Main > The Armoury
Kits on a budget
Allan Senefelder:
--- Quote --- The information comes from several sources, including a renown museum armor reproduction smith in Canada that I am trying to find again
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Are you trying to come up with Pete Fuller ?
--- Quote --- I am really referring to the 14-15th century, England and not at all completely-
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--- Quote --- However, armor was made this way- including the baking in charcoal
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What Bill said, heat treating armour seems to have been an advent of the second half of the 15th century and took time to diseminate around Europe to become common in the 16th. The Italians neven really took to it prefering slack quenching to full hardening to reduce the risk of warping or cracking, while the Germans seemed to have accelled at it. Dr Alan Williams " The Royal Armoury at Greenwich 151-1649 A History of its Technology " shed some interetsing light on the practice in Germany ( i'd recommend you pick up a copy if you can find it )and England. There seems to be little documentation of armouring in England beyond the London company before Greenwich was esablished but heat treatment of armour was seemingly unknown there prior to the 1550's when via German masters of the Greenwich armoury the process was introduced. The heavy handed guild over sight requiring speicalization in single pieces and stamping by makers of single pieces was a practice of the Germans who required that you become a master in single pieces at a time, thus if you wanted to make gauntlets you had submit exmaples of gauntlet work and if passed you were made a master in gaubtlets alone, you had to submit more work for other pieces to become further certified as a master of other pieces. I would also recommend picking up a copy of Alan Williams " The Knight and the Blast Furnace " pretty much the handbook of armour heat treatment during the period.
The Royal Armoury at Greenwich http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/094809222X/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261234418&sr=1-1&condition=new
There don't seem to be any copies of The Knight and the Blast Furnace avaliable right now but heres the listing http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Blast-Furnace-History-Metallurgy/dp/9004124985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261234476&sr=1-1
Sir Robert:
The baking in charcoal or coke is indeed heat treatment, while case hardening is simular but more limited- could be, there was an artical on *his* site covering metal apperences, surface treatments, why they did not sand or polish, and the reference for where the work Stickler came from (one who used a stick, covered in grease or tallow, rolled in grit as an early sand "paper".
Here is a good metallurgical reference that seems to cover it well:
http://www.oakeshott.org/metal.html
Sir Robert:
No I don't believe it was Pete, unless he changed his site over the past year, it doesn't resemble waht I remember anyway....but close. There were forging articals on the site and the person offered classes.
Sir Matthew:
This is a very interesting topic indeed and points out an interesting facet of Europe at this time. It seems that Germany had a very strong hand in the developement of English armor, weapons and tactics in the 1500's. This is primarly due to the large numbers of German Landsknecht mercenaries that were employed there. King Henry is well known for copying their fashion and dress. It is only natural the the weapons, armor and battlefield tactics employed by Landsknechts would find their way into England. By no means does this mean they were the only influences on English military developement of the time, however. King Henry is well know to have greatly admired the Dutch gunmakers and indeed enticed several to assist him in setting up Royal gunmakers for England as part of his efforts to modernize the English army. By contrast, the influence of Spain can be seen in the developement of the English navy, which began producing ships that were the complete opposite of those used by Spain. Spainish warships were large and unmanueverable, employed as floating batteries for cannon in battle. England developed smaller, more manueverable vessels with fewer guns. Very interesting how other nations influenced the developement of each other.
Allan Senefelder:
--- Quote ---There were forging articals on the site and the person offered classes.
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That sounds like Randal Graham, when he used to live in Canada but Randal was a blade smith. Its not Rob Valentine, he never offered classes and its not Eric Dube, no classes there either nor is it Francois L'Archeveque . Pete Fuller is the only Canadian armourer i'm aware of with a musuem background ( former currator ).
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