I actually looked into a violin making degree. It is an intensive, highly competitive program. The problem is that anyone that wants and can afford such a handcraft today would rather buy an antique, and there is enough on the market to satisfy that niche. The rest of the violinist are content with modern factory ones at a tenth the cost. So you are priced out of the market before you even get into it.
This is so perfect, like yes a master cabinet maker *could* make a violin, but would they ever do it and would it ever be as good as a violin makers violin?
According to Ottoman court records there were eight different guilds involving swords in Istanbul through 15th to 19th centuries; those were: damascus/bulat steel makers guild; sword blade makers guild; sword blade polishers guild; sword blade sharpeners guild; sword hilt makers guild; scabbard body makers guild; scabbard leather cover makers guild; scabbard fittings makers guild.
And that was basically the same in Europeans capitals. But one thing very important to keep in mind when talking about medieval Europe is how tremendously local regulations were. A cirporative regulation that is highly enforced in Paris, both by local masters whose business depend on and local lordship, won't apply tge slightest just a few dozen kilometers from there in Mâcon for example. On the global scale, regulations have no effect, only competition. But an interesting fact is that not everything had to be specialized. If in Istanbul or Soligen there were 6,7,8 different corporations protecting various trades of the swordmaking process, in another city there might just be three swordmaking workshops importing blades but doing internally all the various tasks, and they could have a regulation adopted, validated by the local lordship, granting them privilege over the selling of swords within the city, and forbidding any finished sword to be imported inside the city. This is how things usually worked. Guilds/corporations were meant to organize competition within the city but also to implement strong protectionism against exterior competition.
@@tomswiftyphilo2504 Well Ottoman court(legal court, not palace court) records of Istanbul are available online, if you can read Turkish you can check it out yourself. www.kadisicilleri.org/ I routinely wordsearch them for any arms and armour related term. It thought me a lot. And my secondary source is Evliya Celebis travel journals (Seyahatname) He writes extensively about all the guilds, artisans and craftsmen of every city of Ottoman empire he visited.
@Marcelo Henrique Soares da Silva Actually guild system in the Ottoman empire comes from Ahi(semi-religious craftsmen order) Order in the Seljuk Sultanate. Ahis were craftsmen/artisan/trader+warrior+dervishes. Ahis were very active in the foundation of the Ottoman state. Ahi leader Şeyh Edebalı was father-in law of the first Ottoman sultan Osman I.
It’s interesting to see how much difficulty folks have thinking about this. They get the idea of “swordmaker”, but larger guild or cooperative networks are far less intuitively comprehensible. And this isn’t just ignorance about the medieval era. It’s a more general difficulty with social structures, which makes it hard to understand our world too. Think of how many products just exist, with little suggestion of the enormously complex chains of raw materials, labour, distribution, and so on.
@Jon Goat Idk. A factory for swords in Sweden in the 1600-1700s was 1. Located at a very wild stream which were used to harness power for a huge hammer. 2. Had to be somewhere close to a river/stream that ended up in the baltics. The iron they used was transported by water for the most part too. This is just geografi that people today do not think about. What really gets me going is the building of warships.. just getting the right kind of wood to the spot where it was supposed to be built. And this is like half a century later compared to the 1200...
I am pretty sure it became famous due to a Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill film: ger. "Zwei Himmelhunde auf dem Weg zur Hölle", itl. "Più forte, ragazzi!", engl. "... All the Way, Boys! / Plane Crazy " Rainer Brandt (synchronization author) in all his glory and indifferent style made this dialogue: - Was hat er denn da? - What does he have? - 'Ne Ansichtskarte aus Solingen. - postcard from Solingen spencerhilldb.de/spruchgrafik.php?spruch=222&big=1
It's funny because Oldschool RuneScape is essentially a kids medieval game but it has Sword shops, Helmet shops, Shield shops, Breastplate shops, Chainmail shops, Leg armour shops, Gauntlet shops, Axe shops, Archery shops, etc etc, as well as having loads of different types of guilds spread across the map (granted it's a fantasy game so there are Magic guilds as well as the normal Bowman's guilds, Crafting guilds, Lumberjack guilds etc)
Celtic swords look good, now those Germanic swords were another different thing, as the Viking swords were basically Frankish copies of Spathas from the late Roman period
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 So Germanic swords being copies of spatha is something i used to think too, but it turns out it's not right. I believe Matt may have covered this in a older video. In fact it may have been the other way around with the spatha. In typical Roman fashion they may have been impressed by certain Germanic swords and mass produced what worked, in the exact same way they "borrowed the large shields from the Celts, and gladius sword from the Iberians. Either way It wasn't quite the case that the Germanic peoples simply copied spatha from the Romans.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Oh absolutely they look similar, however with some key differences too. I also have no doubt that both swords may have influenced each other, and there was cases of Roman soldiers inspecting period Germanic swords, and likewise Germans who looted or purchased a Spatha. So some technological cross pollination wouldn't be surprising. Still the Germanic sword or what allot of people would call a "Viking" sword does seem to be a native creation of those peoples, not simply a copy.
Apropos: I buy my practice swords mainly from Castille here in the United States. And I break them. At least annually. Obviously a break in the blade means the blade gets replaced because safety, but for breaks in the basket hilt, or the tang I go to my local blacksmith. Because I am in Massachusetts and my swordmaker is 3,000 miles away in Oregon. It occurred to me after a few repairs to ask him if he would be willing to venture making a basket himself. The answer was not quite, "No." But, was near enough to "if I did that, I would have to charge you as much as the cost of a whole sword." So, the economy of getting someone local to make a repair is still greater than shipping a part off to be refurbished, but the economy of fabricating even one part is in the favor of the specialist.
If you break a sword blade every year, maybe you need a new swordmaker. Sword blades shouldn't be breaking that frequently unless you're doing unbelievably stupid things with them, and if you are then you should probably not own swords.
@@somerando1073 Swords break. I've seen a blade from a reputable maker , though never mine, break first time of use. If you aren't breaking swords, you're not really trying.
The biggest iron mining complex in Europe during high medieval times is the Erzberg in today's Austria. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzberg It has been producing iron from the 11th century onwards. The surrounding water powered industry, both in the Eisenwurzen north of the mountain (Upper Austria) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenwurzen and that south of the mountain (Styria) provided iron and steel products for most of central Europe. The iron ore of the Erzberg is rather special in that it contains basically no phospor, sulfur or other unwanted elements. Combined with the plentiful water power and lots of woods for charcoal, that made the production of high quality carbon steel much easier. Knifes and swords were esp made a bit north in and around Steyr (200 protestant knife smith masters emmigrated due to religious troubles in the late 1620s and went to make Solingen a real center of knife production; yes, Solingen had already had some knife and swordsmiths before, but only at a rather limited scale). The area also exported semi-finished wrought iron bars (Halbzeug) that then were transformed into specialized products (incl swords) in imperial cities like Augsburg and Nürnberg, in Graz to the south east and the North Italian cities. By the 1550s the area was exporting millions of knifes and hundreds of thousands of scythes per year. 1,5 million knifes went to the Ottoman Empire alone every year, before Archduke Ferdinand I (brother of Charles V, and his successor as Emperor) banned all iron exports to the Turk for strategic reasons. (One of many such embargoes, it was as usual circumvented by trade via Venice and the PLC ...) PS There is another Erzberg further south in Carinthia (owned by the Archbishopric of Salzburg for much of the medieval period), which already provided the iron for much of the Roman iron industry, aka "ferrum noricum". That ore also has very limited phosphor or sulfur in it and has a rather high and steady manganese content. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCttenberger_Erzberg
@@F1ghteR41 Nearby Markettown of Bad Hall was "the most important halberd-maker in the 16th Century central-europe" (www.ooegeschichte.at/fileadmin/media/migrated/bibliografiedb/ejpe_1999_4_2000_1_026-028.pdf) Ferrum Noricum was a thing before. Tradition?
I grew up in Iserlohn, Germany (lit. Iron Wood, for the iron deposits beneath and the forests surrounding it), which used to be famous for its chainmail (or at least that's what the local museum claims) and later nibs ("Die beste Feder, lieber Sohn, ist die von Brause - Iserlohn", "The best nib, dear son, is that from Brause - Iserlohn"). These days, there's still Thiele making chains of all sizes (including anchor chains for the biggest ships), but I think they're all that's left in that regard.
This is one of the things I really like about Kingdom Come deliverance: the father who made the sword for Lord Radzig was the village blacksmith yes, but it was made very clear that he had been a blade smith in Prague, who settled down after a war to live in peace as “just a mere blacksmith”. And he even had the guard and pommel engraved by a specialised craftsman in Prague. Also I really wish there was a larger industry of selling bare blades for swords. Because while I do not have the means to forge a blade myself, I’m pretty confident I could hilt one, and I REALLY want to try that.
I believe forging your own weapon was part of the plan, but the devs didn't have enough time to polish the system. Maybe they'll have it in kingdom come 2.
You've hit on a truth that is totally widespread. So many people these days, probably as always, have an almost dangerously over-simplified take on life and how society, economics, sociology, psychology, etc., and most certainly technology . All the while they think they are well versed in all these aspects of life. You've done a good job with explaining this specific topic.
Over simplification in politics today has become especially dangerous and contributes to the extreme political polarization and bickering in the United States.
@@Intranetusa Indeed, that can be especially dangerous for society. It happens not only in your great USA, but same thing here in Canada - except we have a plurality of parties, yet the same problems of polarization and bickering and worse happen here too. My guess is that it is an increasing worldwide phenomena.
@Intranet @Canadian Cutting Edge You’re so right, and it’s so sad. “If I’m not being elected again, it will have been a fraud, and there will be civil war!”
