Can’t believe I get to watch this for free. The amount of work and time required is incredible. I want to add that people often forget that the horse is a much larger target (and not as well armoured for the average horse) and getting thrown off your horse can kill or disable you, or at least reduce your morale in the melee. Don’t forget most of the killing was done in the melee. It seems the longbows were excellent against anything but plate armor, but even these Agincourt era plate armoured knights were vulnerable to longbow arrows due to the lack of plate armor for the entire horse of this time period, reducing their momentum of their cavalry charge. So yes, longbowmen were still useful against heavy cavalry of this era
Thanks Jack and some great thoughts there. Whatever is thought of the longbow and what it can do, what is evident is that as you said " It seems the longbows were excellent against anything but plate armor,"
It's not strictly true that heavy cavalry of the period was vulnerable to longbows. Valmont in 1416 and Vernueil in 1424 showed that *some* cavalry was sufficiently protected to charge straight through archers, regardless of their longbows and the stakes they had planted before them. This does seem to be a minority, however. (See the Gesta Henrici V for Valmont and Richard Wadge's book on Vernueil)
Impressive work, Tod! But we do have evidence concerning arrowheads steel hardened in medieval times as Kelly Devries states in his _Journal of Medieval Military History_ (Page 157) in which a metallographic test is conducted in some type XVI medieval arrowheads. Kelly and his team concluded that 3 of those arrowheads were steel hardened, so we can be more confident to stress that they really applied hardened steel on arrowheads. Also, there is an interesting edict by King Henry IV that may support this evidence: the Act of Parliament of 1405 states that "If arrows are found to be soft then the Arrowsmith will go to jail and his stock will be confiscated. (7 Hen. IVc7)
Type 16 arrowheads are usually steel barbs welded to iron sockets. This is actually irrelevant to our tests however, because we're dealing with bodkins. Perhaps I should have been more clear in saying that evidence of steel, steeled or otherwise hardened "bodkins" and not "arrowheads" is lacking. We are also aware of many official requests and descriptions throughout the medieval period of hard, steeled, steel and "well boiled" arrowheads, from the 1300s to the 1540s, but no actual evidence of case hardened bodkins exists, and if Arrowsmiths were simply told to make them and did, we wouldn't have recurring requests for them, they would just be the standard.
As an addition, despite there being a law in place that arrowsmiths supplying soft arrowheads would be sent to prison, even in 1545 Ascham writes that he himself has inspected sheaf arrows with heads that would not pass the checks made by officers. If arrowheads were being regularly hardened, this would not be the case. What we're actually seeing is that numerous requests for hardened heads are simply being IGNORED, not followed, regardless the potential punishments. This is apparent both in the physical evidence (no case hardened heads exist) and in the documents as if they were being supplied hardened, they wouldn't need to continously attempt to re-enforce the regulations.
@@MedievalArrows I see, I guess that was the problem indeed: you ended up generalizing "arrowheads" instead of stressing only "bodkins" on your conclusions. Also, it would be nice if you pointed out that we have evidence of other types of case hardened arrowheads to problematize even more the discussion. But it was a fantastic piece of work, regardless of my humble observations.
@@BrasaodeArmas we don't have ANY evidence of any case hardened heads, regardless of type. We only have evidence of a few steel bodkins, and lots of steel-barbed iron-socketed barbed heads.
joe is an absolute animal,cant believe how good he is ,not many can even draw 160 pounder,but to be that accurate constantly with it is extraordinary,just amazing
At the end when he was just head down and putting arrow after arrow into the helmet, I can only imagine how much that must have burned by the end! But pinpoint accurately to the last arrow.
that's kind of an interesting ancillary thing in this video. Movies and games tend to give this idea that archery is fairly easy, that it's the perfect weapon for the less physically gifted fighters. But even a guy as big as Joe is physically straining just to draw that thing. You have to be unbelievably strong to be a good military archer. the first hand accounts of Agincourt say the archers were armed with hammers or maces for close in combat, bashing the tired french knights down to the ground once they finally got into close combat and forcing them to surrender. Really makes you understand just how bloody effective that really would have been, given the brute strength these guys would have had. professional longbowmen were not something to be underestimated in a melee situation
Man, people really underestimate how much strength is required to shoot bows like that. You can see the struggle in his face and arms. Impressive! I couldn't do it, pretty sure my shoulders would shatter.
I guess its just fantasy rpg make you think the bow users are delicate dexterous people even tho they would have to be jacked up strongmen to fire nonstop when the enemy was in effective range. Even this great archer here who obviously gets breaks in between the shots looks quite winded for sure at some points.
@VOTE_REFORM_UK At Agincourt the long bowmen after they fired between 50 and 65 arrows in roughly 15 minutes or less, they hit the French flanks. They all had swords ,knives ,war hammers etc. Most importantly they went in barefoot. Someone had the foresight to make sure they weren't wearing shoes. It's easier to move in thick mud without them. They were definitely the heros on that day. France lost 80 percent of their nobility in 3 hours or so. Bad day at the office for them!!! Lol
These guys are doing proper historical research and they are just releasing it like this. Freely available to the public. I cannot put into words how great that is.
Thanks but yes Sanderson is right, it was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but it has still been a vast amount of work and is still going as there are at least 4 more films coming in this series
Most researcher (historic or not) are more than happy to freely share their result with the public. Because at the end of the day finding out stuff is fun, but telling other about what you found is half the fun! And I know very few doctors, scientist, curators or archeologist that weren't deligthed to find an attentive ear and eyes to their field of preference. That being said, Thanks Tod for organizing this and thank to all of the team for giving us such great infos!
The French fear of getting hit in the face could be a survivor bias. Sure they got hit and it hurt, but it didn't kill them. The dudes getting hit under the shoulder or in the throat would likely not be alive to have their accounts written down.
@@BlazingSteel i dont know why but getting hit by an arrow in the face seems somewhat worse than a bullet , but then again at least the bullet puts you out of your misery (most of the time at least)
@@mcsmash4905 That's probably it. That and also if arrows are stuck in the ground, that arrow has bacteria that can cause infection if it's not treated quickly or properly. And getting hit in the face and being knocked into thick and gooey mud is gonna impede how quickly you can get to medical aid.
I can shoot a bow, but as with other skills I can do, when faced with someone who can execute that skill so far in advance of my skill I just get to a state of awe
@@tods_workshop I'm in awe seeing that bow being drawn so many times. I'm burnt out after shooting a handful of arrows on just a 50lb I made. 80lb+ in progress. Amazing shooting and a beautiful bow. Great vid.
It's one thing to be good at aiming, but it's another to control your own body with that level of precision while exerting that enormous amount of force in your arms and back. Absolutely incredible.
This is as high quality as RUclips can get. All of you are making an amazing job and getting the nuances of this highly controversial topic. Thanks to everyone involved for providing such content for free for the rest of us to enjoy!
Watching experts speaking about their passion is such a rewarding experience. The effort and the quality of this video is very clear and I thank all involved in it's creation, you are teaching so many, so much, and deserve all the praise from the comments. Exceptional work.
There is no way this video was 45 minutes long! I started watching it without checking the runtime and when it was over I was like "well, that was a nice little video" and just saw that it lasted for almost 45 minutes! It felt like 5 at most! I've never seen time pass so quickly as it did with watching this video. Incredible - just like the bow "shooting" in this video!
Well done, everyone! It seems that when in doubt, shoot a Frenchman in the belly. You deal with 'bite' in this one, which I mentioned in a comment on one of your other recent vids. the psychological effect of a near miss to the eye must be great. Also, if you are being hit hard by many arrows, how easy is it to stay upright and advance, even if none penetrates?
That last question of yours is going to be difficult to answer unless you would like to stand in front of a bunch of long bow archers because I can’t think of many people who are going to be willing to test that theory out I’m certainly not going to do that unless you’re going to provide me with a free suit of armor But hey if you guys will pay for me to get a custom suit I’ll let you shoot at me with arrows
@@charlottewalnut3118 Careful, with the battle hungry audience on here desperate to see if you could stay on your feet they will crowd fund that in a couple of hours.
I think the mental effect of having a kinetic impact slam my head back and seeing an arrow burst into fragments an inch in front of my face would give me great pause. Even the hits to the breastplate must feel like you've been kicked and you'd just be waiting for the next one to go through...
I was expecting this to be done over several days due to the stamina drain. I remember Tod interviewing him several years where he talked about how much it takes out of you and how he limits the number the number of shots to conserve his body. I'm in awe at the man.
@@beardedchimp If memory serves me right Joe said that he can do 150 pounds for a long time, but his highest is like 200 pounds and that one tires him fast.
@@anonimus370 People like to inject some good ol’ power creep into statistics about history. I regularly see people claiming longbows were “over 200+ pounds draw weight!” In reality, most were 75-180, with 120-150 being the most common range for professional archers. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Joe finds a 150lb bow to be the highest powered bow he can shoot without rapidly depleting his strength, and this also happened to be the upper range for the power of the typical longbow.
Absolutely STAGGERING accuracy, Joe is a master archer. Watching his pull and hold, he has almost zero wobble, once he's fully locked his aim never falters. An entire unit of men like him on the field would have terrifying to face.
and considering every able bodies man was required to train every week, there would be no shortage of skilled longbowmen to scare the bejezus out of the enemy.
@@iZaners The kinesthetics of archery means it might look goofy, but it works. You have to contort your body like that when pulling draw weights over 100 lbs without pulley assists like modern compound bows. Bone scans of ancient archers show the massive strain and damage a lifetime of shooting warbows caused, even WITH proper techniques used.
That was magnificent. The best arrow vs armour testing I have ever seen by far. Really cool to watch the effect of form and deflection. Also to see the energy dissipation as so many of those arrows just exploded. The faceplate testing was particularly fun, and seriously impressive as to how well that helmet stood up to such punishment.
You boys are not only picking up the slack the modern "history channels" on TV dropped, but you lads just ran a marathon with it too! Splendid educational content!
