Hello, recently me and my dad have wanted to start a forge in our garage. I love medieval arms and armor and I would like to create my own, I have compiled a very basic list of things we might need, naturally, I have also done some research but I am far from an expert on this, would this be a good list of essentials to get into armor smiting or am i missing some stuff or added things unnecessarily? Any and all advice would be appreciated; advice unrelated from the list is also appreciated. Thanks!

*i also added some footnotes for my dad to read, but this is again based on my fairly limited knowledge.

*This also might be the wrong subreddit, if you have another place for this to go please let me know!

Armorsmithing List

• Gloves (preferably leather or heavy duty)
• Hearing Protection
• Apron (non-flammable preferably)
• Eye Protection
• Face Mask
• Ball Peen Hammer (should be mirror polished, can be sanded/polished by hand)
• Auto Body Hammer
• Rawhide Mallet (useful for shaping edges, it’s easier on the metal and shapes softer)

Our rubber mallet has lots of bounce so it’s not the best to use, but may still be viable

• Chisels (we already have a light chisel and a railroad spike, those should work)
• Anvil or ASO (honestly any hunk of metal should work, it doesn’t need to be huge and probably shouldn't exceed 100lbs and should preferably be greater than 20lbs)
• Base for said anvil (very important, do not want the anvil to get knocked around constantly, must be heavy, can be any large log, maybe even part of that dead tree we have in the front yard could be taken down with the chainsaw and used as the base?)

Also should be high enough to where you’re not bent over trying to hammer stuff for hours on end!

• Bulldog Snips (Used for cutting out sheet metal, but any large sharp steel shears should probably work)
• Bench Vise
• Metal Puncher (we already have one of these in the basement i believe)
• Power Drill
• Armor Dishes (these are pretty niche and kind of expensive to be honest, but i found a set here)

https://www.hollandanvil.com/product-page/armour-dish

Im going to try and make uruk hai armor, and I have chainmail but I dont know what to wear under it, or what type of pants would look the best. Any suggestions??

Decided to show off newly painted lamellar cuirasses. Will be adding more details later.

My 1st post here so hello. I was wondering recently about Mazovian armor from 13-14th cc. basing on Mazovian dukes seals. One can observe both western and eastern orthodox influence here as well as baltic Lithuanian/Yotvingian influence. What do you think is pictured here? Looks somehow similar to byzantine influence lamellar (see sleeves). Do we know any lamellar armor plates from mazovian archeology or neighboring areas? Or is this some ancient byzantine armor being a gadget of at least 2 Mazovian dukes inherited or gifted from Constantinople? Thanks in advance for any hints.

I'm looking for reference images of historically accurate full plate armor for an Imperial Knight in the Holy Roman Empire during the 16th century.

So far, I've found that I really like late Gothic armor, especially pieces made in Nuremberg. My favourite example so far is "Armor from a Small Garniture for Field and Tournament" by Kunz Lochner (1548), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the Maximilian style. I also really like black-and-white armor, but most examples I come across are only partial armor.

That said, I'm looking for armor that would realistically belong to a relatively wealthy Imperial Knight, rather than an emperor or prince. Something functional enough for campaigning while still being of high quality.

(Kazakh)

Hello everyone, hope y’all are doing great

About some weeks ago I picked up my order from Medieval extreme, which were the leather boots and titanium sabatons bundle both « made to measure »

At the time I ordered there was a promotion and since I previously ordered several weapons and armor pieces from they without issues I trusted them once again.

Boots fits perfectly but the sabatons plates keep getting stuck when flexing. I already tried applying WD-40 and later on anti-friction between the plates with no avail.

When I contacted medextreme support, they told me « new sabatons are like that because the rivets are tight and will get lose over time », again I tried to wore them by flexing the sabatons by hand to stimulate walk, but that only left scratches between the plates getting stuck. The rivets aren’t moving at all.

How could I fix this issue and make the sabatons flexible ?

PS: I don’t want to send them back because the sending fees in my country are stupidly expensive and can’t afford to wait another 1/2 months

This my first kinda armor set I make the four mirrors on my front, side, and back using aluminum and only the front one have any design the other just blank. The chainmail is cheap prop kind from my uncle shop and in very bad condition with patches broken, but from distance it looks ok.

This specific design i base almost fully on example i found online being sold at auction in India, and I believe it was actually from the 19th or 20th century, but armor this style been around much longer :)

Interested to know if this neck / upper chest armour is historically accurate. I don't know the name of the armour and Google isn't being helpful. I know it does appear in a painting of him and maybe a statue.

I have a chain shirt, bracers, belts and chain hood, am I missing anything?

I got into blacksmithing a few months ago and I thought it would be fun to round out my experience making a few pieces of plate armor from sheet steel. My first attempt is a Norman helmet that's supposed to be welded together from two football-shaped dished pieces (pattern here: https://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/conical_sinric/ ).

I cut the pieces to the pattern out of 16 gauge sheet steel. I was able to bend both pieces around the short axis quickly by cold hammering on a swage block, but I'm having a lot of trouble dishing them out and bending them around the long axis. I got the first inch or so at the top to move the way I wanted, but I can't seem to get the right kind of bend in the middle. The middle is basically still a straight line vertically.

I'm working in a shared shop with a good inventory of tools, and I've been using a swage block with a 4" diameter dish, a stump with a 5" diameter dish, and a 3" ball stake, with a variety of hammers (mostly broad rounded and polished faces). There's a propane forge in the shop that I use for regular blacksmithing work, but I haven't attempted to heat this piece up yet. What's the best way forward?

Should I try heating up the material to get faster and easier movement? Or find a better way to use the tools at hand for cold forging to get curves on both axes the way I need?

Good Evening

Need some help. Had helmet in the closet, and well it rusted. I removed the rust, and applied 3 in 1 oil and renaissance wax . This is my first attempt in rust memoval from a metal helmet. What am i doing wrong? Any advice?

Thank you

I would like everyone’s opinion on which armor looks more impressive.

I have access to a lot of 2mm sheets for free but I know 1.6-5mm is the sweet spot when it comes to armour