Talents I have seen: Robert "Mac" Macpherson

Recently, the blog Boing Boing posted an article about my friend Ugo Serrano (http://boingboing.net/2013/04/03/ugo-serrano-armorer.html)

"Daniel sez, "Ugo Serrano is the greatest living armorer, really. A man who camps at the Pennsic war in a 15th Century Italian villa (hat he built/designed that also flat-packs for storage and transportation). The props he makes for the movie/television industry are a who's who of geekdom from Firefly to Riddick to the Haunted Mansion through Zorro. A man whose art helped begin the entire steampunk movement, yet he's almost unknown outside of the SCA, where his themed parties are as legendary as his tent. If you catch him at the right time, he'll give you a pilgrimage badge that he cast in pewter by hand, just for taking the tour"


I was quite shocked at how incorrect the article was. It had facts correct, but incorrectly attributed them all to one person, Ugo. This is an interesting social phenomenon that I have observed many times: When a person has charisma, (and Ugo is very charismatic) many positive things are often attributed to this person, almost automatically, with little or no "fact checking".  The opposite also seems true. If a person is a scoundrel, then bad things are automatically attributed to them.

Ugo has achieved a type of "Stardom" I see in Hollywood. Fame and praise do not always go hand and hand with talent or achievements. Now first, let me be clear, Ugo is very talented and is certainly worthy of fame. But "helped start the entire steampunk movement", "greatest living armourer"? These are the type of statements that start urban legends and myths. Such as, "A knight needed a crane to lift him upon his horse" or “Gene Simmons (KISS fame, not Spartacus) bites his tongue during his concerts to get all the blood he spits". If it's printed, people believe it. Often these things are never "Undone" and the general public goes on believing them.

Daniel, lists that he is an author of books and I get the impression he is a regular poster on the internet. Well, I hope he does a better job checking facts for his books. Writing is not my skill, building things is and for those who have read some of the things I have posted no doubt know I am the one who built the 15th century house and may know, Robert MacPherson is the craftsman who made my pilgrimage badges, using authentic 14th/ 15th century techniques. Robert is a quiet unassuming man who if you saw him at an historical event, you would have no clue he was one of the worlds best armour craftsman. He is not one of those people who the spotlight finds easily, nor does he seek it out. So to most people, have no idea who he is.  I started to write an article on Roberts work last year, but as writing is not my skill, I started and then never got back to it. Here it is:

 Talents I have seen:

 I had heard about "Mac" many years ago and was told, if you want the best reproduction armour, he's the guy. So I sought out Robert MacPherson, even though I was told he had a 5 to 10 year waiting list. I had seen some of his work and been impressed, but it was not until I ordered a suit from him that I appreciated the level at which he was "the best".

Here are some pieces I had seen of Macs work:

 

At the time, I thought I knew quite a lot about armour, how it was supposed to look, fit, and so on. Well, ignorance is a funny thing, many times you have no way of knowing what you don’t know. I was about to become more enlightened.

 Let me give you some background: There are many different factors that make someone skilled at reproducing armour or any art for that matter. Not only is there the technical (does it work), but the esthetic (does it look right) and does it fit correctly. Plus, there is the skill (and experience) of the craftsman to have the freedom to be able to make whatever is needed. In other words, he may know what a piece should look like, but without the skills to move the metal to that shape, well “he can’t get there from here” no matter how clearly he sees the destination.

 Today there may be as many as 100 armourers, making some type of armour for reancators, SCA, Rennfair or collectors. Most of these are either making armour for people who can’t afford good armour, or, more likely, have never seen really good armour, so they don’t know what they don’t know. As a result, the armour is pretty poor. But since this makes up the vast majority of work seen by the general populace, they don't know either, so they think its all really great stuff.

Of the really good armourers, maybe 4-6, they work for a relatively small clientele or museums and are not well known outside the museum or living history circles.

Now armour in general spans a few thousand years, in European armour about 1200 years. (400-1600 AD) Technology and the skill of the craft was getting better al this time. With many things it is possible to find those who are very good at one thing or in this case, period of armour, but not other periods. (Although, just about every armourer believes he can make anything)
For example; recreating a 1960’s Ferrari is easier than recreating a 2010 Toyota, due to the complexity of manufacture and techniques. So after seeing Mac's work, it seemed he was the kind of guy, who could make anything you asked for.  I found out Mr. MacPherson did not have a 10 year long waiting list (Another urban myth, one I’m sure Mac thought was flattering, but maddening when he didn’t have work) so, I set up an appointment to discuss making a new armour. Now, when you have a guy like Mac make a suit of armour, it seemed to me, if you go to Ferrari, don’t ask them to build you a truck. At the time I was really into 14^th Century European armour. But for mac, I wanted to order something that I didn’t think any other armourer could make well. (I would later learn that even the simple armour , made by Mac is a "Ferrari")  
Well I decided on Maximillian armour. This is a modern term applied to an abundantly fluted style of armour from the beginning of the 16^th century. The name comes from Emperor Maximillian of Germany, a 16^th century “rock star” of jousting and armour patronage.

