The final stage in the creation of a piece of armour is its assembly, not only of the several component parts but also the addition of the straps and linings which are
necessary for it to be functional. Assembly consists almost entirely of riveting, as does strapping and to a certain extent lining, though leather and textiles also used ties and sewing as joining methods.
By far the most common method of assembly used by medieval armourers was riveting. Riveting is a cold mechanical join which requires no heat to achieve. Rivets are used to join plate to plate, leather to plate, and other elements such as buckles to plates. Plain rivets hold pieces together without any articulation, or attach leathers to plates, and are the most common type. They can also be articulated, either simply allowing the plates to rotate, or rotate and expand through the use of sliding rivets. The exterior head can be a simple dome, it can be made invisible as a flush rivet, or it can be made decorative through the use of incised lines or applied caps.
Plain rivets are often hammered, or peened, on the interior, the exterior
presenting a clean dome which must be created before use much the same as the head of a nail. The rivet head is placed on a lead block or an anvil with a recess to preserve its shape while being worked. Simple rivets may also be made using a short piece of rod, with a small amount extending from the hole on each side, which is hammered on the interior and exterior to swell the rivet heads and hold the plates together.
286
For a flush rivet the hole must be specially prepared by countersinking, which bevels the edge of the hole so that when the rivet is peened from the outside it will swell to fill the bevelled area. When the rivet head is finished flush with the surface of the outer plate there remains enough of the head to hold the two together. Flush rivets are useful in areas where a domed head may interrupt the movement of other articulated plates, and also reduce the number of surfaces upon which an opponent’s weapon may catch. The jousting helm of Nicholas Hawberk, held in the Royal Armouries, uses flush rivets to hold all the plates together to prevent a lance catching the helmet and possibly throwing it off or causing serious neck injury.287
Rivet heads may also be highly decorated and become a prominent feature of the piece. On two sallets on display in the Royal Armouries the rivets which would have attached the linings to the interiors have large external heads which are decorated with embossed lines.288 Similarly, the Brocas helm has large copper alloy caps over the rivet heads, quite different from the flush rivets of the earlier Hawberk helm.289 Rivets may also be decorated by cutting in patterns of radiating lines with a file or chisel before the rivet is used on the armour. A soft backing such as lead would be used to protect the decorated head from deformation during peening.
Some rivets are not meant to hold the plates rigidly, but must allow them to articulate, either by a simple pivot around an axis or by allowing expansion through use of a slot. For a pivoting articulation to have a smooth joint the hole and rivet shank must be of the same diameter, perhaps using a special tool like the one postulated by Price, or else through very careful peening of the rivet.290 Making the hole larger than
287
Leeds, RA, Helm, AL.30.1. See Figure 51. 288
Leeds, RA, Sallet, IV.410 and Leeds, RA, Sallet, IV.427. See Figure 52. 289
Leeds, RA, Helm, IV.411. See Figure 53. 290
the rivet can allow for a larger range of movement in the articulation, but the less precise fit of the plates also increases the risk of gapping.291
A more efficient means to create an articulation with a wide range of movement is the sliding rivet. These allow two plates to not only pivot but also slide past each other, greatly increasing mobility. Sliding rivets are essentially the same as other types of rivets with two exceptions, one being the slot shaped hole on the interior plate and the other being the interior rivet head. On the exterior the head appears the same as other rivets, but due to the internal slot the inner head’s surface area must be expanded in some way to prevent it from tearing out. This can be done using a washer between the plate and the rivet head, or the head could be flattened using a larger amount of material resulting in a correspondingly wider head.292
Rivets are also used to attach straps and other internal leathers. These leathers serve three main functions, to secure the armour to the wearer through the use of buckles or points, to prevent the armour plates from gapping, and for the attachment of the linings. Leathers must be secured using rivets with wide heads or washers so that the rivet head does not tear through.293 Linings are sewn onto the edges of internal leathers, and can be removed by cutting the thread, and replaced by using the same holes for reattachment.
3.14. Conclusion
The journey from unrefined ore to completed piece of armour is a long and complicated one, as demonstrated by this discussion of the necessary stages. Even crude pieces required the skills of many people specialising in many different capacities. Making
291
Price, TOMAR, p. 244. 292
Leeds, RA, Pauldron, III.1305. See Figure 54. 293
functioning armour also required that the armourer have some of the skills of the blacksmith, the goldsmith, and the sculptor to mould plates of iron and steel to properly interact with each other and with the body they were made to cover.
Armourers were not unique in this respect; the great cathedrals required masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, and glaziers. Though in no way the same in terms of scope or majesty, armour required smelters, armourers, polishers, decorators, rivet makers, and leatherworkers. This level of cooperation was necessary, particularly given the level of demand to equip the knights and soldiers for the princes of Europe. Armour was also an end unto itself, ensuring a continuing market among the European elite.
Just as armour making must not be thought of as the work of a lone individual in a workshop, it must also not be thought of only in terms of hammering plates. That phase does not begin until the work of the smelter is complete, and there is much more to be done after shaping. It is therefore more accurate to view the armour-making process as the complex interrelation of techniques, all used in conjunction with one another resulting in the finished object. In a time before microscopes or thermometers this was augmented by a keen eye to judge colour when working, which could only be learned through experimentation and skill. Due to the heterogeneous nature of medieval steels the ability to judge quality was essential, but heat treatment could still be
prevented by poor materials. The medieval armourer was much more than just a tradesman, he was an artisan whose experience allowed him to balance all these factors to produce highly complex and prized objects.
Chapter IV: Tools and their Marks