Hi
I was reading that a lot of maille historically was tinned. Does anyone know if this would be appropriate for Viking or Norman maille?
Also would this look anything like zinc-plated maille?
Well, I don't know if it was common for Normans or Norsemen. But I will say that tin and zinc are definitely different colors! Zinc is more bluish, and not as shiny. So galvanized metal REALLY does not look like tinned metal.
Matthew
Matthew
| Zach Gordon wrote: |
| Hi
I was reading that a lot of maille historically was tinned. Does anyone know if this would be appropriate for Viking or Norman maille? Also would this look anything like zinc-plated maille? |
Here is a good article
http://www.royalarmouries.org/what-we-do/rese...ail-armour
[ Linked Image ]
ZINC COATINGS OF INDIAN PLATE AND MAIL ARMOUR
The question
Metallic coatings are commonly found on iron and steel armour and range from gold and silver to tin and lead. Sometimes the coatings are primarily decorative in other cases it is purely practical, preventing corrosion. A group of Indian plate and mail Armours, known from inscriptions to be earlier than the 1680s, appeared to have traces of a grey oxidized metal. Could qualitative XRF analysis discover the composition and extent of this?
Results of analysis
The mail and plate armour shown (XXVIA.300) and many other examples were found to have been coated in zinc, probably by hot dipping into the molten metal. XRF was able to show this treatment was far more extensive than the limited visible traces.
Significance
These Indian armours show the earliest known evidence for galvanising, a process for which the first European patent was from 1836 in France. As with modern galvanising the zinc protects the iron in two ways. Firstly, it acts as a physical barrier to air and moisture. Secondly, because zinc is more electrochemically reactive it provides sacrificial protection to the iron. Such rustproofing would have been highly desirable in a tropical climate.
Outcome
This research project was written up as an undergraduate thesis by Helen Bowstead Stallybrass at the Department of Archaeological Sciences, Bradford University and also formed a major part of an article on these armours in the Royal Armouries Yearbook Vol 5. Without prior XRF analysis there would have been a danger that this important evidence would have been damaged and eventually lost during cleaning. The results have been forwarded to other museums which own similar armour.
It would be a gross exaggeration to say that "a lot" of mail was tinned. You see it more on plates (e.g. brigandines), not mail. It is not reasonable to use a study of Indian mail to justify using zinc on any other kind of mail. Zinc is a wonderful way of protecting mail but don't pretend it is historical unless it is supposed to be representing 17th century Indian mail.
Even the production of zinc in any quantity was problematic until around the 17th C. Not impossible but difficult and dangerous.
Phil
Phil
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