From: tip@lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: HELP WANTED RE KINGDOM AWARDS
Date: 14 Dec 92 20:01:51 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona UNIX Users Group

In article <a7510d2e@nudity.UUCP> vnend@nudity.UUCP (David W. James) writes:
>doconnor@sedona.intel.com (Dennis O'Connor) writes:
>> So I haven't yet cut into the 4'x12' .063" 6061T6 aluminium sheet
>> I bought to make it out of yet. What ? Aluminium ? But that wouldn't
>> be authentic ! Maybe not, but once we've red-anodized it ( Mongols
>> would have sometimes laquered it ), it will look like it, and be built
>> like it, but work much better as SCA armour than the original !
>
>				Sigh.
>
>Kwellend-Njal


The nickname "Sir Coke-can" comes to mind, because both are modern
things made of aluminum and painted red.

----

This weekend I spent Saturday at my forge.  In addition to teaching
a young lad a bit about forging, I made a half dozen carving tools.

But the real thrill (and a 4 hour job) was to make a 1500's style
hewing axe.   I started with a piece of flat soft iron stock and used a 
hot chisel to cut the basic shape.  This was done while it was orange hot,
at which temp the iron cuts like salt water taffy.  This is always
a lot of fun.  This was then folded around a mandrel to form the eye
for the handle.   The mandrel is tapered to give a better fit.  The middle 
of the blade was then tack welded in the forge.  Then a piece of high carbon 
steel (an old file) was cut to length, tapered, and inserted into the area 
between the cheeks.   The forge was cleaned of clinkers, a good bed of coke 
was made, and we started the long slow welding heat.   My apprentice and I
took turns for 15 minutes to make sure the whole thing was a good even
orange heat. Then he pumped like mad, while I sprinkled borax into the
opening.  When the metal was white hot, (hot enough to emit sparklers)
I took it from the forge and used a 8 pound sledge on a 600 pound anvil
to seal it shut.   This is great fun!  The sparks fly for 10' in every
direction, the heat is intense, and the weld makes a "POP" which is 
distinctive and wonderful to hear.

Once the final hot shaping was done, it was allowed to cool slowly.  Then
a grinding wheel was used to shape the edge. Then the whole axe was 
hardened by heating it to a cherry red heat, and then cooling it in a
5 gallon drum filled with oil.  The edge was tempered by a gentle heat,
and quenched when the steel insert was a straw color.

Normally such a temper would be too hard and brittle for a single steel 
hewing axe, but because the brittle steel is cheeked with mild soft iron, 
the iron supports the steel, absorbs the shock, and gives it toughness.
Note that this is much better than modern axes, because it will hold
a very sharp edge, and yet is not brittle.

Shaping the oak handle with drawknives and spokeshaves only took another
hour.

Sunday I used the axe to chop about 1/5'th of a cord of mesquite firewood.
Although I couldn't shave with it when I was done (as I could when I
started), it still was very sharp.

After I chopped firewood, I spent about 3 hours carving Gothic Tracery
in an oak panel for a chest.  The carving tools were all made by me
in my forge. The handles were made by me.  The mallet, the bench, 
the holddowns...  yup, you guessed it, made by me.   Of course, I
could use a router, and masonite patterns, to make the tracery.
It would take 1/10'th the time, and be much more even,  but it wouldn't 
give me satisfaction of craftsmanship.

Once I get the panel carved, I'll make the hinges.  I have already
made the nails, so all I have to make is the lock and the key.

----

There is a geat satisfaction in learning how to make things this way.
In some cases they are better than modern.  In other cases, not as good
as.  But since this is not a Society for Engineering Studies, I don't
want to see if I can mill an axe out of D-2 or S-4 steel, and then 
carburize the cheeks and nitride the edge.   Sure, it is possible that
the S-4 axe, made out of a shock resistant high chrome moly steel with 
nitrided edges, would be a better axe then the thing I made this weekend.

But for a few moments on Saturday, I was reconnected to the past.
I knew the satisfaction that a mediaeval English smith would have felt
when his axe came out well.   I could imagine (for a split second)
myself standing under a tree, holding up the axe, looking down my villiage
lane, and feeling content with the world.

Today, every muscle in my upper body hurts!
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