A refurb\'d segmentata

[Hibernicus]

Avete<br>
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Gaius Aquilius Britannucs (Todd Searls) kindly sent me his Albion seg some months back in order to refit it to his size.<br>
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I have never fretted over a segmentata project the way I fretted over this one.<br>
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NO matter which way I recut the torso plates there were just too many holes in all the wrong places and all the old tricks to fill holes with handtools and techniques just did not work. The mirror polish finish had me flustered... fill a hole and... BAM!.. a dull steel poc mark staring at me like the zit on a teenager's nose...argh! ...and the plate edges had a 1/2" to 3/4" round corner..<br>
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So, I gave up... it was off to make a new set of torso plates.<br>
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Of course, since I do not have any of the POWER TOOLS necessary to create a mirror finish the torso assemblies are a bit duller than the mirror finished shoulder sections.... however with some judicious use of 400 grit sanding paper the mirror finish can be dulled.. the plates seem to have a polymer coating of some sort that had to be removed... and the duller cold rolled mild steel torso plates can be shined up a bit<br>
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I was disappointed in some elements of the India made seg..some mispunched holes in the torso plates were weld filled, interior buckles made of steel, round head copper rivets, some shoulder plates were from the old MUS REP patterns, plates that should overlap a smidge were butted.. lots of other little errors...and that mirror finish<br>
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Result.... never again.<br>
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I did learn that the torso could be cut apart, resized and reassembled in about 3 hours. I was hoping to be able to offer it as a service.... but I would never ever be satisfied with the results.<br>
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So, instead I hand cut (no shearing brakes in my shop) torso plates from cold rolled mild steel, I used proper sized copper rivets with roves to rebuild Britannicus's Albion seg, sent him steel cut and shaped for new shoulder sections and a sample bronze lobate hinge made by one of my apprentices..we're using our own sheet bronze, poured thin, hammered to an appropriate gauge and chisel cut...<br>
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I am still amazed at how hard the cast and hammered bronze sheet is! No more brass on our segs... all hand cast and hammered bronze sheet.... next improvement is handmade copper rivets...<br>
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My thanks to Britannicus for his patience and understanding!<br>
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Hibernicus<br>
centurio<br>
LEGIO IX HISPANA<br>
USA <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Ave!<br>
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As Hibernicus states, he offered to resize my Albion seg at no cost to me (to see how feasible it would be for his future business...boy! more than he bargained for! ), but what I just received in the mail today was 100000 times better than what I sent him and far more than I had ever expected (and far more than he should have done!). Hibernicus created and assembled a new torso for me, along with including new shoulder plates, a loculus, and a new hinge that is a beauty to behold. Admittedly, I had been hounding him with emails trying to figure out what was taking so long, and now I know. Wow!<br>
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Offering to help someone out at no charge typically ends up costing the helping person more than they bargain for, and in this case, I know Hibernicus went through a few levels of Hades to assist me. Just saying "thank you" seems a small payment for such excellent work and so noble an offer, but Gratis, Hibernicus! Your generosity and good will has made my year.<br>
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Gratis tibi ago,<br>
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Britannicus<br>
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