Lorica seggie rust prevention and maintenance

ANDY

I've now got my own Lorica Segmentata, and thrilled beyond belief, mostly because it fits quite well and I can bend over and around! (I had been using Mus. Rep's armor before as that was what was available, but anyways...) After wearing the armor for a few hours, I noticed there was quite a bit of flash-rusting that occured around the armpit plates (where the metal is rolled over) and parts of the back/shoulder blade plates. I figure the armpit-areas will get rusted no matter what I do due to sweating, the tunica and subarmalis are able to do only so much sweat absorbtion.

Luckily 99% of the rust was removed with machine oil, WD-40 and a heckuva lot of elbow grease

I'd like some suggestions as to what to do to help prevent as much rust as possible. I use cotton gloves (museum protocol as well) when handling/putting on/off the armor as best I can. Is is possible to paint the inside of the armor plates with [black] paint as done in medieval/renassiance era to help prevent rusting, can I get away with something like Rustoleum (at least the word sounds Latin? )

- I'm willing to sacrifice a little historical accuracy for preservation and maintence..I know that'll get me in trouble with many of you but after the fiasco and money to get this danged armor in the first place, I wanna keep it as best I can! -

I know I'll have to seriously retrofit my subarmalis to give better padding and have more material in areas that are now more exposed...Is there a treatment I can put on the subarmalis to help prevent sweat from doing too much damage? Could I coat the thing in an oil, notunlike the natural oil in say a wool Paenula? I don't want to broil inside the armor, but I don't want to have it dripping with sweat after a few hours of use either.

thanks as always for all of your help and suggestions

Hibernicus

My suggestions....

Chuck the machine oil, the WD-40, the cotton gloves

Get yourself some pumice, grind it up in a mortar very very fine.

Get yourself some nut oil or palm oil

Make a paste with the pumice and oil

Use a sea sponge or a hunk of felted wool as a buffing pad.

Have at it..


Keep your seg heavily oiled OR waxed then oiled

If you put the seg in the sun it'll warm up enough to allow you to rub beeswax directly onto the plates. The wax'll flow, sort of like using a brick of butter to oil a pan. With some some practice you'll achieve a nice even coating.

Or just use beeswax in the arm pits and the inside

Wear an oiled leather vest over the subarmalis. This is very effective in keeping the sweat away from the inside... OR... don't worry about it. After a few months of regular use the inside wil achieve a nice brown patina that's very very rust resistant.

If you must use paint use something like Rustoleum aluminum colored paint, not black. The aluminum color makes it very difficult to see the paint.

Magnus/Matt

Definately paint the inside black with a flat black oil base paint if it isn't black already. Use a brush to get around the straps and other do-dads if you have to.

I've experimented with a lot of different oils and compounds to try and keep my segmentata rust free. Know what I found works the best??? Vaseline. Yep...I actually walked around for a full day in a down pour last year at Roman days with my armour vaselined up and not one spec of rust. Now, in this case I left it on, because of the rain. Normally, I wipe it down before putting it on for an event. Then, when it goes back on the armour stand, it gets another coat of vaseline. The good thing is that the vaseline is safe on the steel, brass and leather. No corrosion build ups, nothing. It also won't dissipitate like some oils will.

To remove rust, scotch brite pads work very well (modern day pumice me thinks). And they preserve the satin finish on the metal.

Hibernicus

By the way, you can get authentic horsehair "scotchbrite pads" from just about any furniture refinishing business.. antique chairs are often stuffed with it... and these places toss it away.

If you believe that the historical armor was burnished bare iron then deal with the obvious historical problems that go hand in hand with it in an historical manner.

Anonymous

Speaking as an armourer and not a reenactor now, I always paint the insides of my armour with rustoleum semi-gloss black and use Nu-Finish paste wax on the outside. It works like a charm.

Gashford

A while ago I made a shield boss. After the boss planished and heat treated I set about it wit a file to get the few divets it had picked up.

After that using various sands and oils and a lot of time it was ground to a very nice close to mirror finish.

After the finish was as good as I wanted it to be (better than matt, but not fully mirrored, this is a personal choice, using sands, grits and oils it is more than achievable to get a mirror finish with iron or high carbon steel) I took some pure warm bees wax, still solid but only just and coated the boss and left it for about two hours.

Using a linen cloth and some time I stroked the wax away going in the same way as the motions I had made with the oils and sand. After this I repeated the wax process a number of times until the boss was bak to its near mirror like finish.

I have not cleaned this boss in 18 months, except once where I gave it a dust with a rag and it is still near mirror finish.

The back was left rough with the iron flakes and dirt from the forge after quenching, no rust there at all.

So near melted bees wax (sun melted), time, elbow grease and patience will look after your armour.

If you can't be bothered to wait for the wax to melt double pot melt it and add to it 1 part surgical spirits to 3 parts wax and that will act as a platiciser for those not patient enough to wait, but you will smell. Olive oil might also do the job, but I haven't done that yet, I will let you know when time allows.

Magnus/Matt

Is beeswax expensive? I was told to use that on my rawhide shield rims. A good idea, considering most of our events get rained on.

Hibernicus

Price can vary greatly! Shop around.

There's also a difference between dark and light beeswax. The dark works better.

1lb cakes available at most large craft stores and tend to be better priced than from a candle making supply store.

Some serious artist/craftsman supply stores have 5lb blocks.. that's a lot of beeswax but its less expensive than 1lb at a time

Anonymous

I'd also look in your local paper. If you've got beekeepers in your area, they tend to sell their honey in the classifieds,and you can always call them up and ask if they would sell the beeswax, too.

Hibernicus  

Something you should knwo about beeswax on your seg.. when the steel warms up in the sun the wax gets "fluid".. moisture can penetrate AND if you're fighting in dusty fields and rolling about in the dirt or if you're digging dust'll settle into the wax, sticking, and when the wax cools down the dirt'll be affixed...

Gashford

Hib raises a good point, I just built a belt this evening and the beeswax treatment and problem came to light when I had to drill a couple of holes in the metal I forgot to do first. The hot metal throws lines of beeswax up as it flies along the metal surface, however I have found that a properly beeswax'd piece of metal only needs a very light/heavy rub and the muck comes off (at least hot metal, dust and mud).

However building upon what Hib has said, it is important to clean your armour regularly when using any natural methid, otherwise it will cause more problems than it solves. A case in point was a friend that cleaned some of our armour using oil and sand but didn't get all the oil off and didn't do any followup cleaning ... after three days the armour was mucky, stunk and covered in flies ...

Natural product whilst feeling historic can require more work ... otherwise people wouldn't have invented modern equivalients I guess.

Hibernicus

Excellent follow up Gashford!

We always kept oily cloths handy and wiped down metal kit as soon as we stepped off the battlefield... (well, not maybe right away, perhaps after a beer or two..). Especially important for leather straps.. after several hours of heavy use in the heat and dust older straps get brittle very fast..

Gashford

If you are going to paint this inside of your lorica with something, consider taking a look at some of the clear lacquers that exist, at least using one of these you don't have to field questions about whether or not the Romans painted the inside of the loricas as no one can tell ... again ... just a thought.