Building a Bronze Greek Breastplate - Part 1 - Thak Ironworks
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- čas přidán 4. 02. 2020
- #blacksmith #blacksmithing #bronze
In this video, I construct a greek hoplite muscular breastplate from silicon bronze. This iconic breastplate is based on the type used in classical Greece about 500BCE.
After cutting the outline from a piece of 18 gauge bronze sheet, the piece is then annealed in the coal forge. It is then dished into a lead shot bag using a domed hammer. After rough dishing, it is placed over a ball stake and worked from the outside. This process of working inside, then outside is repeated several times, gradually refining the proportions until the desired shape is achieved. The piece is annealed several times during this process as work hardening occurs. At this point, the edges are rolled to create an attractive and functional safety edge that also serves to stiffen the final shape. I then planish the outer surface to smooth out irregularities and also work harden the bronze to make it into a durable piece of armor.
I got my material from Atlas Metal in Denver Colorado. It is 0.47 (3/64) CDA 655 Sil/Bronze sheet according to their designation.
A quick google search told me silicon bronze is typically 96% copper with the remaining 4% being mainly silicon, but also possibly some manganese, tin, iron or zinc.
My recollection of traditional bronze was approximately 90% copper and 10% tin. In future videos, I will research this further.
The piece I took inspiration from is supposedly on display at the Met and you can follow this link to their website. www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
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Lord of the Land by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/ - Jak na to + styl
This is like the only video on CZcams of someone making this type of breastplate. So thank God for you and your work. 🤙
yes literally like the only one, this guy is amazing
Finding a pro metalworker building Greek armor and wearing a slayer shirt encouraged me to hit that subscribe button! Looking forward to a Metallica shirt maybe next!
Just found this channel a few days ago and this is what the CZcams recommendation "algorithm" gave and I'm glad it it. Your stuff is incredible and I love seeing the very hands-on approach to everything. The breastplate looks incredible, and the repousse really adds a new level to it. I also love how this kind of armouring has you exploring how they potentially did things back then. Not just finding examples of the real thing or reading text, but making it yourself and figuring out what makes the most sense given the time and available technology.
Can't imagine how much work it'd be for the smiths of ancient Greece making all those breastplats, backplates, greaves, etc., making hundreds or thousands of them.
As I continue to play my "what band t-shirt is Thak wearing this week" game I should of seen this one coming, next week I am guessing Immortal. Please join me then.....
Criminally underrated channel, I hope you get the recognition you deserve very soon!
Wow, amazing work! If I was a king in the middle ages I would capture you so you can make armor for my men😁
Very cool ! Keep in mind the Greeks obsessively polished their bronze. A Greek bronze breastplate likely would be bright bronze colored even when on campaign
I am but a budding amature, came out from under a horse with lots of bruises a rasp and a hammer. I am just going to keep my mouth shut and learn. Thank you for this.
I subscribe...I need this kind of armour.,.. Too many crazy drivers on the road or even not on the road...just in case for a road rage...I'm not scared of a gun anymore... When I'm wearing one of this! Just like a bullet proof vest. ...my goodness this covid really freak my brain!....thanks for the video.
The armor that inspired Batman Forever’s costume.
Very impressive work, I can see they years of practice showing up. Keep the videos coming.
that 2 minute video of u making the old plate armor is how i found this video
YES! I saw the post on Reddit and could not wait for the video to come out! You are still a small channel but the quality of the videos is already great (extremely good info, great exposition, good video and audio quality, fresh ideas, great skill). Wish you the best:)
Thank you, glad to hear you are enjoying the channel and this video.
Great job
Great videos, really fascinating.
Also you look like ceasar.
I've always been fascinated woth Greco Roman cuirass/ breastplate. Now I finally seen hoew its made. Awesome craftsmanship!
