The true story of the Kelly Gang Armour | Did it work? Who made it?
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 31. 05. 2024
- The Kelly Gang armour is an Australian icon - but how was it made? Subscribe to ABC Science CZcams đ ab.co/2YFO4Go
Legend has it, it was made over a stringy bark log by the gang themselves, but historians and blacksmiths say all the evidence points to it being done by a professional blacksmith in a forge.
In this 2003 story from ABC TVâs Catalyst program we finally find out the truth, as history meets science. It follows the armour of Joe Byrne, Ned Kellyâs second in command, on a journey of discovery from Glenrowan to the ANSTOâs nuclear reactor in Sydney. There a team of scientists and historians finally shed some light on how the famous armour was made.
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I like this man. He owns a piece of priceless armor and lets people see, touch, and wear it. Not keeping it behind a piece of glass just to look at.
@Leathley especially documents, like the declaration of Independence, the ink is fading day by day
@@SgawCules they do restoration on the declaration of Independence constantly dude. all the ink has pretty much been replaced by now :')
Do it in my country and some retard will steal it.
@Oliver Eales *normal european people
I'll be honest i cringed every time I saw someone touch the armour with their bare skin, human skin contains some nasty acidic oils that can destroy steel, it takes a lot of work to clean those oils off the metal and seal the metal against moisture and oxygen
Why does the opening of this video look like something from 1986?
Justin E. L. H because it was
eh Australia's a little bit behind, we're still really looking forward to the opening of ghost busters this weekend.
Same here at Cabin Creek , W.Va., Gabriel Askew , we are way behind times ! Although we may be a little farther than yâall , Crocodile Dundee , part 2 opens this weekend here in the mountains !!!! DAMN , me and my sister , oops I mean wife canât wait to go !!! LMAO !!!
It from 2003
Because ABC
Can we just appreciate that there's people and machines that can tell how hot a piece of steel got 100 years ago?
@anonymous one it's not brain surgery
@ArmchairWarrior it's rocket leage
It's not like making a woman orgasm, it's just armor
Donât worry itâs simple. Judge by color. Red is 1800ish F, orange is 2000ish F, and white is 2300ish F.
Oh there is more. With more testing you can determine the microstructure of the steel and determine not only how hot it was but also how quickly it was cooled.
It actually is rocket science pretty much
âExpert blacksmithâ. Surely its almost impossible to make a more crude piece of armor than this lol
yep, heck I could do a better job than that in a bush forge, (it helps I know how to build a proper bush forge and am a trained black smith)
@@crwydryny Yes but are you a trained outlaw on the run from the cops who are trying to kill you while you're making it?
Yeah, literally just hammered steel with some bolts
Try forming metal to any shape you like and you'll see it's not as simple as you think
@@Tyguy161 I can bend a spoon pretty easy! Surely bullet proof steel is just as easy!
I was making similar pieces in my garage with an oak tree stump, a hammer and portable gold rush era forge.
Sure it would have been a real pain to make but I think the armor's appearance gives that away...
"wow this armour is so mysterious I wonder how it was made" well the fact it's made of steel plates and has bolts holding it together should have been a hint
If that steel is hardened it would need to be heated, to bend it.
scotch fueled......the question is who made it and where,maybe over a few scotches eh
After all that science they decided itâs made from steel available to them at that time. WELL DER.
John Sweeney When he said that, I went well for fucks sake you donât say??
Nope. Aliens!
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Iâve got a PHD and could have worked that one out. Piss , Hardy , Drunk.đșđ€Ș
That pun game was strong
As a blacksmith myself I can see that it wasn't done by a professional smith without having to watch the video. It would have been much more shapely and better fitted for the wearer because moving the metal would have been far easier with a coal forge
I've only ever seen the typical battle armour that knights and samurai wore, as cool as it is this looks like it was made by a wookie
@@BoxLaneProductions Battle armour was hand made by highly skilled armorourers. Their work was unbelievable given they did not have steels that were malleable and ductils per today's products.