In Germany, there were even specialist individuals (Schwertfeger) who sharpened and polished the blades (using water-powered equipment), in separate guilds from the swordsmith. Often even the sword was hardened by yet another party, a specialised sword hardener, especially in the big centres of sword production such as Nürnberg, Solingen, Regensburg, Steyr. So you could have one person forging the blade, another one hardening it, another one polishing, maybe another one assembling it (but this was later often done by the Schwertfeger) and then maybe a jeweller embellishing it with gems, gold or silver. Up to five specialised, highly trained craftspeople. A far cry from the Skyrim village smith making swords in a small pit of coals and sharpening them on a small grindstone.
Would be a lot more if we were talking not swords but normal knifes and scythes. While more traditional methods were used in the 15th/16th century, since 1583 (when guild restricitons were mostly lifted by the Emperor for the purpose) the Austrian scythe makers were allowed to bundle all the steps in one location and under one (legal) roof, from the "Sensenzain" (a special block of iron produced by some foundries) to the final scythe, seperating the process into 40 discreete steps and using water power for basically all of them. By 1630, the average scythe factory in the Eisenwurzen was producing 22'000 scythes / year. Such a factory had - one big waterpowered hammer to draw out the original piece of iron lenght wise ("zainen") - one big waterpowered hammer to widen / flatten the blade ("breiten") - diverse small water powered hammers for forming the blade and adding the edge - water powered grindstones for sharpening - about 5 hearths By 1584 already, the Jörger von Tollet family, Lords of Scharnstein e.g. invested in the industry and built five such factories in their barony. By 1784 there were roughly 100 such factories. Fifty of them belonged to only 5 families. One survived into our days: th-cam.com/video/Fauy-YZTthM/w-d-xo.html de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Gmunden_Landschloss_Ort_-_Wappen_4_J%C3%B6rger.jpg This video shows how it still was done in the early 20th century th-cam.com/video/yP7J4VkBWck/w-d-xo.html Another example of factory-like production of iron products in earlier times: Between 1500 and 1506, the Austrian town of Thörl alone produced 1'450 heavy iron cannon and 10'000 light wall guns for the armies of Emperor Maximilian. Then production was switched to cheaper bronze foundries and other towns (next to copper deposits) took over.
Some years ago, the Eickhorn company again started producing sabers . The company says, the last Schwertfegermeister alive would be involved in production.
Even when modern industrial production of knives took off, up to the 1960s there were still people specialized in just making the wooden grips in small workshops. th-cam.com/video/a6YnsgieLRo/w-d-xo.html
Taking the whole economic system a bit further: Wouldn't you get a sword from a merchant, not directly from the manufacturer? At least usually. That would take one even farther away from the village blacksmith. :) I mean, all those blades manufactured in Toledo or wherever had to be transported, perhaps assembled locally and who would organize that if not merchants?
Well, not that many commoners bought their own weapons. If you are, say, a Duke, you might have your own armorers making simple swords for your small army, and a gilded version for yourself ... Or you might buy wholesale ...
I think that the answer is mostly no, because in medieval Europe, the sword market wasn't as complex as it is now, and there were less intermediates between the product and the client, mainly because the sword market specifically was intended either for powerful individuals in charge of arming their troops, or rich individuals that would buy custom made equipment. In either way, there isn't much place for an intermediate merchant as the Lords would get their order commissioned by one of their subordinates, and the rich individuals would speak directly with a head of the workshop to get their custom weapons made exactly the way they wanted.
@@cedricathlan9399 Yeah more brokers than merchants, but in parts of Europe it was legal(or required!) for people to be armed, and merchants for that market certainly existed. As well as minor nobility that didn't have armies, but might have a small household guard. Nobility wasn't just the royalty, dukes, barons, counts, viscounts, and earls, etc.There's landed knights, various aristocrats, etc. Heck all that came with a Baronet title was the right to be addressed as Sir, and that was still a hereditary title.
@@cedricathlan9399 I'm not so sure about the "Emperors sword maker". They all had to pay for it and the sword maker made swords even when they didn't had orders from top customers and made a living with that.
There were also "Whitesmiths", who worked with light metals.. Blacksmiths broke up into specializations in a handful of things, even bladesmiths broke up between knives and swords...
And we can put a rough date (a few hundred years is a rough date right?) to the time that Blacksmiths "formally" started specializing, earlier then 1356, since the Worshipful Company of Farriers was formed that year, so we know it began before that date. It would be kind of interesting to see a list of Guilds and their formation dates, to see what information can be gleamed from it
_See, little Matty, when a blacksmith and a slab of steel love each other very much, and vow to stay together forever, some day, after a nice dinner, they may sit to consider things in their proper CONTEXT. This then may or may not involve PENETRATION. And so on, and so on . . ._
I think it's rather like how I bought my most recent sword. I spoke with someone who sells swords. The type I wanted was not one he had already in stock so he then hires a dedicated sword forge to make it. Once it's finished HE pays the smith, then transfers the sword to me and I pay HIM. And I can guarantee that I pay more to the vendor than that vendor payed to the sword making guild for that smith to forge it. (Hmm? Oh, it's a Frontier Tang Dao (MKII I'll add) by LKChen )
It's a joy looking AND listening these new videos! Good thing you got better microphone finally.. Been watching these occasionally but will definitely watch more often now that the sound is A LOT better. Cheers from Finland!
Bejeweled hilts only add a +1 to hit and don't add anything to damage, so you're usually better off buying an enchanted weapon. Unless, of course, you're trying to buy expensive weapons, rather than carrying around a whole bunch of coins and getting encumbered...
Thanks a lot from a french game master, this point of view on the different specialties in swordmaking and surely all the others type of weapons and armors opens up a lot of scenarii inspirations. Thanks again for all my players, they will learn a little more of the medieval way of living. Greetings from France.
You're absolutely correct. And I'm glad to see you pointing out that hilt-making was often a separate process! Not only would it typically have been done outside the blade-making industry, it was often done in stages; each aspect possibly being an entirely separate contract. Even the wooden cores to the handles would often be given rough shapes and bored through, in batches; the final dimensions being reached in the hands of yet another crafts-person. Even tradespeople who carved designs and did scrawl-work in hilt furniture would typically be in their own guild; the Gravers Guild, in fact. Saying that your average blacksmith would be the go-to person for all your sword needs, demonstrates a profound ignorance of the topic.
What a coincidence you published this video today. I was just wondering earlier today about Jean de Joinville's description of St. Louis during the Battle of Mansoorah where he says the king had a German sword. I wondered if that meant the sword was aesthetically distinct as German, perhaps a mid-13th century Germanic longsword or something. However, Joinville personally knew the king well and would've probably known where his sword was made so he may have just been saying it was made of good quality German steel.
Then, as now, there were probably professional arms dealers: *"Duke X needs 5,000 standard, armory-grade blades for his troops, from the lowest bidder: what's your best offer?"* Of course, individual soldiers could sometimes upgrade their weapons right on the battlefield: *"Hey, that's a nice sword there. Poor bugger doesn't need it any more..."* (the "Nobby" Nobbs system of arms dealing)
Sure there were. This guy for instance de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebald_P%C3%B6gl_der_%C3%84ltere was a weapons maker and dealer and became the main arms manufacturer for Emperor Maximilian I. Between 1500 and 1506, he made his hometown of Thörl produce 1'450 heavy iron cannon and 10'000 light wall guns for the imperial army. Then production was switched to cheaper bronze foundries and other towns (next to copper deposits) and producers took over the heavy gun business.
Depends on the period. Usually loot was all collected and sold and then the money divided among the troops. So you often couldn't just take a fancy weapon from the field. Unless you did a very good job concealing it. But yes blades were made in specialist workshops and sold to dealers who would sell them on to clients.
Based on the quality of content I've become accustomed to here, this is one of the rare channels that invokes high expectations with every new release and never fails to deliver. Really great stuff 👌 thanks
I wonder if a blacksmith would even be legally allowed to make and sell swords. From what I understand the medieval economy wasn't exactly a free market. The giving and receiving of licenses seems to have been a big part of the political and economic model.
Even if he couldn't, remember there was basically no law enforcement outside cities (and in the early middle ages guilds didn't exist yet). The much bigger barriers for your random village blacksmith were knowledge, getting the materials and finding a market - you're not going to make much selling high quality swords to random farmers.
@@mrd1433 Only if they knew. I don't think some village smith making (probably extremely crappy) swords would even register on their radar. (And obviously this only applies in the periods when guilds existed.)
@@Robert399 When that unmarked blade somehow ended up needing repair or custom work at some point in time and ended up at a guild establishment by chance unmarked, they would know about it and find out where it came from. Or if it made it's way to a shop as a used item or whatever. They would know. Makers marks were there for a reason. Obviously if the blade never left some remote village because it was never used they wouldn't know about it however nobody in that remote village would have it made for no reason either. If they had the money, they could probably buy a better quality recycled sword in the city anyway. We know there were fakes around.........but I suspect the guilds kept a watchful eye as well.
Guilds. Universities. Architecture. Philosophy. Theology. Perfectioning of gunpowder. Alchemy (protochemistry). Roads. The emergence of A LOT of towns in the countryside. Agriculture. The black death spread very fast for two reasons (and possibly a third) 1) a lot of roads and commerce 2) a lot of agriculture, which means more people. 3) I don't know why nobody says this but it's likely that the medieval plague was different from the one that happened in India in the 19th century which spread only with rats and it's the basis they use to say "oh look this plague in 19th century India had to be exactly the same as the plague in medieval Europe". Some diseases (not all) with the same microorganisms can change over the centuries . It's likely that the medieval plague was also passed on via air transmission. But for some reason people only focus in speaking about the rats. The numbers don't make sense if it was transmitted only via the rats. To sum it up, t is believed that the medieval black dead plague could have been a pneumonic plague (airborne) rather than a bubonic plague. But well, people who hate the middle ages keep repeating "rats here rats there rat rat rat". Aaaand.. they never mention that this disease devastated a lot of places before devastating medieval Europe. It devastated a lot of regions of China. It devastated Egypt. Byzantium. Etc. It's almost as if they have something personal against the Middle Ages.
