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Thursday, May 3, 2012
Skyrim Ancient Nord Helmet
The immensely talented Harrison Krix of Volpin props brings us this unbelievable recreation of the ancient Nord helmet from Skyrim. Just reading his detailed and well illustrated build log serves as a master class in prop production.
That’s an excellent prop and I really appreciate the step-by-step tutorial, with the detailed photos of the process. I’m always happy to see a prop maker share techniques. The peening over the helmet surface actually had a function other than a decorative effect. Peening as a steeling process starts in the Bronze Age as a way to “prestress” bronze and harden it. Peened bronze is more crack resistant and early mold cast bronze swords were sometimes steeled by peening. I won’t go into the reason it works because Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the process, although the emphasis is on modern peening processes, the principle is the same. Peening as an asthetic surface treatment to metal really begins with the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late 19th century.
Bronze Age tech is actually quite advanced. Metalworking grew out of skills learned from pottery kilns, which were hot enough to smelt metals. Early bronze age swords were both wrought and cast in molds. Each technique had its pros and cons. There are a lot of resources on line about making perfect copies of Bronze Age weapons exactly like the originals.
That’s an excellent prop and I really appreciate the step-by-step tutorial, with the detailed photos of the process. I’m always happy to see a prop maker share techniques. The peening over the helmet surface actually had a function other than a decorative effect. Peening as a steeling process starts in the Bronze Age as a way to “prestress” bronze and harden it. Peened bronze is more crack resistant and early mold cast bronze swords were sometimes steeled by peening. I won’t go into the reason it works because Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the process, although the emphasis is on modern peening processes, the principle is the same. Peening as an asthetic surface treatment to metal really begins with the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late 19th century.
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ReplyDeleteThat's absolutely fascinating. As you said, the WP article is a great resource.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peening
Bronze Age tech is actually quite advanced. Metalworking grew out of skills learned from pottery kilns, which were hot enough to smelt metals. Early bronze age swords were both wrought and cast in molds. Each technique had its pros and cons. There are a lot of resources on line about making perfect copies of Bronze Age weapons exactly like the originals.
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