I told Mac that I had never been a big fan of this style, but this one suit from the NYC Metropolitan museum of art, really caught my eye. Mac asked me, what is it about this one you like, that in the others you don’t? This was my first clue that Mac was really good at what he does. No one had ever asked me this before. I had to think about it, why did I like this one?  I said, it’s the helmet and the proportion’s I think. OK he said, what about them, do you think? After explain why I like the suit I had a sense that Mac knew better than I did, what I wanted.
I would later find out, Mac had not only the eye to see styles of armour and what made these styles correct for a particular time period, but he had the skills to make the armour look like it should. He also has an incredible knowledge of the subject on all levels. It is quite astounding.
 He pointed out, that the armour I liked at the MET is in fact 3, maybe 4 different amours pieced together, along with extensive restoration. Seen here: (04.3.289) (http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/40000195?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=+04.3.289+a-q&pos=2)  
We agreed on a price (Very reasonable) and I sent him body casts (an advantage to owning a special effects costume shop) and he started. We had a few fittings and each time, I got to see the armour in it rough state and event then, it looked amazing. Here is the finished work:

 The armour he produced was amazing. It looked better than the original (the first time this had ever happened to me) In addition, the fit and mobility were like nothing I had ever experienced. I had worn a lot of armour, both casually and in combat, I felt like I could do anything in this suit. Years later in a combat with great swords (Not my best form) a fellow who was very good and very fast, took a shot at my head, I ducked it and came back to hit him hard enough to win the fight. He later remarked that he was so stunned that in that much armour, I ducked his shot, he forgot to block mine.
 

I called Mac up after I received the suit and couldn't thank him enough. I told him it looked better than it did at any of the fittings. Mac said he didn’t like some pieces, so he tossed them aside and made new ones. Again, I was seeing why he was “the best”; if the part was not right, it was not right and it made no difference how much work he had put into it, it was remade. In the specialty costume world, it is the same way. If the piece isn’t right, you remake it. You may not like to, but the best of the best shops will and if you want to be one of those shops, you will too.

Unfortunately in the film business, they know nothing of armour, at least not approaching the same level of fit and finish they have for regular clothing. As an example; Years ago, a friend of mine, who is one of the best cutter/ fitters in the business, pointed out that in the movie “Leap of Faith”, Steve Martin was probably wearing $3,000 to $4,000 in clothes during one scene. She was referring to his “T-shirt & Jeans”! Designer t-shirt, designer jeans, custom tailored, shoes….$4k. The subtly involved here it to make them fit him perfectly, yet look “off the rack” and every day, yet still make him look Marvelous! This take a lot more work and expertise than most would imagine. In movie armour, they don’t understand that real armour can fit amazingly well and look very heroic in its original design and material. Because of course, "A knight needed a crane to lift him upon his horse". Not helping this, are modern so, so armourers making mediocre suits that reanactors go “WOW”, “Incredible” “I’ll be in my bunk” over. This is changing. As more people see what is possible by the very good armourers getting their work out there for more than a handful to see, as well as others, such as some in Eastern Europe, get seen by the rest of the world. Real quality armours were hardened steel (Similar to modern 1050 spring steel) and didn’t clank, they went “snickity snick”/. They also were comfortable to wear, easy to move in and didn’t hurt you every time you moved. One of these recent Jousting shows on TV, had some “expert” point out that all armour “bites you” and you just deal with it, it’s part of what makes armour cool to wear! What BS.


This next suit was a mid 15th century English harness made for Tobias Capwell, the curator of the Wallace arms & armour collection. He has jousted in this regularly. My Maximillian  armour was the last suit Mac made from mild steel, everyone since, including this one is hardened 1050 spring steel. Remember, this is all hand formed with hammer and stake, and no welds! All single pieces of steel. Some only .035” thick as like the originals.

 

I sent these images to a film producer to show him what could be done. His response was "Are these in any way CG?" (Computer generated) He didn't think there was any way these suits pictures could be of a completely real suit and must have been at the very least augmented with a computer. I explained that no, no computers, in fact the suit is all hand made, by one guy.

