Just read that a single medieval suit of armor could take over 800 hours to make

I was looking at a book on armor from the Met museum and it said a full plate harness for a knight wasn't just one person's work. A master armorer might need a whole team, and the whole process from start to finish could be 800 to 1000 hours. That's like working a full time job for six months straight on one suit. It really makes you think about the scale of the craft back then compared to how we work now. Has anyone here ever tried to make a single piece of historical armor and tracked their time?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessicaw112d ago

Just picture the armorer's hands shaping one single steel pauldron for a shoulder. He's not just hammering it flat, he's curving it perfectly so a sword slides off, polishing it for days, then adding tiny rivets for the straps. That's just one piece before you even get to the gauntlets or the helmet. The idea that one suit was a whole workshop's project for most of a year blows my mind.

james6612d ago

Yeah, that "whole workshop's project for most of a year" part really hits home. I saw a documentary where they showed the polishing alone on a breastplate took weeks, just to get that mirror finish. It makes you appreciate every single piece, @jessicaw11.