Great video very interesting project I am looking forward to part two thank you. I love your channel
That is an incredible amount of both skill and WORK! Fun to watch a skilled craftsman work.
guy has hands like catchers mitts. #Jacked
I've waited for this video a long time ago, I met you for that famous video, and since then I follow you on the channel. I started to make Greek armors thanks to you, I am really grateful for teaching us how a real master smith works
I am happy to see that my work is inspiring others to try new things. Do you have any pictures of your work you could share?
@@ThakIronworks Of course, on my CZcams or Instagram channel @Aleaciondehistoria I put everything that I manufacture, of course it is not as high quality as your work, but I will continue to work hard to get it one day 💪💪
@@aleaciondehistoria haha, I see you featured a bit of at least one of my videos in your work. This is certainly a trade that takes a lot of time and effort to master. Keep at it.
@@ThakIronworks I will, you are really an inspiration to me
What an impressing work!! You are an excellent craftsman and artist! Chapeau!!
Incredible work! Heading to the next video immediately :D
Most challenging armor to make and shape imaginable,wow! Very nice job,thank you for the effort .
Amazing work
Super cool video. Looking forward to part 2.
This is so cool! You have some serious skill man!
Thank you so much for this inspiring video, just wish I could have been there to see this in person. I hope some day to be as good as you are.
Anyone ever tell you that you look like Lou Ferrigno? Great work by the way, love it, you’d certainly be a prized asset in Ancient Greece with this skill 💪
Years of pounding steel and listening to heavy metal and I am almost as deaf as Lou Ferrigno.
@@ThakIronworks Ive got years of pounding my steel and im not as muscular as you. Pounding steel isnt all youre doing.
Slayer!
Two things, ear plugs are the single greatest thing you can buy when working with metal. Secondly, rolling the edges forward has a advantage aginst stabs. If the point doesn't grab and starts to slide off the forward rolled edges will catch it to pervent it for stabing you fleshy bits. It's super small and might not have been intentional, but it's usefull to have. And yes certain styles of back rolled edges can do this to.
He wears ear muffs and he rolled the sides. I realise this comment is old but it's pretty stupid of you
Εύγε , υπέροχη δουλειά.
Good job on the morale boosting Eric - Those things were hideous! Learning so much from these videos, will get round to trying a little piece soon!
Yes they absolutely were, but a good chuckle.
Eric does a great job! As a photographer, can I suggest to add lighting pointed towards the forge. It will help with the lighting issues. You need to over power the light coming from the forge to get lighting on the subject.
But your imaging is great Eric!
I just found this channel. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing an artist at work. The only gibe I have is the examples of "muscled" cuirass. That second one is a disaster. No nice way to say it. The first one, however.... It's not a muscled cuirass. It's a Bell cuirass. It was an early Classical type. As techniques evolved, the muscled cuirass developed from the Bell.
Вы настоящий мастер спасибо что вы делитесь опытом здоровья вам
Спасибо. Я рад, что вам понравилось!
This is very interesting
Great content. You need more view.
Hello! I would like to give you an avice to the strange piece of armor at 23:30 in order to make it less uncanny. The advice is: when you look at that armor piece, think about the purpose of those curves, but not that it should represent the human anatomy. The armor will not work better with human body hammered into it. The curves are there essentially in order to make the sheet of armor less flat, but obviously i am less of an expert than you regarding curvatures of armor pieces
Youshould build something for demo ranch, amazing work man
HI Thak nice work mate I can see the experience you have ,by the way you just bang it into shape. But I must say I have been practicing and having lots of fun and success .well when I say success I Mean success in total desaction of a good piece of steel. But I will not surrender .YET. CHEERS.
Oooh boy you make it look so easy 😂
Great video ! I'll have to swing by soon to grab a bag of coal when I get the chance.
Bannerlord music nailed it
Made a Gallic helmet yet? I'm simple, I find them the coolest with the cheek guards and the steel brace on the forehead.
Slayer 👍
This has been very helpful, I am currently making a half muscled breastplate and this definitely given me direction in how to shape it. I keep hoping you will do the backplate and finish the set.
