I well recall one of our men at Tewkesbury saying that his foe told him that fighting him in his mirror armour was like being attacked by a disco ball.

for reflecting the sun into opponents' eyes, matt would just take his helmet off.

Further about the status thing, though maybe less cool: A really shiny armour shouts "Don't kill me! Ransom me!"

I imagine in movies they always prefer satin armour because they don't need to hire a guy to edit out the camera crew in post. The only time i've seen reflective armour is in The Mandalorian because they had a guy take a reflection map to make the surroundings accurate

Another thing, which might be part and parcel to #1, is that you become a big shining point of reference to your soldiers. Where do we retreat to? Just find Sir Shinybottom. Need help trying to execute this tactic? Just keep the big shiny dude to your left and you're halfway there. Also, having a very visible boss, may help with morale, much like a standard or unit flag. As long as Sir Shinybottom can be seen, we keep pushing.

As a metalworker I can confirm that high polish has no effect at all on whether a harder cutting tip will bite in, but can have slightly lower friction with softer materials like wood so I guess it could have some small effect on a glancing club strike. Ripples in the surface though, like dents or a roughly hammered surface, will have some effect depending on the depth. It can absolutely helps with rust though, materials that you would expect to corrode rapidly can become more resistant by polishing to a mirror finish, but in easily corroded steel it must still have some tiny amount of oil for protection in humidity (I think I have heard of oiling being frequent? I'm not familiar though).

I knew the 5th one because in kingdom come delivarance the perk knight in shining armour. In sunny weather your plate armor dazzles everybody and also you get a charisma bonus. Very realistic indeed😅

One final reason for a mirror polish: It shows off the quality and consistency of the steel. If you have bad steel with inconsistent grain sizes or inclusions, the variation will be immediately visible in a mirror polish. For that matter, so will any inconsistencies in the curvature from like hammer marks and such. So it not only shows off that you're wealthy enough to pay for the labor to polish it up that much, it also shows off just how good a quality the armor really is. (And lets you detect if the smith tried to cheat you...) You won't see that as much on modern reproductions since even the poorest modern steels are of a quality that a mediaeval blacksmith would have killed for, and modern tools make it way easier to get the shape exactly right.

Because the drip would have been immaculate!

The Romans and Byzantines do mention that the sight of men in polished iron was a huge intimidating factor. In most cultures at that time most people couldn't afford armor, and to see a force of Roman soldiers in shining scale, maille, lamellar, or during the classical period Lorica Segmentata advancing where most or all of them have armor would have been terrifying because to any force it communicates "they sent an army of their best, most experienced, wealthiest men" based on their own cultural experiences. It was actually a clever deception because the front ranks of Roman soldiers often were the least experienced men.

fun getting to see your other wall finally because of the reflections of your mirror armor

One of my favorite finishes for plate armor which is almost universally overlooked and very rarely mentioned anywhere is russet finish (or "russeting," which is a brownish-red to reddish-purple coloring) which is a variation on fire bluing. As we know, during the process of heat bluing, the color of the steel actually changes through a spectrum of colors dependant on the temperature it reaches, going from natural finish to begin with, then a weird yellow tinge, then kindof brownish, russet , purple, blue, then eventually dull graphite if you over-do it, as well as all the "in between" shades along the way. By arresting the heating process at very precisely controlled temperatures/times, one can effect a color finish anywhere along that spectrum. "Russeting" was most popular, I think, during the 16th and 17th centuries, when metallurgy and fine control of heat during creation was at its most advanced and precise, as before then it would've been extremely difficult or even impossible to stop the process accurately enough to reliably achieve an even coloring across the whole of a component, let alone an entire harness, especially for the more "transitional" shades that occur before reaching the final dark blue/violet color. But yeah, russeting is almost never talked about anywhere, to the point where it has even been confused in artistic renditions (such as Durer's catalogue of armor) as being a substituted color for something else (even on this channel at one point I think, if im remembering correctly). So yeah, i just wanted to show it some love because its really pretty (especially, in my opinion, when in combination with some tastefully understated detail gilding or silvering) and once it became feasible to reliably achieve it, it was actually a reasonably commonly requested finish, at least among those who could afford such things at the time.