Great experiments! It really shows that you had to shoot many, many arrows against armored enemies as most arrows would either miss or hit well protected areas. The amount of expert archers and top notch equipment is mind boggling. But so is the effort it took to fabricate ONE suit of armor like that...
Would be cool to see a modern take on this with the "Instant 160 pound Robin Hood" i would think... Or this double bow you created to pull even more pounds.
Historian and Museum curator, Toby Capwell, PhD and the rest of these experts giggling like schoolboys was definitely worth the price of my contribution. Excellent work! Looking forward to future projects.
This is an incredible piece of experimental field archaeology. Superb. Joe's archery is frankly terrifying. To imagine a few thousand Joes on the battlefield, loosing up to a dozen arrows a minute. Absolute carnage.
This is legit one of the best uses of the internet I've ever seen. Citizen science crowdfunded globally to answer questions I've been hoping to see more documentaries about since I was a kid. Good job guys! Thanks. 🙏
As some one who has been doing HEMA for the past 17 years it brings me massive joy to see how far open source research on subjects like this has gotten since its early days. Thank you all who worked on this, it really broadens our understanding and helps people like me who study in related fiels more than you can imagine. Once again, thank you
Really love the dedication to the scientific method. You took all the criticisms and (possible) shortcomings of the first test/video, did your research, verified what you were doing is as accurate as is reasonable in the modern day, and set up a new test that allowed you to glean much more information: more shots loosed, from different angles, at various parts of the armor, and with 2 types of arrowhead. Just astounding work. A fascinating watch. Thank you so much for making this.
Very few people can get away with being as completely and totally devoid of excitement while saying "I'm pretty excited" like Toby Capwell does. The man is a living embodiment of the stone face emoji and we all love him for it.
i so remember at a jousting event riding next to him, with the helmets closed, so stone faced helmet visors... and just heaaring him cowboyjell and sing Rob Zombie songs, next to me. i always think of him as very excitable.
Would be awesome if a sound wizard could clone/cut/paste all the different arrow shattering ploinks to give an impression of how a hailstorm of arrows would've sounded hitting a group of well plated knights.
That'd be a nightmare. 5000 - 6750 archers firing 10 arrows per minute is gonna be hell on earth for anyone slogging through the muddy fields of Agincourt, however heavily armored they are.
And this gentlemen must be one of the best pieces of historical research that has even been done on this planet. It is mindblowing how many things we have discovered and how many more aspects there are to this topic. Thank you all very much for putting this together. I feel honored and lucky to have been able to see the results of this effort!
All and every person participated in making of this film deserves admiration. It is just perfect! You are a good team of passionate people, producing unique educative content of incredible accuracy and quality. Now the bar is placed very high. P.S. The decibels within the helmet were also measured! You came extremely prepared to this shooting.
I know he's been doing it for a long time, but it's still so incredible to watch Joe repeatedly draw a bow of that weight, and be able to repeatedly strike a man sized target at that distance. It's so interesting to watch a master at his craft.
I have to agree. I just took up archery. And even at low poundage it's shocking how tiring it can get. Even with breaks I'm sure they have him, doing this many at that poundage is just jaw dropping. The fact he remained accurate on top of that is incredible.
No kidding. Drawing a 170lb bow that many times has got to be like hitting it hard in the gym. I wonder if he felt it the day after. It also makes me wonder -- how many arrows would the average archer let loose in a day's worth of fighting? And would that factor into bow weight? It's one thing to be able to draw a 170lb bow once -- it's another thing entirely to draw a 170lb bow repeatedly for an extended period of shooting.
@@chad1755 Fewer than 48, which is how many arrows were issued to them from Edward III to Henry VIII. Simon Stanley, one of the first generation of modern warbow archers, has actually argued that a mere three arrows a minute would have produced the recorded effects at Agincourt, and I don't think he's far wrong given the mud and other factors at play. 160lbs is also, as Tod and Joe say, on the high side. Most were probably 120-150lbs.
Great evaluation. I''m a retired Army Combat Medic, and Surgical technician with 49 years experience, much of which was in trauma surgery. Where the arrow struck just below the color bone (clavicle) could easily result in death. The top of the lung often is found in that area, as are many important anatomically significant structures, like the subclavian artery and vein. While not resulting in as quick of a bleed out as a femoral artery laceration, it's quite possible. On top of that, if the lung is compromised, well, that too COULD result in death. Just food for thought. God bless Justin
What about blunt (no penetration) blows to the chin when the head turns and shifts? Could it be a knock-out blow? Taking the energy those arrows (thick and heavy) deliver with such a powerful bow. We assume the chain mail goes up to cover at least the entire neck and maybe partially the lowest part of the jaw bone. The mail coif was only worn this way.
@@injest1928 My thoughts as well as I was pondering it. There is not only the question of IF you survive the wounds but for how long. A berserker like stake can make people carry on fighting before they even register that they are mortally wounded.
Imagine being under a immense shower of these arrow storms , the fear ,the noise of the arrows thuding home or pinging off . The screams of pain and panic and endless intensity of arrows , it must have been frightening beyond our modern minds and then you would have to fight the battle immediately after the arrows had stopped .
It would sound like thousands of people playing air hockey at the same time. CLINK CLINK clank *PING* The sheer Racket must have been insane. When u get hit in the head with one, it probably really rings your bell. *BONNGGG* Not a profession for the faint of heart
Nowhere near as frightening as modern warfare, though. I'm not saying Medieval Warfare was an easy cake walk psychologically, specially since a constant stream of missiles would have been morale shaking to an extent, but the stressfulness and PTSD inducing conditions of modern combat is just on a whole 'nother level. You can't compare some volleys of arrows in a single day of combat to the shitstorm that was something like WW1.
I mean you might not hear any frightened screaming because soldiers would in many cases be yelling a battlecry when they are at close range in unison to bring up the morale. Also remember all of the guys are filled with adrenalin and that is a hell of a hormone also there is a thing called tunnel vision that anyone who has fought in real life know about you aint exactly focusing on whats around you but whats infront of you.
The amount of craftsmanship and expertise between all these guys, and a pure honest curiosity to discover is really awe inspiring. Thanks to all of you!
Can someone tell me the weight of the Bow? Google says 160 lb translates into 72kg. In the Video they said it would weigh 160 pounds and that translates into 32kg, but both of these numbers seem way to high.
You know, it's alright to say you get paid for your passion! You don't have to justify it to anyone (referencing the beginning section of the video). A lot of people would love to have fun with medieval stuff for a job, and anyone who would think less of you for it are just upset that they can't make their dream work. Keep it up!
There is little else more satisfying than listening to experts in their fields analyze and talk about the things they're most passionate about. This project is phenomenal, Tod. Thank you, sincerely for putting this together. This is the kind of stuff that I wish was on The History Channel. It's more informative and entertaining than any documentary I've seen on TV in years. Well done to everyone on this team. A++ work
Legitimately some of the highest quality content I've ever seen, here or on any platform. All of the experts are equal parts knowledgeable and passionate, and their love for what they're doing is infectious, the setup is absolutely brilliant, and the execution phenomenal. And perhaps the biggest shoutout to Joe's shooting - watching him loose those arrows is a perfect reminder of how physical a task that is.
As terrifying as it would be to walk into the rain of arrows aimed at you, could you imagine being one of the archers watching a hulking tower of iron walking toward you with malicious intent seemingly unfazed by the three arrows sticking out of his throat?
At the distance he’s shooting at, if I’m the archer I probably have only two options left after the second arrow is loosed: fall back or switch to my melee weapon. The second option would probably been dreadful for a peasant archer.
@@MandalorV7 Peasant Spearmen would be a menace to mounted cavalry. So I'm sure a Peasant Archer would be equally threatening to a knight, mounted or not.
@@MandalorV7 Well not really considered a lot of the knights felled at Agrincourt was in melee combat with the archers. These are professional man at arms and peasantry that been through many battles. Some might even look forward to it since the enemy knight would be far easier to capture and ransome if beaten to surrender in melee combat.
@@MandalorV7 Frankly I would rather be a peasant archer with a ranged weapon that I could shoot at the rich b*stard's crotch than be handed a cheap spear and told to go do the dying for my betters. Also, imagine being a standard infantryman with a boiled leather breastplate and maybe a bit of steel on your helmet faced with being shot with even one of those arrows. Even if you survived the immediate impact, you knew a penetration wound like that carried a massive risk of infection and an agonizing death from gangrene.
The archer is a beast. Imagine facing an entire unit of soldiers like that, pointing their arrows at you. Awesome content, congratulations to everyone involved!
Oh man, I've been looking forward to this for so long (I backed the Kickstarter the day it was announced), and it does *not* disappoint! The attention to detail in making sure that everything was as historically accurate as possible, and testing different materials to show what the differences are between how they perform is exactly what I wanted. Especially that hounskull bascinet: I've always wanted to see a hounskull bascinet getting hit by arrows in different places and from different angles! I love that this video busts the myth that armour of the day was useless against war bows, while also busting the myth that armour of the day was a hard counter to war bows.
For all the History junkies like myself, and for the sake of empiric data in regards to this subject, what this channel is doing, is pure altruistic work. Thank you all so much for this.
The amount of skill, research, training, and just plain hard work it took to produce this series is just absolutely mind boggling. Thank you to all of you whom did so much to make it possible!
I really love that they made an effort to account for the materials used. Modern industrial steel is significantly higher quality than what they had back then, so using the mild steel as a replacement was an excellent idea.
Possibly. I would have loved for them to mention brinell hardness etc found in real artifacts compared to mild steel, which is a blanket term for many many different alloys. Even rolling the steel to form the structure can work harden it in different areas as opposed to hammer forging.
Hi, I’m french and I feel the compassion of Dr Tobie Capwell towards this valiant French knight, he looks at him with emotion and respect, I felt that and without any surprise he showed him his gratitude with a pat on his shoulder at the end. The best part for me! We say Azincourt in French. Best.
