Bronze armor

[Arthur_Connelly]

Two things.

A while ago I saw National Geographic's Medieval Fight Book which showed a bit of half-swording being used by an unarmored man against a fully armored opponent. wearing what might have been a sallet, If I remember it correctly. Can anyone point me to any other sources (aside from myArmoury.com) showing what would have happened when a helmet was struck in the same manner as shown on the show? And any trauma that the wearer would have received.

The second thing is a bit harder. I'm wondering how well bronze armor (something along the lines of the Dendra panoply) would stand up to weapons designed to deal with steel plate (i.e. warhammers and the like). Or does it not really matter since its fantasy and no one aside from metallurgists and historians would really care?

 

[The Judge]

I don't know anything about armour, I'm afraid, but if the attacker is at the half-sword I'd have thought he'd be able to control the blade sufficiently to get it straight through any eye holes in the metal, killing the man outright.

 

[Boneman]

Can only comment on the 2nd query, Arthur: only metallugists will raise an eyebrow if you get it dreadfully wrong. Bronze was harder than iron, it's just that iron was easier to get at, smelt and fashion...

 

[Venusian Broon]

I didn't see the show but I guess that unless the sword cut went into a gap between armour or made it break (unlikely though) then the main injury would be concussion - deadly of course if it knocked you out, 'cause then someone could come up and stick a dagger inbetween armour.

I've heard historical accounts of crusader knights coming back after battle and having to go straight to the smithy to be battered out of their armour by hammers because they have been bent out of shape by blows from the enemy, so these guys were pretty tough mind you!

As for the bronze thing - I think it doesn't make too much difference. Bronze can be made tougher than iron (not sure on steel though). The only reason iron weapons became prevalent was that you needed tin for Bronze - which was a rare metal to find - and iron was plentiful hence cheap. Then they figured out how to hardened it into steel etc... As armour it would probably still work well.

 

[Arthur_Connelly]

The fellow shifted his grip on his sword and used the crossguard as a glorified hammer and while he didn't penetrate the helmet (helmets are notoriously hard to penetrate) he did dent it and concuss the wearer. It's a hard thing to figure since hardness =/= strength and bronzes have a wide range of hardness which enters into and exceeds the range found in some carbon steels.

 

[Brian G Turner]

The second thing is a bit harder. I'm wondering how well bronze armor (something along the lines of the Dendra panoply) would stand up to weapons designed to deal with steel plate (i.e. warhammers and the like). Or does it not really matter since its fantasy and no one aside from metallurgists and historians would really care?

I seem to recall recently reading something about putting wire mesh around haybales, and then hitting them with swords - and not being able to cut through them.

So I would not expect weapons to cut through bronze at all.

However, I would expect bronze to be more prone to deforming, if that helps.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Well, consider this fact:


Bronze is an alloy, but one made of two relatively soft metals: tin and copper. Pewter is made of the same metals, but the big difference is the ratio. Pewter contains more tin than copper and bronze is vice versa. Bronze was harder than wrought iron, but, I would imagine forged steel would be harder than bronze, and iron was more accessible, as was said before.

That being said, bronze was also brittle, as many hard alloy metals tend to be. Still, I would expect a sallet to be able to stand up to a crushing or slicing blow from a bladed weapon. The trouble with sallets, however, were that they did not really protect the face very well, made more for protection of the cranium, so an opponent would most likely take advantage of that fact.


As for forged steel, I would suspect it to be harder than bronze as steel was tempered by heat and quick cooling for strength.