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I've been slowly working on a pair of 15th century arms for a really charming (no, seriously, he's great) Canadian patron. There's some nice embossing on the fan that's new to me, and the elbow is a fundamentally different design than I tend to build. The vambraces, rerebraces, lames and hinges are pretty much my standard deal. They articulate like a dream. I almost don't want to ship them.
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Here they're just before getting annealed so I could tweak the fit and planish the vambraces. I do some hot planishing, but with the heat of the flame I have to wear dark shaded goggles to keep from getting welder's flare, which reduces my precision a bit and forces me to work faster than I'd like. 410 is air hardening, so you can't just slowly cool it and then expect it to do you bidding while cold. For very small changes that works OK, but most shaping after a heat will require annealing.
Here they are in the forge being hardened. They're out of the tempering oven now. They need to have the forge scale stripped off, get riveted, have the interior painted and get strapped. This last set of steps is agonizing!
Comments
Good work!
When it's hot, 410 flows quite nicely. It's not brittle in that state, so I haven't managed to crack it through hot work. Too much heat in a small area can melt parts, and if you're not careful it's possible to thin a piece excessively.