3/25/24: Chiseling and Chasing
Connor O -
This past week has been extremely productive, as I have completed forging the entire “base” of the helmet, composed of the bowl, neckpiece, and cheek guards. I started off on the latter, which proved to be extremely easy with how much practice I had with Michael on raising, and thanks to the repousse section in Mark Aspery’s book, Mastering the Fundamentals of Leaf-Work. I also had a chance to make my first hinge:
I ended the week with making the brass trim of the brow, which also serves as the point where the cheek guards are riveted. I made this by filing a small channel into a piece of wood, and them chiseling the brass down into that channel to create the four lines seen below. After that, all I had to do was use a wooden mallet to bend it to roughly fit the curvature of the helmet.
Below is an image that shows what pieces of the helmet I have so far. This coming week, I’ll continue making the brass trim, using small bolts as temporary fasteners until I am confident that I can rivet it all together.
I now notice the helmet bowl still has somewhat of a hexagonal shape to it. This should be fixable in under a half-hour of work. Now that I’m approaching the end, I’m tending to areas I’ve roughed out earlier and getting them closer to the final shape. This project is slowly gravitating towards my comfort zone in regard to the different techniques I’m using. It seems the hard part is done.
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