expect alot of dumb begginer questions like this.

[Nobuhide]

ok, so im doing a hotoke go mai do(solid 5 plate) that will be black with gold leafing. im going with the mid wealth retainer style to reflect my personal 'upper-middle class' life. like the real one.
so i hammered out the back and chest, and its all LUMPY. i dont have access to an english wheel, andddd i duno what to do to get these bloody lumps out without turning the pieces back into flat sheets. helpppp...

[Hiroda Ujio]

the cheap method is to take a shot putt and weld it to a tube of some kind. Then stick the tube into an old stump or fence post. Then start hammering on the lumps with a nice new smooth hammer. you can use this to planish your plates to take the lumps out.

For a better explanation of planashing, jump over to the armor archive and they may have a few articles you can brows thru.

Hiroda

[Takeda Sanjuichiro]

Planishing.....

Very carefuly lay the piece on a shaped block of wood or a nice hard round surface like the horn of an anvil and with a nice clean faced mallet tap out those lumpy bits like a silvesmith would. Failing having a clean mallet a polished face of a small ball-peen hammer will work in a pinch, either method one uses a light tapping is importaint, you are trying to smooth the metal, not shape it.

Now the next time you go to do a plate, use a gentle dish in your stump (dishing), or a large armoring ball with an even surface (raising), also use a large faced mallet or wood or rubber, not a steel hammer, the mallet will spread the impact to a wider area and not give you a focal point, which is what creates the lumps.

Another method that I am fond of is using a shallow and wide dish of wood or leather covered steel and a bowling ball hammer, dishing goes pretty qucik when you only have to hit something 2-3 times.

-Takeda Sanjuichiro

[raito]

I do hate to be pedantic here, but it sure seems like the technique Nobuhide-dono needs is bouging, as he says that his pieces are lumpy. Bouging removes bumps, planishing evens out the surface of the metal, for example, smoothing out tooling marks. It's a rather find distinction, but it's the current terminology among the experienced armourers.

That said, the way to handle this is to get a convex surface, and hit it from the outside with a rather soft hammer or mallet. be sure to watch carefully so that you don't remove the curve you hammered in in the first place.

After that, you may need to planish. That's also done over a convex form, but with a hammer hard enough to beat on the surface of the metal.

Bouging is pretty easy and quick. Planishing is difficult and seems to take forever to do correctly.

[Nobuhide]

thanks much raito-san.
being a former silver smith myself(but disliking the frequent mega-bruises from bokken hits, henceforth turning to armor smithing and finding it EXTRAORDINARILY SWEET)i tried some planishing and it didnt work well, so i was like, eh i need help. AND HELP WAS DELIVERED! again, thanks

[raito]

Nobuhide said:

thanks much raito-san.
being a former silver smith myself(but disliking the frequent mega-bruises from bokken hits, henceforth turning to armor smithing and finding it EXTRAORDINARILY SWEET)i tried some planishing and it didnt work well, so i was like, eh i need help. AND HELP WAS DELIVERED! again, thanks

Then you know the pain that is planishing. Steel works a LOT harder than silver. You gotta really smack it, by comparison, to get it to respect you.