Back in high school we did an experiment with steel cans. We placed them the same distance from a light bulb (incandescent) as a heat source. There was a thermometer in each can. The dark colored can had its inside temperature raise quicker than the lighter colored can. After the light bulb was turned off the darker can lost heat faster. Both were still slightly above room temperature when we had to end the experiment for the next class.

That polish is making me want to get the car wax out and really buff it up

Another reason you have overlooked... And this comes back to status and wealth. A person wearing this armour is obviously wealthy. So knowing that, one would wear it knowing that he would be highly visible on the field and would be a highly sought after captive. Knowing that the wearer would be worth his weight in gold as ransom. Minimizing his chance of being killed. If you capture him you get the ransom and the armour, if you kill him you get nothing but damaged armour.

You are correct that polishing makes it harder for a blade to make good contact. Machine parts are frequently polished to reduce friction when moving.

I think about everyone thought of the light reflection haha

I just found out most people didnt even buy there own cloths back then it was given to them buy there landlord or boss as part of there wages and they had to be made for them there were no shops or anything so to see some one turn up with polished armor and swords would seem like a super hero to them

Its not just reflecting the sun it will also help you blend in to your surroundings by reflecting the other soldiers, grass, trees... making you harder to identify or target.

I would have thought that a highly reflective mirror like armour would be distracting to the opponent, especially as mirror like surfaces were rare.

I would think mirrored armor is cooler than black armor on a hot and sunny day.

So the color in the visible spectrum will matter less than how absorptive the surface finish is in the infrared spectrum, since the latter is where the vast majority of the heat comes in. Some things you might use to darken the surface in the visible spectrum will actually reflect quite a lot in the infrared and might end up cooler than lighter colors. The surface polish of things though does make a pretty big difference. I haven't tested with armor specifically, but back to those scratches and troughs you were talking about in the satin polish, when a photon goes into one of those it can bounce back and forth a few times before it exits, which gives it that many more chances to be absorbed and heat the metal. Kind of like how smooth aluminum foil can be used safely in a microwave to do things like make different parts of your TV dinner all get hot at the same time, despite having different levels of absorption. (The dark patch in the bottom of a bag of microwave popcorn is a piece of aluminum foil to concentrate the heat on the unpopped kernels for another example.) But a crinkled piece of aluminum foil will arc, spark, and maybe burst into flames.

In fact, this fifth reason - reflecting the sun into the opponents' eyes - is the first and main reason that came to my mind - because I heard that this trick was used already in ancient Greece (shields polished like a mirror). But if it was really that effective at blinding an enemy, why wasn't it widely used?

I'd be curious to see a test on the "camouflaging" qualities of different armour finishes. I've noticed on a handful of occasions that shiny mirror polished objects that call attention to themselves in direct sunlight, will sometimes fade away in the shade of trees or bushes. It was my assumption that the object was reflecting it's immediate surroundings (leaves, twigs, rocks...) sort of like sci-fi active camo. It'd be cool to see different armour finishes tested in different environments.

I polished my trigger components in my race pistol because metal on metal is much smoother with a high shine.

Your comments about high polish and resistance to rust is exactly what I was always taught about firearm metal finishes. The traditional blueing process only provided moderate rust resistance, and it was highly dependent on the polish level. High quality guns were glossy. Unfortunately (to my mind, at least) almost all gun makers now have moved away from that costly polishing, to more advanced chemical finishes that are very tough and allow them to leave the surface rough. They're functional, cost-effective, but to me they're rather ugly.

The temperature question is tricky, because reflective surfaces will absorb less heat, but also radiate less heat. Black things absorb more but radiate more as well. On a sunny day I would expect the black armour to get hotter inside. But on a cloudy day I would expect the opposite. I would be interested in seeing your test results.

5 reasons why shiny armor was sought after: #1 Lindybeige is in the thumbnail

are these the same reasons why you shave your head?