French here and I second that. Maybe next time focus on the battle of Cocherel or Patay!!😂 But I can tell what it sounded like inside the helmet when the first arrow flew: ho merde😮
I find it had to comprehend how people fought back then, and Renaud not just the sound but imagen how it felt! I shoot archery (modern recurve) but i have shoot a light weight (60lb) longbow and the arrows are hefty and they make the target jump. From a 160lb bow not only would it sound loud but it must be like someone throwing a cricket ball as hard as they can at side of you head! I image plenty of knights feel either stunned or unconscious simply from the force. And after taking 3 or 4 even if uninjured i cant image the could have reach the english feeling all that great. Tired from running, battered and bruised, quite possible with injuries where arrows had got through. To have survived that suicidal charge and then still have to start actually fighting! Then you watch this and think christ these men were brave.
@@TheDevilWAH Think if I'd of had my helmet rattled like that. If it hadn't knocked me stone cold out I'd of played like it had. Let another take up the mantle of front line of the advance.
@@TheDevilWAH Consider Agincourt was one of the battles where those captured outnumbered those who were the captors, I imagine they really did have quite severe morale shock after going through that hail of arrows just to lose.
I just finished the portion of the video that starts at 18:19 where Joe is told to actively deliver effective shots and he just blasts three shots into the underbelly of this poor knight like he was just toying before and is going for the kill now. I can't stress out enough how impressed I am by this man's skill in archery
Makes me think whether archers might have aimed for the croth primarily on armoured targets instead center mass. The psychological horror of your first ranks dropping in agony and bleeding out in what I imagine is quite the painful death must have been devastating to morale.
Apparently the conquistadors under Cortez would aim for their enemies crotches and faces with their swords which were unprotected and was a massive morale factor
But that just confirms something. A bowman had to be GOOD. And that took years and years of training. Clearly, since crossbows were so much easier to use, you can see why eventually they started being used more often.
Hey guys. I just wanted to say thanks for the great video. Also, a big thanks to those involved. Seeing how much you guys enjoyed it. I can tell you I was just the same. Ohhh, ahhhh and oooof, after every shot. Sweet video. Awesome work!
The sheer amount of love and care that is put into this channel to make quality content is just astounding. Its weird how a guy whose content is mostly about deadly weapons can be this wholesome.
As a thought, fear of penetrating the visor might have 2 additional factors. Natural inclination to flinch and avoid things coming straight at your eyes, even if you know the goggles/visor would protect you. Also, even if it doesn't penetrate, if the arrow shatters a single wood splinter entering the slit would probably blind you in that eye for life. A suggestion for if you ever do this again, stick a sheet of thin paper behind the eye sockets inside the helmet, to see if any splinters are fragmenting through that area. (And of course if you're talking about shattered arrow fragments, you're also worried about the ones that shattered glancing off the guy Infront of, or beside you.) Love the video. A few of those non-glancing head shots that didn't penetrate might still be doing some concussion damage from the way the heads getting moved around, as well as whiplash damage to the neck
Yep bruises etc under armour would have been very painfull and yeah the concussive effect from multiple hits could have meant your fighting ability was minimal. P.s Although I read recently a story of a battle vs the Turks one guy fought on with one eye and one hand etc...
@@MauriceTarantulas a few things i would like to see tested as well are: put the guy on a rig so someone can pull him towards the archer, to simulate the speed at which the knight is moving, which could be quite fast especially if he's on a galloping horse. second thing i would like to see tested is to put the knight up higher, as if he's sitting on a horse, with his armoured knees and shins forward, which i assume would make shooting his groin and thigh area a lot harder.
@@windhelmguard5295 When facing a galloping knight, you don't shoot the knight. You shoot the horse. Horse armor was used but whether it was as broad or as well placed is a question. A horse falling is going to create more mass to block horses behind it. Shooting the rider, horse may keep going in a formed charge. Shoot the horse, rider is thrown, likely injured and formation behind gets wider to avoid tripping.
Gutted I found this so late. Great work by everyone involved. Two things of particular interest stand out: First, that mathematically it was only taking 4-5 arrows on average in the early general tests to find a weak spot. The great strength of the longbow was its rate of fire, and here we can see that demonstrated to full effect, likely thinning the French ranks just a little bit with each volley. Second was the hit on the spaulders that knocked them loose. We can imagine over the course of a campaign lasting months that bits of armour would break off or get damaged in other ways during skirmishes and even sparring, as seen in that arrow hit. This increases the probability of men having to go into battle with pieces of armour missing or clinging on via running repairs, further enhancing their vulnerability to volume arrow fire. Super interesting. Again, great work.
Tod and the whole crew - you are amazing. I am truly grateful that i've found this chanel and that I am able to watch this. It is amazing that this group of passionate, analytical people could meet and do this, and then show it to the world. Thank you all, hats off!
As a lifelong historical nerd, I am so thankful to be able to see these things researched and shared in my lifetime. It's honestly just cool! Thank you!
What is interesting as well, is the fact that hundreds and thousands of armored knights and men at arms would also protect each other by simply existing in a formation. Simultaneously there would be missed arrows hitting buddies in behind and so much debris, shattered arrows, shafts etc. This extraordinary video just shows how proper physical tests can bring about more hypotheses. Amazingly done, kept smiling through all 44 minutes and thank you all!
I really like Augusto's armor. I am especially impressed by the helmet and visor. Before this test, I erroneously thought the vent holes were a point of weakness, but they held up to every hit on them. I only wish I had the money to buy an armor like this one from Augusto.
Do you want your armor to do enough for blunted weapons HEMA brawls on 1.5 mm steel or do you want something to be shot at with steel hardened bodkin tips on point blank range by a pro archers with a 34+ pounds pro medival English longbow?
Well done as always, you can feel that extra level of polish in this one. You all have good on screen chemistry and i would totally watch a Netflix series on this. Great work.
honestly I hope Netflix and similar productions don't get a hold of this I don't trust them to allow Tod and his team the freedom to explore the necessary topics without shoehorning irrelevant points whatever they may at that time. or trying to make it "will this fantasy historical armor stop an arrow" that might sound selfish of me but i don't want to see a good thing ruined plus the way i see it is that they would be lowering themselves quality-wise if they were to go under Netflix or any similar service.
i think there is one factor that isn't taken into account. yes i understand that this is armor test. But at the same time, it is to gain information about what effect it would have had on the battlefield. And even if the arrows are not necessarily kill shots, the factor i'm thinking about, is the psychological effect it has on you.. getting pummled with these projectiles, and being in that armor, wether they go through it or not, you are flinching and whincing and your psychi is telling you , this is dangerous, i want to get out of here.. The demoralizing effect here is just as big, maybe even bigger on the troops bombarded by these arrows. Loved the video, great colaboration, great effort from all !
That was so amazing to see! I did my Master's thesis on the longbow, the hundred years war, and a survey of contemporary art depicting armor from the period. I had turned in my final copy to my advisor when the first Arrows vs. Armour came out and I added a small forward that called it out as a great project that started to test what was only theoretical and how it was an important piece, but only a piece of the answer. Now to see this, I feel like everything I said has been vindicated and I can't wait to see your supplementary videos. Great job to all those involved.
It's easy to think of people "back in the day" as being stupid, because lower technology carries the connotation, but it's likely that the well-fed and more intellectually inclined humans of the era were comparable to modern humans even if, on average, intelligence was lower (as implied by findings like the Flynn effect in the 20th century).
@@mrbouncelol A skilled hunter today can hit a squirrel at 100m with a rifle easily. A skilled hunter in the middle ages could hit a squirrel at 50m with an arrow albeit less easily. Technology has doubled the range but the skill of a human being with a projectile weapon does not change. People have always been masters of their craft and it is the craft that has evolved not the human factor. Were people in past ages stupid? No more so than we are today. They were just much less informed about how the world works on a physical level and as a result could not achieve what we can today.
@@LordOceanus well said I was recently engaged in a debate with others on the pyramids and all the other ancient wonders. They were certain it was a long lost ancient super advanced civilization or aliens crossed the vastness of space to come here and make stone monuments. I don't get why people find it so hard to believe ancient humans were just master stone masons even though the earth is covered in evidence of it I mean we have so many achievements how is building the pyramid unbelievable.
Never forget there were many different types of arrowhead. Not only did they use Hoskins but at Crecy they used "hammerhead " arrows too which caused internal injuries but did not penetrate
If I could describe this film using only one word it would be “incredible.” Incredible archer, armor, craftsman, and production. I cannot say it enough, you all did an absolutely incredible job.
Outstanding work Tod. This is very much a work of history and is definitely a strong contribution to the literature. Thanks very much to you and the team. I personally think that these contributions should be formally recognised by a history department of a university. Very happy to hear there are more films coming.
Absolutely incredible film with the absolute best in their field! Thank you for pulling this together....and I have to say, HUGE props to the sound techs on this - amazing clarity, especially with that wind!
The mud must been a decisive factor. On flat dry ground they might move so fast, you can't aim for the gaps. But if your horse is shot under you, you land in the mud, turning weak sides to the archer. And then try to walk towards the enemy in the mud with heavy amor, makes you slow and easier to hit. That was surely the day, when the archers should lose, but didn't because of that factor, the mud. Great job guys. What an efford you put down to this experiment. Experimental history and achaeology at its finest.
Couple of dozen wounded horses running about with men on the ground mud someone's got to get trampled plunging arrows face down in the mud visor full of mud get up open visor .....
@@garywheeley5108 I don't think so... I think it would be more likely that the mud slowed the knights down so much that the archers simply put as much arrows as they could into them with the expectations of wounding/killing the knights with the 1 in 4 shots rather than taking the time to aim. Where the knights are not killed or maimed, they would have been so winded/bruised/exhausted that they would not have offered much resistance when the melee began.