@@galenusv7831 Waterpower. You forgot waterpower. They built on Roman tech, improved upon it and then ran with it. No other place on earth during medieval and early modern times made as much use of water power for industrial purposes than did the HRE and France (and with a bit of delay, England). Cities like Augsburg or Nürnberg had hundreds of water powered workshops within their citylimits. The industrial revolution didnt start in Europe due to an accident. The Arabs / Ottomans in the south didnt have enough year-round reliable sources of water. Neither did Spain or Sicily. The Chinese needed their water for rice paddies. Chinese Emperors led repeated campaigns to destroy illegal watermills to better feed the population. Northern European rulers encouraged the built up of as many mills as possible.
"people who come from a roleplaying and video game background may not know very much about the medieval guild systems." PFF I'll have you know sir I played Oblivion and I am the grey fox of the thieves guild, thank you very much. So that pretty much makes me an expert in medieval guilds. /s
As the half elf, part time rogue explorer, grand master of my fictional fantasy universe brewing guild, I'm deeply offended by this comment. The butthurt I'm feeling can't even be described lol.
Since I was the listener of the dark brotherhood, guild master of the fighters guild, arch-mage of the mages guild, grey fox as you mentioned, and probably something else I am forgetting. Does that mean I am even more of an expert? /jk
Interesting that you bring up the Auto industry. I am quite familiar with that sector. You are right that many parts are outsourced, even ones that appear relatively simple. For example, I did some work in a plant that made camshafts for Toyota, Ford, GM, and Honda, all I see one roof. If there was a camshaft bid out, they would try for it.
I even imagine a talented young man disappointing his father saying "dad i decided to move to the city and be a blademaker!" "pox on you! who's gonna help me with those 400 horseshoes now? I know you just wanna go with them wenches of yours! disgrace! good for nothing!" *throws random tools after the kid*
People underestimate how segmented the professions were in medieval cities. In many places there was a legal distinction between people who repaired or made shoes from old leather, and those that were allowed to make shoes from new leather and further among those that could make shoes vs boots. A man caught stepping outside the bounds of his remit could spark a street battle and/or prison time. A more general practice of the trade would likely be more village bound. You would even have a separate class of embellishers.
I remember reading somewhere about guild records (in late 14th century London I believe) that a blade maker was adding hilts, and selling finished blades. This resulted in his shop getting trashed by the guild of cutlers responsible for hilting blades.
This video is spot on. There is a reason where bladesmiths, armourers and blacksmiths all had their roles in the smithing universe( and their proper guilds). Your point that a village blacksmith could have made a functional weapon is spot on. But he couldn't have made a fine blade that would be respected. Matt's knowledge is impressive.
about Solingen you might be partially wrong - there might have been some Iron and blade work there, but it became big, when the Protestant Knife smith were chased out of the Steyr Valley in Upper Austria - those went to Solingen. Grünburg and other Villages in the Steyr and Enns Valley lost out to Industrie in the 20th Century. The biggest place of Iron works in the middle Ages, was the Enns Valley in Upper Austria, down from the Erzberg, the "Iron mountain", called the Eisenwurzen, "Root of Iron". I'm coming from a Village there. A Friend of mine, who took over his grandfathers workshop is the last knifemaker in the Steyr Valley. The Village Smith makes Swords and Armour for the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.
Best and most important and interesting video you have done recently. The medieval sword industry is so misunderstood and under studied. The reality is far more interesting and multi faceted than the 'village blacksmith' trope. It was basically industrial in te big centres, water powered trip hammers and grinders etc.
Or as another example - tune a car or bike engine. Any competent garage can do things according to the manual; but if you want to go racing, see a specialist. I once had a difficult carburettor problem which my usual guy couldn't fix. So, I took it to a local specialist. As I paid him (it was something ridiculous, like a fiver), he remarked that I hadn't asked him to check the valve clearances so he hadn't, but they were a bit wide - something like 3 and 5 instead of 2 and 4. He was within a thou; all done by ear.
Great video as always, Matt! I'd just like to add, however, that the guild system wasn't common to all of Europe. In Iberia, for example, you only got the first Castilian 'gremios' in the 13th century, and in Portugal you only get 'corporações' at the end of the 15th century. You did have confraternities, but those were of a religious nature, they didn't administer professional exams or survey the work of its members. Artisans in Iberia worked at more of an individual level, with quality standards and requirements expressed in municipal rules or royal legislation instead of a guild system ensuring a certain level of quality.
On the subject of sending out blades without grips so a grip can be fitted by someone to the preference the end user, something like that is still done today with fancy target pistols (like the kind used in the Olympics): They ship with large piece of wood that’s only vaguely in the shape of a grip (if that) so it can be cut down to match the end-user’s hand by a local specialist. (Slightly less high end guns just have replaceable grips).
Great video, Matt. I think it's fair to say that the blacksmiths in medieval/medieval fantasy games (of all types) are more misnamed weaponsmiths than actual blacksmiths. It's funny but a simple shift of the title in these games would really help with this misconception (one this video dispelled for me, so thank you!).
I find this subject fascinating. When I learned to smith it was at a US western "living history museum," specifically Utah's This Is The Place Monument. And frontier smiths couldn't specialize, as there just wasn't enough smiths, and especially equipment for smithing available. So when I volunteered there, I made horse and oxen shoes, hinges, nails, door hasps, farm implements, etc. And certainly in 1847 when the Mormons were establishing territory some smiths would have made combat weapons. Anyone who can pound out a knife can form some type of long knife or short sword, the principles are similar enough. Of course it wouldn't be elegant, but it would be functional. So.I find it unusual that when peasants, not professional soldiers mind you, were mustered that many didn't just go to John the smith who would take a hog for the work to get a passable but certainly not fashionable side arm. You've definitely given me a lot to think about here.
But they are not made by just village blacksmiths. Most of those smiths will buy steel produced to a standard made elsewhere, the other steels for other parts from other distributors an international supply chain connecting the village blacksmith. I think that is the author's point. Things really have not changed much really. We do the same things different ways.
@@alwaysbearded1 nah, the difference is significant. Swords are made by a single entity nowadays. Just a smith or a company. Back then, the sword manufacturing steps were handled by separate entities. Individual smiths who make swords are a common sight now, as well. Steel doesn't even factor into that.
I have an excellent book on the era, particularly 12th century France, and the most common guild in Paris at the time, by far, was the shoe makers guild.
It's the same with rifles today. Few firearms manufacturers make their own barrels outside of Daniel Defense, Remington, Colt, Fabrika National, etc. Most purchase barrels and some other parts, especially for the AR-15 platform.
I am always particularly interested if the video content also sheds light on people and society in the Middle Ages. So yes! interesting video and most certainly a like!
Just as today, there was great variation in the quality and workmanship of commercially available products in medieval times. Better quality, more valuable weapons are much more likely to have been preserved, so its possible that there may have been more low quality, locally produced weapons around then, than are evidenced today. For purely practical reasons, most people would have carried, or at least owned a knife, so basic blade manufacture must have been a reasonably widespread skill. A knight certainly wouldn't have gone to a village blacksmith to get a sword, but equally a housewife in Scotland wasn't going to send off to Toledo to get a new kitchen knife. I wouldn't have thought it was totally implausible that some blacksmiths could extrapolate the skills used to manufacture knives and tools to make low-end weapons if required.
Very interesting topic. Can you also talk about other sources of medieval swords? Like do swords from the dead on a battlefield get looted and put back into circulation? Also, can you talk about how changes in sword styles and technology was transferred across countries and geographic regions?
You see, European swords grow from a type of seed called the swordseed or people today call it sword pummel. As a balcksmith, you have to grow them and you must grow them rightly...
Well ... to be even more pedantic, in medieval times a blacksmith was usually considered a broader category, of a smith working with iron, as opposed to a redsmith / Rotschmied (copper, brass) or whitesmith / Weissschmied (tin etc). A medieval knifesmith or swordsmith* thus does qualify as a blacksmith in that sense. *At least in the HRE most swordmakers started out as knife maker apprentices and only specialized towards swordmakers during their journeyman phase, if they could get an open spot.
@@scottmacgregor3444 Actually, cutlers were the handle makers. They were the last ones to handle the sword or knife in the making process and usually the one who sold it to the public.
If you think about, really gives you even that much more respect for current high quality makers. Like Tod and That Works to name a couple here on youtube. Not only do we have higher expectations now then in period but they have to master all these different specialties.
Better analogy would be to ask mechanic local garage to make F1 car, using whatever car parts he want. He could weld frame that is somewhat like F1 frame, get some high performance engine in it, put large tyres and spoilers. It would look roughly like F1 car, but in matters of actual performance they would be very different.
But where did you actually go to buy the sword then? To the jeweler who finished the grip? Did the jeweler send the finished sword back to a sword guild, which then had its own stoefront? Or did merchants buy the swords from the guild to travel from town to town selling their wares?
If local, the "cutler" who assembled the final handle is usually who sold it. if it's an imported blade you'd get it from the traveling merchant then take it to your local cutler to finish it up how you wanted it.
Abt Guilds is very interesting the history of Florence guilds or corporations called “Arti di Firenze” or “Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri”. One of the firsts social-economic syndicate like entities to came in existence around the beginning of the XIIth century, that made Florence rich and powerful. And Yes, sword makers guild was one of those (sword makers and armorers guild)
You know, the complexity of crafting such a "simple" thing as swords with various guilds taking part in would be awesome for a MMORPG, granting that sweet sweet interdependency that should be the core of the game. Imagine if you have to choose wether you made blades, hilts, polished or hardened the stuff. puts another emphasis on guilds (hey that's the term!) since it'll be some kind of hassle to come by all necessary components if you got to scour trade chat and Auction house all by yourself, instead of having a small production line set up within the guild or clan.
Au contraire my little British sword enthusiast. The Britten V1000 was a custom motorcycle built from scratch by Kiwi John Britten. Factories wish they could accomplish what he did with that bike.
