The most difficult contour to create on a muscle cuirass is the area around the waist, where the torso tapers below the pectorals before flaring out again over the external obliques and belly. This is what’s known as an ‘anticlastic’ curve - where two curvatures move in different directions from a given point. As metal doesn’t want to move in two directions at once, anticlastic curves are difficult to achieve, and most makers don’t even bother trying.
To achieve an anticlastic waist, I used an iron ‘valley’ stake, so called because its shallow U shape supports the metal at two points. Placing the breastplate’s midsection face-up across the stake, and again working in passes, each rawhide mallet blow shrank away more metal to impart a more heroic silhouette.
Copper alloys are subject to a process called work-hardening, whereby the metal becomes more rigid and brittle