I was going to say the same thing. At Agincourt the initial expectation the French had, iirc, was for a cavalry attack across open ground. They apparently spent a good deal of the night before making sure their squires exercised the warhorses, walking them up and down the line, because they were concerned that in the cold, wet conditions it would take too long to warm them up when the attack started after first light. But in the event, the majority of the French men-at-arms went in on foot. I've read accounts that state that the plowed fields in front of the French position were seen to be soaked with rain and stirred up into a thick mire where the horses had been walked. Maybe that was the deciding factor. Or maybe not enough French men-at-arms had sufficient barding for their horses to be confident of making it across the intervening ground. I once, many years ago, attempted to walk across a recently-plowed field that had been wetted down by a light rain. Probably a good thing the farmer wasn't there to see me try it, because I left a track that a blind man couldn't miss across his neat furrows. I also ended up exhausted and very nearly minus my boots, good lace-up hikers that despite being laced tight were very nearly sucked off my feet by the mud. The plowed fields at Agincourt across which the French advanced were not merely wettted down by a light rain. It had rained, off and on, all night. Possibly for a day or two before. That's going to have slowed the advance down a lot. It also created an additional hazard, that of being knocked off your feet into the mud. While the Hollywood trope of the armored knight being too clumsy to get up without help is utter nonsense, if you got knocked down in thick, ankle- or calf-deep mud while wearing the armor shown you were going to be hard-pressed to get up again. Maybe a comrade pauses and gives you a hand, maybe your squire runs forward and pulls you up...or maybe you're stuck there until the English find you. Watching this demonstration, though, I'm convinced that, had those fields been not been rain-soaked, Agincourt might well have been a very different story. With no mud to fight through the French men-at-arms would have been able to cover the beaten ground more quickly, and been in better shape to fight once they did. They *had* the armor to do it...maybe not perfect, but orders of magnitude better than what they'd been wearing at Crecy two generations earlier. Write this down, boys and girls: Weather ain't neutral.
This series has been such a pleasure to watch. Joe's shooting was incredible! There was so much knowledge and craftsmanship at work. Not to be forgotten are the production value, which is excellent. I'm so pleased with this. That long list of Kickstarter backers shows just how worthwhile, how important so many of us considered this to be; and that's after you willingly cut the campaign short at an appropriate point. The crew really delivered on everyone's investment. I can't believe there's more, but now I'm off to check out what these Kickstarter extras are! Thanks to everyone for many jobs well done.
Absolutely amazing work by all those involved with this, really appreciate the work that went into it and the results speak for themselves. Just let us know when funding for Arrows vs Armour 3 gets going. This was already some of the best money I've ever spent.
Amazing and fascinating video! If you do a part 3 please add a way to gauge the force/impact on the wearer. It'd be great to know if the impact could concuss or even break smaller bones even when it doesn't go through
He does a test in another vid & it doesn't transfer enough energy to crack a raw egg, they don't produce that much energy (less than a 22lr) or momentum (less than an average punch)
I don't know if you'll read this Tod, but your first AvA video had a dramatic, life-changing effect on me, well it was more Joe's explanation on the biomechanics and because of your combined effect I've decided to start working out and improve my fitness and maybe one day be able to draw a bow such as the one Joe is using! Thank you for that. Truly amazing video! I was expecting it to be even better then the 1st one and it exceeded all my expectations! edit: oh, yeah, forgot to say that I'm very disciplined, committed and the results are coming in! And I just may be able to draw it (not shot it, I'm no archer 🤣)
This was brilliant. Everything a historical documentary should be! My only feedback would be I would have loved to see Augusto and Will's faces as all of their hard work just got slammed into each other! Great work everyone! Awesome content.
Yeah all other tests I have seen said 'look arrows dont peirce plate armour' leaving the question, why did England place such emphasis on the bow then? Just for horses and poorer units?q This test shows how well armoured knights were mostly safe but had weak points which could be exploited. Its also worth saying that this and other tests focus on early 15th century armour. But what about 1346 armour which I am sure had more weak points. I get the impression that archers were far more effective in the early HYW but by 1415 were becoming less devastating?
The du diligence of your testing and the skill of your archer is truly fantastic. Speaking as one of the untold thousands of people who have pondered this historical rivalry, thank you for answering these questions. I would have never thought plate armor would have been so effective. I had always assumed that longbows would penetrate plate but hard science prevails. Thank you, this video was brilliant!
Makes me wonder how many French knights survived that initial battle pulse, withdrew and opened their visors to breathe or shout orders only to take an arrow to the pie hole. Great work Tod, Toby, Joe, and the rest!!! Amazing watch!
Incredible! It's great to see Augusto's craft improve so much, I've seen some of his older pieces and the pace at which he's gotten better is great. Honestly masters of craft here, this was absolutely worth the donation and there is a LOT to be gleamed from here. Great work!
Man, props to Joe, he only missed two shots! And that bow looks heckin' thick. I love how this is a culmination of many masters of different aspects of shooting the target. Also this is all from one archer! There were so many archers during that battle (I'm assuming lol)
Regarding getting shot in the visor/eye slots, I can't help but think that the splinters would have been an extremely scary thing for the knights, more so than actual arrow in the eye. Upon direct impact the arrows would send off tiny pieces in every direction. Even one of those going into a knight's eye could spell disaster. A scratched cornea would hurt like all hell and effectively blind a fighter in one eye. An actual wooden splinter could be even worse, with the potential of getting lodged at a funny angle. Once the knight would inevitably blink the splinter would get wiggled/dragged around in the already-damaged cornea. Contending with something like this while completely unable to do anything at all about it would be both awful and very dangerous. Lift the visor to remove the splinters? You're a bullseye for every archer within 30+ meters and it wouldn't help anyway. Soldier on? You can't effectively defend yourself because of restricted field of vision and loss of depth perception. Can't imagine this being an easily survivable situation.
Another thing to keep in mind in this experiment is its only one arrow one archer at angicourt, there were thousands of archers, not only are you possibly being swarmed with arrows like this, but youve also got the amount of noise from the arrows wistling through the air, and weve heard these arrows how loud they hit, imagine thousands of these hitting at a time, the sheer physiological effect would be staggering, plus seeing your comrades being hit by dozens of arrows it would be a terrifying experience that doesnt present through this awesomely done test! Well done!
Absolutely fantastic. I had always assumed the results would be similar to this and seeing it finally properly tested is great. Of course there’s always been the 2 camps of “arrows devastate armor” and the camp of “arrows could never penetrate armor”. I had always assumed it would be somewhere in between. After all, if they used plate armor, often with no shield, it’s because armor WORKS however, it’s not 100%. Almost like volley fire with muskets in the 1700s, the tactic is to shoot enough volleys at them and eventually a bullet will hit. This video further reinforces that way of thinking. As a knight, you risk it because you know that your armor will protect you very, very well. And as an archer, you know that if you shoot enough arrows at him, eventually he will be killed or injured enough to be rendered useless and unable to fight. So the tactic must have been to shoot as many arrows as possible at the target. One of the main advantages of the English warbow was their ability to rapidly shoot arrows - much faster than a crossbow. So as a knight in agincourt, in just a span of 10 minutes, you may be hit by hundreds of arrows. All it takes is one of those arrows to penetrate and shatter your arm as we saw. Or 1 arrow to find the gaps and weak points, penetrating mail and killing the knight. It’s an extremely fascinating concept that the English likely employed “strength in numbers” by shooting as many arrows as possible. Now, I’d love to see more test with crossbows. There’s the (myth) that crossbows were for penetrating armor and longbows were for killing unarmored opponents. Of course we know that it was likely the opposite. I speculate that crossbows were weaker and better for killing lightly armored and unarmored opponents only, however they were very easy to use (can be trained competently in a matter of days rather than years), and you can take your time to aim. Meanwhile the warbow had a higher poundage, was likely better at penetrating all forms of armor due to the strength of these bows. But to train the archer took years, and it is much harder to aim as you can only hold the draw for a couple seconds at most. Super cool stuff
I wish that I could do more than just like and share this video; it is, absolutely, fantastic work by everyone involved. You are all, what I would consider, among the foremost experts in your various fields, and I sincerely hope that you all take massive amounts of pride in these collections of videos. Beyond how informative and entertaining this video is, I loved hearing a group of grown men giggling like a bunch of children.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:12 Tod's *Workshop is conducting "Arrows versus Armour 2," testing medieval armor with arrows. The armor, meticulously crafted by Augusto, includes pieces based on historical references like the Wallace Collection A69 helmet and Churburg Castle originals.* 03:22 The *armor, made of mild steel, replicates 14th-15th century French designs. Thickness variations are strategically employed to balance protection and weight, with the breastplate, arms, and visor ranging in thickness.* 06:29 Tod *emphasizes the importance of using mild steel in the armor to represent the common material of the time. The aim is to test the armor's effectiveness against arrows and gain insights into the real-world challenges faced by knights.* 08:18 The *archer, Joe Gibbs, uses a 160-pound self-yew bow, replicating historical bows from the Mary Rose. The arrows, with iron heads, are based on period-appropriate designs, aiming to simulate authentic conditions.* 10:53 The *initial test shows the armor effectively protecting against arrow strikes, with only minor dents and no penetration on the breastplate. The armor's design, including the aventail, proves successful in preventing serious injury.* 19:49 Further *tests reveal vulnerabilities, especially in the lower torso covered by mail. Arrows cause significant damage in these areas, highlighting the limitations of medieval mail armor against powerful arrows.* 21:36 Simulating *flanking shots, the armor's sides are exposed, revealing potential weaknesses. The tests demonstrate the strategic balance in medieval armor design, with reinforced frontal protection but vulnerability on the sides.* 23:22 Armor *is effective; wrist hit but still functional. Arrows hitting articulation, penetrating bone.* 24:26 Armor *dynamic: plates stop arrows, mail turns some, but not all shots. French attacking English center.* 25:39 Archers *targeting knight's exposed areas. Armor absorbs impact, limiting damage.* 26:25 Decibel *reading of arrow impact surprisingly not loud. Back exposed, kidneys hit, armor's varying effectiveness.* 28:02 Armor's *effectiveness observed. Questions about potential differences with case-hardened armor.* 29:26 Reviewing *footage: armor successes and failures. Results suggest a balanced outcome between arrowsmith and armorer.* 30:52 Varied *arrow hits: bouncing off, penetrating, and glancing. Aventail pierced; discussion on armor's impact.* 31:44 Testing *case-hardened arrowheads. Assessing if case hardening improves arrow penetration.* 34:53 Case-hardened *arrows show improved penetration. Discussion on medieval understanding of arrow effectiveness.* 37:10 Testing *arrows on neck and face. Aventail pierced; potential risks to delicate areas discussed.* 39:13 Arrows *penetrate helmet; one through the eye socket. Evaluation of armor effectiveness and potential vulnerabilities.* 42:01 Summary: *Wrought iron performs well. Plate armor effective at weak points. Case-hardening's impact inconclusive, calls for evidence. Acknowledgments and future supplementary films mentioned.* Made with HARPA AI
@@tods_workshop Appreciated 100% but seriously THANK YOU, to you and the group of people that help pull off these from concept to final production. Truly an update from the first splendidly maverick go at it, and enjoyed the extra data/result crunching that all parties had as it went along but really was nice 360° view of it by the end. Let me say, you guys sure didnt make it hard to stick around and looking forward to extra future projects and always checking for more from you all, from Tod making things, to Toby talking about the data around the times and Joe plunking things like the pro he is 😜
Absolute props to all the minds, hands, and intent behind this. Special shout out to our archer for pulling a MASSIVE draw for a whole afternoon for us. Excellent work to you all and much gratitude!