In primary school we made our own Ned Kelly armour out of cardboard and ran around throwing rocks at each other to test it out.
Never get away with that today.
Simpler times.
Less children with concussions though.
Nah we still do that mate
â@@yaboi-km2qn ugg
@@yaboi-km2qn it's called natural selection, snowflake. Something we desperately need to bring back.
Yup, Dad sent me to school with a wheeties box on my head for dress up day.
We blasted it with a nuclear reactor and found out it was made from steel available in the time it was made, is probably the biggest waste of a nuclear reactor I've ever seen.
Most definitely overkill. A small piece or even a small amount of filings could have been analysed at a steelworks laboratory where identification is being performed all the time.
Suddenly this video from 2003 (uploaded in 2015) is in everyone's recommended. Nice work, algorithm.
well to be fair I do watch a lot of historical warfare videos, HEMA videos, and science videos.... so I can see why youtube recommended it to me
I do the same but mine came up because a mysterious Kelly song earlier
As an Englishman I have nothing but respect for ned Kelly . I love Australia and Australians, great people , thank you all for your brave lads throughout history . Real men .
Whilst I agree with you, you should be aware that your statement is in somewhat poor taste. Historically we don't exactly share the same sentiment towards Englishmen, we have witnessed you as tax collectors, prison wardens, monarchists supporting a crown that didn't extend a citizens protections or rights to us, but demanded sacrifice and servitude all the same. Our soldiers outright refused to salute English officers during the great wars because of how they behaved, how they treated human lives. I can't speak for others, and certainly not for the dead, but I'd respectfully prefer it if you kept your thanks, at least for me.
@@00Discourse00 I agree with everything you have said , however without the lads coming forward not only from Australia but the empire at the time the world would be a much different place , those lads fought like lions and for that and my freedom now I thank them all .
Ben. The Kellys were thugs and murderers; much like the those who murdered police at Wieambilla QLD in recent weeks. Talk of their personal struggle for rights against injustice just doesn't cut the mustard. We have a strange national naivety in romanticizing our history. Mass hostage taking, such as Glenrowan or the Lindt cafe in Sydney, whether for politics, terrorism or criminal gain, is still an appalling act of abuse, threatening unarmed and powerless people with firearms.
@@00Discourse00 "our soldiers outright refused to salute English officers during the great wars".... where did that myth come from?
@@phillipsmith6756 Australia was a penal colony, the staff who ran it where a thousand times worse than the unfortunates sent there .
The police were seriously corrupt and took pleasure in torturing the folk who lived there years after the colony closed .
They fought back , killing police at that was no more a crime than killing vermin . I have not one tear or thought for the "law and authority" at that time and I have little for them now .
The Kelly's were no more thugs and murderers than the scum that started it .
no professional armorer would have made something so crude-looking!
Sorry what?
I don't understand what you're saying
I don't know about that? I doubt they would've had the luxury to give it finer finishings even if it was in a professional shop. Plus some blacksmiths like the heavy duty look.
This must have been the inspiration for the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Craig Savarese exactly my thoughts
Or maybe they just used a great helm for inspiration. Y'know, just a thought.
Your arm is gone
@@toddwebb7521 tis but a flesh wound
Craig Savarese nah, Monty Pythonâs inspiration was a Great Helm.
Reprter: ''Should we find out how it was made, wouldn't it be better to leave it as mystery's and myths?'' What a question coming from the person who is making the film about the fact that it being tested and that is what is of interest!
You can make a forge with a
hole in the ground and forced air. I find it completely probable it was made in the bush.
Of course it was. Rocket stove.
Title - "Did it work?"
*Armored car opens, revealing helmet with holes shot through it.
Me - "No, no it did not."
Oh no it did
It worked pretty well
A lot of the bullet damage was done by the police after the siege was over, testing how well it worked against their firearms.
very interesting , and well done to the owner for letting the tests take place.
