Armour and helmet making

For as long as there has been warfare, there has been an armour making craft. Early armour was maille, leather, and layers of quilted fabric sometimes with small plates of metal sewn between the layers. Plate armour made from larger pieces of metal only really developed in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Nothing detailed is known about the craft of armour making before the fourteenth century when the Armourers Company was founded in London in 1346. For the next two centuries armour was being made, but little is known about what was being made. Henry VIII brought armour makers over from the continent, initially in 1511 eventually establishing a workshop in Greenwich producing high quality armour for the Court made in their own particular style, and training British armourers. The Greenwich Armoury survived into the seventeenth century, but it, along with the whole industry, collapsed at the end of the seventeenth century when armour went out of use.

It is a common misconception that the growth of firearms led to the demise of armour, but the decline had a lot more to do with expense and complications of the process – it is skilled work and to make anything, both in terms of apprenticeship and production, takes a long time.

Armour wearing was revived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries for ceremonial purposes – particularly for the Guards. Interest in armour revived, after a gap of over a century, following the Eglington Tournament in 1839 and there was a thriving industry making armour through the rest of the nineteenth century. Armour making, especially for re-enactors, revived again in the 1960/70s and there are a small number of people making armour today.

Armour has never really gone away and is used on today’s ‘battlefield’ in pretty much the same way as it was in the past, the difference being that the materials are more likely to be titanium, carbon fibre etc.

Armour-making has evolved through history, incorporating various techniques depending on the time period, materials, and cultural influences. Here’s a summary of key techniques used in armour making:

Forging and Shaping Metal

• Hammering: Metal sheets, typically steel or iron, are hammered over anvils or stakes to shape them into desired forms (e.g., helmets, breastplates).
• Hot Forging: Heating metal to high temperatures makes it malleable, allowing detailed shaping and reducing the risk of cracking.
• Cold Forging: Shaping metal without heating, often used for thinner pieces much of armouring can be done cold to add detailing and make measurements more precise. 

Heat Treatment

• Hardening: Heating the metal and then rapidly cooling it (quenching) to increase hardness.
• Tempering: Reheating quenched metal to a lower temperature and cooling it slowly to balance hardness with flexibility, reducing brittleness.

Riveting and Joining

• Rivets are used to attach different armour components, such as joining plates in articulated armour or securing chainmail links.
• Hinges and straps allow mobility and adjustability.

Embossing and Engraving

• Embossing: Using hammers and chisels to create raised designs on the metal surface.
• Engraving: Cutting patterns, decorations, or inscriptions into the surface for aesthetic or symbolic purposes.

Plating and Polishing

• Plating: Applying layers of protective metals (e.g., tinning or gilding) to prevent rust or enhance appearance.
• Polishing: Smoothing the surface of the metal to remove imperfections and create a reflective finish.

Leatherworking

• Used for padding, straps etc.

Casting and Moulding

• Molten metal is poured into moulds to create intricate components, such as decorative elements or small fittings.

Etching and Inlay

• Etching: Acid is used to create detailed designs on metal surfaces.
• Inlay: Precious metals or stones are embedded into the surface for decoration.

Articulation

• Plate armour is designed with overlapping and articulated segments to ensure mobility while maintaining protection (e.g., articulated gauntlets or knee joints).

Originally the guild system meant that armourers tended to specialise, e.g. making gauntlets, making helmets, making body armour etc. with a few who did everything. Today, armourers will tend to make anything that is required by the customer.

However, there are specialists in chainmail and in brigandine making (padded jackets for either wearing under armour or in place of plate armour).

• Market issues: There is never going to be massive demand for armour. It is a very specialist and limited market (there’s not much else you can use armour for) and is very expensive as it takes a long time to make. The main customers are re-enactors, museums and collectors.
• Competition from cheap imports: The biggest threats to the survival of armour making are imports of cheaply-made and poor quality products from places like India. Many re-enactors start with this armour as it is adequate and inexpensive. A re-enactor could equip themselves for around £1000 if they took this route whereas, buying British armour would probably cost 10 times that amount.
• There are very few people practising the craft and few people entering it – but the demand is quite low.
• Market issues: Most modern armourers produce armour out of sheet steel, which is less strong – but nobody needs armour which can withstand an arrow being shot by a long bow, so this sort of skill will die out.
• Dilution of skills: Some armourers will do crude/rough work by hand and then finish by machine, while others will do almost all the work completely by machine.

There is no umbrella organisation for the craft. However, the living history community is very vibrant and members tend to support one another. There are events and markets throughout the year that generate trade and supply the needs of re-enactors and living history.

• TORM: The Original Re-enactors Market
• Artisan and Reenactors Market 
• National Living History Fayre ? dont think this still happens, not sure. 
• International Living History Festival
• Historic UK Trader’s Market
• Historic Traders
• Royal Armouries

Vocational training 

Lancaster Armoury – offers on-the-job internships in armoury and private one on one training. 

• Matt Finchen, Lancaster Armoury 
• Fred Ryall – Ryall Armouries 
• William West, Dragon Armoury –
• British Armour Reproductions 
• Adam Blockley 
• Terry English 
• Mark Taylor, Dressed to Kill
• Mark and Jo Vickers, St George Armoury 
•  White Rose Armoury
• Plessis Armouries 
• Armour Services Historical 
• Shane Chapman

Businesses employing two or more makers

• Lancaster Armoury – employs 3 armourers, 2 subcontractors and 2 interns

N.B. Firmin & Sons supply ceremonial wear to the Royal Household and the Ministry of Defence including ceremonial helmets, breastplates etc. but are not armourers (in the setting of the others) still very skilled and I would feel puts them in the same league as Terry English who is more of a costume armourer than what I would consider a mediaeval armourer. 

There are very few people practising the craft, and very few people training, but the demand is quite low and the craft is reasonably healthy. Although the number of armourers in the UK is not going to be high, it is probably at the greatest number that it has been in the past 50 years due to the interest in re-enactments and living history. There are also a number of opportunities emerging in the film industry. There is never going to be massive demand for armour.

• Royal Armouries

Our thanks go to our 2025 reviewers:

• Matthew Finchen, Lancaster Armoury

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