MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
Lets face it. Fighting in armour all day long against foes armed with heavy
steel weapons you can get pretty battered up no matter how good your armour
is. So a big part of armour maintenance is usually repair. If you never
fight in your armour it should last for many years with occasional dousing
with olive oil. (WD40 SUCKS, it darkens metal and our local pacific coast
salt air eats it for breakfast). If you fight however the leather should
be replaced every five or six years. Ten at most. Popped rivets can be a
chore to replace if the rivet is not easy to get to. Some times a crowbar
or wedge can be forced between plates to support a rivet for repair. If
possible hold one end of the crowbar in a vise. A tool called a masons scotch
is handy too. As is a chisel faced rock hammer. A shot put can back a difficult
to get rivet as can a farriers sledge. Dents are irritating as well. When
they are easy to get to just pound from the inside against an anvil. Many
times though the dent is not easy to get to. Elbows and knees it is better
to just give up and pull the plate. If the dent is near a rivet it too must
be pulled. Removing a rivet can be a problem too. Don’t force it or
rip it out as that will deform the plates joined by the rivet. File the
head off or drill it out. If a glued lining is used for helmets it should
be a glue that is easily pulled loose such as cheap decorators spray glue
in a can so the helmet can be easily repaired. At Blankenshield we put our
liners in with split rivets so they can be easily removed. Pounding dents
in a helmet is extremely hard. A one and a half or two inch bar about eighteen
inches long with the end rounded smoothly helps a lot. Just put the helm
in a sinking die or against an anvil and hold the bar against the dent while
the other end is sledged. We use a railroad hammer head for this or a giant
lag bolt. If the rolled edge cracks it can be a real problem. Cracks run
and split plates dangerously. Several solutions exist. Many museum pieces
were repaired by opening the rolling at the site of the crack and inserting
a small section of wire. The edges being pounded back down around the wire.
This prevents the crack from running for display purposes but many casual
investigators incorrectly assume the plate was rolled over a wire. This
was never the case. Once again museum repairs and restorations lead to incorrect
conclusions. The end of the crack should be punched through with a center
punch and the metal displaced should be turned back into a grommet. This
stops the crack from running ONLY IF THE EDGES ARE FIXED. Then you punch
or drill four holes in a small strip of metal and fold it over the crack.
Fixing it with a rivet on each side of the crack. This patch only has to
hold the edges together and not completely cover the crack. Never leave
a cracked edge uncovered. Never ever repair a cracked edge with leather.
Never ever cover the edge of a steel plate with leather rather than rolling
it. It could get you killed or crippled. |
