First post although i've been watching for a few months. I thought i'd finally chim in and show ya'll some of my work.
sorry i don't have my model to dress up and put it on (shes at her mothers) ... but i couldn't resist sharing this piece i just finished for her.
Technically this is a spin off of the upper lame for my 16th century north italian gorget design. It obviously doesn't have the rest of the gorget, but whatelse do you call it? collar? steel choker? haha.. gorget sounds nicer. Plus telling her mother that i'm putting a steel collar on our daughter would probably bring some evil looks.
This is 18 gauge mild steel, all the edges are rolled by hand, just me, a hammer and the anvil. That itty bitty hinge (smallest i've ever attempted) was a pain, but i know how to make it better the next time. And the latch is a hidden pressure fit.
Hope ya'll enjoy :)
Travis
to the forum
The piece looks great, I will confess I have no idea what the H*ll you are describing.
Quote:Technically this is a spin off of the upper lame for my 16th century north italian gorget design. It obviously doesn't have the rest of the gorget,....
And yes you are quite right, Mothers are strange about that kind of stuff, not to mention the neighbors calling child welfare. When she goes over to show them her new prize!
Feel free to jump in any time!
Again
to the forum
haha.. sorry i guess i should have added a pic for those that don't know what a Gorget is.. or a lame.
Here is a pic of one of my favorite Gorgets from the Metropolitan museum of art in NYC.
Welcome to MAF. And congratulations - you stumped PT!
.gif "Laugh")
, when I first logged in and saw the photos and the size of it in your hand, I thought, what an interesting Silver bracelet, especially with the hidden latch and the difficult rolled edge.
So is that your test piece and are you doing a full size set of armor?
If you have been reading the forum for a while you will know we love pictures, and you sent us a very nice set.
Welcome again.
Jim
Thanks Tony :)
Well Jim, the "doing a full set of armor" question is a definate yes. I just started metal working about 3.5-4 mths ago, I spent a couple months of gather tools before that, and a few months before that of researching what i wanted to do and where i wanted to go with armoursmithing. So i guess from my inital "big" decision to try my hand at armoursmithing, i started about 8 or 9 mths ago. But i literally just started swinging a hammer a couple months ago.
But in the 3.5-4 mths that i've been working on pieces, doing trial and error, reverse engineering from photos i took while doing research. I got side tracked by my 15 yr old daughter who wanted me to make her something, so i decided on making her a bracelet, and i'd work on my edge rolling at the same time. After a pile of bracelets in different attempts, and some nasty blood blisters, friends and family started pestering me to start selling my pieces. So i posted some of my pieces on etsy.com about a month ago. You can see those here if you want to see some of my other work.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/EteosArmoury
So my daughter, after getting her bracelet decided she also wanted a necklace. And like a good father, i sidetracked myself again from the real gorget, and modified the design i was working on for it. So this little piece came to be, which is basically just the top lame of the pattern i'm working on. Its meant to fit my 15 yr old which is why its so tiny, and it rides high on the neck like a choker. In width, i could definately go smaller if it seems to wide for her neck, but I thought 1" would be a good test width. I've gotten some bracelets down into the 3/8" width range, you can see those on my etsy page. It'd just take me a bit longer and i'd probably cuss a little extra. Plus an integrated hinge for a 3/8" width gorget would be rough, I'd have to think about that one. But in finishing this one, I already have ideas for a couple variants in mind. See how easy i get distracted doing this? anyway, YES, i am most certainly going to do a whole suit of 16th century north italian armour... at some point.. i just got to quit doing jewelry..haha.
crap, i think i got long winded..
to the forum. Very nice and accurate bracelet. Would be great to see how you roll the edges with a hammer and anvil.
(07-15-2010 06:59 PM)Tony Mertens Wrote: [ -> ]Welcome to MAF. And congratulations - you stumped PT!
Yeah well when I first seen it, I thought to myself I think the medics said they had a treatment for that, when I was in the navy back in the China sea days.
I assumed that it had something to do with Armour, as I have learned that much for some of our other tin top hat crowd here. And there isn't a day that goes by that I don't learn at least a half dozen things on this forum!
Travis, as to your possible hinge and latch questions do a search here for Tim McCreight and his books. The Complete Metalsmith is one, and the Metalsmiths book of boxes and lockets has two great chapters on hinges and latches.
Check with your local library as his books are becoming the standard reference. I recommend the Pro Edition of the Complete Metalsmith book it has everything in it. As the others have vary advance stuff left out.
They and other books of interest for metalsmiths are in our resource forum.
My suggestion would be, buy a copy of what is refered to as TOMAR. It's Techniques of Medieval Armor Reproduction, by Brian Price. Some armors refer to it as the Bible, it will answer a lot of your questions.
Jim
Travis great job. How do you handle the possibility of it geting rusted.