Production process
Treatment of the surface
The centers of armour production were Milano, Brescia, Nürnberg and Augsburg. In these cities there was an established handcraft
that could almost be considered industrial towards the end of the fifteenth century. Like other handcrafts, the armourer´s handcraft
was organised in guilds that regulated the armour production in a guild enactment. Every armourer´s family marked its products
by banging in its brand symbol. This was accomplished by hammering the brand into the metal with a plunger. This form of marking
a product can be considered as one of the first forms of a brand. A second mark was introduced in the middle of the 14th century
when the official peering for quality assurance became popular. In this procedure the armour had to pass a test where it was
exposed to contemporary weapons. If the armour resisted it received the official stamp that had the function of a quality symbol.
This manner in earlier times the armour was shot with a crossbow, later it was also tested with firearms. Against the background
of such a high skilled handcraft the armourers were able to fulfill almost every necessity of their clients. From the simple and
cheap landsquenet armour that was manufactured in the thousands to the precious armours of kings the only limitation was the
prosperity of the clients. In the latter
the best gold smiths etch painters and artists
were involved in the decoration.
All four centers exported their products to remote places all over Europe, always
considering local tastes in the design. This manner agents from Milano travelled to the
cities of Europe to found some kind of sales offices for their armour smiths for instance.
Other armour smiths decided to work directly at a royal´s court. However only the most prosperous
could afford this service and for the most parts amour smiths were ordered for repairing purposes only.
Depending on the wealth of the client armours were sold as a standardized product or were made as a
piece production addording to an individual client´s order. Therefore the armourer measured the client´s body or alternatively
received some cloths from him, so he could determine the body dimensions this way. The precious armours of the 16th century, described above, marked
a premium product of this category. But also armours for the knight´s competition and ordinary plate armours reached a quality level in
the 15th century that was facilitated by generations of experience in the art of armour smithing. Unfortunately great parts of this knowledge
has been lost, because every armourer´s family kept the details of its technological knowledge secret. Today, replicas of such a high quality
at most could be manufactured by the use of the best high tech production techniques available.
The origin of the production chain
was in the hands of pig-iron producers.
On a grand scale pig-iron was made of iron ore and then sold to various manufacturers as iron bars.
There are hints that even on this production level there were export businesses carried on, although in
those days iron ore could be found all over Europe. In the next step big smiths transformed these iron bars to plates
via sledge-hammers powered by water. Finally the iron plates were delivered to the plate smiths where they were shaped further.
For this purpose there served a lot of different hammers and ambosses. Depending on the body part, its vulnerability and the
probability to receive a hit the metal plates were kept stronger or hammered thinner to save weight. With the help of plate
shears that were fixed to a block of wood the iron plates could be tailored exactly. All these steps were conducted on the
cold metal by hand. Only the spadework could be done by water or horse powered sledge-hammers lateron. While the smithery
was done on the cold piece the metal was tempered by heating it and cooling it in cold water various times.
In the next step
the surface
was prepared.
When it was modern to have a shining armour the surface was polished by a special machine. It consisted of several fast rotating wooden wheels
that had a leather covering and was powered by water or horsepower. Original pieces therefore can be distinguished from copies by
a flat survace and little dents on the inner side, caused by the sledge hammer. In contrast during the late sixteenth century
people started to blacken the armours. This was done by burning oil mixtures into the surface. The rich and variied ornaments
of the sixteenth century plate armour were applied after the pieces were polished. While artists like
Albrecht Dürer
provided the models for precious pieces, the implementation was exerted by gold smiths and etch painters in cooperation with the armourer.
The etch painting of the sixteenth century knew two different techniques. When conducting deep etching the image was scored
into the etching ground by a stylus. In contrast the high etching was accomplished by etching the area around the ornament.
To achieve this the ornament was protected by a cover of wax or oil and asphalt. The rest was then treated with an acid.
Alternatively the metal pieces could be boiled in concentrated vinegar. The parts removed by etching often were blackened or even
gold plated afterwards.
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