After watching this i am even more interested in more ARROWS vs ARMOUR. Especially when looking at other time periods. (Before and after Agincourt) I know there is way less evidence for how the armour and arrows were exactly made, especially the further back you go. But i would love to see more of it. Nonetheless, this was a monumental piece of work and i got surprised a lot of times there. I loved seeing it and especially how the shapes of the armour influenced the protection ability so much. (Even the 1.X mm armour managed to deflect many arrows and such an arrow, as tested previously, goes through this thickness easily if it is just a plate.) Thank you very much to all of you for doing this video and thank you for everyone who made it possible to be a free video on youtube.
A shield would be extremely useful to cover the weak points of the armor. Cover yourself with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other and rush down the archers. But a large number of archers shooting arrows at you would also be terrifying. Either way I wouldn’t want to fight on a medieval battlefield
Like so many others I’ve been keenly anticipating this video series and the results are just fantastic. We’ve all just been given a glimpse of something which has previously been confined to imagination and speculation. I’m so impressed by the combination of expertise, knowledge and effort which has combined to create this. Hats off to Tod and the team for making this happen.
This was spectacular. So many other tests have ignored the fact that armor has gaps, defects etc. Imagine being hit with 10 or more at once. It’s going to find a gap or ring your bell
For this reason, units such as Swiss Pikemen, resistant to archers, did not emerge before the armor technology was well developed Chain mail armors and scale armors were weak against arrows if used alone. For this reason, chain mail armors and scale armors were used in combination with shields. However, keeping shields up for hours was tiring, and some open body parts were less protected against arrows. Armies using these armors were particularly vulnerable to arrow attacks from the flanks and rear. Also, the use of two-handed weapons made it almost impossible to hold a shield. With these weak armors, you wouldn't want to use a two-handed weapon when you're under a shower of arrows. Despite better protection, manipulating a one-handed spear was more difficult than two-handed one. For this reason, such weakly armored infantry preferred the strategy of laying down their shields and raising their longer near them shortly before the enemy cavalry engaged their charge. Another method was piles driven into the ground. However, this second method resulted in fewer maneuvering options. Moreover, dropping shields was a particularly bad solution against mounted archers. The phalanx is almost the only example where very long spears are used with a shield. Soldiers in the phalanx order used the shield by putting their forearms in a cuff. So they could use the long sarissas partially with two hands. However, they used sarissas one-handed in the first line for better protection with shields, especially when there was a threat of enemy archers. Moreover, the maneuverability of the extremely long sarissas was limited due to the shield. This issue was fixed by having 3 line soldiers point their sarissas at the enemy. Thus, the enemy that the first line missed could be speared by the other line. When this organization was disrupted due to terrain conditions or lack of discipline, especially Roman Legionnaires could easily push sarissas aside or up and enter close combat with their large shields, and armies in the phalanx order were losing the war. Since effective armor technology against arrows was not developed in the early period, many armies could not stand against armies consisting mostly of heavy and light horse archers, such as the Huns, Turks and Mongols. Lamellar armors and Laminar armors, which were more common especially in the east, were slightly more resistant to arrows. But it was still far from being a good solution. In the 1300s, after the Mongol invasion, armors containing plate pieces similar to lamellar armor began to come to the fore. This increased the protection of soldiers against enemy archers. During this period, especially mail and plate armors and brigandine armors became popular. Especially mirror armor was found in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. These armors had some arrow-resistant parts. But also, battleaxes, maces, war hammers and polaxes could be effective against these armors. The expensiveness of full plate armor limited its use outside of elite soldiers. Ironically, in the 1400s, when armor technology was well developed, the Ottoman army began to use firearms widely, and they gained the upper hand against the heavily armored armies in Europe. After the Ottoman Empire, the use of muskets became widespread in other armies. The use of armor parts other than the arrow-resistant plate body armor gradually decreased.
Utterly fantastic. The best testing of arrows and armor that I have ever seen. This needs as much exposure to the WORLD as possible. God willing, some Hollywood director will actually make a movie where armor actually functions the way it did in history. Well done to everyone involved. It was great to see the smiles on everyone's faces. No one was disappointed at the results not matching what they expected, they were delighted to show the truth, the reality, not what they might have hoped for differently. Most particularly, the proof that armor worked, plate armor worked very well, and the weak points were where the injuries occurred. It was shown, but not emphasized that the lower abdomen, legs, pelvic area was very vulnerable without plate, just mail. I'd scour the historical records for a prevalence of injury or death as a result of arrow wounds in that area. Frankly, that was the high percentage shop in this video. Forget going for shoulders, neck, eyes. Shoot him in the guts, the pelvis, etc. Those were much more likely to be effective. And I'd be more afraid of the close miss to my junk than I would the arrow that splintered on my helm or visor!
Probability of going through: helmet ~0% breatplate ~0% mail/no plate ~100% arms and shoulders at varying angles - 25% or less So, if there is no plate over legs - about 30% of body is exposed If there is - probably 5% That's huge difference
And this is even a decently nerfed case due to severely lower than historical level of padding. Pre full suit/heavy plate there was as much if not more mass in fiber/padding as from the metal of the armor itself on a knight exactly because of the effect multiple layers of cloth have on dispersing force of a projectile. That naturally lowered as the armor itself became the protective factor, but there are still accounts of for back then larger men (1.8m+) having what with some basic math amounts to between 5.5 to 6.3 kg of cloth (or for a simpler comparison, your winter clothes mostly under but partially also over the metal).
You, gentlemen, have outdone it with this production! This is the best historical armor or archery film/documentary made to date! So much irrefutably brought to light it's mind-blowing. I wish for a day when future layman history buffs will look back at this and think, "that's all common knowledge." If such an enlightened time ever comes you lot can know for a fact that these experiments paved the way. Cheers!
This was SO up to the hype. Unbelievable, I actually clapped when it ended! Thank you to the makers and the funders for this amazing project. (I must add : Dr. Capwell patting "the Knight" on the shoulder overrun me with wholesomeness)
This was absolutely fantastic. A long awaited and thoroughly rewarding follow up. Massive congratulations to everyone involved. Proud to have been able to support on kickstarter and if you have plans for a third I'd be more than happy to support once more!
Can’t believe I get to watch this for free. The amount of work and time required is incredible. I want to add that people often forget that the horse is a much larger target (and not as well armoured for the average horse) and getting thrown off your horse can kill or disable you, or at least reduce your morale in the melee. Don’t forget most of the killing was done in the melee. It seems the longbows were excellent against anything but plate armor, but even these Agincourt era plate armoured knights were vulnerable to longbow arrows due to the lack of plate armor for the entire horse of this time period, reducing their momentum of their cavalry charge. So yes, longbowmen were still useful against heavy cavalry of this era
Thanks Jack and some great thoughts there. Whatever is thought of the longbow and what it can do, what is evident is that as you said " It seems the longbows were excellent against anything but plate armor,"
Love your channel too. Keep it up!
@@tods_workshop it’s jack
Agreed, 100%.
It's not strictly true that heavy cavalry of the period was vulnerable to longbows. Valmont in 1416 and Vernueil in 1424 showed that *some* cavalry was sufficiently protected to charge straight through archers, regardless of their longbows and the stakes they had planted before them. This does seem to be a minority, however.
(See the Gesta Henrici V for Valmont and Richard Wadge's book on Vernueil)
Impressive work, Tod! But we do have evidence concerning arrowheads steel hardened in medieval times as Kelly Devries states in his _Journal of Medieval Military History_ (Page 157) in which a metallographic test is conducted in some type XVI medieval arrowheads. Kelly and his team concluded that 3 of those arrowheads were steel hardened, so we can be more confident to stress that they really applied hardened steel on arrowheads. Also, there is an interesting edict by King Henry IV that may support this evidence: the Act of Parliament of 1405 states that "If arrows are found to be soft then the Arrowsmith will go to jail and his stock will be confiscated. (7 Hen. IVc7)
Type 16 arrowheads are usually steel barbs welded to iron sockets. This is actually irrelevant to our tests however, because we're dealing with bodkins. Perhaps I should have been more clear in saying that evidence of steel, steeled or otherwise hardened "bodkins" and not "arrowheads" is lacking.
We are also aware of many official requests and descriptions throughout the medieval period of hard, steeled, steel and "well boiled" arrowheads, from the 1300s to the 1540s, but no actual evidence of case hardened bodkins exists, and if Arrowsmiths were simply told to make them and did, we wouldn't have recurring requests for them, they would just be the standard.
As an addition, despite there being a law in place that arrowsmiths supplying soft arrowheads would be sent to prison, even in 1545 Ascham writes that he himself has inspected sheaf arrows with heads that would not pass the checks made by officers.
If arrowheads were being regularly hardened, this would not be the case. What we're actually seeing is that numerous requests for hardened heads are simply being IGNORED, not followed, regardless the potential punishments. This is apparent both in the physical evidence (no case hardened heads exist) and in the documents as if they were being supplied hardened, they wouldn't need to continously attempt to re-enforce the regulations.
