stronger. We have the technology. So far this is what the technology looks like:
By St. George's right hip and left arm are two of my buckle molds which I made using an impression of an existing buckle. By George's right arm is a mold Maelgwyn made for an early broach/cloak pin with two dragon heads. You can see some of his research on the paper below it. The flat oval pieces are intended to be backing plates for when we cast. Hopefully things will stay flat and smooth enough as they dry and that will make a good enough seal. The two little pinch pots are an experiment at making crucibles. I don't have a lot of faith in them working, but I have a lot of clay to play with and figured it was worth a shot. I have a professionally made crucible made from a high temperature ceramic, but the things are a bit pricey and have a very finite life span.
The open shop tonight was fun, and we tackled some new and different things. Jovian's buddy Casey came over to do some work on the lathe:
He's getting me more excited about doing more wood work, so I hope he comes over more in the future.Robert made some good progress on his first elbow cop. He's working on the dishing a bit here:
Jovian, Maelgwyn and I played with clay, which I'm intending to use as a mold for some bronze casting. I'd cast a nice pewter belt buckle about eight years ago. It worked fine until I broke it at an event the weekend before last trying to jam my ceramic beaker in my belt so I could wander around playing my recorder. It was more stress than the metal could handle. So I've decided to rebuild it better, faster...stronger. We have the technology. So far this is what the technology looks like:
By St. George's right hip and left arm are two of my buckle molds which I made using an impression of an existing buckle. By George's right arm is a mold Maelgwyn made for an early broach/cloak pin with two dragon heads. You can see some of his research on the paper below it. The flat oval pieces are intended to be backing plates for when we cast. Hopefully things will stay flat and smooth enough as they dry and that will make a good enough seal. The two little pinch pots are an experiment at making crucibles. I don't have a lot of faith in them working, but I have a lot of clay to play with and figured it was worth a shot. I have a professionally made crucible made from a high temperature ceramic, but the things are a bit pricey and have a very finite life span.
Comments
http://pages.suddenlink.net/egrim/papers/armour.doc
Maelgwyn
:)