One thing I don't think anyone's really talked about when it comes to how to mitigate the hot or cold when wearing plated armour is the Jupon, the outer garment worn over your breastplate that shows up in a lot of accounts and iconography but never really turns up in re-enactments. Tod touched on it when he was introducing the brigandine, he said that the fabric was stopping the arrow from shattering and maybe causing more harm and would keep you warm in the winter but he didn't go into it 🤔 I'd love to find out more if you're getting one with your latest suit Matt, when and why they were used and why they're apparently not so common anymore? 🙂

Can't wait for the thermal camera footage!

The ad is still playing so I'm going to venture a guess: Is it because a shiny armour symbolises status, as in "Ha ha! I'm so filthy rich I can afford to have a gang of retainers always buffing and polishing my armour, getting dented pieces replaced, etc!"

Reflecting the sun was actually the very first thing I thought of from the title alone.

I must admit near the beginning I thought of blinding thing as a joke and then you actually said it lol

Thank you Matt! I was just getting ready to ask your opinion about it when you gave the last point answering my question. I greatly appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us Sir. Your content is amazing. Fun, entertaining, informative, helpful, and I’m sure plenty more than I can quickly list. Thanks again Matt. Best wishes to you and your family. ✌️

glad you mention in the end my first thought about reflecting light . good thing i watched the whole video .

I know that visor!! Going by that the rest of the harness will be glorious, can’t wait to see it!

Another great discussion. Thank you.

That it could reflect the sun into the enemy's eyes was literally the first thing that popped into my mind LOL

My experience is that bare metal left out in bright sunlight during the summer will scorch you when you grab it but painted metal is safe to touch

Another glorious video by Matte Easton.

The reflectiveness of the armor shining in opponents' eyes was the first thing I thought of as a reason to make it shiny.

Thanks for the video 👍🏻

It is not just the surface being smoother on polished armor that helps it resist rusting. Traditionally, the metal would have been burnished before polishing it with fine stones or charcoal. Burnishing helps to close off the micro pours in the metal, preventing anything from getting into them and starting the rusting process.

In famous Zwinger collection in Dresden, there is an armour for foot tournament, made of silver.

this was awesome. Well spoken

I guessed the 5th reason from beginning cause I literally own a piece of mirror armour😊 It is a self-made Chinese 护心镜 which means heart-protecting mirror. They usually are in bowl/boss shape, but I could only find a flat bronze disk, So I just mirror polished it then wrapped it's edge with leather. Oh man it was so interesting when I'm standing in a line and can see which foe's face is receiving the sun light I am reflecting onto😂 Irritating everyone on the other side makes the lining up and waiting session not boring any more😊

I was thinking about an old movie where they polished shields to reflect the sunlight to their enemies and one minute later you talked about the advsntage of blinding your opponents. That was awesome ^^

Regarding rust prevention, a smoother surface will resist corrosion more(aside from the lower surface area) because there is less electrical differential across the surface. Ions of metal are less likely to move and react with oxygen if they are firmly in the crystal lattice. Peaks and valleys have an electrical differential between them that causes ions to move from one to the other in the presence of a conductive medium, like water, while also increasing the chance of it oxidizing

wow that is VERY shiny indeed 1:03

Your fifth suggestion was my first thought! Makes a lotta sense

Greatly appreciated your statement regarding that whether or not mirror polish armor actually deflects better, it was *perceived* to. That's in the same spirit of the comment by Barbara W. Tuchman in "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century", page 42 second paragraph, "...what people believe about their own time becomes a factor in its history." As usual, context is key...even in (maybe especially in) armor preference!

Bro these topics. So specific. So interesting.

I’ve fought in armor throughout the night, and it gets hot due to your body heat. So keep that in mind when doing testing in the sunlight. Thank you for a great video sir.

When your armour is done can we please get a video about it like the one you made about your old armour

Adding to the last point: In the heat of battle, reflective armor also blurs out your contours. Thus your shape is harder to focus on, and movement (strikes) on your part is harder to keep track of. While in a 1:1 battle, this effect might be rather minute, but as soon as there are more moving objects on the field, this could turn out to be really confusing. And #6, food for thought: "Stealth". Yes, I actually said it: Stealth. While in normal light, this might pose a disadvantage, but being in obscured environment, the 'I reflect everything around me' might come in handy. In shrubs you're more "shrubbish", while in the dark you are darker, basically matching your environment better than with a set/fixed color. One would have to try to actually find out which scenes - if any - turn out favourable.