If ned was alive he would be in stitches laughing that one of the armoured suits been delivered in a đ security van that he would of robbed if he was still with us. Love from đźđȘ
Why would he have robbed it? It had no money in it
@@davgpol because it had his armor in it
would have, not would of
@@TheLumberjack1987 lol, he meant to say "would've", but spelled it phonetically.
I thought they were gonna make a copy and shoot at it, very dissapointed!
What, actual ballistics testing? That requires scary bang sticks, cant have those on the news. It'd frighten the children.
Lol why bother you can tell the first 2 rounds that hit is passed through easily. Just look at it.
It's Australia, they threw all their guns into the sea....
Why? The original worked just fine
@@davgpol With the high powered firearms of today, most cartridges would almost certainly go straight through that hunk of metal.
i gotta admit, adding the phrase 'they even made their own armor to fight in their last stand' would be pretty badass especially if it worked and the armor protected them from the shots
Where others would have touched those armor pieces like egg shells, those dudes basically went like "oi mate, want to stick your mug in a piece of history?". I'm somewhere between wincing at the rough handling of it (iron/steel and fingerprints don't go well together) and smiling because of how much fun they have interacting with this armor.
Itâs a suit of haphazardly forged armor made out in the boonies. Itâll be fine
If you would like to gander at ancient antique junk I've got a whole house full but you must handle each piece with gloves like it actually is priceless. Hurry before the fire.
Historic armor
Gets sent to nuclear reactor
What's your point?
@@grumpy2606 its funny
I thought they were going to test it against a blast.
@@bloodking73 How is it funny?
The logic is trough the roof
i remember my primary school teacher saying her grandfather helped made ned kelly's armour.
if you are still alive mrs Trafford have a good day
i think she said a blacksmith melted down old horse shoes and gardening tools to make the armour
@@athiefinthenight6894 Which is false
@@Blaster-po5ou stfu you know as much as i do and unless you where there at the time or a qualified scientist with 100% certainty don't correct people with something you are not even sure on
@@athiefinthenight6894 This is literally a video of scientists saying with 100% certainty that this isnt the case
@@gravygames5945 this is not ned kelly's armour its joe burn's there is a difference. And Science can be wrong.
3:25 it gets pretty hot when Iâm in the Bush I tell you. But seriously thatâs bushcraft alright
So, I got 23 seconds into this video and was compelled to point out the spelling on the Armoured Van. (ARMERD TRANSPORT). Would you trust your valuables to this company?
Lmfao ah must be frenchđđđđđđđ
And then proceed to load it into the back of a VT commodore wagon?
@@tracetassie4637 Why would it be in French?
@@dmjaxun9848 say armerd in a french accent
@@dmjaxun9848 you never seen a christmas story?
The 80's called. It wants its video back.
Priceless peice of history..... rolling around in the floor of the van
Deontay wilderâs walkout suit
Till this day
He wouldn't have made out of the locker room
Ouch lol. Hope hes got an armor codpiece because that was below the belt! Hehe
More than 40 pounds man
Nice one
Coincidentally i was talking to a new associate yesterday and we were talking about our family history. Her family history was from Daylesford like mine. She claims that her one of her great grandfather's not sure how many generations ago was a blacksmith in Daylesford and his claim to fame was making Ned Kelly's armour in his blacksmith shop in Daylesford. She didn't know how true it is but that's there family story handed down through the generations. So I hope this keeps the mystery alive." SUCH IS LIFE ."
@knife I have been doing some research and the family name I was given was one of the names police and historians mention. I'm not willing to give the name as I don't have permission from the person or family members of the person or persons involved. I'm not saying this is factual information just a coincidental conversation I had the day before I saw this clip.
@@chrisalbrecht1297 however you're here noting yourself without being accountable WTF ?
@@scarto3887 A bit more cryptic for you mate. His name starts surname starts with a C ends in a h and he was a black Smith in the Beechworth area before moving to Daylesford. He then owned the local gig, then his son became a black Smith also. And he may and I say may. Have taught Ned how to make a Bush forge demonstrated and taught the Ned and the lads how to armour up. Like I said a reputable source. And if you cannot give me a name in the next 48 hours. You are a oxygen theife. No offence but I just gave you the name. Take care. Enjoy some actual research.