@@MedievalArrows I see, I guess that was the problem indeed: you ended up generalizing "arrowheads" instead of stressing only "bodkins" on your conclusions. Also, it would be nice if you pointed out that we have evidence of other types of case hardened arrowheads to problematize even more the discussion. But it was a fantastic piece of work, regardless of my humble observations.
@@BrasaodeArmas we don't have ANY evidence of any case hardened heads, regardless of type.
We only have evidence of a few steel bodkins, and lots of steel-barbed iron-socketed barbed heads.
Wouldn't be the first time a contractor shorted the Kings edict for an extra penny.
joe is an absolute animal,cant believe how good he is ,not many can even draw 160 pounder,but to be that accurate constantly with it is extraordinary,just amazing
look at the size of the mans torso compared to his legs. Dudes all upper body.
At the end when he was just head down and putting arrow after arrow into the helmet, I can only imagine how much that must have burned by the end! But pinpoint accurately to the last arrow.
that's kind of an interesting ancillary thing in this video. Movies and games tend to give this idea that archery is fairly easy, that it's the perfect weapon for the less physically gifted fighters. But even a guy as big as Joe is physically straining just to draw that thing. You have to be unbelievably strong to be a good military archer.
the first hand accounts of Agincourt say the archers were armed with hammers or maces for close in combat, bashing the tired french knights down to the ground once they finally got into close combat and forcing them to surrender. Really makes you understand just how bloody effective that really would have been, given the brute strength these guys would have had. professional longbowmen were not something to be underestimated in a melee situation
Archeologists have no problem telling who the long bowmen were due to their deformed torsos
If gun was not invented, we will see people go to war wearing plate armor today.
Man, people really underestimate how much strength is required to shoot bows like that. You can see the struggle in his face and arms. Impressive! I couldn't do it, pretty sure my shoulders would shatter.
Longbowmen in England can be identified by how warped their forearm bones were. It's a crazy curve
I guess its just fantasy rpg make you think the bow users are delicate dexterous people even tho they would have to be jacked up strongmen to fire nonstop when the enemy was in effective range. Even this great archer here who obviously gets breaks in between the shots looks quite winded for sure at some points.
Yep, longbowmen were all likely so jacked to the point where they could probably beat an unarmored knight in a fist fight 9 times out of 10.
@VOTE_REFORM_UK At Agincourt the long bowmen after they fired between 50 and 65 arrows in roughly 15 minutes or less, they hit the French flanks. They all had swords ,knives ,war hammers etc. Most importantly they went in barefoot. Someone had the foresight to make sure they weren't wearing shoes. It's easier to move in thick mud without them. They were definitely the heros on that day. France lost 80 percent of their nobility in 3 hours or so. Bad day at the office for them!!! Lol
Really shows how ironic it is that in a lot of RPGs, bows are dexterity weapons, while crossbows are strength weapons.
It was a huge privilege to be able to help out with this!
you're a legend!
Amazing work!
A surprise but a welcome one nonetheless.
And you did Drach - big time. We really appreciate your input and great to have you around over the weekend
Wow, another channel I LOVE. Great job Drach. Are you back in the UK now after your visit to the USA?
These guys are doing proper historical research and they are just releasing it like this. Freely available to the public.
I cannot put into words how great that is.
It's great but remember it was funded by the public.
Thanks but yes Sanderson is right, it was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but it has still been a vast amount of work and is still going as there are at least 4 more films coming in this series
@@sanderson9338 And patrons bonuses...yummy
@@tods_workshop 4 more films in this series?! That is great news! 👍
Most researcher (historic or not) are more than happy to freely share their result with the public. Because at the end of the day finding out stuff is fun, but telling other about what you found is half the fun! And I know very few doctors, scientist, curators or archeologist that weren't deligthed to find an attentive ear and eyes to their field of preference.
That being said, Thanks Tod for organizing this and thank to all of the team for giving us such great infos!
The French fear of getting hit in the face could be a survivor bias. Sure they got hit and it hurt, but it didn't kill them.
The dudes getting hit under the shoulder or in the throat would likely not be alive to have their accounts written down.
Very true - nice point
When they put they heads down the helmet ends in the way of a direct hit on the aventail, i wonder if that had something to do with it.
Heck, Henry V survived an arrow to the face when he was 16 years of age.
@@BlazingSteel i dont know why but getting hit by an arrow in the face seems somewhat worse than a bullet , but then again at least the bullet puts you out of your misery (most of the time at least)
@@mcsmash4905 That's probably it.
That and also if arrows are stuck in the ground, that arrow has bacteria that can cause infection if it's not treated quickly or properly. And getting hit in the face and being knocked into thick and gooey mud is gonna impede how quickly you can get to medical aid.
*THIS WILL BE USED* as reference material for the next 50 years - well done guys...!!!
Thank you to everyone who contributed.
Next 500 years even
10000 years @@AverageAlien
Rubbish. He was way too close to the target compared to what would have happened in real life.
@@regwatson2017the English archers were also put in melee during the battle.
They definitely also point blank shot the french knights.
Bro they use actual renforced arrow and that was the only one who perced btw the cheapest mail possible
The accuracy was absolutely incredible, you praised him so much throughout the video but the skill displayed here is astonishing, awesome to see.
I can shoot a bow, but as with other skills I can do, when faced with someone who can execute that skill so far in advance of my skill I just get to a state of awe
@@tods_workshop I'm in awe seeing that bow being drawn so many times. I'm burnt out after shooting a handful of arrows on just a 50lb I made. 80lb+ in progress. Amazing shooting and a beautiful bow. Great vid.
not to mention, there aren't many people who can draw a 160lb bow.
@@tods_workshop where the heads greesed also?
It's one thing to be good at aiming, but it's another to control your own body with that level of precision while exerting that enormous amount of force in your arms and back. Absolutely incredible.
This is as high quality as RUclips can get. All of you are making an amazing job and getting the nuances of this highly controversial topic. Thanks to everyone involved for providing such content for free for the rest of us to enjoy!
A pleasure
Watching experts speaking about their passion is such a rewarding experience. The effort and the quality of this video is very clear and I thank all involved in it's creation, you are teaching so many, so much, and deserve all the praise from the comments. Exceptional work.
Thank you
There is no way this video was 45 minutes long! I started watching it without checking the runtime and when it was over I was like "well, that was a nice little video" and just saw that it lasted for almost 45 minutes! It felt like 5 at most! I've never seen time pass so quickly as it did with watching this video. Incredible - just like the bow "shooting" in this video!
Well done, everyone! It seems that when in doubt, shoot a Frenchman in the belly. You deal with 'bite' in this one, which I mentioned in a comment on one of your other recent vids. the psychological effect of a near miss to the eye must be great. Also, if you are being hit hard by many arrows, how easy is it to stay upright and advance, even if none penetrates?
Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be at the tank museum?
That last question of yours is going to be difficult to answer unless you would like to stand in front of a bunch of long bow archers because I can’t think of many people who are going to be willing to test that theory out I’m certainly not going to do that unless you’re going to provide me with a free suit of armor But hey if you guys will pay for me to get a custom suit I’ll let you shoot at me with arrows
@@charlottewalnut3118 Careful, with the battle hungry audience on here desperate to see if you could stay on your feet they will crowd fund that in a couple of hours.
@@charlottewalnut3118 you're crazy... I like you lol
I think the mental effect of having a kinetic impact slam my head back and seeing an arrow burst into fragments an inch in front of my face would give me great pause. Even the hits to the breastplate must feel like you've been kicked and you'd just be waiting for the next one to go through...
An an archer, I am really impressed with Joe's stamina and accuracy! To pull a 160 lb bow that many times and be as accurate as he was. Amazing.
The mans a beast!
The repeat hits within an inch of each other...incredible!
I was expecting this to be done over several days due to the stamina drain. I remember Tod interviewing him several years where he talked about how much it takes out of you and how he limits the number the number of shots to conserve his body.
I'm in awe at the man.
@@beardedchimp If memory serves me right Joe said that he can do 150 pounds for a long time, but his highest is like 200 pounds and that one tires him fast.
@@anonimus370 People like to inject some good ol’ power creep into statistics about history. I regularly see people claiming longbows were “over 200+ pounds draw weight!”
In reality, most were 75-180, with 120-150 being the most common range for professional archers.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Joe finds a 150lb bow to be the highest powered bow he can shoot without rapidly depleting his strength, and this also happened to be the upper range for the power of the typical longbow.
Absolutely STAGGERING accuracy, Joe is a master archer. Watching his pull and hold, he has almost zero wobble, once he's fully locked his aim never falters. An entire unit of men like him on the field would have terrifying to face.
and considering every able bodies man was required to train every week, there would be no shortage of skilled longbowmen to scare the bejezus out of the enemy.
@@doratheexploder286 *able-bodied
Why does he look like he's about to take a shit when he shoots
@@iZaners The kinesthetics of archery means it might look goofy, but it works. You have to contort your body like that when pulling draw weights over 100 lbs without pulley assists like modern compound bows. Bone scans of ancient archers show the massive strain and damage a lifetime of shooting warbows caused, even WITH proper techniques used.
25:10 He is so giddy to get some good shots in the side, I love it
That was magnificent. The best arrow vs armour testing I have ever seen by far. Really cool to watch the effect of form and deflection. Also to see the energy dissipation as so many of those arrows just exploded. The faceplate testing was particularly fun, and seriously impressive as to how well that helmet stood up to such punishment.
You boys are not only picking up the slack the modern "history channels" on TV dropped, but you lads just ran a marathon with it too!
Splendid educational content!
Great experiments! It really shows that you had to shoot many, many arrows against armored enemies as most arrows would either miss or hit well protected areas. The amount of expert archers and top notch equipment is mind boggling. But so is the effort it took to fabricate ONE suit of armor like that...
Would be cool to see a modern take on this with the "Instant 160 pound Robin Hood" i would think... Or this double bow you created to pull even more pounds.
When you shoot like 200 arrows at the same time you know some are going to find the target.
