16th Century Metal Chest workshop/ Tom Latane'

Gday Pete,

WOW, thats fantastic. I'd never even conceived of doing such a thing. I'm very impressed and envious. Tom must be a genius to come up with the whole project?

So looking at it, its assembled by using mortice & tennons for the sides to ends? How do the corner pieces/legs attach? rivets perhaps?

Please do share the construction details for us foreign 'wanna-be' smiths :-)

Thanks for shareing. Regards Rusty_iron Brisbane, Oz.

Yes, he is. This workshop is the third one that I have taken from him, but he demonstrates and holds workshops all over the eastern half of the USA.

You may notice the twine running around the box. That's what's holding things together right now. The legs will be attached to the corners with rivets and the corners will be attached to the sides and front of the case with rivets also. Tom uses temporary rivets if needed, but I chickened out and use 0-80 screws and nuts to hold things in place until I am sure that its all going to fit. During the 2nd workshop, for which the pix are still on their way, I did rivet the decorative straps on to the lid, riveted down the tenons on one end of the lid and turn its top. So, I am gaining confidence in the process.

Yes, rivets. All the rivets in the chest will be hand made 1/16" diameter rivets, except for a couple for the legs and special decorative, much larger rivets that will hold the forge welded hinge straps in place. My confidence in rivet making has gone up lately, too.

Pete Stanaitis

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Thanks Pete,

Much appreciated. I've learnt things by looking at your pics and through your description. Thanks again. looking forward to the next lot of pics.

Rivets are such fun ..... I recently used a rivet heading punch made by another smith, designed to put a pyramid shape on the head. Looked good, also made a nice effect on the heads that didn't have enough material to form the pyramid.

Regards Rusty_iron Brisbane, Oz.

WOW.

Just WOW