This hammering was usually done by an apprentice.Īfter the iron was shaped, the metal would be polished and dents removed. Molds or casts were used to hammer the iron into the correct shape. The iron would be heated up and then hammered into the correct shape. Plate armor was much more difficult to make than mail armor and required a number of specialists. The weight of the armor was spread across the soldier’s body so he remained mobile and could even run or swim (with difficulty).
When did medieval europe knights start wearing chainmail full#
A full suit of plate armor would weigh around twenty kilograms, which is less than what modern soldiers carry today. Although there was still some danger from blunt weapons (such as a mace or war hammer), plate armor still provided relatively good protection from these weapons.Ī well-made suit of plate armor did not weigh that much and the wearer was still fairly mobile. It was almost impossible to cut plate armor with a sword and it also provided good protection from spears or pikes. For example, a soldier might wear a plate armor breastplate but wear leather greaves. Many other soldiers would wear part plate armor and protect the rest of their bodies with different types of armor. The armor consisted of different parts, such as the cuirass to protect the chest, greaves to protect the legs, and gauntlets to protect the hands. A full plate of armor covered a knight’s whole body. How the rings are attached (riveted, butted, or welded) also affected armor protection.įull plate armor was expensive to make and typically only nobles had full suits of plate armor.
How much protection the mail gave the soldier depended on the material used to make the rings (iron, bronze or steel), the thickness of the rings, and how close the rings were to each other. This meant that each ring was attached to four others. The rings were typically attached in a four to one pattern.
This hole would be used to rivet the rings together to form the armor.Īnother method to make the rings was to have a sheet of metal and punch out the rings as one piece. The ends would overlap one another and a hole would be added to the overlapping ends. The rings would then be heated and pressed together. Once the metal wire was wrapped around the rods, they were cut into individual rings. The smaller the rings, the more protection they offered but smaller rings also used more metal and cost more money. The size of the rod used to make the rings depended on the size of the rings the armorer wanted to make. Once the armorer had the wire made, he would then wrap the wire around a rod to make rings. The armorer could also melt the iron down to make a rod and then pull the rod through the draw plate. The thin slices were then pulled through a draw plate to get the correct size. The metal was hammered into plates and then cut into thin slices. To make mail armor, an armorer first had to make the wire used to make the rings. This was just a cloth that protected the mail from the weather and was usually decorated with the knight’s coat of arms. A number of knights would wear surcoats over their mail armor. Some soldiers also wore mail helmets which were called coifs but most soldiers also used stronger helmets to protect themselves from head trauma.Ī soldier could also wear chausses, which are mail leggings, and mitons, which are mail gloves. The mail shirt’s arms usually extended to the elbow but some covered the whole arm. The mail shirt (called a hauberk) would extend to the knees and usually had a split in the middle to let the soldier ride a horse. When wearing mail armor, the soldier would typically start with a padded undergarment and add a mail shirt on top of this.
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