The AskHistorians Podcast is a project that highlights the users and answers that have helped make /r/AskHistorians one of the largest history discussion forum on the internet. You can subscribe to us via iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS, and now on YouTube. If there is another index you'd like the cast listed on, let me know!
This Episode:
In part one of a two-part series on the European Armoring Industry, /u/WARitter joins us to discuss just exactly how the knights in shining armor got their shining armor. The first half of this two part series explores the techniques and the strategies from turning raw ore into beautiful armor, and how some of these techniques shifted over time. Next episode will bring an hour-plus long discussion on the entire arc of the armoring industry history—and the families, cities, and people that built it. (35m)
If you want more specific recommendations for sources or have any follow-up questions, feel free to ask them here! Also feel free to leave any feedback on the format and so on.
If you like the podcast, please rate and review us on iTunes.
Thanks all!
Coming up next fortnight: /u/WARitter returns to give an hour-long discussion on the entirety of the armoring industry and how it declined and fell.
Wow! Great to see a podcast on this, a subject very close to my heart.
If I could perhaps add a bit of additional information: The subject of the specific techniques that went into building medieval armour is still pretty open to discussion/new research. There was a fantastic paper published recently on the subject by Nicolas Dupras, which you can find here: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4376/1/Dupras%20PhD%20Thesis%20Volumes%201%20%26%202.pdf
I have also done some non-academic experimental work on the subject based largely on experiments done by a number of well known reproduction armourers (Robert MacPherson, Patrick Thaden), much of which is based on the practices of the Bucket Makers of Bienno, which you can sample here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAv3hkOQZjg
My own experiments can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mldIXfYQ7jc
I believe the technique we're exploring here (at least the part about forging deep vessels from thicker plate using strikers) is rejected by Durpas in his thesis, but I hope to change his mind some day once my own experiments start yielding better results.
I know what's next on my list! Thanks!
I got straight on to this podcast and listened to this on my way to and from work today. (That is, I listened to part on the way there and the rest on the way back, not that I listened twice...)
It's interesting from an economic perspective to see evidence of how the high labour component of manufacture encouraged a degree of "industrialisation." It's what you'd expect, of course, but nice to see an example. It's probably outside of your expertise, but I'd like to know if the armouring industry had spillover impacts on other areas, particularly when the use of armour declined (if the industry did decline... I guess I'll find out in the next part).
I've a couple of questions, both about heat treatment.
First - you mention Alan Williams' research on the proportion of armour that was heat treated, and the problem of low sample size. Do we have any other sources of evidence for this, or is testing surviving armour the only one?
Second - how much does heat treatment improve the performance of armour? I could probably look this up in The Knight and the Blast Furnace for myself, but I thought it would be a good companion to your comments in the podcast, and I wanted to know if you had anything else to add.