@@chrisalbrecht1297 You have your bragging rights mixed up with your arse.Don't believe all that you read
Well my family history has it that my forebear was a blacksmith in Benalla, right next door to the police station. The cops found his maker's mark on some of the armour and accused him of making it. He protested his innocence and other blacksmiths were able to show the police that the armour had not been made over a smithies forge. As my relative no doubt said "Why would I put my mark on something like that and have made it right here next-door to your police station????"
No doubt his mark was on one or more of the plow shares used in the armour and had not been damaged by the Kelly Gang when making their armour.
Doesn't it being made by a bunch of gangsters make it cooler?
Still trash
cdcopper flat earth.. tide pod challenge... sjw... « the moon doesnât exist » .. « mountains are tree stumps »
«magic rocks cure cancer »...
Are you really surprised? Itâs far from being the most stupid thing i ve heard.
they wernt gangsters...
How did they find every clueless Australian at that party to comment how the god awful armor was made by an âexpert blacksmithâ WTF?
It looks like a pile of shite. Needs must sorta way.
It's hilarious anyone would think an expert blacsmith would make that
Have they ever seen a real suit of armour?
Imagine how proud Ned would have been knowing that his amour is a huge part of our nations history
classic youtube, recommending a video years after it was uploaded
The Symbol of bravery,mateship and freedom.
Ned Kelly gave up his mate Harry Power and arranged the murder of Aaron Sherritt, another mate. You are delusional.
âI dedicated my right leg to the gangâ
If you didnât know the context, someone hearing that would have thought that he had his leg cut off.
Remember when the ABC was good and did actually decent programming?
Definitely adding to the story!
Beating plow shares into suits of armor. Wild.
one of my closest friends is descendant from joe byrne. so awesome that he wore iconic armour too
"No one knows just how it was made"
Presumably a hammer?
The True History of the Ned Kelly Gang movie brought me here. I found this an interesting bit of Australian history.
Genuinely interesting, thanks
you managed to tell us absolutely nothing that we didn't already know
I didnât know!
$20 it was made in the bush!
And I was right I know what a stone anvil mark looks like
La dee da. You're so smart. Or skipped ahead. Dumbass
Always found it bizarre that the Kelly gang were the only out law gang to make body armor, I mean they still lost in the end but they went down fighting and Ned even survived in it but had his legs shot to hell.
WHAT?! It was made with metal from the 19th century???!? And it was made by the amateur blacksmith in the Kelly gang?!? the techniques weâve lost it brings a tear to me eyes. This is a discovery science will speak of for generations to come!
I'm a professional blacksmith and custom knife maker and I could have told them without all the fancy testing that it wasn't done by a blacksmith. If you know how to read steel you can see it. That steel never got forging hot. It was done by inexperienced hands in a hot wood fire.
There not plough blades sureley?? Those blades look about 8mm thick
JS having a party around a suit of armor worn by a murderer and outlaw is a bit unsettling....
@Epoxygleu wait till you here about Australia Day
A huge public display with fires and fireworks in many places and displays in many domestic areas to celebrate the capture and public dismemberment of a man at odds with the system, long live Guy Fawlks night!!!.đ
Ned's descendant, 'Ned's' say is very plausible, that they used a tree trunk for a shapely model. They used to sit around fires, at least one of them had a blacksmith in the family and so lent some skill. T'is finely made: it might be the closest thing you will find of a knights armour here in Australia. Shapely and decorative Kings and Knights armour stayed behind in England and Europe, we don't hear of all that coming to Australia.
Would have pissed myself if half way through someone went, 'hang on a minute, somebody's scratched their name here...'
As a blacksmith and without finishing the video yet (paused at 3:29) I highly doubt a blacksmith made it, it looks rushed, hastily made and slapped together.