Backplate coming in the nearish future. Glad it was helpful!
@@ThakIronworks I would really like to get any suggestions on shaping. I am doing mine out of .05 4130 since bronze is just so expensive. I am still formulating in how to raise the neck piece since the neck is shaped about 2 inches. Wish I could show you the piece I am recreating.
23:50 when you have a 6pack and a beer belly at the same time
Hello! It was interesting that you started with the small curves, and then went on to the bigger curves. Could not you start with the bigger curves first? Was the order due to preference only?
Man nice work! do you think the Romans did it like this?
Interesting, though even more to see someone make even the bronze sheet from scratch - I'm curious how did folks make this in those times, did they pour it on surface or hammered it in shape?
You tested bronze against slash and piercing damage? It will be nice to see how effective it was
very interesting proses. how did the ancients pad armor back then? I've heard cork was used but that seems like it wouldn't be enough. your thoughts?
Can I ask you what the name of the guitar piece around the 15:00 mark is? Great work by the way, are you planning to do a 'Corinthian Helmet' in the near future?
Looking at them online it seems that many authentic bronze breastplates have a backplate also, do you plan on making a backplate and Greaves for shin protection and gauntlets or just the shield, breastplate and helmet?
Dude, you look like a metal version of Rob Riggle.
Fun Fact: Slayer T-Shirts offer greater protection than bronze breastplates
🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻💪🏻
annealing with a propane torch seems like would not heat evenly enough. forge is the way to go
500 through 440 ish BC as it was still in use during and after the Greco Persian wars up through the Peloponnesian Wars. During which it's popularity finally ended. The Spartans or Spartiates which was the term that ment full citizen which were the Spartan military did wear the bronze Cuirass which is the term that means breastplate just so you know . They wore it longer than other Greeks.
I dont think its popularity "ended". More likely the war turned into masses of "peasants" battling and sieging each other. Hoplite panoply had to be (still is) very expensive, so only hippeis and officers kept wearing complete armor set. With majority of troops being protected by wooden shields and linen cuirass. Cheaper, not better.
@@OkurkaBinLadin It eventually fell out of use due to how expensive it was to produce. By in large most Greek infantry was actually light skirmishers with the hoplites making up the core as heavy infantry.
What about beer belly armor? Or do you just stuff you big gut into it?
NEXT CORINTHIAN HELMET
That's right :)
fuck yeah
Good job! Anyone knows the name of the "Big ball" at 9:53 ?
do we have any surviving examples from that era ????
Maybe a stupid question, but if I was gonna attempt this out of steel. Do I need to continue annealing process same as what your doing?
As it work hardens, yes you will want to anneal. However, with steel, you would let the piece air cool after heating it instead of quenching.
Thak Ironworks ok thank you very much
I have a question regarding mobility. Looking at 14th century armour, when plate came back into fashion, the breatsplates would extend only down to the end of the ribs. Below that a series of collapsing plates would protect the soft parts in order to give maximum mobility (thinking about corrazina). But how does a full ridgid muscular breastplate, formed after the body all the way over the abdomen, affect the wearers mobility? Just thinking about greek warriors gives the image of someone who preform a lot of complex movements and athletic skill.
Could you show a mobility test in that plate just to give a demonstration of the limitations?
Can you bend from side to side, forward, sprint, jump, take a knee and so on?
You're 100% correct. In the research I have done with bell cuirasses (which directly precede these), it seems that they follow that same convention. Greek and especially Roman sculpture seemed to use some artistic license when depicting figures in muscle cuirasses. I could be wrong though. The dimensions I was working with were hard to cross-reference, and the images werent always ideal.
Do you know where I can buy something like this? I'm trying to throw together a hoplite kit and am having trouble finding a breastplate plus backplate
Doesn't anyone play Slayer any more? Watching this while hammering alien facemasks for my girlfriend and i.