Well... I was actually going to mention Mr Britten. But, a) not a mechanic, but more of an engineering prodigy b) here we are talking about him decades later because he's that one guy that managed to do that (because he was uncommonly brilliant, gifted, but also driven) and c) I think he's not a case of "on the contrary" but rather the exception that proves the rule. I'm certain those exceptions existed in medieval Europe among the various artisans and craftsmen, but by and large, they were as rare and remarkable as someone like John Britten. (And what an AWESOME story he is though!!!)
Great video and good points, as always. I have two questions though: In order to get the right equipment and material, wouldn’t you have to be a member of that particular guild in the first place? And even if you somehow gathered all the things necessary and made a sword, wouldn’t there be some legal consequences?
I think I remember shad making a video about how messers may have been made the way they were so members of knife guilds could make them. Not that they lacked the skills to make normal swords, but they wouldn't have been allowed to.
This make me want to order a blade from Pavel Moc, ship it to Tod for the hilt, and ship it Maciej Kopciuch for a scabbard; something like that. Would be an amazing piece!
To round out the answer, would it have been more typical for the end user to buy a sword blade and then go commission a hilt, or would a merchant commission the hilt and sell a completed sword? Or did it vary -- maybe with fancy swords a noble would buy the blade and commission a custom hilt, vs a cheaper footsoldier's sword they would be outfitted with a standard hilt by the merchant before being sold?
There is a BMW plant in my home county . The plant creates nothing from raw materials , it assembles parts that come in from contract suppliers . I believe that this is for the most part how weapons were manufactured in the Medieval period . Some custom work may have been done on a limited scale for wealthier persons though .
when a daddy sword loves a mommy sword very much? Storks! It’s also interesting to note that regional trade occurred well back into pre history. Sting ray spikes were traded into central Australia 40,000 years ago. trade is intrinsic to mankind.
I was reading earlier about a Scottish Lowland basket hilt from about 1700 which had a German blade from 1570. Very interesting. Blade exports from German lands and others did certainly happen.
Your video has given me food for thought as a roll player, however most roll playing settings are "fantasy". Also as a classic car person, you I-drive example reminds me of companies like Lucas and Bosch.
Blacksmith did make the plows too and other needed tools. Depending on their workload they make sometimes knifes for a little bit extra on the side. In times of war, spear tips are the thing. So a skilled blacksmith with experience in his field could make a sword, but it would take ages.
I’m looking for either a Viking era sword or arming sword, but I want one that’s really fast. I don’t want it blade heavy, I like the balance back towards my hand as far as possible. That’s fine with me. I like it to be lightning. And for my Arming sword or viking sword, I’m looking for one that’s really good, high-quality, and having a really light fast balance as opposed to heavy choppy balance. You’ll always get somebody who says that you just need to be stronger and and on and on, they love it wonderfully and their tip heavy sword has blade authority - and that’s fine, but I like my swords fast. What swords such as I describe do you know about that would be a perfect choice for me?
Something with serious distal taper. Viking swords are beefy as well as arming swords. I've had both. A company like Albion , Arms n' Armor or Del Tin, could make you the sword you want, just go into great detail, they are great to work with and are very attentive to the customer's needs.
Constantinople was also a major manufacturer and exporter of blades and hilts. Constantinopolitan swords were exported as far as Scotland at the height of the empire.
I did not realize different people would make the blade and the hilt. Thanks for the information. I know this isn't your area of expertise, but why was the small caparisoned horse included in the illustration at 6:09? It looks too small to be ridden in battle and need armor.
I didn't realize there was sword production in London. I'm aware of the armorers in Greenwich, mostly through Toby Capwell's spectacular documentary on English plate armor in the 16th century, but hadn't heard of any sword production. You learn something new every day.
There were also armourers in London in the 14th and 15th centuries, as they are mentioned in proclamations of the time. Apparently foreign armour was being imported and then stamped with London maker marks, to be able to sell it at a higher price, so they were trying to stamp out that illegal practice.
@@Greensleeve11 Product piracy is big business, especially today. Amazon being the largest enabler and often perpetrator. Not like those copyright trolls that chase after grandmothers and small time TH-cam channels.
Reminds me of Tiffany Swords. They were highly respected swords. They did not make the blades. You could say the same about 19th century flintlocks. The lock was made in England, Remington made barrels and some maker made the stocks and assembled the gun. The fact that it had a Remington barrel and an English lock did not lesson the quality, it increased it.
Much like America in the 18th century, triangular blades were produced by bayonet ,bladesmiths, hilts were primarily made of silver, hence Silversmiths. Interesting trade off.
I could imagine that the village blacksmith sold older swords - as in buy bunches of old swords when he could. To use as metall for other things, but sorting out and sell the swords who was not quite at the scrapheap level.
cool topic, didn't really think about it before and it makes a lot of sense to have high level of specialization. however, let's compare medieval sword industry with roman empires sword industry. as I recall, and if i'm wrong correct me here, the empire had almost mass produced gladius swords, most likely because it was a standard part of soldiers equipment and a main weapon (in mot cases), where in medieval periods sword, even though not rare, was much more of a status symbol, backup weapon, etc. still, thinking more on it, there were a lot o soldiers (like archers) who had a sword as a backup weapon and they certainly didn't had the money to buy 'fancy', for example, a Toledo swords so they had to get them from somewhere and those weren't of the highest quality (i'm guessing here). Since you mentioned guilds, I'm also certain that they had some level of standardization to the level of quality for their products so maybe those swords that didn't pass that 'Guild test' were sold to more common soldiers for a lower price. also, i most likely didn't take into the account that soldiers in medieval times had to get their own equipment (unlike roman legions after the Marian reforms) and many more factors, just saying that this is an extremely interesting topic!
Actually, especially in late medieval times, they had mass production of swords in the HRE that surpassed the original Romans. Mostly, because technology for both foundries (water powered bellows, allowing for higher furnaces) and water powered hammers had improved a lot over these 1000 years.
THANK YOU!!! I can't even begin to count the number of times I've rolled my eyes at the portrayals in games and movies of the village blacksmith as a master bladesmith. If the village blacksmith DID make a sword, it probably ended up looking something like an Uruk-Hai sword from LOTR! Yes, it will cut... but it will probably be poorly balanced, either too heavy or dangerously weak, and won't hold an edge worth a damn.
I do wonder if bills/voulges were popular because they were something you could pick up more locally and perhaps cheaper than a 'proper' weapon. I'm sure part of it was familiarity of use, being ideal for "common countrie men who were unschooled in the use of the more efficacious halberd.", and certainly later they must have been made in dedicate weaponsmiths. I doubt the 1000 bills from the tower armouries sent to the colonies by king James were made originally by village blacksmiths, but perhaps earlier on they were something you could get from the village blacksmith or at least the nearest town. Maybe you would get served a notice by the spearmakers guild for making pointy implements, but if it was a bill you were okay. The guild systems must have come along with price fixing etc.
Suits of armor might have the parts made by the armorer, etched/engraved by an artist then shipped to a jeweler for decorative gilding/gilded additions and finally have the straps and clasps finalised by yet another craftsman. All regulated.
Sometime in the distant future: "Where did 20th century violins come from?" - "From a carpenter, obviously."
lol, just as absurd, but I can imagine that tbh.
I actually looked into a violin making degree. It is an intensive, highly competitive program. The problem is that anyone that wants and can afford such a handcraft today would rather buy an antique, and there is enough on the market to satisfy that niche. The rest of the violinist are content with modern factory ones at a tenth the cost. So you are priced out of the market before you even get into it.
This is so perfect, like yes a master cabinet maker *could* make a violin, but would they ever do it and would it ever be as good as a violin makers violin?
Where do modern firearms come from? From the machine shop, obviously.
Where does milk come from? (rolls eyes) "From the supermarket, obviously"
According to Ottoman court records there were eight different guilds involving swords in Istanbul through 15th to 19th centuries; those were: damascus/bulat steel makers guild; sword blade makers guild; sword blade polishers guild; sword blade sharpeners guild; sword hilt makers guild; scabbard body makers guild; scabbard leather cover makers guild; scabbard fittings makers guild.
And that was basically the same in Europeans capitals. But one thing very important to keep in mind when talking about medieval Europe is how tremendously local regulations were. A cirporative regulation that is highly enforced in Paris, both by local masters whose business depend on and local lordship, won't apply tge slightest just a few dozen kilometers from there in Mâcon for example. On the global scale, regulations have no effect, only competition.
But an interesting fact is that not everything had to be specialized. If in Istanbul or Soligen there were 6,7,8 different corporations protecting various trades of the swordmaking process, in another city there might just be three swordmaking workshops importing blades but doing internally all the various tasks, and they could have a regulation adopted, validated by the local lordship, granting them privilege over the selling of swords within the city, and forbidding any finished sword to be imported inside the city. This is how things usually worked. Guilds/corporations were meant to organize competition within the city but also to implement strong protectionism against exterior competition.
show your work please! I'd love to know more.
@@tomswiftyphilo2504 Well Ottoman court(legal court, not palace court) records of Istanbul are available online, if you can read Turkish you can check it out yourself. www.kadisicilleri.org/ I routinely wordsearch them for any arms and armour related term. It thought me a lot. And my secondary source is Evliya Celebis travel journals (Seyahatname) He writes extensively about all the guilds, artisans and craftsmen of every city of Ottoman empire he visited.
@Marcelo Henrique Soares da Silva Actually guild system in the Ottoman empire comes from Ahi(semi-religious craftsmen order) Order in the Seljuk Sultanate. Ahis were craftsmen/artisan/trader+warrior+dervishes. Ahis were very active in the foundation of the Ottoman state. Ahi leader Şeyh Edebalı was father-in law of the first Ottoman sultan Osman I.
It’s interesting to see how much difficulty folks have thinking about this. They get the idea of “swordmaker”, but larger guild or cooperative networks are far less intuitively comprehensible. And this isn’t just ignorance about the medieval era. It’s a more general difficulty with social structures, which makes it hard to understand our world too. Think of how many products just exist, with little suggestion of the enormously complex chains of raw materials, labour, distribution, and so on.
