In message <Pine.GSO.4.58.0409031849440.26138_at_...> Mikko Rintasaari writes:
>On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, Jane Williams wrote:
>
>> RW bronze, I'd say probably not. There *was* bronze Full Plate, but I
>> gather it looked rather like wearing a dustbin. RW bronze is soft. You
>> can bend it by hand. Straightening swords over one's knee in mid-fight
>> was not unknown, I gather :(
>
>Check out the hardness of hammered bronze Jane. Remember that the best
>cannons were bronze, not iron for the longest time.
Which were cast not hammered. In any case bronze is safer than iron
for cannon because it is softer, it will start to deform before it
breaks whereas iron just shatters without warning.
>Iron (not steel) is not very useful for armouring purposes.
Which is why low grade steel (by modern standards) was used throughout
the middle ages.
--
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/