Grant Dorangrichia

The only gravity casting I've done have been open castings. What I mean is essentially an indent in the mold material. Nowadays I'll only do vacuum castings, but of course I have access to all the equipment now Pre-heating the flask is always a good idea. For instance, when I vacuum cast sterling silver the flask is at 1100 deg F. Grant

Thanks for bringing this up. I wouldn't have known any of this being a newer member. Just sent what I could Grant

Heres a couple. They're of a tournament visor from the late 1500's. You can see in the pics the cuts on the visor just below the sights and the corresponding damage above the sights.

Yep, both of Carlos' books are great since he's am armour collector as well as a photographer. So he likes to show off the imperfections. His new book is The Wallace collection in London and both are well worth having. Grant

Alot of my best pics of damage are pieces out of private collections which I can't really post up. Let me see what I can find though. Grant

Shoot me an email, I can send you some pics. Not many books have pics of damage unfortunately. Most of the time the photographer tries to hide it I'll see what I can dig up in my own pics. anubisgod@aol.com Grant

I have an old anvil from my grandfather that looks just like the first one posted broken horn and all. It was in a barn when he bought his farm 60yrs ago. I don't have any info past that though unfortunately. Grant

I've been fortunate enough to have handled several pieces of antique armour. One thing I always look for is damage, it makes it all more "real" for me. Bear in mind much of armour of the late 15th-16th centuries was hardened and tempered. Its very resilient. As such, most of the damage you find will be cuts in the steel, or cracking from impacts. I handled a jousting helm which had cuts all across the visor and corresponding cuts on the forehead, so that the path of the lance was evident when it was impacting. The Museum of Natural History in NYC recently had an exhibit on the horse which included a 15th/16th c. horse armour. I snuck my way around the backside and saw two real nice halberd/polearm strikes on the horses rump. I tend to see damage on the knuckles of gauntlets as well which would make sense. Grant