A smith of the time would have been able to make a better set with his eyes closed.
Boom, I was right.
I'm a smith too, its pretty obvious really.
It's interesting, the bending would've been relatively easy at cherry red, but I wonder how much hot cutting they would've had to do. That would've been a right pain in the ass with a cold forge and no power tools...
Exactly my thoughts on who made the armour
As a man in my twenties as well, I've gotta say I'd be absolutely bewildered, slightly amused and very disappointed that such a footnote item in my life had been treated as such a sacred relic by my kin, the kin of my enemies, and even the kin of onlookers for hundreds of years after my (arguably justified) murder. A man with a story, a life and circumstances, a personality and thoughts, reduced to a makeshift piece of repurposed scrap metal. What a tasteless joke.
Lol that's what I was thinking
Everybodyâs gangsta till people start aiming for the legs.
"It's not often scientists get a chance to take a piece of Australian history into the lab" ... uh, well, yeah that's actually kind of what scientists do ...
well to be fair australia doesn't have a lot of history to take into the lab
@@crwydryny I am sure there must be a few bits of history strewn about the place, I understand it's fairly spaceous. And let's not so hastily disregard the untold millenia of aboriginal history either =.O
@@crwydryny From the pov of an American like me, I'm beginning to wonder what other history Australia has besides this. They've got the Ned Kelly museum, the Ned Kelly restaurant, the Ned Kelly family home historical site, scientific testing on the Ned's armour. Naturally the US has outlaws in its history, but none around whom the entire national narrative gravitates.
@@TheWaggishAmerican at least 60,000 years of it, you seppo clown
Gotta love Stevo, dropping trou for the camera to honour the Kelly gang. That's pretty Aussie.
I managed to heat a metal fire poker to white hot, in a domestic pot belly stove. I'm certain people could easily achieve similar results using rocks to create a forge. If there's any granite around the area, there would likely be flat sheets available, too.
All these experts should try doing this in the same settings as they did .
And only Blacksmiths under 25 years of age
It's even more legendary now
they say that It's not possible to heat the iron to yellow color (1000°C) In a bushforge. But I saw a guy who actually made a forge in the bushes without any modern tools and made his own iron tools in it. I also saw the iron was yellow when he did it.
i HIGHLY doubt that was made by a blacksmith. second month apprentice....MAYBE. there is no sign that whoever did the hammering had ever done anything but bend nails before. :) really grateful that there are folks out there in the world willing to let people get that close to history! cheers
How was it made?
Looks impossible to reverse engineer. I mean, what's it even made of? How is it joined together? It's a mystery.
Fact: anyone who can heat metal and work it into anything functional can call themselves a blacksmith. Thus, it was made by a blacksmith.
I can only guess the depth of streaming hours I must have sunk to in order to pop this on my recommended in 2020...
The difference between science and magic is, with magic learning the secret destroys the fun, with science learning the secret is the fun.
i could tell just from the quality that it wasnt a blacksmith; this is near the turn of the century any established blacksmith would not let shoddy work like that leave shop
Pretty easy for a beginner Smith to make something like this using a basic charcoal forge. Coal forges get way way hotter and yet with charcoal you can melt steel.
Its also not hard to silence an anvil so it doesn't ring and damage your hearing you just mount it properly by staking your anvil shaped object or anvil down onto a tree stump, if the anvil doesn't move it won't ring
The worlds first battle tank.True it needed some small modifications.
How they're all touching it without gloves, shows just how disrespectful they are being to the legacy. Fingers leave an oily residue which does more harm than good to the surface of the armour.
i don't think a professional blacksmith would have had frankenstein bolts holding it together.
Good ol Pete Denahy on the fiddle!!
the og madlad
The fact that the identity of any blacksmith or place of work has remained so unknown made me think it was more likely an amateur job.
Great legend.
American here, no idea what this armor's cultural relevance is, but I am your average armor loving American, so I must learn more about it now that CZcams recommend this video 5 years later.
