09-25-2012, 03:37 PM
Sam.
I'm sorry but I don't have a picture of such a metal block however just a block that does not have a fine finish will do, it just needs to be very slightly rough only enough to take away the polished surface of the sheet metal that you are making the lorica from.
The point I am trying to make is that doing it this way helps to curve and stress the metal and makes it a harder surface than just bending the plates to shape and polishing them to a mirror finish which they would not have been.
There were two ways that the Romans could have made sheet metal and that was Roll it or Hammer it out, indeed the hammering would have helped to remove much of the Charcoal from the iron after the smelting.
I'm sorry but I don't have a picture of such a metal block however just a block that does not have a fine finish will do, it just needs to be very slightly rough only enough to take away the polished surface of the sheet metal that you are making the lorica from.
The point I am trying to make is that doing it this way helps to curve and stress the metal and makes it a harder surface than just bending the plates to shape and polishing them to a mirror finish which they would not have been.
There were two ways that the Romans could have made sheet metal and that was Roll it or Hammer it out, indeed the hammering would have helped to remove much of the Charcoal from the iron after the smelting.
Brian Stobbs