@Jon Goat Idk. A factory for swords in Sweden in the 1600-1700s was 1. Located at a very wild stream which were used to harness power for a huge hammer. 2. Had to be somewhere close to a river/stream that ended up in the baltics. The iron they used was transported by water for the most part too. This is just geografi that people today do not think about. What really gets me going is the building of warships.. just getting the right kind of wood to the spot where it was supposed to be built. And this is like half a century later compared to the 1200...
According to a German friend of mine, "a postcard from Solingen" refers to a knife in the ribs.
That's actually true.
As someone from Solingen I can confirm
"Schönen Gruß aus Solingen!"
Should have used ALLCAPS there
I am pretty sure it became famous due to a Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill film: ger. "Zwei Himmelhunde auf dem Weg zur Hölle", itl. "Più forte, ragazzi!", engl. "... All the Way, Boys! / Plane Crazy "
Rainer Brandt (synchronization author) in all his glory and indifferent style made this dialogue:
- Was hat er denn da? - What does he have?
- 'Ne Ansichtskarte aus Solingen. - postcard from Solingen
spencerhilldb.de/spruchgrafik.php?spruch=222&big=1
@@PapstJL4U Nah. It was Monty Pythons Holy Grail. The german dub of course
It's funny because Oldschool RuneScape is essentially a kids medieval game but it has Sword shops, Helmet shops, Shield shops, Breastplate shops, Chainmail shops, Leg armour shops, Gauntlet shops, Axe shops, Archery shops, etc etc, as well as having loads of different types of guilds spread across the map (granted it's a fantasy game so there are Magic guilds as well as the normal Bowman's guilds, Crafting guilds, Lumberjack guilds etc)
also had a functioning economy....sort of.
When a migration area Germanic sword and a Celtic sword love each other very much....
Ah, Blackadder.
Celtic swords look good, now those Germanic swords were another different thing, as the Viking swords were basically Frankish copies of Spathas from the late Roman period
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 So Germanic swords being copies of spatha is something i used to think too, but it turns out it's not right. I believe Matt may have covered this in a older video.
In fact it may have been the other way around with the spatha. In typical Roman fashion they may have been impressed by certain Germanic swords and mass produced what worked, in the exact same way they "borrowed the large shields from the Celts, and gladius sword from the Iberians. Either way It wasn't quite the case that the Germanic peoples simply copied spatha from the Romans.
@@-Zevin- yeah, but i wouldn't say that if they weren't similar
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Oh absolutely they look similar, however with some key differences too. I also have no doubt that both swords may have influenced each other, and there was cases of Roman soldiers inspecting period Germanic swords, and likewise Germans who looted or purchased a Spatha. So some technological cross pollination wouldn't be surprising.
Still the Germanic sword or what allot of people would call a "Viking" sword does seem to be a native creation of those peoples, not simply a copy.
Apropos: I buy my practice swords mainly from Castille here in the United States. And I break them. At least annually. Obviously a break in the blade means the blade gets replaced because safety, but for breaks in the basket hilt, or the tang I go to my local blacksmith. Because I am in Massachusetts and my swordmaker is 3,000 miles away in Oregon.
It occurred to me after a few repairs to ask him if he would be willing to venture making a basket himself. The answer was not quite, "No." But, was near enough to "if I did that, I would have to charge you as much as the cost of a whole sword."
So, the economy of getting someone local to make a repair is still greater than shipping a part off to be refurbished, but the economy of fabricating even one part is in the favor of the specialist.
If you break a sword blade every year, maybe you need a new swordmaker. Sword blades shouldn't be breaking that frequently unless you're doing unbelievably stupid things with them, and if you are then you should probably not own swords.
@@somerando1073 Swords break. I've seen a blade from a reputable maker , though never mine, break first time of use.
If you aren't breaking swords, you're not really trying.
They were clearly forged of fallen stars with dragon fire, and enchanted by a sorcerer, at least mine was.
Yeah, i saw that one on Ebay too... So YOU are the one that bought it!! You over bid me just enough to get it, damn!! (Joking ofc)
The biggest iron mining complex in Europe during high medieval times is the Erzberg in today's Austria.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzberg
It has been producing iron from the 11th century onwards.
The surrounding water powered industry, both in the Eisenwurzen north of the mountain (Upper Austria) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenwurzen
and that south of the mountain (Styria) provided iron and steel products for most of central Europe.
The iron ore of the Erzberg is rather special in that it contains basically no phospor, sulfur or other unwanted elements. Combined with the plentiful water power and lots of woods for charcoal, that made the production of high quality carbon steel much easier.
Knifes and swords were esp made a bit north in and around Steyr (200 protestant knife smith masters emmigrated due to religious troubles in the late 1620s and went to make Solingen a real center of knife production; yes, Solingen had already had some knife and swordsmiths before, but only at a rather limited scale).
The area also exported semi-finished wrought iron bars (Halbzeug) that then were transformed into specialized products (incl swords) in imperial cities like Augsburg and Nürnberg, in Graz to the south east and the North Italian cities.
By the 1550s the area was exporting millions of knifes and hundreds of thousands of scythes per year. 1,5 million knifes went to the Ottoman Empire alone every year, before Archduke Ferdinand I (brother of Charles V, and his successor as Emperor) banned all iron exports to the Turk for strategic reasons. (One of many such embargoes, it was as usual circumvented by trade via Venice and the PLC ...)
PS There is another Erzberg further south in Carinthia (owned by the Archbishopric of Salzburg for much of the medieval period), which already provided the iron for much of the Roman iron industry, aka "ferrum noricum". That ore also has very limited phosphor or sulfur in it and has a rather high and steady manganese content.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCttenberger_Erzberg
@@F1ghteR41 Nearby Markettown of Bad Hall was "the most important halberd-maker in the 16th Century central-europe" (www.ooegeschichte.at/fileadmin/media/migrated/bibliografiedb/ejpe_1999_4_2000_1_026-028.pdf)
Ferrum Noricum was a thing before. Tradition?
Great comment, thank you.
I grew up in Iserlohn, Germany (lit. Iron Wood, for the iron deposits beneath and the forests surrounding it), which used to be famous for its chainmail (or at least that's what the local museum claims) and later nibs ("Die beste Feder, lieber Sohn, ist die von Brause - Iserlohn", "The best nib, dear son, is that from Brause - Iserlohn"). These days, there's still Thiele making chains of all sizes (including anchor chains for the biggest ships), but I think they're all that's left in that regard.
This is one of the things I really like about Kingdom Come deliverance: the father who made the sword for Lord Radzig was the village blacksmith yes, but it was made very clear that he had been a blade smith in Prague, who settled down after a war to live in peace as “just a mere blacksmith”. And he even had the guard and pommel engraved by a specialised craftsman in Prague.
Also I really wish there was a larger industry of selling bare blades for swords. Because while I do not have the means to forge a blade myself, I’m pretty confident I could hilt one, and I REALLY want to try that.
Yeah I was just thinking about that! Really cool detail in the game
I believe forging your own weapon was part of the plan, but the devs didn't have enough time to polish the system. Maybe they'll have it in kingdom come 2.
You've hit on a truth that is totally widespread. So many people these days, probably as always, have an almost dangerously over-simplified take on life and how society, economics, sociology, psychology, etc., and most certainly technology . All the while they think they are well versed in all these aspects of life. You've done a good job with explaining this specific topic.
Over simplification in politics today has become especially dangerous and contributes to the extreme political polarization and bickering in the United States.
@@Intranetusa Indeed, that can be especially dangerous for society. It happens not only in your great USA, but same thing here in Canada - except we have a plurality of parties, yet the same problems of polarization and bickering and worse happen here too. My guess is that it is an increasing worldwide phenomena.
@Intranet
@Canadian Cutting Edge
You’re so right, and it’s so sad.
“If I’m not being elected again, it will have been a fraud, and there will be civil war!”
@@Intranetusa If someone has a simple solution for a difficult problem,
hes either a genius or lying.
There are not many geniuses around.
You're so right. It's everywhere and it's timeless. The phenomena has contributed to famines killing millions and has brought empires to their knees.
In Germany, there were even specialist individuals (Schwertfeger) who sharpened and polished the blades (using water-powered equipment), in separate guilds from the swordsmith. Often even the sword was hardened by yet another party, a specialised sword hardener, especially in the big centres of sword production such as Nürnberg, Solingen, Regensburg, Steyr. So you could have one person forging the blade, another one hardening it, another one polishing, maybe another one assembling it (but this was later often done by the Schwertfeger) and then maybe a jeweller embellishing it with gems, gold or silver. Up to five specialised, highly trained craftspeople. A far cry from the Skyrim village smith making swords in a small pit of coals and sharpening them on a small grindstone.
Would be a lot more if we were talking not swords but normal knifes and scythes.
While more traditional methods were used in the 15th/16th century, since 1583
(when guild restricitons were mostly lifted by the Emperor for the purpose)
the Austrian scythe makers were allowed to bundle all the steps in one location and under one (legal) roof, from the "Sensenzain" (a special block of iron produced by some foundries) to the final scythe, seperating the process into 40 discreete steps and using water power for basically all of them.
By 1630, the average scythe factory in the Eisenwurzen was producing 22'000 scythes / year. Such a factory had
- one big waterpowered hammer to draw out the original piece of iron lenght wise ("zainen")
- one big waterpowered hammer to widen / flatten the blade ("breiten")
- diverse small water powered hammers for forming the blade and adding the edge
- water powered grindstones for sharpening
- about 5 hearths
By 1584 already, the Jörger von Tollet family, Lords of Scharnstein e.g. invested in the industry and built five such factories in their barony. By 1784 there were roughly 100 such factories. Fifty of them belonged to only 5 families.
