First go at etching.

This was the result of my first attempt at etching bronze.
I did the etching on a flat bronze disk then dished it by hand with a hammer on a wood stump. Then I mad a spring clasp from bronze wire and sheet and then rivited it in place.

More photos can be seen here.

New Brooches for Oona

So, we went to Atlantia Fall Crown Tourney this weekend. In preparation Oona made herself a new dress and apron dress. So, when I got home from work on Friday afternoon I hammered out a couple new brooches for her since I would not have time to cast any. The whole project took only a couple hours. I even made the clasp pins by hand. They turned out so well that I am going to make her a couple more sets with combined copper and brass.



On Sunday, Oona requested more bead strands. I decided to make them so she could mix and match strands so when I make the additional sets of hammered brooches she will have lots of options.



When I fire up the casting furnace I will cast Oona a couple more sets of brooches and more trinkets to add to the bead strands. You know that a man should always give his wife jewelry.

New Helmet Padding

Well, anyone who fights knows that foam padding does not breath well in a steel helmet. So I decided to make a new padding system for my helmet. It is linen fabric stuffed with bamboo fiber batting. It is a little over stuffed but fits my head and the helm well and snuggly. There is no movement of the helm at all. It use to have a little movement with the foam lining. The reason I over stuffed it was because I believe the batting will breakdown a little with use.

I hope it will breath better than the foam and I know it will absorb moisture, which is a good thing. Now I need to make a new helmet strap and try it out next week at Celt Wars.

Alimunium Greaves

A friend asked if I could make him a set of greaves in aluminum. I said sure, how hard could it be. Well I was correct, it was not much harder than working in steel. The metal does not flow the same under the hammer but the same techniques work. Plannishing turned out to be a bitch. I just do not have a stake with the clearance to plannish something as long as greaves. New future project? And rolling aluminum is not in my skill set yet. Every test piece i tried cracked. So no rolled edges on these greaves.

All in all they came out well. I hope they provide the wearer with the function the hoped for.

Photos are located here:


The hammer marks show up more because of the way I sanded the metal to hilight them for planishing.