Let me show you it's features
it's why you try to take out their horses instead of aiming for the strongest point.
Only a matter of time until Todd and Jörg team up in persona 💪
Historian and Museum curator, Toby Capwell, PhD and the rest of these experts giggling like schoolboys was definitely worth the price of my contribution.
Excellent work!
Looking forward to future projects.
Just Guys Being Dudes Advanced Edition
This is an incredible piece of experimental field archaeology. Superb.
Joe's archery is frankly terrifying. To imagine a few thousand Joes on the battlefield, loosing up to a dozen arrows a minute. Absolute carnage.
Imagining a few thousand Joes really cracked me up for some reason lol!
😂🤣🤣 brilliant tbh! Sounds rather exciting.
I'd imagine those medieval longbowmen are at least twice better than Joe, now thats a fucking nightmare
He's a master archer tho, i don't think a lot of them were as good as he was. A couple but mostly not all of them@@dafuqmr13
are u saying people who trained since they are a kid and archering for a job isnt good as this guy?@@aurl3119
Brilliantly informative and interesting, and also well filmed etc. impressive work from everybody.
Thank You! Lances next?
All the Medieval era RUclipsrs and historical buff are here! I love being apart of this community!
Thanks Jason and we enjoyed it and hope you did too.
This is legit one of the best uses of the internet I've ever seen. Citizen science crowdfunded globally to answer questions I've been hoping to see more documentaries about since I was a kid. Good job guys! Thanks. 🙏
*You have to go out more. Or rather, to learn about all the other amazing things the internet has achieved.*
As some one who has been doing HEMA for the past 17 years it brings me massive joy to see how far open source research on subjects like this has gotten since its early days. Thank you all who worked on this, it really broadens our understanding and helps people like me who study in related fiels more than you can imagine.
Once again, thank you
Really love the dedication to the scientific method. You took all the criticisms and (possible) shortcomings of the first test/video, did your research, verified what you were doing is as accurate as is reasonable in the modern day, and set up a new test that allowed you to glean much more information: more shots loosed, from different angles, at various parts of the armor, and with 2 types of arrowhead.
Just astounding work. A fascinating watch. Thank you so much for making this.
Very few people can get away with being as completely and totally devoid of excitement while saying "I'm pretty excited" like Toby Capwell does. The man is a living embodiment of the stone face emoji and we all love him for it.
i so remember at a jousting event riding next to him, with the helmets closed, so stone faced helmet visors... and just heaaring him cowboyjell and sing Rob Zombie songs, next to me.
i always think of him as very excitable.
I have know Toby for quite a few years, but I have never been graced with a 'YeaHa!' and now I feel deprived
Would be awesome if a sound wizard could clone/cut/paste all the different arrow shattering ploinks to give an impression of how a hailstorm of arrows would've sounded hitting a group of well plated knights.
No there is an idea
That'd be a nightmare. 5000 - 6750 archers firing 10 arrows per minute is gonna be hell on earth for anyone slogging through the muddy fields of Agincourt, however heavily armored they are.
I want to hear that!
It would be my morning alarm, I'm sure I'll get out of bed!
@@tods_workshop I have just done a sound design diploma, I can sort that out, no problem.
I was thinking the exact same thing, morale wins battles and the sound alone, I expect, would have a significant effect on morale.
And this gentlemen must be one of the best pieces of historical research that has even been done on this planet. It is mindblowing how many things we have discovered and how many more aspects there are to this topic. Thank you all very much for putting this together. I feel honored and lucky to have been able to see the results of this effort!
Thanks you - that is very kind
@@tods_workshop Todd buy a beer or two for that superb shooter from us!! does he has any Patronite to support him?
@@tods_workshop - this is your legacy - this will be referenced for decades to come
All and every person participated in making of this film deserves admiration. It is just perfect! You are a good team of passionate people, producing unique educative content of incredible accuracy and quality. Now the bar is placed very high.
P.S. The decibels within the helmet were also measured! You came extremely prepared to this shooting.
Joe is incredible, there are few people that could shoot this kind of bow so many times, but he is also able to aim at specific points in the armour.
you could see him tiring out later on, but he still manages it.
I know he's been doing it for a long time, but it's still so incredible to watch Joe repeatedly draw a bow of that weight, and be able to repeatedly strike a man sized target at that distance. It's so interesting to watch a master at his craft.
I have to agree. I just took up archery. And even at low poundage it's shocking how tiring it can get.
Even with breaks I'm sure they have him, doing this many at that poundage is just jaw dropping. The fact he remained accurate on top of that is incredible.
I also like his stance being historically accurate, I know he’s doing it because of the bow he is firing, but it’s still very cool
man i hope they gave that guy some breaks, this looked brutal lol
No kidding. Drawing a 170lb bow that many times has got to be like hitting it hard in the gym. I wonder if he felt it the day after. It also makes me wonder -- how many arrows would the average archer let loose in a day's worth of fighting? And would that factor into bow weight? It's one thing to be able to draw a 170lb bow once -- it's another thing entirely to draw a 170lb bow repeatedly for an extended period of shooting.
@@chad1755 Fewer than 48, which is how many arrows were issued to them from Edward III to Henry VIII. Simon Stanley, one of the first generation of modern warbow archers, has actually argued that a mere three arrows a minute would have produced the recorded effects at Agincourt, and I don't think he's far wrong given the mud and other factors at play. 160lbs is also, as Tod and Joe say, on the high side. Most were probably 120-150lbs.
Great evaluation. I''m a retired Army Combat Medic, and Surgical technician with 49 years experience, much of which was in trauma surgery. Where the arrow struck just below the color bone (clavicle) could easily result in death. The top of the lung often is found in that area, as are many important anatomically significant structures, like the subclavian artery and vein. While not resulting in as quick of a bleed out as a femoral artery laceration, it's quite possible. On top of that, if the lung is compromised, well, that too COULD result in death.
Just food for thought.
God bless
Justin
Well that's why the mail on the neck covers that area!
It's amazing what people can sometimes survive. It's also amazing what can sometimes kill people.
@@injest1928 tiny tiny microscopic life forms can kill us. Completely invisible to humanity until the microscope came around in the 1700s
What about blunt (no penetration) blows to the chin when the head turns and shifts? Could it be a knock-out blow? Taking the energy those arrows (thick and heavy) deliver with such a powerful bow. We assume the chain mail goes up to cover at least the entire neck and maybe partially the lowest part of the jaw bone. The mail coif was only worn this way.
@@injest1928 My thoughts as well as I was pondering it. There is not only the question of IF you survive the wounds but for how long. A berserker like stake can make people carry on fighting before they even register that they are mortally wounded.
Imagine being under a immense shower of these arrow storms , the fear ,the noise of the arrows thuding home or pinging off . The screams of pain and panic and endless intensity of arrows , it must have been frightening beyond our modern minds and then you would have to fight the battle immediately after the arrows had stopped .
It would sound like thousands of people playing air hockey at the same time. CLINK CLINK clank *PING*
The sheer Racket must have been insane. When u get hit in the head with one, it probably really rings your bell. *BONNGGG*
Not a profession for the faint of heart
Nowhere near as frightening as modern warfare, though. I'm not saying Medieval Warfare was an easy cake walk psychologically, specially since a constant stream of missiles would have been morale shaking to an extent, but the stressfulness and PTSD inducing conditions of modern combat is just on a whole 'nother level. You can't compare some volleys of arrows in a single day of combat to the shitstorm that was something like WW1.
I mean you might not hear any frightened screaming because soldiers would in many cases be yelling a battlecry when they are at close range in unison to bring up the morale. Also remember all of the guys are filled with adrenalin and that is a hell of a hormone also there is a thing called tunnel vision that anyone who has fought in real life know about you aint exactly focusing on whats around you but whats infront of you.
I'm pretty sure modern combat is more terrifying.
Rather have arrows fired at me then an hour long bombardment of artillery while I’m cowering in a muddy trench.
The amount of craftsmanship and expertise between all these guys, and a pure honest curiosity to discover is really awe inspiring. Thanks to all of you!
Our pleasure!
Exactly what I was thinking! Making history fun!
That´s what I thought. You literaly can see them glowing! Especially Tod! I love those guys.
Better than a History channel production. Absolutely fascinating and thanks to Tod's workshop.
History channel: Knights were actually aliens and the arrows were made of moon rocks.
@@wuguxiandi9413 Bodkins have a pyramid shape which extends the lifespan of the archer.
i remember times when history channel was actually about history and discovery channel was actually educating .
Being better than the history channel is not difficult.
Gotta admire Joe for shooting all these arrows with 160lb bow that many times. Holy crap
The dude's torso is the size of a trunk, you can see he practices it a lot
He's an absolute beast for sure
My shoulder and aim takes a toll drawing a 40# recurve bow getting near or over a dozen times. A 160# long bow is kinda shocking.
Guy is a rockstar
Can someone tell me the weight of the Bow? Google says 160 lb translates into 72kg. In the Video they said it would weigh 160 pounds and that translates into 32kg, but both of these numbers seem way to high.
You know, it's alright to say you get paid for your passion! You don't have to justify it to anyone (referencing the beginning section of the video). A lot of people would love to have fun with medieval stuff for a job, and anyone who would think less of you for it are just upset that they can't make their dream work. Keep it up!
There is little else more satisfying than listening to experts in their fields analyze and talk about the things they're most passionate about. This project is phenomenal, Tod. Thank you, sincerely for putting this together. This is the kind of stuff that I wish was on The History Channel. It's more informative and entertaining than any documentary I've seen on TV in years.
Well done to everyone on this team. A++ work
Legitimately some of the highest quality content I've ever seen, here or on any platform. All of the experts are equal parts knowledgeable and passionate, and their love for what they're doing is infectious, the setup is absolutely brilliant, and the execution phenomenal.
And perhaps the biggest shoutout to Joe's shooting - watching him loose those arrows is a perfect reminder of how physical a task that is.
As terrifying as it would be to walk into the rain of arrows aimed at you, could you imagine being one of the archers watching a hulking tower of iron walking toward you with malicious intent seemingly unfazed by the three arrows sticking out of his throat?
