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Duel between Dietrich and Siegfried, Cod. Pal. germ. 359 The Rosengart and Lucidarius, Alsatian, ca. 1415-1420

I’ve inherited a few repros which my best friend found in his attic; they belonged to his son, since moved out, and C thought these bits and pieces had gone too.

Nope.

So there’s a bascinet, a tatty aluminium (!) mail-shirt with butted rings (!!), a “Colada” wall-hanger SLO...

...a rapier whose broken swept-hilt I don’t know how to weld together (though @dduane‘s suggestion of “ask at the pub” is a good one)...

and a US Civil War 1840 “wrist-breaker” sabre.

Trouble is, they were in the damp environment near the cold-water tank and are a mess. The mail-shirt only looks this good because it’s non-ferrous... :-P

So I’m turning a fault into a feature: rather than trying to polish them back to the way they were (no chance!) I’m going further down the antique-finish route.

This overall rust on the bascinet is after being sprayed with a salt-and-vinegar mixture; the masking tape is to protect a decorative brass trim.

After a while - it’s only been a week or so - I’m going to gently scrub off the rust and see what the steel looks like, then rinse and repeat if required. If rougher treatment will have a more interesting effect, I can always try wetted ash from the stove, usefully acidic if what it’s done to the ash-bucket is anything to go by.

The effect I’m hoping for, mild to severe, is like one of these. More info to follow.