The armourer and his craft from the XIth to the XVIth centuryFfoulkes, Charles John
History
The armourer and his craft from the XIth to the XVIth century
Ffoulkes, Charles John
Armor -- History; Armorers; Weapons -- History
Before leaving the subject of tools and appliances, some notice
should be taken of the picture by Jan Breughel (1575-1632) entitled
“Venus at the Forge of Vulcan” (Kais. Friedrich Mus., Berlin,
No. 678), which measures 54 cm. by 93 cm. Here all the various
operations of the armourer and gun-founder are shown, with a
large quantity of armour, weapons, bells, coins, and goldsmith’s
work. The details of especial interest are the grindstones and
“glazing-wheels,” and the “tilt-hammers” worked by water-power,
which were probably the machines used in the “battering-mills” more
than once alluded to above. These water-turned hammers continued
in use in England up to the first quarter of the nineteenth
century,[59] and are still found in Italy at the present day.
They are raised by wooden cams or teeth set round the axle of the
water-wheel, to which a handle is fixed on the near side for use
when water-power was not available. The chisel-edge of the hammer
is for stretching the metal by means of a series of longitudinal
hammerings. Of the grindstones actuated by the same water-power,
the larger would be for rough work, the second for finer finish,
and the smallest, which is probably a wooden “buff,” would be used
for the high polish at the end.
It is impossible here to give a detailed description of this
very interesting picture, which has been considered elsewhere by
the present author.[60] At the same time the tools shown in this
workshop are worthy of notice as being part of the stock-in-trade
of the armourer of the seventeenth century.
[Illustration: _PLATE IX_
FRONT AND BACK OF BRASSARD, 1470
INSIDE OF LEG ARMOUR OF SUIT ON PLATE VIII
CUISSE, 1470]
[Illustration: FIG. 17. Burring-machine or “Jenny” (see
frontispiece).]
To the left of the tilt-hammers, in the foreground, are a pair
of large bench-shears, and above them, on a cooling-trough, just
below the magpie, is a long-handled swage for stamping grooves and
edgings on metal plates. Tongs, pincers, and hammers are found in
many parts of the picture, and dies for stamping coins or medals
are seen immediately below the bench-shears. Directly under the
right foot of Vulcan is a tracing-wheel, similar to that shown
on Jost Amman’s engraving of the “Compass Maker” in his _Book of
Trades_. A small bench-vice lies near the lower margin of the
picture under the figure of Cupid, and a hand-vice and repoussé
hammer on the three-legged stool to the left. In the distance,
over the figure of Venus, is the primitive contrivance for boring
a cannon, the mould for casting which is seen close by in the
floor. The most interesting detail is to be found in the machine
which lies at the foot of the small anvil at Cupid’s right hand.
This bears a strong resemblance to the modern burring-machine or
“jenny,” used for turning up the edge of thin metal plates (Fig.
17).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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