Sculpted iron/steel

[Bentz]

From classical through the high middle ages, you occasionally see metalwork that is intended to be both artistic and functional (muscled cuirass, zoomorphic lionhead spaulders, elaborate "maksed" helms in the east and west, etc.).

In most of these instances, the sculpted metal was fairly thin, right? 2mm and thereabouts and less?

But let's say a patron in the 14th c. wanted to commission something with more mass that had an artistic bent to it, like a mace head or pommel in the shape of, e.g, an eagle head.

I'm guessing this was possible, but I'm no armorer. Was this ever done in the medieval period, and if so, how? I imagine this was before casting was an economical or practical solution, but I have no real idea.

I apologize if this is a rudimentary question answered elsewhere, but I tried searching and didn't find exactly what I was looking for.

Many thanks.

[Thomas Powers]

Forge, chisel, file. Casting of steel in Europe dates to the 1700's and cast iron is not a good material for such things.

*lots* of ornately chiseled sword fittings out there.

No armourer would be making weapons and fixings---different guild! He could have his shop torn down if he was caught doing so!

Thomas

[Bentz]

Forge, chisel, file. Casting of steel in Europe dates to the 1700's and cast iron is not a good material for such things.


Thomas

See, now that makes just so much sense I feel foolish for having asked.

Thanks!

[Signo]

But bronze or brass could have been used to make weapons with a touch of art in it, just thinking to maces heads and those hammers where the head is a fist that hold a dagger.

[Baron Alcyoneus]

But they would be cast, if thick.

[Bentz]

I just noticed on myArmoury.com that there is a post about a Norwegian mace head, 13th/14th c. that looks mighty interesting:

http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=16048

[Thomas Powers]

The one I like was an oriental mace that was the chinese characters for "long life" raised from the central mas as the "flanges". Cast brass and from Stone's Glossary
IIRC


Don't forget that just as there were parade armours there were ceremonial weapons as well. I've seen a ceremonial German mace made from rock crystal in the late medieval/renaissance time period.
Thomas

[Konstantin the Red]

From classical through the high middle ages, you occasionally see metalwork that is intended to be both artistic and functional . . . But let's say a patron in the 14th c. wanted to commission something with more mass that had an artistic bent to it, like a mace head or pommel in the shape of, e.g, an eagle head.

Sounds like you're looking into the sculptural possiblities of a gothic-style flanged mace. You're quite on the right track, for they are numerous. Though I really think they come to their flower in the fifteenth, not the fourteenth. The motifs seemed very much to be those of architecture -- those trefoil piercings and such that you see all over the interior stonework of cathedrals, both Catholic and to some degree more modernly, in Episcopalian church decoration, which often carries gothic and Gothic Revival décor right down to this day. Flanged maces seemed to much favor looking like a bit of some cathedral, sawn out of the decoration and sent to war, all cusps, linear features, stoneworklike facetings, and decorative piercings in the middle of each flange.