First project - yukinoshita dō

[Zed]

Long time lurker, first time posting anything really. Hopefull the eye bleeding is kept to a minimum. Already passed the patterning stage, that took me about a month or so off and on before I was happy with both the look and fit of it. Just finished cleaning up the plates I've cut and am kind of stumped with the shaping. Not having a terrible amount of experience with metal in general.



Thoughts? Ideas? Anything would be appreciated : )

[Please Delete]

I would actually recommend Armour Archive as a good source with metal shaping in general. Otherwise, you probably want to start with something simple and work on it. You shouldn't need too much of a curve to the Yukinoshita-do, but you will need some. My recommendation is to go easy on it: the temptation is often to hammer hard and fast, but if you don't have the right feel to working the metal, you can end up with a lot of hammer marks that will be extremely difficult to take out. All of the pieces will need a slight curve to them.

If you don't have a shaping tool, a sandbag can work--it will provide resistance but allow you to apply force. Just realize you have to "fluff" the sand occasionally and make sure you don't lose it. The best is some kind of round surface so that you can work the metal along the curves. even though the curves aren't nearly as complex as on some breastplates, you will notice that there are curves in both the vertical and horizontal directions, and those will need to match up from one plate to another. I'm not so good at giving out instructions for this, and would suggest finding a local source to assist. They do not need to be a Japanese armor maker--any metalsmith should be able to help.


-Ii

[Lash]

find a fabrication shop and ask if you can borrow their rolling machine or ask if they could help you roll it . much easier to shape the curves that way www.youtube.com/watch?v=puBLjpAmXAg and if your going to be doing a lot of it you can pick up a cheap one here www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-x-20-gauge-slip-roll-36698.html you can practice on your mock up pattern for precise rolling .

[Zed]

Thanks! Though I should have mentioned its 16 gauge mild. Assuming that affects the gauge of the slip roll I should be looking at. The sandbag method had also been suggested. Might try that failing being able to locate a rolling machine... aparently one of my co-workers has a brother-in-law that might help ( bit of a long shot >_> ). Regardless I like the idea of getting a slip roll for the next project at least

[Zed]

Would a pneumatic planishing hammer be at all appropriate? Found a hell of a deal on one locally and it seems like a fun toy to have

[roninpenguin]

Planishing hammers are good for finishing but you are not going to get much in the way of shaping out of them unless they are REALLLLY beefy.

Honestly with this style of Do you shouldn't need much of a complex curve to it and if you are nice and skinny you can probably get by with a slight curve to your plates. My recommendation is to get a big steel pipe (like 4" if you can find it) or a wooden log, but said curved surface in a Vice or clamp/secure it to a nice heavy surface, and SLOWLY add curve by using your body weight to push the metal across the curved surface a little at a time in as many spots as you can. If you want a little curve at the ends (where you can't bend it by pushing) take a rubber mallet and LIGHTLY strike the steel up and down the surface to add curvature.

You only want a little curve at a time but you should be able to get something acceptable with this method.

[Kurodachi no Mykaru]

The pattern on Eff's site *is* correct, but there were just as many sendai dou made with a 3 piece back instead of 1. Images of the back are rare, but like most japanese armours there is a channel over the spine for the sashimono. Doing 2 convex and 1 concave (the center) sections and then attaching them is much easier than doing the rounded M across the back.