One survived into our days:
th-cam.com/video/Fauy-YZTthM/w-d-xo.html
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Gmunden_Landschloss_Ort_-_Wappen_4_J%C3%B6rger.jpg
This video shows how it still was done in the early 20th century
th-cam.com/video/yP7J4VkBWck/w-d-xo.html
Another example of factory-like production of iron products in earlier times: Between 1500 and 1506, the Austrian town of Thörl alone produced 1'450 heavy iron cannon and 10'000 light wall guns for the armies of Emperor Maximilian. Then production was switched to cheaper bronze foundries and other towns (next to copper deposits) took over.
Some years ago, the Eickhorn company again started producing sabers . The company says, the last Schwertfegermeister alive would be involved in production.
Even when modern industrial production of knives took off, up to the 1960s there were still people specialized in just making the wooden grips in small workshops.
th-cam.com/video/a6YnsgieLRo/w-d-xo.html
Im rather sure a sværdfeger (as we call it in danish) is a sword hilt forger who also does the final assembly
Reminds me of the beginning of KCD when Martin gets the engraved handguard from a special engraver for Sir Radzig's sword.
And they treat the fact that Henry's father, a village blacksmith, can forge a sword blade as something exceptional, even strange.
@@F1ghteR41 Right, which explains that anomaly of a sword-making blacksmith within the game's (depiction of the medieval) world.
Taking the whole economic system a bit further: Wouldn't you get a sword from a merchant, not directly from the manufacturer?
At least usually. That would take one even farther away from the village blacksmith. :)
I mean, all those blades manufactured in Toledo or wherever had to be transported, perhaps assembled locally and who would organize that if not merchants?
Well, not that many commoners bought their own weapons. If you are, say, a Duke, you might have your own armorers making simple swords for your small army, and a gilded version for yourself ... Or you might buy wholesale ...
I think that the answer is mostly no, because in medieval Europe, the sword market wasn't as complex as it is now, and there were less intermediates between the product and the client, mainly because the sword market specifically was intended either for powerful individuals in charge of arming their troops, or rich individuals that would buy custom made equipment. In either way, there isn't much place for an intermediate merchant as the Lords would get their order commissioned by one of their subordinates, and the rich individuals would speak directly with a head of the workshop to get their custom weapons made exactly the way they wanted.
@@cedricathlan9399 Yeah more brokers than merchants, but in parts of Europe it was legal(or required!) for people to be armed, and merchants for that market certainly existed. As well as minor nobility that didn't have armies, but might have a small household guard. Nobility wasn't just the royalty, dukes, barons, counts, viscounts, and earls, etc.There's landed knights, various aristocrats, etc. Heck all that came with a Baronet title was the right to be addressed as Sir, and that was still a hereditary title.
@Jon Goat yeah, I was only talking about the sword market, sorry, my bad!
@@cedricathlan9399 I'm not so sure about the "Emperors sword maker". They all had to pay for it and the sword maker made swords even when they didn't had orders from top customers and made a living with that.
There were also "Whitesmiths", who worked with light metals.. Blacksmiths broke up into specializations in a handful of things, even bladesmiths broke up between knives and swords...
And we can put a rough date (a few hundred years is a rough date right?) to the time that Blacksmiths "formally" started specializing, earlier then 1356, since the Worshipful Company of Farriers was formed that year, so we know it began before that date. It would be kind of interesting to see a list of Guilds and their formation dates, to see what information can be gleamed from it
@Jon Goat I think those fall under "whitesmiths"..
I like "woodsmith".
I met a girl once who's name was Brownsmith. When I asked her what that was, she told me it meant someone who made things out of copper.
@@jamesharmer9293 makes sense..
'Dad?'
'Yes son?'
'where do swords come from?'
_See, little Matty, when a blacksmith and a slab of steel love each other very much, and vow to stay together forever, some day, after a nice dinner, they may sit to consider things in their proper CONTEXT. This then may or may not involve PENETRATION. And so on, and so on . . ._
But when they don't love each other very much, and instead just have a one night stand, you end up with a bastard sword...
I think it's rather like how I bought my most recent sword. I spoke with someone who sells swords. The type I wanted was not one he had already in stock so he then hires a dedicated sword forge to make it. Once it's finished HE pays the smith, then transfers the sword to me and I pay HIM. And I can guarantee that I pay more to the vendor than that vendor payed to the sword making guild for that smith to forge it.
(Hmm? Oh, it's a Frontier Tang Dao (MKII I'll add) by LKChen )
Strange women lying in ponds, of course!
Where else does one get swords if not by way of lobbing from watery tarts?
Provoke the lake bints.
Dodge the thrown swords.
Collect.
Carry to market.
Profit!
@nickyiil But it's probably easier to get some moistened bint to lob a scimitar at me than to find, kill, and butcher a dragon. :P
@@GuitarsRockForever Yeah, but if I said I was Emperor because of that, they'd lock me away!
All my blades come from a moistened (q)wench...
Over here on the continent we pull swords out of dragons, not stones. :P
It's a joy looking AND listening these new videos! Good thing you got better microphone finally.. Been watching these occasionally but will definitely watch more often now that the sound is A LOT better. Cheers from Finland!
Certain families specialized in the sword hilt section. Knowledge passed down from generation to generation. That was the tang dynasty.
Bejeweled hilts only add a +1 to hit and don't add anything to damage, so you're usually better off buying an enchanted weapon.
Unless, of course, you're trying to buy expensive weapons, rather than carrying around a whole bunch of coins and getting encumbered...
Thanks a lot from a french game master, this point of view on the different specialties in swordmaking and surely all the others type of weapons and armors opens up a lot of scenarii inspirations.
Thanks again for all my players, they will learn a little more of the medieval way of living.
Greetings from France.
You're absolutely correct. And I'm glad to see you pointing out that hilt-making was often a separate process! Not only would it typically have been done outside the blade-making industry, it was often done in stages; each aspect possibly being an entirely separate contract. Even the wooden cores to the handles would often be given rough shapes and bored through, in batches; the final dimensions being reached in the hands of yet another crafts-person. Even tradespeople who carved designs and did scrawl-work in hilt furniture would typically be in their own guild; the Gravers Guild, in fact. Saying that your average blacksmith would be the go-to person for all your sword needs, demonstrates a profound ignorance of the topic.
Video that clarifies extremely important yet overlooked topic, I'm just impressed 💪💪💪 great job as allways!
What a coincidence you published this video today. I was just wondering earlier today about Jean de Joinville's description of St. Louis during the Battle of Mansoorah where he says the king had a German sword. I wondered if that meant the sword was aesthetically distinct as German, perhaps a mid-13th century Germanic longsword or something. However, Joinville personally knew the king well and would've probably known where his sword was made so he may have just been saying it was made of good quality German steel.
Then, as now, there were probably professional arms dealers:
*"Duke X needs 5,000 standard, armory-grade blades for his troops, from the lowest bidder: what's your best offer?"*
Of course, individual soldiers could sometimes upgrade their weapons right on the battlefield:
*"Hey, that's a nice sword there. Poor bugger doesn't need it any more..."* (the "Nobby" Nobbs system of arms dealing)
Sure there were. This guy for instance
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebald_P%C3%B6gl_der_%C3%84ltere
was a weapons maker and dealer and became the main arms manufacturer for Emperor Maximilian I.
Between 1500 and 1506, he made his hometown of Thörl produce 1'450 heavy iron cannon and 10'000 light wall guns for the imperial army.
Then production was switched to cheaper bronze foundries and other towns (next to copper deposits) and producers took over the heavy gun business.
Depends on the period. Usually loot was all collected and sold and then the money divided among the troops. So you often couldn't just take a fancy weapon from the field. Unless you did a very good job concealing it. But yes blades were made in specialist workshops and sold to dealers who would sell them on to clients.
Based on the quality of content I've become accustomed to here, this is one of the rare channels that invokes high expectations with every new release and never fails to deliver. Really great stuff 👌 thanks
On the motorcycle analogy, I'd like to see any small shop try to make a decent modern tire. Conceptually so simple, yet practically so complicated.
Or the ceramics for the sparkplug or other solutions to get initial ignition?
I wonder if a blacksmith would even be legally allowed to make and sell swords. From what I understand the medieval economy wasn't exactly a free market. The giving and receiving of licenses seems to have been a big part of the political and economic model.
Very much depends on time and place. Europe is big and diverse, and "medieval" covers up to a thousand years ...
Even if he couldn't, remember there was basically no law enforcement outside cities (and in the early middle ages guilds didn't exist yet). The much bigger barriers for your random village blacksmith were knowledge, getting the materials and finding a market - you're not going to make much selling high quality swords to random farmers.
The blade smith guild would come down on him like a ton of bricks. Guilds in some countries had an incredible amount of power.
@@mrd1433 Only if they knew. I don't think some village smith making (probably extremely crappy) swords would even register on their radar. (And obviously this only applies in the periods when guilds existed.)
@@Robert399 When that unmarked blade somehow ended up needing repair or custom work at some point in time and ended up at a guild establishment by chance unmarked, they would know about it and find out where it came from. Or if it made it's way to a shop as a used item or whatever. They would know. Makers marks were there for a reason. Obviously if the blade never left some remote village because it was never used they wouldn't know about it however nobody in that remote village would have it made for no reason either. If they had the money, they could probably buy a better quality recycled sword in the city anyway. We know there were fakes around.........but I suspect the guilds kept a watchful eye as well.
A better modern comparison than scratch built motorbikes would be Khyber pass firearms.
Hello came over and subscribed from duelist 1954. you have a great channel here
to sum up: the medieval era was more advanced than what pop culture tells us.
Guilds. Universities. Architecture. Philosophy. Theology. Perfectioning of gunpowder. Alchemy (protochemistry). Roads. The emergence of A LOT of towns in the countryside. Agriculture.
The black death spread very fast for two reasons (and possibly a third)
1) a lot of roads and commerce
2) a lot of agriculture, which means more people.