Blinding reflections was actually the first thing I thought about.

For the last point, couldn't mirror-polished armor just as well reflect the sun towards your allies behind you if the sun was at your back?

Your last point was my first thought. A visor not only defends the eyes from assault but also from the sun. Helmets have visors for a reason. Second, though not necessarily HEMA, Japanese swords were mirror polished to increase cutting abilities. Smoother surface equals less resistance. So as Matt said mirror polished armour, greater deflection

How about high polish makes it easier for retainers to keep you in sight for support and tactics.

These are all valid points Matt ! 👍👍👍

Regarding radiation: If one takes a look to radiators at home they are typically white, but do still have a good emission at the requested wavelength at around 8-10um, i.e. 40-60°C. Regarding the heat absorption on armor one has to take into acount that the sun radiates with a temperature of 5500K while the own body is somewhere at 310K. Hence, the emission=absorption coefficient does not really help because emission is proportional to T^4. Hence, a shiny armor with a high reflection is much better and polished steel has a reflectivity of >90%.

This is an off question, but could chain mail be particularly shiny, almost mirror finished? Or blackened? Or would the gradual rubbing of the links against each other degreade away either of those? Thank you

That's like...Excalibur levels of shine.. BLING your blind, now you're dead.... properly! Good video, could you possibly make a video of painted and lacquered armors or have you already made one?

As others have pointed out, the thermal behaviour of polished metals is complicated. They have a high coefficent of reflection (in the region of 70% for polished steel) that governs their absorption of sunlight (radiation in the visible spectrum, wavelengths of about 0.5 microns). They have low emissivity, however (in the range of 5% for ideally polished metals and perhaps 15 - 25% for practical mirror polishes) so they emit and absorb radiant heat poorly (wavelength around 20 microns). Think of how young children often get burned by hot irons, they radiate so little heat that one cannot really say how hot they are without touching. Every other material, including painted finishes, has emissivity of 90% or more.

I didn't think of the Sun specifically, but I would add that even without reflecting the Sun, mirror-polished armour (just like any mirror-polished object) is confusing to look at. Just looking at the helmet you're showing at various points, it's much harder to get a grasp on its shape and exact position of various elements than with the satin-finished helmet. While it wouldn't prevent someone from figuring out where you are, it might delay them or put off their aim by just that bit extra needed for you to get in the first blow - or get out of there alive rather than dead.

Could you do a video showing a side by side comparison of all the main finish types? I always thought the satin finish was what mirrored was referring to so seeing them all shown and compared to one another with a general explanation would be really good.

My first thought was that shiny armor would reflect the sun into someone's eyes. I suspect that a knight would learn to control this, much like when you direct a mirror on a sunny day, for maximum surprise and effect.

Think about how cops shine their lights into the eyes of suspects. Shiny armor would be a huge advantage.

Testing the heat reflection seems like an interesting video! It would be important to make a clear distinction between heat and temperature. Just measuring the temperature of the metal under direct (sun)light does not say anything - it is the heat flux that passes through that we are after. So I imagine a setup where you position a known amount of water behind the armor and measure the time it takes for the water to heat up by a number of degrees. That way you can precisely determine the amount of heat energy deposited in the water over time.

Is that a Flemish style armor you are producing? I remember you and Toby Capwell discussing Flemish armor in a Richard III video, and you seemed quite intrigued by it.

for just a tiny moment I thought you'd say that under a microscope with perfectly mirrored polish you'd see an eyeball.

Another finish, at least for muzzleloader barrels, is browning. I have this on two. It's a glossy dark brown finish with an almost plum tinge and has a pleasing depth, sort of like a polished rock. I've rinsed barrels with hot water and wipe dry, then just a smidge of oil on them and they resist rust very well.

Reflecting the sun into the opponents eyes was the only advantage I could think of off the top of my head. Don't know how practical it would have been as a tactic, but with so much metal flailing around, they must have figured it'd probably happen naturally at least a few times.

