Alan Williams is the most recognised authority on this subject. His book
"The Knight and the Blasrt Furnace" is considered the definitive work.
He surveys the metallurgy of over 600 pieces of armour from the 14th
century to the 17th century.
Sylvia Leever wrote:
>Hello all,
>I have a question about 17th century armour production. I'm doing some
>research into the quality of two breastplates (one from ca. 1630 and one
>from ca. 1650) and I was wondering what is known about the armour
>production in that time. Does anyone have references to any book or
>article that discusses this matter? Or does anyone know by heart what,
>how and why? (or has some good foundations on which an assumption can be
>based?)
>Specifically I would like to know whether (hot) milling was already in
>practice for making plates, or that only (water powered) hammering was
>applied to flatten pieces of iron (or steel, but that seems to be out of
>(common) use in the seventeenth century). I assume now that the iron
>that was used for armour was made in a blast furnace followed by a
>finery process, or was bloomiron still more common around 1630-1650? The
>breastplates I have are presumably made in Germany and Holland, though
>it is likely, especially in the latter case that the iron was produced
>elsewhere, and maybe was even delivered as plates of indefinate
>thickness to the armourworkshops. I know that the dutch republic was a
>very large producing and exporting centre for weapons and arms in the
>17th century.
>Is anything known about these practises?
>I have put some results on my research on a website, for those
>interested, also people who can help me with the stylistic dating of the
>breastplates, that would be appreciated.
>The site: http://www.materials.tudelft.nl/breastplate/index.htm
>
>Thanks,
>Sylvia
>
>
>
|