I'm not Brian, forgive the interruption. You can use leather tools, but they may not bring all their pattern through the metal. And many of them (like veiners, e.g.) have very sharp corners, as do most bevellers. It would be just about as easy to take some simple steel rods and shape the tips to the desired design. You certainly do not want to punch a corner of the tool through the brass,
I made some connections with companies I felt with in the past and was able to receive 80 pounds of top grade Automotive Design Plasticine. THey liked the vision of what I was doing and gave me the clay. Over $640.00 US Currency. ALl I had to do was pay for the shipping.
So… here we go.
My first project will be scabbard plates and lockets. Will be using 20 ga. Sheet Brass.
I know I don't need 60 pound for the plates… but I am considering doing all of the repousse work into the cuirass directly.
Patrick.
Where you say that you will be using 20 gauge for scabbard plates and lockets that is way too thick a gauge for that kind of work.
What you need for this job is very thin sheet in fact even down to 7 thousands of an inch thick, for what we find with most Roman armour and equipment is that they kept everything as light weight as possible.
Here is an example of just how thick the Fulham sword decoration is from photographs I got from the BM, as you can see from where there is damage to the plate the metal is very thin indeed and the reverse picture also shows just how it has all been worked by hand.
[attachment=8477]FD.jpg[/attachment]
Patrick.
Here is a picture of a copy of the upper decoration of the Fulham I did some years ago and as you can see it is very similar to the original, where this decoration plate has to go around the outside of the scabbard guttering and therefore very thin in fact 7 thou'
[attachment=8479]fulham2.jpg[/attachment]
WOW… That thin? I was told by others 20 ga. or .032 Should 20 ga. only be used for the gutters and cross bars? Or should I be considering something else for them as well?
And what about the thickness on the lockets for a Pompeii Scabbard?
One more question for you both.
Brian's Belt Parts and your New Sword and Scabbard had silver sheets… where do you purchase that? Or did you silver them yourselves?
THanks for saving me from a lot of work and waste of thicker brass.
Patrick.
The 20 gauge is indeed what you should be making the guttering and cross hangers from then if you Google up Rio Grande.com you will get all the silver sheet you need.
When you do hand worked repousse in silver sheet it is just fantastic to work with and even so much nicer when done in gold sheet.
Patrick.
I don't know exactly what the ancients used in some of their repousse maybe pitch but with much of mine I do at times use 60/40 solder for small jobs, this way it does help to support the relief figures a bit.
Then with larger and deeper relief I have used a plastic padding however if you look careful you will see that the Fulham decoration does not have any filling at all, and at times I do use metal at 10 thou' thick that does at times need to be annealed to be worked and find it can be fairly strong.
Remember those statements? I'm getting old.