You can't just stick an object on a stand and say to people look at it LMFAO someone has never been to a museum before đđđ
You had your expert blacksmiths who would have made horseshoes and all the complicated stuff. But that would cost.
Then, at that time, many farmers would have had a ranch hand who, although not exactly a blacksmith, could manage some basic stuff like heating and bending a simple bar to make a rudimentary gate latch or something. He was useful because he did it as part of his normal duties as need arose, often using a small farm forge for the purpose.
When people talk about a "blacksmith" making it (or helping the gang to make it), they probably mean someone like the relatively amateur ranch hand.
For the suit to be used by NK around 1880 the original material must have been produced some time earlier. Steels of the time were very impure as there was no known way to refine better. The image from the electron microscope shows that there are lots of inclusions in the matrix. It would have made more sense to discuss the material with technical expertise from the steel industry who are very familiar with testing various steels and the iron this is more likely to be.
This is the most mad max thing Iâve ever seen (apart from mad max).
Iâm not Australian, this is the first time Iâve heard of this, but one look at that and no self respecting professional would have made something that crude looking. As a symbol of national pride I can see how some would glorify it in their minds but that is not made by a blacksmith. One look. Black smiths have lots of skills. And yes, you can make a forge in the bush. No nobody heated it over a âbush fireâ. People in those days had to know a lot of things to be able to survive. Every farmer knew a little bit about everything. Most definitely the basics of metal work. Any farmer in those days knew how to do everything. Poor farmers couldnât afford contractors. They did everything themselves.
Extra Credits: The kelly gang crafted the armor themselves
Most people: NO
2015: So we did some tests
Also in 1898 in Fort Mercer at state of New Austin United States 4 people raided the fort accupied by a gang who was hooled up there by the marshals. Thees 4 people wore the armour and killed em all in there.
Give it to myth busters.
Would have been better.
so a 'bush fire' with a good ember base and a hollow tube to interduce air to the coals riases the temp very quickly and yeah
fascinating difference between the historians of the Victoria State Library, constantly dusting and only ever handling Ned's armour in gloves - padding under the tilt visor etc... and just handing it round. The 'owner' (and I'm curious about how these things are sold around) obviously has it secured, but not worried about preserving it: more like a souvenir than a piece of national heritage?
the people saying that it's impossible to make this in the bush don't realize that making a forge takes very little materials to do so. Another thing how can they say it was made by a professional when it clearly looks like t was made by an amateur.
"YOU'RE BLOODY BULLETPROOF BOYS!"
"Joe Byrne built this in the bush from scrap!" "I'm sorry. I'm not Joe Byrne."
Ned Kelly little knew that one day an unknown man would honour him by getting a tattoo of him on his thigh. I hope that one day, I am briefly memorialised in the same way, and that, from time to time, my image is even glimpsed by another person, if the man should remove his trousers and underpants in a situation where another person is there to witness it.
It's really obvious it wasn't made by an expert blacksmith, I have no idea why everyone thought that. You can just look at the armor and see how poorly it was put together.
How did that Commodore make it from glen rowan to Sydney.
Just before Ned Kelly's capture, he was known to have said "Alright, We'll call it a draw."
TrollHunter was a good movie, but this armor is the inspiration for the prop suit featured with a "Red Button".
There is nothing to say it wasn't made by a blacksmith, but it was not made in a Smith's forge, that be forged out bush by 1 Smith and 4 men with hammers and /or axes, and bend over a log.
Somewhere in the Victorian bush is a whole in the ground with an amazing story to tell..
I live in ireland near to fethard in tiperary and we have a show every year about him
It would be a lot cooler if Australia actually existed and these werent paid actors.
A blacksmith would not have used those bolts, They would have used rivits. The armour is so badly made no blacksmith would be responsible
It looks like the "it's just a flesh-wound" guy from Monty Python's Holy Grail.
doesnt require a nuclear reactor to see its not made by a blacksmith but worked relatively cold and crudely