Hello all you wonderful knowledgable folks!

In an ever-aspiring effort to make my living history group detail-oriented, Im wondering just what thickness of steel historic examples and recorded accounts make 1470s-ish sallets and other helms and armour to be. Gerry Embletons' book on the Medieval Soldier has a nice account on the poundage weight of the different pieces, stating the average armet to be between 6lbs to 7lbs 8oz. But my question is this: What thickness is the metal when finished? Most places offer 1,5mm (roughly 16 gauge) and 2,0mm (roughly 14 gauge) with more trouble.

What do battle-oriented re-enactors use and how close is that to what was actually used? I am more interested in historic authenticity than really bashing each other around, so Im looking for information on origional sources instead of "We use 14 gauge because we hit harder than medieval man" kind of reasoning.

Specifically, my group is based on middle land Germany, Hessen-Kassel Holy Roman Empire 1471-1480. If anyone knows of Swiss, or German sources specifically, that might have been drafted 1450-1500, please do share them! I know those wiley Burgundians kept kick-butt records as did a certain Italian engineer or the era, so if anyone can cite or knows the ISBN number of reproduced books on the subject, please send those this way too!

Thank you ever so kindly for any help you all might provide,
-Jason

Hello Jason

Discussing thicknesses of armor is difficult when the historical is compared to reproduction. Almost all reproduction armor is made from manufactured plate of uniform thickness. Period pieces where designed and produced with graduated thicknesses, some being quite dramatic. On some Sallets that I have examined the brow and crest area can be more than a 1/4 inch thick (@6mm) and taper to very thin at the tail or edges, especially if it is an area that is overlapped by another plate.

The use of armor was all about protection for these fellows so the extra work needed to create graduated thickness was considered to be money well spent. The limited funds most reinactors are constrained by means that they need to chose a piece with far less labor involved and the result is the items made from uniform plate and adjusted as the pocket book allows. To get a relatively approximate weight my guess is you would need to use 14 gauge but this will differ on style and quality level you are trying to replicate.

Best
Craig

Thank you Craig, your point is well concieved.

I understand that the armour producing towns and villages that cranked armour out in bundles were more concerned with quantity than quality and some armours must be "paper thin". I guess for some portrayals, such as archers and artillery who re not on the front lines, 16 heck, maybe even 18 (after forming) gauge would be OK.

For myself as the Captain of the Kompanie, I guess 14 gauge for a helm is my route, being histoically it would have been custom made to my measurements. The rest of the armour would be 16 gauge for main pieces such as placcard and shoulders and the like and 18 gauge for heavy lammels. This is my speculation, what do you all say? Should I get a 14 gauge placcard? Ive heard of some folks taking some pretty hard knocks due to over-zealous fighters or accidents. I would rather have a dent in the armour and not in me! If it is historically correct that someone of low nobility (and Germany had 24 levels in the 15th century) the heavier stuff would work?

Ideas?

This kind of decision really gets down to what specifically you want the armor for. Is is more for living history/reenactment or is it more for SCAdian sort of activities. Generally, if you want it to resist deformation in sport-combat I'd probably lean to a little on the heavy side. If memory serves, Lloyd Clark's old breastplate was 12ga (Lloyd correct me if I'm wrong) and his current one is 14ga mild steel (and from what I hear the new one is in pretty rough shape for not even going through one season yet).

Which brings me to another important question in regards to deciding on steel thickness - what kind of steel? One can get away with thinner stainless or (more likely for top-end reenactment) spring steel without sacrificing strength compared to the same thing in mild steel a size or two thicker.

I'll save the debate on mild vs. spring vs. stainless for another time :)

Well, I can say without a doubt that the armour is NOT for use in sporting events! :) Deffinetly LH and Re-enacting.

You have brought up a very interesting thought on spring steel, however! Though I would never use stainless as it is not period, I am now wondering if spring steel was used in armour, or just mild steel?

See what you did? lol :)

Thanks for your added dimension, it is an important point to be noted before purchasing.