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Zach Gordon




Location: Vermont. USA
Joined: 07 Oct 2008

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PostPosted: Thu 23 Jun, 2011 4:26 pm    Post subject: Tinned maille         Reply with quote

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?
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Matthew Amt




Location: Laurel, MD, USA
Joined: 17 Sep 2003

Posts: 1,456

PostPosted: Thu 23 Jun, 2011 7:29 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

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
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Eric S




Location: new orleans
Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Reading list: 8 books

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PostPosted: Thu 23 Jun, 2011 8:17 pm    Post subject: Re: Tinned maille         Reply with quote

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





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.
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Dan Howard




Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Joined: 08 Dec 2004

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PostPosted: Fri 24 Jun, 2011 1:28 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

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.
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Philip Melhop




Location: Wokingham, Berkshire, UK
Joined: 24 May 2008

Posts: 132

PostPosted: Fri 24 Jun, 2011 12:33 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Even the production of zinc in any quantity was problematic until around the 17th C. Not impossible but difficult and dangerous.
Phil
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