Hello,

I'm looking for an answer, about an armour in the book "the real fighting stuff" from Tobias Capwell.
On the pages 38/39 there's a Knight from around 1450, who's wearing a black armour, but I have no clue what they used to get it that way.

Maybe someone here can help we to solve that question.

For those who don't have the book, I'll attach a picture of the fully dressed knight, hoping not to violate any copyrights while doing so.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/691/rstung6.jpg

With best regards,
Andrés

You can see a pair of gauntlets from that harness here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=9002

More on the full harness here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=7687

I'm not sure how it was darkened, but the surface treatment can be damaged. Some of the pics in the threads above show scuffs to the color.

That used to be the authors suit of armour and was blackened using a modern chemical process.
I cannot recall who made the armour for him but I am sure that someone will let you know.

Craig

Robert MacPherson made the suit. Here is a thread- http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=7687

Thanks to everybody!

Could have guessed by myself, that that harness was discussed here before...

The suite is truly amazing!

Cheers,
Andrés

Robert McPherson once told me he had the suit commercially blackened. The stuff used to do it was called black magic.

I've seen the armour up close and personal in 2006 and it definitely wasn't powder coated. The product's name indeed was 'Black Magic', but I don't know what it's normally used for. One thing was sure: it was chemically blackened.
One of the reasons it looks so great is that before blackening the armour was polished to a mirror shine.

Those are all the details I know about the blackening of this great suit. :)

at 34:45 is actual video footage of the Tobias Capwell armor in action, it includes some running, fighting etc...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqC_squo6X4

I had the blacking done professionally by a heat treating shop on the outskirts of Philadelphia. If I recall correctly, the pieces went into a succession of baths. The first was an acidic prep. The second bath was the blacking solution. The third was waxy preservative. All the baths were aqueous, and and all were hot, but not boiling. They were not very forthcoming about what was in the second vat, but I saw a label that said something to the effect of "maintain black magic between 180 and 200 degrees". I am apparently not above industrial espionage.

All the pieces were brightly polished when I brought them in. The quality of the blacking varied somewhat, apparently as a function of how conscientiously the workers were. The best pieces were flawless. The worst, had a sort of drip pattern that showed up in certain lighting conditions, or if you let your breath condense on the steel. A coat of paste wax made it all pretty
homogeneous.

Mac
.