Austrian Zischägge/lobsterpot helmet

kronckew · 5th May 2021, 06:36 PM

Plate armour evolved from integrating little plates into chain mail, or making armour with overlapping scales or lamellae, then Brigandines made with small but easily made plates. Fabricating large pieces of consistent High Carbon steel into large shaped plates, and heat treating them came last.

It is very expensive and time-consuming to make and fit a suit of full plate and keep it not only light enough to wear, and flexible enough to fight in, while not letting those pesky Welsh/English rostbifs poking arrows though it into your expensive flesh.

Mail, scale, lamella armour, and brigandines are easier to make and fit. - and don't require as much work to adjust as you get older and put on a pound or two. And are good enough for the Hoi Polloi and peasants. (And even lower status knights and men at arms.)

Mail is boring to make, drawing wire, winding it on a mandrel and cutting it into rings, or punching washers for 1/5 of the rings, flattening the cut wire ends or the whole ring, and punching the ends for rivets, then assembling in mind-numbing regularity while carefully riveting the ends closed is a job for the slaves, in any case, or at least the peons. Good plate takes more skill and expertise. Only the very richest and most politically powerful could afford full articulated and highly decorated plate proof against longbow, crossbow, and sword/axe and lance.

But not against some slovenly low class smelly peasant hooking you off your expensive horse, knocking you on your back and poking a cheap ballock dagger thru your eye slit.

fernando · 5th May 2021, 08:44 PM

Wayne, you've got PM.

Victrix · 8th May 2021, 11:53 AM

Some more on fluting in armour from Peter Krenn and Walter Karcheski’s “Imperial Austria, Treasures of Art, Arms & Armour from the State of Styria” (1998). The fluting/corrogation added strength to the armour without adding weight. This was common in Maximillian (Austrian) armour which blended German Gothic and Italian styles. I suggest it also added Ottoman features as fluted helmets were common there, some suggest to resemble folds on turbans.

kronckew · 8th May 2021, 08:01 PM

Fluted armour indeed adds rigidity and blunt force impact resistance. It's like using corrugated iron roofing as opposed to flat sheet metal. Makes little difference to penetration by sharp and/or fast moving projectiles, unless the valleys in the fluting are designed to guide any projectiles into glancing off. It's the hardness and thickness that counts then.

5th May 2021, 06:36 PM	#1
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,250	Plate armour evolved from integrating little plates into chain mail, or making armour with overlapping scales or lamellae, then Brigandines made with small but easily made plates. Fabricating large pieces of consistent High Carbon steel into large shaped plates, and heat treating them came last. It is very expensive and time-consuming to make and fit a suit of full plate and keep it not only light enough to wear, and flexible enough to fight in, while not letting those pesky Welsh/English rostbifs poking arrows though it into your expensive flesh. Mail, scale, lamella armour, and brigandines are easier to make and fit. - and don't require as much work to adjust as you get older and put on a pound or two. And are good enough for the Hoi Polloi and peasants. (And even lower status knights and men at arms.) Mail is boring to make, drawing wire, winding it on a mandrel and cutting it into rings, or punching washers for 1/5 of the rings, flattening the cut wire ends or the whole ring, and punching the ends for rivets, then assembling in mind-numbing regularity while carefully riveting the ends closed is a job for the slaves, in any case, or at least the peons. Good plate takes more skill and expertise. Only the very richest and most politically powerful could afford full articulated and highly decorated plate proof against longbow, crossbow, and sword/axe and lance. But not against some slovenly low class smelly peasant hooking you off your expensive horse, knocking you on your back and poking a cheap ballock dagger thru your eye slit. Last edited by kronckew; 5th May 2021 at 06:51 PM.

8th May 2021, 11:53 AM	#3
Victrix Member Join Date: Apr 2017 Location: Sweden Posts: 755	Some more on fluting in armour from Peter Krenn and Walter Karcheski’s “Imperial Austria, Treasures of Art, Arms & Armour from the State of Styria” (1998). The fluting/corrogation added strength to the armour without adding weight. This was common in Maximillian (Austrian) armour which blended German Gothic and Italian styles. I suggest it also added Ottoman features as fluted helmets were common there, some suggest to resemble folds on turbans. Attached Images

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5th May 2021, 08:44 PM	#2
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Wayne, you've got PM.

8th May 2021, 08:01 PM	#4
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,250	Fluted armour indeed adds rigidity and blunt force impact resistance. It's like using corrugated iron roofing as opposed to flat sheet metal. Makes little difference to penetration by sharp and/or fast moving projectiles, unless the valleys in the fluting are designed to guide any projectiles into glancing off. It's the hardness and thickness that counts then.