Now I have left the helmet for the time being and cut out material for the breast and backplate, arms and gauntlets. Last weekend I had some professional film makers in the workshop making some very nice shots of several techniques that I use when making the masterpiece armour.
I made all the rough forging on the left gauntlet, except for the thumb, in advance. And this week I started with the right one. Also for the gauntlet I use the gauntlet of Erik XIV as a model.
Lrk 23389
I have looked at, and taking measurements of this gauntlet. It is of quite simple construction, and made of fairly thick material. I use 1,5 mm mild steel but stretches it out a lot on the finger and hand lamellars.
The pattern is lined out on the sheet metal and cut out with a chisel and and shears.
Then I heat it in the forge and stretch it out on the anvil from the inside. With a rounded hammer. ( looks like the original) when stretching I can also adjust the shape of the pieces.
The “fingers” are now forged from the inside on a concave stake and on the anvil.
The stake ( this is not made to fit in the workbench) if you are skilled you can achieve the same result on the corner of the anvil, but for me that’s a little bit more time consuming.
When using this stake you will get a perfect curve on the finger lamellar.
The convex cure is then adjusted on a small ball stake. Here the “finger” closest to the camera is adjusted.
When all are forged, its time to adjust them to each other. And make holes for the rivets that joins them together.
When I have riveted the pieces together, I heat it again and adjust the parts a final time. This will make them work very well in movement.
After this step I will take all apart again and file up all holes so the movability will get even better.
Forging the finger piece.
Adjusting the lamellar.
The Masterpiece project 