I have been wondering if there is any documentable evidence for heat treating plate armor after it had been shaped into it's various forms? I don't really see any reason why it couldn't have been done. Any information on the subject would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin Frost

A lot of higher-quality armor was heat treated. Find a copy of Alan Williams The Knight and The Blast Furnace

There's a little book, published by the Royal Armouries with the snappy title of "The Royal Armoury at Greenwich 1515-1649: A History of Its Technology (Royal Armouries Monograph)" which tests the pieces of armour examined and discusses the state of play with regard to the hardening armour. It's differenty done, in vbarious ways, and not always with a great deal of success. The book does also mention some sources that cover the subject.

They did the same testing as David mentioned on some of the Rhodes armour in "The Medieval Armour From Rhodes".

The History Channel had a show on not too long ago that showed a fellow heat treating a breastplate in an open coal forge. The breastplate was used for penetration tests with an approximation of an "English war bow". The show was interesting but as usual I take these things with a grain of salt...In any event I have run across a few references to hardened/heat treated armor in my modest readings. A process similar to case hardening is mentioned in some references, the armor being forged from more or less plain iron and then "steeled" by introducing carbon under heat.

Hi Chad

Not really as far as books. There are some articles. Most authors alluded to it being done but do not give any real detail.

Here is a link to an article I wrote before the Knight and the Blast Furnance and Rhodes books came out that deals with some of it.

Some Aspects of the Metallurgy and Production of European Armor

Best
Craig[/u]

[quote="Chad Arnow"]

Hugh Knight wrote:

That's a ~$300 dollar book by most listing services. :\ The Rhodes book isn't a lot cheaper these days. Besides the monograph Allan mentioned, are there more reasonably priced books that discuss armour heat treating?

Do you happen to know what the titles of these more reasonably priced books are?

I don't KNOW if they did or not, but i would think that lots of plate armor of all types would split under heavy blows if it was just hardened, for it to last more than just one or two incursions I, personally, would think that most plate armor would have been tempered to some extent. It can flexable enough to take heavy blows and still hard enough to provide an effective defence.

Not only were they doing it. (see responses above) but many high end reproduction armourers are doing it today. Robert MacPherson was one of the modern pioneers in this.

I've done lots of it. It really makes a difference.

There is a Neurosurgery Article co-authored by David Edge among others entitled Head Protection in England before the First World War that goes into reasonably deep detail of heat treatment of armour.

You have to pay to download a copy but the abstract is here

The guts of it is that until quite late in the 16th century, most stuff was barely, if at all, heat treated. From my reading of their analysis of carbon contents and metallic structures in period pieces, modern mild steel is quite a bit superior to what they were working with. Late in the 16th century in England, slightly but not much, earlier in continental Europe, you start to see successful but inconsistent heat treatment.