I always wondered...does continuous polishing weaken the protection of the armor overtime ?

I've used a light meter to measure the difference in reflectivity between satin/matte finished or highly polished blued and in the white steel, i.e., rifle barrels. The color seemed immaterial to the reflectivity. The level of polish, though, was significant.

Fighting under the sun against mirror armour must have been very difficult, too.

Neat, a reason I mentioned upon the blackened armour video :D

Is it harder to accurately perceive the placement of your opponents limbs and orientation of the torso if your opponent is wearing shiny armor?

Reflections. Years back, I was flying model rockets at a sanctioned event. One fellow covered his rocket in metallic tape; perfect mirror surface all over the rocket's body, nose-cone and fins. We spent hours looking for that thing in knee-high grass...the 'finder' had stepped on it by accident! The mirrored surface faithfully reflected the image of the grass surrounding it, making a sort of 'optical Ghillie suit'. Would mirror-bright armor do the same in dense foliage?

I know about the sun thing because I've watched the OG Lone Wolf and Cub movies, and read the manga for that matter.

I would think it would make it more difficult for the opponent to judge their distance to the wearer, and to in general make the wearer's form more complex and difficult to distinguish.

I work in a machine shop and when we make plane engine parts that will be touching another part we give them an extremely smooth finish to prevent friction and heat. I guarantee a sword or any blade is glancing off a mirror finish armor far easier than armor without that high polished finish. Metal parts begin to slide on each other like ice when the finish is fine enough

woooow that's a fancy Sir Easton in shiny armor right there! daaaaam!

Reflective surfaces are also slightly harder to focus on.

Shiny armors = modern day shiny cars

I was thinking about the refection of the sun or even local lights like torches on this. While I doubt if it had much effect on someone up close and would not care about friend of foe in that case, I could see it causing issues with ranged attacks like bows or spears. It would not be a major protection but I could see it moving the needle a little and if that was happening in training then regardless of how it worked on a real battlefield it would make it a desired trait.

Reflecting the sun was the only one I guessed.

Working on a lvl 3 ballistic shield (under 7 lbs) and trying to figure out how to heat mold mirror-backed plexi glass onto the front and keep the mirror shine. That way, someone shines a weapon light on it they blind themselves; and a mirror finish messes up a sight picture. ;)

What stuff did they use to get a mirror polish. As you say there are drawings of watermill powered polishing wheels. But what was on the wheels?

As a commander mirror armor would be invaluable to inspire your troops as it lets them know you are fighting with them.

I had a trowel with a very rough finish and the water would literally get stuck in the grooves and cause rusting there.

I'd imagine on a sunny day, it would be a lot harder for an archer to aim at a shiny knight than a black armored knight.

Since I love using carbon steel kitchen knives and know it is almost impossible to prevent them from darkening over time: Is such a polished finish sustainable in the field?

Several Portuguese authors refered that soldiers should have their armour polished and shining because that would instill terror in their foes.

Hi, I was wondering if you could discuss any theories as to why the British Red Coats wore the color red?

...a shield bedight with bits of broken mirrorglass, reflecting a thousand unpieced suns into the eyes of his enemies..." -Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

I work with thermal imaging and I can confirm that the nature of surface of an object can greatly effect its emissivity. For this the following is relevant Highly polished metallic surfaces have low emissivity and roughened up metallic surfaces have a higher emissivity.

Question, would it be plausible for some knights to rub oil on their armor? Or even polish their own? Thanks for the video.

Two other issues not mentioned that I suspect might have an impact. Firstly, for many periods in the Middle Ages, the objective in battle was not to kill your knightly opponent but to capture him for ransom. Having clearly expensive looking armour might be telling your opponent "please don't kill me because my family will pay good money to get me back alive". The second issue is that if you are of sufficient rank to be the commander of men, then it has always been considered of value to stand out from the crowd so that those who might be expected to follow you or accept orders from you can clearly see you. This has always been controversial, since this is why Nelson was wearing his regalia of rank when he was shot by a French marksman, and was why a number of British officers in the American War of Independence were brought down by American marksmen. Nonetheless, it was seen by commanders as a necessary risk to be able to effectively lead their own troops into battle.