Description
Patrick Thaden, Brain Rainey and Doug Strong were hanging out together before an Armour Research Society hands-on workshop. They got the idea to see how quickly Patrick could raise a sallet form a single piece of steel.
They dug out the digital video camera, set it on a tripod and let it roll. They found a 20+ year old piece of rusty 14 gauge steel (of indeterminate carbon content) and cut out a 16 inch circle. Why 16 inches you ask? Because that was the size of a big mixing bowl Doug had lying in his shop and they could trace its perimeter easily.
Patrick worked on it for two days before calling it quits. The total amount of time spent actually hammering on and heating the piece was something like 4 hours. About half of the time was spent in the heating process. The video is a complete record of nearly every hammer blow thrown. A total of about 5 minutes of hammering time has been edited out of the footage. Much of the heating time was edited out for the sake of time.
When he finished he had produced a small Mid-15th century Italian archers sallet similar to an example found at the lost arsenal of Chalcis on the Island of Euboea, Greece. It is complete with face opening and tail created without any cutting or trimming of the metal at all. All the metal was moved with the hammer in the raising process.
All of Patrick’s commentary on how and why things were done has been retained in its entirety. Along with this is quite a bit of highly important and deep philosophical chatter about armour, tools, history, rock music, favorite drinks and all the sort of things that three guys talk about when hitting hot metal with a hammer for 2 days. Some of it is quite interesting and enlightening some of it is… well, you decide.
These videos play beautifully on your television in full digital quality!
