Medieval Armour

Restoration on a 19th Century Italian Medieval Style Armour

This was a lovely piece of 19th century Italian medieval style full suit of armour with shield and axe. 

My customer had asked if I could clean it up a little bit. But with over 150 years of dirt the armour and its etched features were black and difficult to see, especially the etching on the legs and feet.

They also asked if I could improve its stand as it was wobbling and the armour would full apart on it. The visor of the helmet was in 2 pieces and needed adjusting and bending back together where it had fallen a few times. Also had a big dent and my client was abit nervous when I said I need to heat it slightly and gently tap it out, as it could have slit the top of the helmet.

So got a long piece of softwood and curved the end, heated the helmet on a radiator which took about 5 to 10 min on full power. Placed the helmet upside down on my soft material work bench and placed the wood on the dented piece and tapped gently, checking ever few taps to see how it was going. After a little while the helmet was in near mint condition again. With the smallest indent left.

The next step was to buff it on the buffing wheel taking great care not to wear it down too much but after hours and hours of being at the wheel buffing at all different angles we were getting somewhere the steel armour was starting to shine again. Once the black armour now was beginning to show signs of life again.

This was a very long job with great rewards after seeing each piece going from black to silver and the features now popping out. After all this was done I noticed in the bottom of the box that a couple of fingers fir the gauntlets were there.

So I re-attached the fingers with some leather strips I made to place the old leather straps that had disintegrated over the years. I used a poxy clear glue to stick these back together as this adhesive worked perfect on leather and steel which didn't mean I had to rivet the fingers back together.

New leather straps were made for the breast plate and back plate. Then fitted. Also a long should strap was made to hold the arms up over the shoulders attached with its original clips. This strap was made after the re construction of the stand so I could get the perfect measurements when I assembled it. 

Improvement and reconstruction of the stand. I ended up taking the  stand completely apart and starting from the ground up. The platform didn't need much doing to it, so it got cleaned and waxed then buffed. The wooden legs were reused and cut down so I could fix a mannequin which I had adjusted to fit the the stand. With both the mannequin and stand fitted perfectly, measuring step by step as I went along. It was time to see the end result.

So I are attached the legs to the base, fitted the breast plate and back plate together with it's new straps, strapped the arms with the single long leather strap and placed over its shoulders. Attached the neck plate, which covered some of the strap. Put the mannequins head on, (as this is removable) then placed the gauntlets to each arm which the metal holds its self together due to the arms stringing out into the wrist part. Placed the shield next to it.

And to take full affect I had to leave the helmet to last. So I placed that on and stood back to admire what it once was to now how it now is. Sent a photo to my client. With great praise they were over the moon with it and now is one of there most cherished items. I really did enjoy doing this project, even though it took a lot longer than I previously thought, the end result couldn't of been any better.