There is a video from a presentation given by Dirk Breiding , assistant curator of the MET, of Toby running in this suit and at first, you can’t tell he is wearing armour. His gate is perfectly normal. The armour has little to no effect on his stride. (Seen here at 35:10 http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Dirk+Briedling+armour+&view=detail&mid=140B9BC842FD85A007C6140B9BC842FD85A007C6&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR


Mac and I discussed building another suit for me, this one to have etched bands and borders, perhaps some gilt bands. I was thinking of the harness he made just before mine, which was amazing.
The original harness is known as the "KD" harness. Macs is the "Harness with palmettes"
Here it is:

I couldn't decide which period or style and during one phone conversation with Mac, I suggested perhaps using parts of one suit with elements from another. There was a silence on the other end, then in a slightly apprehensive, tone "ah, well....One should pick a style and revel in it." In other words, you don't really want to mix a bunch of styles that don't go together do you? Yet to me, I didn't see these as very different styles, I mean, in my brain  they were only 20 or so years apart, imagine a 1960's mustang with a 1980's Chevy front end,...oh, yeah, that would look awful. OK, lets do a Greenwich harness. This was a style distinctly English from the mid to late 16th century. At a time when there was no king on the throne to "upstage" and you could commission the Royal Armoury, with Queen Elisabeth permission of course, to make the most elaborate  armour you could imagine.
Here is what was decided.

The original (shown here) is now in the Wallace collection in London. This new suit  would be a garniture as was the original, that is a harness with exchange pieces. Consisting of different helmets, reinforce pieces for the upper body and left arm. All used for different styles of tournaments. This armour would have originally had a dark blue finish in the areas not gilded. We decided on the garniture pieces and  Mac started the new suit, this one in hardened 1050 spring steel. Unfortunately part way through this project, Mac damaged his elbow and it made if near impossible for him to make armour. So the project sat unfinished for a few years. Recently I contacted Jeff Wasson, an immensely talented craftsman, who has agreed to finish the harness.

Here are some images of the harness as it is now:

Hopefully, later this year it will be completed. Check back, when its completed I will post images. Oh and the pewter Pilgrimage badges? Mac and his wife Mary Ann make those, along with many other fine pewter goods and they can be found here at "Billy & Charlie's" http://billyandcharlie.com/

Work place noise attenuation

Sometimes I need to wear hearing protection and many times like others, want my own music. I don’t like earbuds because the either fall out or bother my ears and don’t cover my ear to help cut down on harsh shop noises. I like headphones, but they need to be light enough so when you bend over, they aren’t sliding around. I really like my Bose Quiet Comfort headphones. Their noise reduction quality is very good and of course the playback is great. They are light weight and comfortable. The only down side was the cord. I have tried cordless headphones, but I have to say, every pair I’ve used is worthless. They are heavy and the connection to the base is always cutting in and out. Even a Bluetooth unit in my pocket is intermittent. I hated record albums for the noise they had if everything wasn’t perfectly clean, so I was happy to embrace the digital age, so these wireless headphones just reminded me of the similar noise issues associated with vinyl. One day I realized that the Bose cord connection, which is a plug that can be removed from the headset, would be the perfect place to mount an IPod Nano.

Making a metal bracket and shortening the cord, I now had shop headphones that removed harsh shop noises, but let voices in and had no cord.

With this piece, I can now unplug the Nano and plug in the regular headphone cable and us my headphones for travel or other music sources.

I then needed a place to set these, along with my safety glasses, so when not in use, would be out of the way and safe. Pulling out a mold of my head (I know, don’t we all have one? It was made for a creature suit job many years ago) I was going to cast it in clear, but I was out of clear resin, so reaching into the mold, I smeared on some metallic powder and here is the result:

A 2011 Samsung Fridge becomes a 1930's fridge

My wife and I own a 1926 Arts & Crafts Bungalow and the previous owners "restored" it in 1980's "Home Depot style". I have re done the bedroom and laundry/ back hall area in a style inspired by the architects Greene & Greene, and now it's on to the kitchen and breakfast nook. We needed a new refrigerator, but we didn't like the idea of a modern appliance in a Craftsman style house. However, since my day job is making things look like things they are not, or replicating just about anything, it didn’t seem to hard to make a 2011 refrigerator look like a 1926 enameled Ice box.

We looked at many different modern efficient refrigerators and liked the Samsung. But since I hadn’t started on the restoration of the kitchen, we weren’t in any hurry to buy a new fridge. Well one day, we found one at Lowes on sale, because the handles where missing and the door had a small dent. An offer we couldn’t refuse! So, I needed to build a fridge. Here is what I started with:

I did some research and found many examples of white enameled Ice box's and refrigerators from the 20’s and 30’s.  Here are a couple of examples:

 

The plan was to add fake ice box doors to the front of the stainless fridge, with only the one over the ice maker a functional door. The others would be attached to the Samsung’s doors and when the handle was pulled, the whole Samsung door would open. I laid out the door proportions in Corel Draw and then cut ¾” MDF as patterns.  The doors where to be vacuum formed from 1/8 plastic about ½” high with a Coroplast filler.(Trade name for corrugated plastic material)  This Coroplast piece would keep the vacuum formed Icebox door panels stiff, without adding much weight to the fridge doors.

