Medieval Armour Techniques #1: Introduction to Planishing
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- An introduction to planishing and a couple of the tools I use in the workshop to do it.
There can be a 'zen to planishing' but it can also be one of the dullest part of the armouring process. But properly done it can make a piece of armour a beautiful thing indeed.
Thank you so much for these videos, looking online for information on this has been such a challenge with the millions of guides to blacksmithing in WoW or elder scrolls but finding your channel has made looking for these techniques so much easier. Thank you again
My pleasure. Welcome aboard. I'm glad you found it useful.
A great in-depth tutorial. For a novice who can't visit any armorer and watch and learn such videos are vital!
My pleasure mate, thanks for the feedback and I hope they help. If you have any ideas on what would be useful to see let me know and I will see what I can do.
Ah. I think I know my error now. I tried this domed stakes, amd they do basically nothing. Though it is only doll armour made of aluminium, the tiny hammer marks won't go out that way. I will try with a flat hammer with soft edge.
Best of luck. Go softly with aluminium :)
Oh, there is Dunkirk outside
I saw a guys video where i dont think he used any steel hammers on his work the finish after was pretty amazing but i wonder what kind of material he was working. He made a pair of spualders in 10 hours. Im thinking the soft hammer takes longer to move material but that means it cant dent as deeply. The time saved in smoothing and grinding i think might be worth it.
Soft hammers can work at shaping the metal, but I find it harder (almost impossible) to move the metal about properly with soft facing hammers. I did my earliest spaulders I made with them, they where OK, but compared to now with steel there was a lot of wasted effort. But I didn't have the experience I have now in how to move the metal; so that may have a lot to do with it as well.
The metal moves very differently with soft hammers compared to hard, and that can be a boon/problem depending on what you are doing, or so I have found.
I've been using a brass hammer for planishing because it seems to leave fewer marks. But it also seems like it takes longer. Do you think that's a good technique?
I've heard it works well with aluminium, but haven't tried.
I can imagine that it is harder to work with on steel, a way to reduce the marking left is to do most of your planishing from the inside of the piece. Personally I stick with steel, just because cleaning back a few dinks and dents doesn't take that long and would suspect that the brass hammer would take longer … but you might be on to something new :)
Hello again :D This is a quick one: Do you know the length of the square middle section of that T-stake at 13:15? And maybe the length of the arms? I have a guess, but...I should not guess, never goes well :D Then I could build my own one :)
Also, I finally found out what a "Scutch Hammer" is - hard to translate into German :P Thx for the video!
Great video. I know you keep saying that when you're just starting out, you don't need all these fancy specific hammers and stakes, but I find that you kinda do, because it's hard to find everyday objects that can be used as suitable substitutions.
I guess it depends on your situation. When I started I wanted to buy a ton of specialist hammers and they would have cost a fortune - but would no doubt have worked; but I wasn't sure which ones or sizes I'd need. I know that I can go to the local car boot sales and pick up half a dozen old hammers that I can grind to new shapes, but if you don't have access to that then there could be an issue
Generally I would suggest that start with what you have and let your work and skill dictate tools you need.
I suppose what I am suggesting is that to begin with you don't need to get them to make armour. I'd say buy a bench grinder, find old hammers, shape them as you can and go on from there :)
Perhaps I' should do a look at the top 6 or so hammer shapes folk might find useful, or that I use in a day.
+Greenleaf Workshop yeah, that'd be great. I mean I got lucky with the hammers I have, I'll send you a picture in DM on Instagram of my collection of hammers shortly, but yeah, most of 'em are my grandfather's, one of 'em I got at a garage sale for like $5. I just think some hammers like the scutching hammer and the different stakes you have would be nice to have in the beginning if they weren't so expensive.
Nice haul of hammers you managed to get for yourself there. A quick way to get some of the simpler stakes together is to order some spheres from a metal suppliers and weld them to some solid bar, I find anything from 15 - 20mm works, depending on the size of the ball on top.
You'll have to find a US equivalent but here is the sort of thing I mean ... the hollow ones can make nice dishing forms too.
www.fhbrundle.com/iron-spheres.htm
+Greenleaf Workshop thanks. And yeah. Although I found a good site where I can buy ball stakes that are offset as well as normal too and dishing forms. Have you heard of Ironmonger Armory?
Awesome. I've seen videos give a 30 second intro to planishing, but this gave a nice thorough tutorial.
thanks very much mate