Comparative armor strength, then and now

[Ezias]

As the title suggests, I was curious as to the relative strength of the armors that we can manufacture today as compared to the actual specimens (before decay). THis is for all armors and all eras. ie, modern plate vs. 15th century plate and modern maille vs. 9th century maille.

Im also curious as to what gauge of steel or wire would be necessary to have an equivalent strength to the historical stuff, as im under teh impression that our modern steels are (for the most part) stronger than the period steel.

oh, and another curiosity: does anyone know if theres a mathematical factor for how much making the maille butted rather than riveted weakens a piece, and how much of a difference ring diameter makes?

 

[Kasimir]

Pure guesswork here, not claiming any exceptional knowledge on the subject.

I would suspect medieval plate armour would be stronger than modern reproductions, purely because the demand for truly protective plate harness is less - modern craftsmen have less need to treat the steel into something like spring steel to make it more resilient.

Period mail might be weaker because (I think) they used wrought iron rather than modern steel (since it was easier to shape).

The mathematical factor in butted mail is simply no join to hold the ring in shape. Butted mail merely needs to be struck had enough to deform the shape of the ring, riveted mail needs to be struck hard enough to deform the shape of the ring and bust the rivet holding the shape in place. Riveted mail is literally butted + a rivet holding it together.

 

[thesneakster]

We certainly have better steels available today, if that's what you mean.

Weather anyone makes a set of Armour with the same craftsmanship i do not know.

 

[Ezias]

Well this started out from my being curious as to how strong my just-finished coif would be compared to a historical coif, and from that it grew to a general comparison between then and now.

my coif is made from 14 gauge galvanized steel, with a 3/8 inch inner diameter.

 

[Zilberfrid]

Butted or rivetted?

 

[Hietala]

that's a hard question.

first: if you compare a modern-made breastplate (for example) with one that dates back to the 15th centure: the modern one will be obviously stronger, the 15th century breastplate has been in decline during those many ages under the ground

second: you should need information on how they actually made it in that era, and make in in exact the same way as they did it. and then compare it to a replica/ modern made one

and we don't know out what kind of metal that modern one is made, it could be a replica that shatters at the first hit, but it could be a 'replica' that is comparable in strenght/material use/ etc..


this thread is really something for eogan, i guess

 

[Ezias]

Butted or rivetted?

both really -- as i said, this thread came to mind because i was wondering how my butted mail coif would compare in strength to a period riveted mail coif.

 

[Zilberfrid]

well, then it's easy, it is worse, much, much worse. Try it, take an linked ring and jam something through it to see when it snaps, or take a butted ring and do the same, stress needed will be about tenfold with the linked ring (serf's parma)

 

[Bismarkpwns]

We certainly have better steels available today, if that's what you mean.

But we don't use it, any random tooling steel is probably more brittle and less strong than weapon steel