Want to make swords and armour

How do you want to make them? The old fashioned way with forge and anvil or the modern stock removal method with a grinder? How much do you know about metal working? Do you want these medieval weapons and armour to be functional? Ken

A Clue?

In a less cruel mode...I would suggest that your BEST course of action would be to contact your local chapter of the Society For Creative Anachronism. Find a group that has an armorer that does this sort of thing. Join the group, and, apprentice yourself to him or her. Also, visit your public library. It can be a vast resource of literature on forming metal. Actually, you are kind of talking about two very different fields of endeavor up there. Armor making and weapon making are similar in that they both involve metal, but, very different in how one goes about them. It might be a TAD easier to pick one discipline and study it for a while, to decide if it is what you want to burn the precious minutes of your life on. For weapons, look at the knives newsgroup (no...I don't recall if it is alt.knives or something else just now...search for it). They have QUITE a lot of traffic dealing with making edged tools of various sorts, and get into some pretty esoteric chats about proper materials, forming, heat treating, etc. The blacksmithing group might be worthwhile for making armor, but, I suspect that your BEST bet is to look into an "English Wheel". However, remember Jesse James' remark about that tool - something on the order of: Watch your fingers...it is like a hammer but it holds on! Regards Dave Mundt

rec.knives.

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ARMOUR has patterns and forums for asking questions

is another armour site somthing like arador.com ?? or somthing like that SWORDS place has a forum of making swords My advice? start with knives to see if you like it and to get some practice concentrating on one or the other would be a good idea too - like someone else suggested Stephen Nixon hobbyist knifemaker (well 1 sword)