Third Plate Project: Brass Breast Plate

At the West Virginia Armour-In this past May, I cut out and began a brass breast plate copied from a pattern by Alan Bauldree. I didn't get very far that weekend but have since picked up on it and am completing it for a client. She would like it to have a very rough hammered appearance (no problem!) :-).

The biggest challenge I had with this piece was finding some way of annealing it during the forming process. My local grocer carries lump charcoal and I soon had my own version of a forge-light set up. Here's where the piece stands now. I have the forming done and am starting on laying the "hammer marks" for her. I am basically using the same method I would for planishing except that I am using a deeply domed hammer face (crafted by CLANG) to make the faceted marks in the surface. I have run a wire wheel over the surface to remove the discoloration from annealing.

I have the roll completed at the neckline. It looks much better than my first attempt at a roll on my steel breastplate. This one actually is more than a simple fold and has some roundness to it. After the hammer marks are laid, I plan to flare the bottom edge and roll the armpits.

July 13, 2002

I can't believe I actually "finished" a piece! There are not a lot of bells and whistles to this piece. The breasts were dished in several stages with annealing in between. The overall body was slightly dished and then curled over a large pipe placed in my vice. The edges were all rolled and annealed several times in the process. Finally, the customer requested a "hammered" look to the surface. The above pictures show a little more detail to the finish, but I basically dimpled the entire surface using planishing technique only with a deeply domed hammer face. To finish it, I gave it a quick once over with a drill-mounted wire wheel (fine) then used a tripoli buffing compound applied with a drill-mounted buffing wheel.

I managed to anneal it after finding some lump charcoal (at my local grocer's of all places) and lighting it in a small charcoal grill. I quenched it in a big rubbermaid bucket after heating it.

The piece is made from 16 gauge brass.

September 8, 2002

The person who purchased this breastplate was considerably smaller than the pattern. I got it back a couple weeks ago and have made alterations in the size to fit the new owner. The plate is bent in considerably more to fit a smaller waist. Also I trimmed the sides, neckline and waist down to better fit. The really good news about this is that I am getting better with each roll that I do, so the rolls on this piece are really the best I've done. Also, the original pattern called for a flare at the waist instead of a roll. I wasn't pleased with the look of the flare on the first attempt, so I made it a roll instead. My flares are getting better, so this time around I left the flare and like the look of it much more than a bottom roll.

I hope to post some pics of the new owner once she gets in it.

Comments, questions or suggestions should be sent to: rjl@falcon1.net

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