3) I don't know why nobody says this but it's likely that the medieval plague was different from the one that happened in India in the 19th century which spread only with rats and it's the basis they use to say "oh look this plague in 19th century India had to be exactly the same as the plague in medieval Europe". Some diseases (not all) with the same microorganisms can change over the centuries . It's likely that the medieval plague was also passed on via air transmission. But for some reason people only focus in speaking about the rats. The numbers don't make sense if it was transmitted only via the rats. To sum it up, t is believed that the medieval black dead plague could have been a pneumonic plague (airborne) rather than a bubonic plague. But well, people who hate the middle ages keep repeating "rats here rats there rat rat rat".
Aaaand.. they never mention that this disease devastated a lot of places before devastating medieval Europe. It devastated a lot of regions of China. It devastated Egypt. Byzantium. Etc.
It's almost as if they have something personal against the Middle Ages.
@@galenusv7831 Waterpower. You forgot waterpower.
They built on Roman tech, improved upon it and then ran with it. No other place on earth during medieval and early modern times made as much use of water power for industrial purposes than did the HRE and France (and with a bit of delay, England). Cities like Augsburg or Nürnberg had hundreds of water powered workshops within their citylimits.
The industrial revolution didnt start in Europe due to an accident.
The Arabs / Ottomans in the south didnt have enough year-round reliable sources of water. Neither did Spain or Sicily.
The Chinese needed their water for rice paddies. Chinese Emperors led repeated campaigns to destroy illegal watermills to better feed the population. Northern European rulers encouraged the built up of as many mills as possible.
@@positroll7870 Very cool information. Thanks.
"people who come from a roleplaying and video game background may not know very much about the medieval guild systems." PFF I'll have you know sir I played Oblivion and I am the grey fox of the thieves guild, thank you very much. So that pretty much makes me an expert in medieval guilds. /s
As the half elf, part time rogue explorer, grand master of my fictional fantasy universe brewing guild, I'm deeply offended by this comment. The butthurt I'm feeling can't even be described lol.
Interesting. Any news from the other provinces?
@@AndreasSweden Black Marsh is wet, and the Mosquitoes are terrible.
Since I was the listener of the dark brotherhood, guild master of the fighters guild, arch-mage of the mages guild, grey fox as you mentioned, and probably something else I am forgetting. Does that mean I am even more of an expert? /jk
@@TheDraco877 All of that and you weren't even the hero of Kvatch? Am I supposed to be impressed N'wah!
Interesting that you bring up the Auto industry. I am quite familiar with that sector. You are right that many parts are outsourced, even ones that appear relatively simple.
For example, I did some work in a plant that made camshafts for Toyota, Ford, GM, and Honda, all I see one roof. If there was a camshaft bid out, they would try for it.
I even imagine a talented young man disappointing his father saying "dad i decided to move to the city and be a blademaker!"
"pox on you! who's gonna help me with those 400 horseshoes now? I know you just wanna go with them wenches of yours! disgrace! good for nothing!" *throws random tools after the kid*
People underestimate how segmented the professions were in medieval cities. In many places there was a legal distinction between people who repaired or made shoes from old leather, and those that were allowed to make shoes from new leather and further among those that could make shoes vs boots. A man caught stepping outside the bounds of his remit could spark a street battle and/or prison time. A more general practice of the trade would likely be more village bound. You would even have a separate class of embellishers.
Just found your channel, this is really great stuff!
Interesting as always. Thank you for your work.
I remember reading somewhere about guild records (in late 14th century London I believe) that a blade maker was adding hilts, and selling finished blades. This resulted in his shop getting trashed by the guild of cutlers responsible for hilting blades.
It would be nice to have a link here to those previous videos, that you mentioned, on this same subject.
I should like to check them out most keenly.
This video is spot on. There is a reason where bladesmiths, armourers and blacksmiths all had their roles in the smithing universe( and their proper guilds). Your point that a village blacksmith could have made a functional weapon is spot on. But he couldn't have made a fine blade that would be respected. Matt's knowledge is impressive.
about Solingen you might be partially wrong - there might have been some Iron and blade work there, but it became big, when the Protestant Knife smith were chased out of the Steyr Valley in Upper Austria - those went to Solingen. Grünburg and other Villages in the Steyr and Enns Valley lost out to Industrie in the 20th Century. The biggest place of Iron works in the middle Ages, was the Enns Valley in Upper Austria, down from the Erzberg, the "Iron mountain", called the Eisenwurzen, "Root of Iron". I'm coming from a Village there. A Friend of mine, who took over his grandfathers workshop is the last knifemaker in the Steyr Valley. The Village Smith makes Swords and Armour for the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.
You might want to check out my comment further up ... ;)
Best and most important and interesting video you have done recently. The medieval sword industry is so misunderstood and under studied. The reality is far more interesting and multi faceted than the 'village blacksmith' trope. It was basically industrial in te big centres, water powered trip hammers and grinders etc.
Lots of studies on that. In German, at least.
Thank you Matt, loved this video.
Very well done as usual Matt
Or as another example - tune a car or bike engine. Any competent garage can do things according to the manual; but if you want to go racing, see a specialist.
I once had a difficult carburettor problem which my usual guy couldn't fix. So, I took it to a local specialist. As I paid him (it was something ridiculous, like a fiver), he remarked that I hadn't asked him to check the valve clearances so he hadn't, but they were a bit wide - something like 3 and 5 instead of 2 and 4. He was within a thou; all done by ear.
Great video as always, Matt! I'd just like to add, however, that the guild system wasn't common to all of Europe. In Iberia, for example, you only got the first Castilian 'gremios' in the 13th century, and in Portugal you only get 'corporações' at the end of the 15th century. You did have confraternities, but those were of a religious nature, they didn't administer professional exams or survey the work of its members. Artisans in Iberia worked at more of an individual level, with quality standards and requirements expressed in municipal rules or royal legislation instead of a guild system ensuring a certain level of quality.
On the subject of sending out blades without grips so a grip can be fitted by someone to the preference the end user, something like that is still done today with fancy target pistols (like the kind used in the Olympics): They ship with large piece of wood that’s only vaguely in the shape of a grip (if that) so it can be cut down to match the end-user’s hand by a local specialist. (Slightly less high end guns just have replaceable grips).
Great video, Matt. I think it's fair to say that the blacksmiths in medieval/medieval fantasy games (of all types) are more misnamed weaponsmiths than actual blacksmiths. It's funny but a simple shift of the title in these games would really help with this misconception (one this video dispelled for me, so thank you!).
I find this subject fascinating. When I learned to smith it was at a US western "living history museum," specifically Utah's This Is The Place Monument. And frontier smiths couldn't specialize, as there just wasn't enough smiths, and especially equipment for smithing available. So when I volunteered there, I made horse and oxen shoes, hinges, nails, door hasps, farm implements, etc. And certainly in 1847 when the Mormons were establishing territory some smiths would have made combat weapons. Anyone who can pound out a knife can form some type of long knife or short sword, the principles are similar enough. Of course it wouldn't be elegant, but it would be functional.
So.I find it unusual that when peasants, not professional soldiers mind you, were mustered that many didn't just go to John the smith who would take a hog for the work to get a passable but certainly not fashionable side arm. You've definitely given me a lot to think about here.
When I have the chance to travel I would like to visit Solingen, Germany.
Coincidentally, nowadays swords are mostly made by "village blacksmiths".
But they are not made by just village blacksmiths. Most of those smiths will buy steel produced to a standard made elsewhere, the other steels for other parts from other distributors an international supply chain connecting the village blacksmith. I think that is the author's point. Things really have not changed much really. We do the same things different ways.
@@alwaysbearded1 nah, the difference is significant. Swords are made by a single entity nowadays. Just a smith or a company. Back then, the sword manufacturing steps were handled by separate entities. Individual smiths who make swords are a common sight now, as well. Steel doesn't even factor into that.
I have an excellent book on the era, particularly 12th century France, and the most common guild in Paris at the time, by far, was the shoe makers guild.
It's the same with rifles today. Few firearms manufacturers make their own barrels outside of Daniel Defense, Remington, Colt, Fabrika National, etc. Most purchase barrels and some other parts, especially for the AR-15 platform.
6:17 some of those guys were really happy about that helmet they were making, including that horse
I am always particularly interested if the video content also sheds light on people and society in the Middle Ages. So yes! interesting video and most certainly a like!
Now I'm interested in medieval guild systems. My reading list was too long already. Damn it schola !
Just as today, there was great variation in the quality and workmanship of commercially available products in medieval times. Better quality, more valuable weapons are much more likely to have been preserved, so its possible that there may have been more low quality, locally produced weapons around then, than are evidenced today. For purely practical reasons, most people would have carried, or at least owned a knife, so basic blade manufacture must have been a reasonably widespread skill. A knight certainly wouldn't have gone to a village blacksmith to get a sword, but equally a housewife in Scotland wasn't going to send off to Toledo to get a new kitchen knife. I wouldn't have thought it was totally implausible that some blacksmiths could extrapolate the skills used to manufacture knives and tools to make low-end weapons if required.
Very interesting topic. Can you also talk about other sources of medieval swords? Like do swords from the dead on a battlefield get looted and put back into circulation? Also, can you talk about how changes in sword styles and technology was transferred across countries and geographic regions?
Very interesting, Matt - thanks.
☝️😎
You see, European swords grow from a type of seed called the swordseed or people today call it sword pummel.
As a balcksmith, you have to grow them and you must grow them rightly...
Tend them rightly!
Exactly throwing pommels was not only supposed to kill you enemy but also to plant new sword seeds
Pretty nice to know that, thanks Matt!
*Listens to the first 46 seconds.*
"A blacksmith is NOT a swordsmith!"
*pedantic mode off.*
Side note: I was agreeing with Matt.
Well ... to be even more pedantic, in medieval times a blacksmith was usually considered a broader category, of a smith working with iron, as opposed to a redsmith / Rotschmied (copper, brass) or whitesmith / Weissschmied (tin etc).
A medieval knifesmith or swordsmith* thus does qualify as a blacksmith in that sense.
*At least in the HRE most swordmakers started out as knife maker apprentices and only specialized towards swordmakers during their journeyman phase, if they could get an open spot.
@@positroll7870 Super pedantic EX turbo edition: I believe a knife maker would be called a cutler.
