okay you veritable masters of trivia. . .

[stellanoir]

My son is working on a creative project just for fun. Related to that project, he's doing research on the material used in Medieval armor. We've been on Google and Ask Jeeves, looking into it for a couple hours.

Aside from a plethora of sites hawking reproduced weaponery at exorbitant prices, the best data we've come up with is about Wootz (which is a pretty cool word) . This is another name for Damascus steel which was "iron and carbonizing elements with flux being baked in an anaerobic environment for a long time."

He also came up with info that they also used aluminum. I thought that wasn't frequently mined prior to Napolean's (who allegedly went balmy from eating off plates made of it, 'cause it was so novel, while the rest of his court ate off gold. . .go figure) time, but I might be mistaken. Napolean lived long after the popular use of gunpowder became "in vogue" and classical medieval armor had become thusly, obsolete.

We know they used bronze, and originally, both leather and wood as well.

Has anyone got any fun facts to know and tell about the materials used for making medieval armor. . .?

Thanks in advance.

[shoelace414]

1. they used

Bronze in the Bronze age.

It's kind of a soft metal.

[derby378]

2. Check the archives for SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and DISCOVER

There's a report on the making of Damascus steel in there, sometime within the last ten years. It was a closely guarded secret until recently.

[stellanoir]

5. okay we will

and thanks

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Aluminum would have been almost impossible

It was considered to be a rare metal prior to the invention of the carbon electrode method of extraction from boxite in the 20th century.

[Guaranteed]

6. Yup. It was luxurious.

Kind of funny to think about. :)

[stellanoir]

8. yeah even more bizarre to

think of Napolean going balmy from eating off it thinking it to be more valuable than gold.

Roll that in your tin foil and smoke it.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. The secret to Damascus steel was lost before medieval times

so they weren't using that.
They did have carbon steel though, and that's likely what they would use, since it is the strongest substance that would be available to them.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Almost mythological...Damascus steel.

Damascus steel is a type of steel alloy that is both strong and malleable, a material that is perfect for the building of swords. The term refers to the metal used by the artisans and swordsmiths of Damascus, Syria. The process for making Damascus steel, was used between about 900 and 1600 in the Middle East, and then disappeared for reasons that are not entirely understood. It is said that when it was first encountered by Europeans during the Crusades it garnered an almost mythical reputation—a Damascus steel blade was said to be able to cut a piece of silk in half as it fell to the ground, as well as being able to chop through normal blades, or even rock, without losing its sharp edge. Recent metallurgical experiments, based on microscopic studies of preserved Damascus-steel blades, have claimed to reproduce a very similar alloy via possible reconstructions of the (still unknown) historical process.
<snip>

more...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel

[Guaranteed]

7. Yeah, I don't know when they started using iron,

but that would be my guess, with other stuff added.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Here are a few places to look

http://sabletower.homestead.com/files/twobits/metallurgy.html
Most medieval metal armor was actually made from wrought iron due to the high cost and difficulty of making steel.

http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/medknight.html#armor
At first the armor was made of small metal rings called chain mail.

Possible Medieval Metal Works Found
http://historymedren.about.com/b/a/160309.htm

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewHigh.asp?dep=4&viewmode=0
Pictures of suits of armor shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with history about them. The ones show are made of steel.


Medieval Metal Casting
http://lists.gallowglass.org/pipermail/artssciences/2004-January/000302.html

http://historymedren.about.com/od/armorandweaponry/gr/edge_paddock_a.htm

[stellanoir]

11. wow

thanks for all the links.

Someday I'll get better at doing searches.

[Taxloss]

12. Toledo was an important source of steel,

and its blades were highly valued.

My rapidly thinning knowledge of the First Crusade includes some nuggets on siege trains and the logistics of the business - forinstance how neatly things like timber resupply were calculated, and how pretty much all Western siege technology was invented on the crusade by these early-medieval engineers who just happened to be tagging along ...

Some British TV sites might help, we have a lot of history programming here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/browse/1100-1400.html

There's a start.

[stellanoir]

13. thanks again

for the links. . .

We definitely have our work cut out for us tonight.