14th Century Spaulder Project

Well, once I got my dishing stump carved I had to use it.  I got a sheet of 16 gauge mild steel from my local store (they didn't have 18) and got a pattern from the Armour Archive(see links). Then I went to work.  A few notes about patterns off the internet.  When you print them out, they may not be the size that the author intended.  This I found out first hand.  The pattern was proportional, yes, but much too small to fit anyone larger than child-sized (or very small/thin women, maybe?).  This did not, however, deter me.  I need practice in order to learn, and practice this certainly was!  I copied the pattern and traced it out on the metal with my marker and took the sheet downstairs. I then cut out the pieces (some extra lames just in case) and filed the edges.  I then sanded the pieces (the cop to 220 grit, the lames to 400 grit) and then took a break for that day.  The next time I got around to it I decided to dish the cop. 

Here's pictures of the cop after I first dished it out, uneven, not planished, just a hunk of metal.

Ye gods it was ugly.  I posted this to Arador in hopes that someone could tell me what in the blue blazes I did wrong.  After posting that painful message I looked at the cop again and said to myself, "Hmm... doesn't look that bad.  Lemme take it back downstairs and even it out and maybe whack it some more."  And so I did.  I hauled the stump back out of the garage, plunked myself in front of it and went to work with my rawhide mallet, instead of the metal hammer I used to dish this out at first.  Lo and behold something began to take shape!  It was looking better, though it still  had the pox.  I lessened the curve of the bottom (middle picture above) and evened it out a bit.  After that I felt so much better I decided to try and curl the lames.  Let me tell you, curling lames is MUCH easier than dishing!  I was working, tapping, and curling those plates like I actually knew what I was doing.  I just wish I has something cylindrical to curl around.  Right now I'm using the rounded side of a piece of railroad tie.  This isn't bad, in fact it worked great, it's just not optimal. 

Here's pictures of the cop and lames after some more work.

This was an amateur armourer's dream!  Something worked almost the way it was supposed to!  It looks better than it did before!  Well, it's not finished yet.  I did get advice from some of the wonderful people at Arador.  I need to dish the cop more deeply and curl the lames more to fit this once I do it.  I'll post more pictures of it all when I'm finished.  What's the lesson today?  Don't give up!  Don't lose hope!  Little victory after little victory,  you too will be able to learn this.  Damned if I was optimistic about teaching myself these skills.  It's hard work!

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