[TheForge] Getting the lead out or the tar baby?

[Mike Spencer]

> I'm building an 8-plate kabuto with a student.  The process involves
> over-dishing 16-gauge mild steel pieces (8 of them - who would have
> thunk")....

Wikipedia says some had way more pieces than that.

> ...and then planishing them onto a form (with lead hammers).

These are for-and-aft strips or radial segments to be riveted together
to form the crown of the helmet?  And you're working the 16 ga. cold?

I'd hammer a depression in a lead block, then use a combination of:

   + sinking the 16 ga on the block with a ballpeen or other
     round-faced hammer and

   + planishing over a solid iron/steel stake.

with frequent annealing. Probably that would require some final
shaping over other stakes to get the joints aligned.

Alternatively, I'd start the way you are and then get the
"over-dished" workpieces hot (one at a time, of course) and try to
shape them over the helmet with a light hammer and ViseGrips --
probably involving several heats for each piece and maybe some local
heating with a torch.

For one off, fill the helmet with a mixture of dry plaster of Paris
and roofing tar. (Why PofP?  I dunno.  It's what a respectable
jewelry/goldsmithing teacher recommended to his students.)  If you're
doing a dozen or two, lead.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^