[Matthew Fedele]

In the Armourer and His Craft he sites this entry:

1567 S.P.D. Eliz., Addenda xiii, 101
Payments are made in this entry to paint black various corselets which had become "fowle and rustie" and had "taken salt water in the sea" at a charge of 5d. each.

Not positive if he's referring to maille in this case, but he sites russeting, blueing, painting, varnishing, and tinning done on harnesses, shields, and corselets.

If you don't create your own oxide layer, nature will do it for you.

[Christian Henry Tobler]

Another possibility for Prince Edward's postumous epithet might lie in his alternate heraldic arms, or "badge of peace", that he wore for tournaments and such: sable, three ostrich plumes argent.

Beyond that, we need to be extra cautious in concluding much from the surviving iconography. Iron/steel surfaces were often depicted using silver pigment, much the way some other things are gilded. The problem is that silver oxidizes over time, turning an almost black color.

Cheers,

CHT

[James Head]

[Samuel Bena]

While looking through Ian Heath's Armies of the Middle Ages, volume 2 (1984) , I encountered an instance where Byzantine chronicler Doukas (according to Heath) describes Serbian cavalry serving under Ottomans at Ankara (1402) as "encased in black armour" Heath further speculates that it was rather mail than plate. It would probably be interesting to dig out the original reference though (whatever was meant by the original term "black armour" by Doukas)

[Dan Howard]

How likely are Serbians at the time to be wearing lamellar rather than mail? It was more common than mail earlier in their history. Leather was also a lot more common in this part of Europe compard to further west.

[Luka Borscak]

We Croatians, Serb first neighbours, were completely westernized in terms of arms and armor and I'm quite positive that Serbs were to more western than eastern in equipment. So early plate is definitely an option.

[Samuel Bena]

Indeed Luka seems to be right in terms of Serbian armour.
A little OT: As far as arms go , the beautiful Fresco paintings (ranging from cca 1300 -1408) from Kosovo also show warrior saints with composite bows and quivers in which arrows are positioned "arrowheads up" which may indicate eastern Cuman/Kipcak influence. Towards the 1400 the number of sabres painted also increase , which again show the eastern (probably both mixed continental Kipcak as well as Anatolian Turkish) influences. Serbs enjoyed the advantage (and misfortune) for living in the border areas where the "east meets west" for quite some time.

[Sander Marechal]

[Aleksei Sosnovski]

Steel gets black after being heated above 350 C. Annealing may be needed during making maille. We also know that some maille was heat treated. So after the maille is made it is most likely black (well, dark gray to black). However if we clean the maille (for example put it into acid or roll it in a barrel with sand) it will become mat gray. At least my shiny butted maille made of spring steel became mat gray after I rolled it in a barrel with send (and yes, it does remove rust very effectively!). Now what would experts say? Was maille cleaned in some way immediately after being made or not? If not, then it would most likely be black.

[Dan Howard]

Unless it was worn every day for a few weeks. That is all that is required to clean it.

[Aleksei Sosnovski]

[Ken Nelson]

Perhaps black versus bright armour was not a choice as much as a consequence, or cycle. I know of several methods for darkening steel which were used in the middle ages, but none of them, and none of the current ones I can think of, would be able to stay black with the constant rubbing of the rings. The insides of the rings would wear bright again the quickest, and the parts of the armour which saw the most movement would also brighten rather quickly.

Iron can be darkened by heating, acids, salts, or by letting it get a coat of rust, then removing the loose rust and steaming it. All of which are surface treatments, and as the surface wears, so does the treatment. I had not heard about the elm treatment, but I would guess that there is an acid in the bark, perhaps similar to phosphoric acid which is used for parkerizing modern metals.

There may also be a possibility of mail darkening and then being cleaned. A suit might be oiled to protect it when not in use. That coat of oil may then attract dust or smoke, if traveling over dusty terrain, or if the mail was hung or stored in a room without a good chimney. A suit of dark mail may result. not really black, but definitely darker than fresh iron, and darker than the blades carried alongside of them. A dark suit may even be seen a s a sign that it isn't used enough, or cleaned enough.

[Jean Henri Chandler]

[Dan Howard]

[Dan Howard]

[Maurizio D'Angelo]

Using modern techniques for burnishing, chainmail resist a little.
Acid sweat, oxidizes burnishing, very fast. Modern burnishing , is part of the steel.

The black part of the annealing, in an ancient mail, was not part of steel, (like a film) comes off soon. After a few cleanups, the color becomes gray again, a little darker.

[Jean Henri Chandler]

[Jean Henri Chandler]

Ariella Elema wrote this on another forum:

[Dan Howard]

[Dan Howard]