Armoring

[Baelin Holt]

Any and all help/discussion would be appreciated. I’m at a bit of an impasse as to how some things in armoring would be handled in Miz. If there are things in the Lore that give straight answers to these questions, I apologize for missing it.

Sheet Metal
A lot of modern armoring tutorials I’ve been going through all use sheet metal, and I’ve been going from there. But it was pointed out to me in chat (thank you, Adrien!) that sheet metal may very well not even exist in Miz. A lot of armor work seems to require thin metal. Too heavy and people can’t move in it. I’ve built my conceptions of Miz armor around medieval armor, and from what I’ve been able to glean it looks like it’s really rather mobile and pretty light. So if you don’t start with sheet then you start with something from a thicker mold and have someone thin out the metal. This could introduce a lot of inconsistency in thickness, and doesn’t seem ideal to me.

What are the limitations on thickness of iron or steel coming out of a mold in Miz? Is sheet metal actually made? If not, what are alternatives available in Miz?

Cutting Metal
Cutting the metal cold with a chisel comes straight out of the lore. But some reading has it listed as a technique you use for thicker metals, and for thin metal you can cut it with snips or something like that. I’m not sure if this is just a modern technique, or if these were around in medieval times and/or in Miz. If metal sheets exist, are they cut with something like a tin snip? What would it be called?

Collaboration
In a large operation like the Ironworks, I was wondering if things start to become more collaborative or if pieces are done from start to finish by the same person. Would someone be responsible for raising and someone else for planishing? If someone puts down a piece in the middle of a step at the end of the day, would someone come in the next morning and pick up where he left off? Or would the piece sit there until the smith who was in the middle of a step came back to finish it?

Apprentice Roles
There are a lot of different things that goes into making a piece, and I’m not at all confident what part of the project an apprentice would be working on. Would an apprentice just be pumping the bellows while the metal is sitting in the forge, all day long? Would they make munitions grade things out of premade templates? Any training with customers? Cross-training with different types of smithing?

I apologize if this was a bit lengthy. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Vizayas]

Sheet Metal
They did have sheet metal back then. Sheet metal is the basic material for cold forging many things such as helmets and lamellar plates. I couldn't dig up much on the historic processes of forming sheet metal through google, but I'm assuming heated metal is pressed into a mold. Historic helmets seem to be made of either 14 or 16 gauge metal/steel. I assume most useful armor is 16 gauge, but I assume 14 or lower is ideal for the fantastical things a knight might face in Mizahar. I'm not sure what would be realistic to be produced, though.

Keep in mind processes such as fluting that improve the rigidity of armor, as well as creating the mobile joints in platemail. You may be able to create the mold for say, a breastplate, but there is a lot of hands on work when you go to finish the piece. Such processes include hole punching and attaching leather straps, as well as metal folding on the edges to make it fit more comfortably if not wearing a gambeson.

Cutting Metal
Snips work fine, and Isurians probably have pull-down vices for cutting thicker sheets. There are also grinding wheels that you can pedal to grind metal down into shapes.

Collaboration
If the item is non-custom and follows a familiar template, it's easy to pick up where someone left off with the proper knowledge. However, they will find it difficult to continue artistic enterprises such as etching and embossing if they are required. It may also be unfeasible to let a less skilled armorer work on your highly expensive and time-intensive full plate as this opens up your work for imperfections on a very expensive piece.

Apprentice Roles
There are all sorts of simple tasks for an apprentice that involve actually working with steel, such as certain repetitive tasks like folding edges, filing, creating bulk, and creating small pieces like buckles and hinges. There are also things like tapping a sword with the small hammer to show a weaponsmith where to strike the sword during tempering, though I can't recall the name or specifics of that process. And lastly there are simple tasks such as lighting and heating forges, manning the bellows, and hauling metal and products around.

Because of the Isurians, I assume we can take certain liberties when incorporating modern techniques into our smithing!