For my hardware, ebay seemed like a good source, but I couldn’t find just the right thing. So, I fabricated a handle in brass, based on a period one, but about twice as large and located the hinges from McMaster Carr. (A great source for many things) However, the hinges where $35 ea! I needed 11 of them and only 2 had to work. Well $385 for hinges was a bit to steep, even if we had saved double that on the “damaged” fridge. Luckily, I have a spin caster for “white metal” pewter casting, so I made my own.
This process entails "pressing" a rubber mold of your master parts in a vulcanizing press. This press heats the rubber to about 300 f and subjects the raw hot rubber to about 1500 psi. Once the mold heat cures (about an hour),  it’s placed in a spin caster and the molten pewter (500 f.) is ladled into the top of the machine which pours into the spinning mold. 60 seconds later, you have cast metal parts. This is a very common way to make many different types of inexpensive metal items. Here is a photo of the hardware and the rubber mold:

Each piece of hardware was attached with stainless machine screws with an “Oval” style head. This is a counter sunk screw with a slightly domed head. Since Phillips screws, invented by Henry F. Phillips, were not in use until 1937, slotted style was chosen. Each screw, threads into a “Riv-nut”, a “pop rivet” style of threaded insert that is commonly used in sheet metal applications. This riv-nut provides more robust threads in a thin sheet skin.

Here is the assembled fridge with plastic door panels and cast hardware:

 The door over the Ice maker has a vacuum formed inner panel and is bonded to the outer panel with a 3/8” wood filler to make a complete door that has a nice feel and weight to it. Since this was the only working door, I wanted it to feel more like the type of insulated metal door that would be on an original fridge.

Once I had all the hardware deburred and prepped I sent it to my friends at F&H plating for a brushed nickel finish. The fridge was sanded, masked and given a white automotive paint finish.

With the newly plated hardware the 2011 Samsung was transformed into a 1930’s(ish) fridge.

The last touch will be a “Manufacturers plate” added to the gap between the left hand doors. (A printed place holder can be seen in the photo.)

This gap between doors seems to be a common thing on many of these old fridges and I assume it’s because there is some plumbing elements there. Well since my door layout is cosmetic, with the exception of the door covering the ice maker, I incorporated this gap in the design with the intention of adding the plate. The manufacturers plate is acid etched in magnesium, using a process used for making rubber stamps. here is the finished badge.

 

Update:

Per request, here is a shot of the fridge with the water/ice door open. It also shows the sheet metal fascia at the bottom, this replaces the original plastic one and facilitates the legs to be added. Most of these old ice boxes and coolers had legs and were raised off the floor. Because we have the fridge located in a part of the kitchen that steps down, raising it was essential to allow the righthand door to fully open. In addition, because both my wife and I are above average height, raising the fridge is perfect, it turns out it is a much better height for us.

Here is an update, with the fully restored kitchen:

 

 



Pennsic 2011- House 2.0

I’m sure many bloggers start off with frequent post intending on keeping the pace up, only to find enthusiasm waning. I have meant to post bits on other artists and techniques, but alas I too have fallen victim. So, now that the improvements to my Pennsic house are complete, I’ll endeavor to post more often. To start off:

The conclusion of Pennsic house 2.0

After a long drive from LA to Pennsylvania (41 hours). We arrived and started set up on Monday morning. Tuesday night I was sleeping in my bed. Being only the second time for a full set up on location, I was pleased with the set up time, but I’m still sure it can be done in one day. This year due to a land dispute, the house had to be set up perpendicular to the lake; as a result, I had a lovely view of plastic tents! Hopefully next year this can be rectified and the house can be set up in its designed location facing the lake.

I’d like to thank the folks that came by to help with set up and strike, it was a big help. I hope for next Pennsic to have 3 full time people to help with set up and strike. (If you plan to be at Pennsic 41, keep this in mind, there could be pay involved!)

The crew setting the foundation:

Here we are assembling the second floor 2x10 perimeter boards.

Here I am setting the second floor beams in place.

The house has a new color scheme, which I like much better than the terra cotta color from last year and there are tapered columns and a proper balcony railing.

 
Inside there are a couple of pieces of furniture I built and a proper niche with a hanging cistern: forming an early type of sink for washing. It was very handy.

Due to the new house location, we swapped a wall panel, resulting in a window in the stairway.

Upstairs I added proper draperies to the bed and a wardrobe.

My new view :(

Hopefully my view next year.

Another small project for this year was to build new arcades for the front portion of Casa Bardicci.

We struck the house, packed it in its trailer and left it at Coopers Lake till next year, hopefully any damp items will survive undamaged till next Pennsic.