@@scottmacgregor3444 Actually, cutlers were the handle makers. They were the last ones to handle the sword or knife in the making process and usually the one who sold it to the public.
If you think about, really gives you even that much more respect for current high quality makers. Like Tod and That Works to name a couple here on youtube. Not only do we have higher expectations now then in period but they have to master all these different specialties.
Better analogy would be to ask mechanic local garage to make F1 car, using whatever car parts he want. He could weld frame that is somewhat like F1 frame, get some high performance engine in it, put large tyres and spoilers. It would look roughly like F1 car, but in matters of actual performance they would be very different.
Strike first - Strike hard - No mercy
But where did you actually go to buy the sword then? To the jeweler who finished the grip? Did the jeweler send the finished sword back to a sword guild, which then had its own stoefront? Or did merchants buy the swords from the guild to travel from town to town selling their wares?
If local, the "cutler" who assembled the final handle is usually who sold it. if it's an imported blade you'd get it from the traveling merchant then take it to your local cutler to finish it up how you wanted it.
Abt Guilds is very interesting the history of Florence guilds or corporations called “Arti di Firenze” or “Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri”. One of the firsts social-economic syndicate like entities to came in existence around the beginning of the XIIth century, that made Florence rich and powerful. And Yes, sword makers guild was one of those (sword makers and armorers guild)
You know, the complexity of crafting such a "simple" thing as swords with various guilds taking part in would be awesome for a MMORPG, granting that sweet sweet interdependency that should be the core of the game.
Imagine if you have to choose wether you made blades, hilts, polished or hardened the stuff. puts another emphasis on guilds (hey that's the term!) since it'll be some kind of hassle to come by all necessary components if you got to scour trade chat and Auction house all by yourself, instead of having a small production line set up within the guild or clan.
Please make a detailed video on Noric Steel, Damascus Steel and Toledo Steel
Au contraire my little British sword enthusiast.
The Britten V1000 was a custom motorcycle built from scratch by Kiwi John Britten.
Factories wish they could accomplish what he did with that bike.
Well... I was actually going to mention Mr Britten. But, a) not a mechanic, but more of an engineering prodigy b) here we are talking about him decades later because he's that one guy that managed to do that (because he was uncommonly brilliant, gifted, but also driven) and c) I think he's not a case of "on the contrary" but rather the exception that proves the rule. I'm certain those exceptions existed in medieval Europe among the various artisans and craftsmen, but by and large, they were as rare and remarkable as someone like John Britten. (And what an AWESOME story he is though!!!)
A common manufacturer example everyone would note be familiar with would be airbags. Takata recall and all
Great video and good points, as always. I have two questions though:
In order to get the right equipment and material, wouldn’t you have to be a member of that particular guild in the first place? And even if you somehow gathered all the things necessary and made a sword, wouldn’t there be some legal consequences?
I think I remember shad making a video about how messers may have been made the way they were so members of knife guilds could make them.
Not that they lacked the skills to make normal swords, but they wouldn't have been allowed to.
Thank you, now I have to rewrite the sword making chapter in my book.
I know you are not an expert but I would love a video on medieval guilds, like an introductory one or good books recommandations.
You are spot on, but I wouldn't underestimate the common Smith either.
This make me want to order a blade from Pavel Moc, ship it to Tod for the hilt, and ship it Maciej Kopciuch for a scabbard; something like that. Would be an amazing piece!
To round out the answer, would it have been more typical for the end user to buy a sword blade and then go commission a hilt, or would a merchant commission the hilt and sell a completed sword? Or did it vary -- maybe with fancy swords a noble would buy the blade and commission a custom hilt, vs a cheaper footsoldier's sword they would be outfitted with a standard hilt by the merchant before being sold?
There is a BMW plant in my home county . The plant creates nothing from raw materials , it assembles parts that come in from contract suppliers . I believe that this is for the most part how weapons were manufactured in the Medieval period . Some custom work may have been done on a limited scale for wealthier persons though .
13:05 Matt do a video on high end swords that were highly decorated with lots of examples.
Please do more like this
when a daddy sword loves a mommy sword very much? Storks! It’s also interesting to note that regional trade occurred well back into pre history. Sting ray spikes were traded into central Australia 40,000 years ago. trade is intrinsic to mankind.
I was reading earlier about a Scottish Lowland basket hilt from about 1700 which had a German blade from 1570. Very interesting. Blade exports from German lands and others did certainly happen.
Your video has given me food for thought as a roll player, however most roll playing settings are "fantasy". Also as a classic car person, you I-drive example reminds me of companies like Lucas and Bosch.
Blacksmith did make the plows too and other needed tools. Depending on their workload they make sometimes knifes for a little bit extra on the side. In times of war, spear tips are the thing. So a skilled blacksmith with experience in his field could make a sword, but it would take ages.
I’m looking for either a Viking era sword or arming sword, but I want one that’s really fast. I don’t want it blade heavy, I like the balance back towards my hand as far as possible. That’s fine with me. I like it to be lightning. And for my Arming sword or viking sword, I’m looking for one that’s really good, high-quality, and having a really light fast balance as opposed to heavy choppy balance.
You’ll always get somebody who says that you just need to be stronger and and on and on, they love it wonderfully and their tip heavy sword has blade authority - and that’s fine, but I like my swords fast. What swords such as I describe do you know about that would be a perfect choice for me?
Something with serious distal taper. Viking swords are beefy as well as arming swords. I've had both. A company like Albion , Arms n' Armor or Del Tin, could make you the sword you want, just go into great detail, they are great to work with and are very attentive to the customer's needs.
Constantinople was also a major manufacturer and exporter of blades and hilts. Constantinopolitan swords were exported as far as Scotland at the height of the empire.
I did not realize different people would make the blade and the hilt. Thanks for the information. I know this isn't your area of expertise, but why was the small caparisoned horse included in the illustration at 6:09? It looks too small to be ridden in battle and need armor.
Possibly a case of "medieval artists didnt care about scale or perspective".
Would a bunch of these separate types of things be sold in something like a weapon shop? Or weapon and armour shop?
I didn't realize there was sword production in London. I'm aware of the armorers in Greenwich, mostly through Toby Capwell's spectacular documentary on English plate armor in the 16th century, but hadn't heard of any sword production. You learn something new every day.
There were also armourers in London in the 14th and 15th centuries, as they are mentioned in proclamations of the time. Apparently foreign armour was being imported and then stamped with London maker marks, to be able to sell it at a higher price, so they were trying to stamp out that illegal practice.
@@scholagladiatoria Pirate copied goods, medieval style. I'm a fan
@@Greensleeve11 Product piracy is big business, especially today. Amazon being the largest enabler and often perpetrator. Not like those copyright trolls that chase after grandmothers and small time TH-cam channels.
Reminds me of Tiffany Swords. They were highly respected swords. They did not make the blades. You could say the same about 19th century flintlocks. The lock was made in England, Remington made barrels and some maker made the stocks and assembled the gun. The fact that it had a Remington barrel and an English lock did not lesson the quality, it increased it.
Much like America in the 18th century, triangular blades were produced by bayonet ,bladesmiths, hilts were primarily made of silver, hence Silversmiths. Interesting trade off.
Would you like to buy a second-hand sword, sirrah? Only two careless owners.
Or, as the old joke goes: Never used, only dropped once.
I could imagine that the village blacksmith sold older swords - as in buy bunches of old swords when he could. To use as metall for other things, but sorting out and sell the swords who was not quite at the scrapheap level.
cool topic, didn't really think about it before and it makes a lot of sense to have high level of specialization. however, let's compare medieval sword industry with roman empires sword industry. as I recall, and if i'm wrong correct me here, the empire had almost mass produced gladius swords, most likely because it was a standard part of soldiers equipment and a main weapon (in mot cases), where in medieval periods sword, even though not rare, was much more of a status symbol, backup weapon, etc. still, thinking more on it, there were a lot o soldiers (like archers) who had a sword as a backup weapon and they certainly didn't had the money to buy 'fancy', for example, a Toledo swords so they had to get them from somewhere and those weren't of the highest quality (i'm guessing here). Since you mentioned guilds, I'm also certain that they had some level of standardization to the level of quality for their products so maybe those swords that didn't pass that 'Guild test' were sold to more common soldiers for a lower price. also, i most likely didn't take into the account that soldiers in medieval times had to get their own equipment (unlike roman legions after the Marian reforms) and many more factors, just saying that this is an extremely interesting topic!
Actually, especially in late medieval times, they had mass production of swords in the HRE that surpassed the original Romans. Mostly, because technology for both foundries (water powered bellows, allowing for higher furnaces) and water powered hammers had improved a lot over these 1000 years.
THANK YOU!!! I can't even begin to count the number of times I've rolled my eyes at the portrayals in games and movies of the village blacksmith as a master bladesmith. If the village blacksmith DID make a sword, it probably ended up looking something like an Uruk-Hai sword from LOTR! Yes, it will cut... but it will probably be poorly balanced, either too heavy or dangerously weak, and won't hold an edge worth a damn.
I do wonder if bills/voulges were popular because they were something you could pick up more locally and perhaps cheaper than a 'proper' weapon. I'm sure part of it was familiarity of use, being ideal for "common countrie men who were unschooled in the use of the more efficacious halberd.", and certainly later they must have been made in dedicate weaponsmiths. I doubt the 1000 bills from the tower armouries sent to the colonies by king James were made originally by village blacksmiths, but perhaps earlier on they were something you could get from the village blacksmith or at least the nearest town. Maybe you would get served a notice by the spearmakers guild for making pointy implements, but if it was a bill you were okay. The guild systems must have come along with price fixing etc.
Suits of armor might have the parts made by the armorer, etched/engraved by an artist then shipped to a jeweler for decorative gilding/gilded additions and finally have the straps and clasps finalised by yet another craftsman.
All regulated.
And here was me thinking they just fell off of the back of a wagon...
Sorry m'lord. I lost all my swords in a boating accident.