Shop update 10/7/09
Barnet, Robert and Master Jovian came over last night, and we had a good time whacking on stuff. Robert made some progress on his elbow cops, though I managed to crack one of them where the fan joins the cop. I really need to adjust that pattern so that doesn't happen so much. It doesn't happen to me, just everyone else who uses it. Barnet had a new avantail to work on, and he helped Jovian and me with a shot put that somehow got our attention. It took three of us to get the plug out of it, though the most successful efforts came from Jovian and his love of the power drill. I was very happy that it fit snugly on top of one of the giant poppet valves Ysfael gave me. So now I have a new planishing ball and a stand. Thanks guys! Jovian worked on his leg harness, and tried a little mead. His wife was inordinately understanding to let him come out to play on HER birthday. Happy birthday Domino! I fixed a gauntlet, and made some progress on a spring steel mitten I got distracted from months ago.
Tonight I did some planishing on my cuisse. I'd discovered something after doing hot work to get to this phase:
I'm flaring the end of the cuisse to act like the top lame, which I'm omitting. If you look carefully at the St. George I'm copying it looks like that may be what they were trying to depict. It's a lot more work than just making a lame. It's involving hot work, raising hammers, and a few different forms. The one thing I learned about 410 is that when you do hot work on it and let it air cool, you've hardened it. So to do any real planishing on it I had to anneal the piece. So to get from the picture above to the picture below is really several hours time of heating, pounding, sweating, heating, cooling, then a pretty pleasant session of planishing and tweaking. (Though it's been insanely humid, and I'm still a little sweaty.)
You can see some of the raising hammers I used to form and planish this flare in the background.
Speaking of humidity, the 3 Queens event Zoe and I went to last weekend was fun, but very wet. The camera ended up submerged in the bottom of a basket in our tent. It's still working, but the humidity on the lens made it tough to focus.
Tonight I did some planishing on my cuisse. I'd discovered something after doing hot work to get to this phase:
I'm flaring the end of the cuisse to act like the top lame, which I'm omitting. If you look carefully at the St. George I'm copying it looks like that may be what they were trying to depict. It's a lot more work than just making a lame. It's involving hot work, raising hammers, and a few different forms. The one thing I learned about 410 is that when you do hot work on it and let it air cool, you've hardened it. So to do any real planishing on it I had to anneal the piece. So to get from the picture above to the picture below is really several hours time of heating, pounding, sweating, heating, cooling, then a pretty pleasant session of planishing and tweaking. (Though it's been insanely humid, and I'm still a little sweaty.)
You can see some of the raising hammers I used to form and planish this flare in the background.
Speaking of humidity, the 3 Queens event Zoe and I went to last weekend was fun, but very wet. The camera ended up submerged in the bottom of a basket in our tent. It's still working, but the humidity on the lens made it tough to focus.
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