2:45 Tim's neighbor Wilson :D
I've always been wondering how protective are these bronze armor.
Works well if it goes against similar materials. It would definitely stop sticks and stones... don't even think about punching it.
If you are just going for aesthetic, could you use sheet metal and then brush on brass for the color to look like bronze?
You could
really dumb question. When we talk about stresses in the steel/metal, is it like actual stresses, like if we left the metal for a hundred or so years would the stress decrease (like a super slow rubber band), or is it more of a structure change that causes weak points? If that made any sense
not a dumb question.....not really sure if the stress would decrease over a long time.....the stress or work-hardening is good to strengthen the armour but if i was to try working beyond that point, cracks could appear. We need to consult a metallurgist to get a better understanding of this....beyond my simple brains capacity
I’m not a metallurgist but I am a machinist... I would assume that it would depend on what state the metal is left in for storage for that amount of time... if left in the open sun I do think the metals would become more brittle or ‘stressed’ over time as the constant heating and cooling of it would essentially create a ‘work hardening’ situation. If it were kept away in a climate controlled situation such as a dry cellar/dungeon I’m sure the stresses of the particles would not be increased nor decreased and probably why we have such beautiful examples of what once was in terms of swords and armor and the like today... just my thoughts on the matter...
Much like aluminum is hardened through ‘aging’ essentially heating the metal to a certain degree evenly for a prolonged amount of time then letting it cool gradually on its own creates a hardening of it compared to the raw material you begin with... think of any raw aluminum object that’s sat outside for a good duration of its life like an aluminum trailer... things become very brittle and begin breaking over time because it ‘ages’ itself or in other words becomes hardened and brittle...
600-400 yeah
\m/ SLAYER \m/
Brass is expensive I bought some for a dragon scale ring it was so pricey.
Is bronze safe to wear. I know there are some metals that are not wearable for jewellery. What other metals do you think would be good?
Yes bronze is safe.
It should only be a problem if you have a nickel alergy.
Hi, I want to do it. I will use steel sheet. Question. When do we soften the sheets. I heat it with a propane burner and oxygen. And then leave it to cool? Without water?
How many times did you soften the material during work?
Probably will need to heat it up and let it air cool....every 30 minutes of steady working
Apparently water quenching has no hardening effect on bronze......fascinating.
It has an effect...the opposite effect of quenching ferris metals
23:22 I would argue the grossly exaggerated and misplaced features you so vehemently hate are intentional. Imagine what that cuirass looks like from fifty feet away compared to a more traditional and accurate lorica musculata at the same distance. It would look so much more muscular and fierce than the accurate armor because the muscles and features are so much more defined and separated. It is that effect the artist that hammered that out completely captured, compared to the muscular effect bleeding out with distance.
that music from gothic ?
Please make the roman montefortino🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅
How was sheet metal made at that time?
A good question...I have wondered about that many times. I will address that in a future video
@@ThakIronworks awesome! Thank you!
FUCKING SLAYERRRRRRRRRRRR
FUCKINGGGG SLAYERRRRRRR
the second one was a women's Breastplate !!
they are both male brestplates
imagine finally finishing your 30 hour masterpiece of chestplate only to find out that the greek general who commissioned it from you died in his first battle :(
All manliness is lost when you drink from a thermo mug.
Opinions are like buttholes ;P
@@wayfa13 Senses of humour however are not like arseholes.
Fake abs exist since the ancient times
Good for gaming but useless in war. An awl can go through! You are missing proper hardening...
The awl would not have been present while these breastplates were in use (about 2000 years apart in fact). What would you do differently to harden bronze?
I think you are reaching, "Boldric". Bronze blades were "hardened" by hammering the edges, the spine stayed soft. You cant do that with body fitted armor at all.
Piercing bronze plate is not that easy (republican Romans used breastplates too). Relative softness of the material would help cushion impact of the blow.
Mamma mia lavora e stai zitto parli troppo