At the distance he’s shooting at, if I’m the archer I probably have only two options left after the second arrow is loosed: fall back or switch to my melee weapon. The second option would probably been dreadful for a peasant archer.
@@MandalorV7 Peasant Spearmen would be a menace to mounted cavalry. So I'm sure a Peasant Archer would be equally threatening to a knight, mounted or not.
@@MandalorV7 Well not really considered a lot of the knights felled at Agrincourt was in melee combat with the archers. These are professional man at arms and peasantry that been through many battles. Some might even look forward to it since the enemy knight would be far easier to capture and ransome if beaten to surrender in melee combat.
@@MandalorV7 Frankly I would rather be a peasant archer with a ranged weapon that I could shoot at the rich b*stard's crotch than be handed a cheap spear and told to go do the dying for my betters. Also, imagine being a standard infantryman with a boiled leather breastplate and maybe a bit of steel on your helmet faced with being shot with even one of those arrows. Even if you survived the immediate impact, you knew a penetration wound like that carried a massive risk of infection and an agonizing death from gangrene.
I guess you can see why they call the Knight the "medieval tank"
The archer is a beast. Imagine facing an entire unit of soldiers like that, pointing their arrows at you. Awesome content, congratulations to everyone involved!
I's be ok in that armour looks like :-)
Oh man, I've been looking forward to this for so long (I backed the Kickstarter the day it was announced), and it does *not* disappoint! The attention to detail in making sure that everything was as historically accurate as possible, and testing different materials to show what the differences are between how they perform is exactly what I wanted. Especially that hounskull bascinet: I've always wanted to see a hounskull bascinet getting hit by arrows in different places and from different angles!
I love that this video busts the myth that armour of the day was useless against war bows, while also busting the myth that armour of the day was a hard counter to war bows.
Thanks and glad you enjoyed it and yes there is lots of surprise here, but also lots that is of little surprise
For all the History junkies like myself, and for the sake of empiric data in regards to this subject, what this channel is doing, is pure altruistic work. Thank you all so much for this.
The amount of skill, research, training, and just plain hard work it took to produce this series is just absolutely mind boggling. Thank you to all of you whom did so much to make it possible!
I really love that they made an effort to account for the materials used. Modern industrial steel is significantly higher quality than what they had back then, so using the mild steel as a replacement was an excellent idea.
Possibly. I would have loved for them to mention brinell hardness etc found in real artifacts compared to mild steel, which is a blanket term for many many different alloys. Even rolling the steel to form the structure can work harden it in different areas as opposed to hammer forging.
This is better than many TV documentaries, the attention to detail and enthusiasm are astounding. Please keep doing what you're doing.
Hi, I’m french and I feel the compassion of Dr Tobie Capwell towards this valiant French knight, he looks at him with emotion and respect, I felt that and without any surprise he showed him his gratitude with a pat on his shoulder at the end. The best part for me! We say Azincourt in French. Best.
French here and I second that.
Maybe next time focus on the battle of Cocherel or Patay!!😂
But I can tell what it sounded like inside the helmet when the first arrow flew: ho merde😮
Interesting. In Russia its called Aizenkyr.
I find it had to comprehend how people fought back then, and Renaud not just the sound but imagen how it felt! I shoot archery (modern recurve) but i have shoot a light weight (60lb) longbow and the arrows are hefty and they make the target jump. From a 160lb bow not only would it sound loud but it must be like someone throwing a cricket ball as hard as they can at side of you head! I image plenty of knights feel either stunned or unconscious simply from the force. And after taking 3 or 4 even if uninjured i cant image the could have reach the english feeling all that great. Tired from running, battered and bruised, quite possible with injuries where arrows had got through.
To have survived that suicidal charge and then still have to start actually fighting!
Then you watch this and think christ these men were brave.
@@TheDevilWAH Think if I'd of had my helmet rattled like that. If it hadn't knocked me stone cold out I'd of played like it had. Let another take up the mantle of front line of the advance.
@@TheDevilWAH Consider Agincourt was one of the battles where those captured outnumbered those who were the captors, I imagine they really did have quite severe morale shock after going through that hail of arrows just to lose.
I just finished the portion of the video that starts at 18:19 where Joe is told to actively deliver effective shots and he just blasts three shots into the underbelly of this poor knight like he was just toying before and is going for the kill now. I can't stress out enough how impressed I am by this man's skill in archery
Us too
The first one made me wince in sympathy. It looks a bit like a shot to the reproductive zone.
Makes me think whether archers might have aimed for the croth primarily on armoured targets instead center mass. The psychological horror of your first ranks dropping in agony and bleeding out in what I imagine is quite the painful death must have been devastating to morale.
Apparently the conquistadors under Cortez would aim for their enemies crotches and faces with their swords which were unprotected and was a massive morale factor
But that just confirms something. A bowman had to be GOOD. And that took years and years of training. Clearly, since crossbows were so much easier to use, you can see why eventually they started being used more often.
Hey guys. I just wanted to say thanks for the great video. Also, a big thanks to those involved. Seeing how much you guys enjoyed it. I can tell you I was just the same. Ohhh, ahhhh and oooof, after every shot. Sweet video. Awesome work!
The sheer amount of love and care that is put into this channel to make quality content is just astounding. Its weird how a guy whose content is mostly about deadly weapons can be this wholesome.
This video should be played in museums alongside the armor! An educational video for the ages.
As a thought, fear of penetrating the visor might have 2 additional factors. Natural inclination to flinch and avoid things coming straight at your eyes, even if you know the goggles/visor would protect you. Also, even if it doesn't penetrate, if the arrow shatters a single wood splinter entering the slit would probably blind you in that eye for life. A suggestion for if you ever do this again, stick a sheet of thin paper behind the eye sockets inside the helmet, to see if any splinters are fragmenting through that area. (And of course if you're talking about shattered arrow fragments, you're also worried about the ones that shattered glancing off the guy Infront of, or beside you.)
Love the video.
A few of those non-glancing head shots that didn't penetrate might still be doing some concussion damage from the way the heads getting moved around, as well as whiplash damage to the neck
Yep bruises etc under armour would have been very painfull and yeah the concussive effect from multiple hits could have meant your fighting ability was minimal.
P.s Although I read recently a story of a battle vs the Turks one guy fought on with one eye and one hand etc...
@@MauriceTarantulas a few things i would like to see tested as well are:
put the guy on a rig so someone can pull him towards the archer, to simulate the speed at which the knight is moving, which could be quite fast especially if he's on a galloping horse.
second thing i would like to see tested is to put the knight up higher, as if he's sitting on a horse, with his armoured knees and shins forward, which i assume would make shooting his groin and thigh area a lot harder.
@@windhelmguard5295 +1!
@@windhelmguard5295 When facing a galloping knight, you don't shoot the knight. You shoot the horse. Horse armor was used but whether it was as broad or as well placed is a question. A horse falling is going to create more mass to block horses behind it. Shooting the rider, horse may keep going in a formed charge. Shoot the horse, rider is thrown, likely injured and formation behind gets wider to avoid tripping.
@@windhelmguard5295 they were on foot at Agincourt, that is why they conducted this test this way, with that armour.
Gutted I found this so late. Great work by everyone involved. Two things of particular interest stand out: First, that mathematically it was only taking 4-5 arrows on average in the early general tests to find a weak spot. The great strength of the longbow was its rate of fire, and here we can see that demonstrated to full effect, likely thinning the French ranks just a little bit with each volley. Second was the hit on the spaulders that knocked them loose. We can imagine over the course of a campaign lasting months that bits of armour would break off or get damaged in other ways during skirmishes and even sparring, as seen in that arrow hit. This increases the probability of men having to go into battle with pieces of armour missing or clinging on via running repairs, further enhancing their vulnerability to volume arrow fire. Super interesting.
Again, great work.
Tod and the whole crew - you are amazing. I am truly grateful that i've found this chanel and that I am able to watch this. It is amazing that this group of passionate, analytical people could meet and do this, and then show it to the world. Thank you all, hats off!
Thank you, it was a pleasure and this whole thing gave us an excuse to hang out
As a lifelong historical nerd, I am so thankful to be able to see these things researched and shared in my lifetime. It's honestly just cool! Thank you!
What is interesting as well, is the fact that hundreds and thousands of armored knights and men at arms would also protect each other by simply existing in a formation. Simultaneously there would be missed arrows hitting buddies in behind and so much debris, shattered arrows, shafts etc. This extraordinary video just shows how proper physical tests can bring about more hypotheses.
Amazingly done, kept smiling through all 44 minutes and thank you all!
I find this stuff quite interesting - But you're passion and enthusiasm makes it 1000% better. Another great vid.
I really like Augusto's armor. I am especially impressed by the helmet and visor. Before this test, I erroneously thought the vent holes were a point of weakness, but they held up to every hit on them. I only wish I had the money to buy an armor like this one from Augusto.
Do you want your armor to do enough for blunted weapons HEMA brawls on 1.5 mm steel or do you want something to be shot at with steel hardened bodkin tips on point blank range by a pro archers with a 34+ pounds pro medival English longbow?
@@voster77hh Obviously the latter because it's cooler to talk about and will definitely hold up to the former. :P
Augustos armor looks much nicer, this testing armor is pretty rough around the edges
I would also love armor like this.
@@Lobster_Lars That's actually the usual finish I put on the pieces I make =). Filing and some hammer marks are part of the medieval aesthetic.
That is some mighty fine craftsmanship by Augusto.
I didn't expect the armour to hold up so well, considering how powerful Joe and his bow are.
It was
Well done as always, you can feel that extra level of polish in this one. You all have good on screen chemistry and i would totally watch a Netflix series on this. Great work.
Thanks
honestly
I hope Netflix and similar productions don't get a hold of this
I don't trust them to allow Tod and his team the freedom to explore the necessary topics without shoehorning irrelevant points whatever they may at that time. or trying to make it "will this fantasy historical armor stop an arrow"
that might sound selfish of me but i don't want to see a good thing ruined
plus the way i see it is that they would be lowering themselves quality-wise if they were to go under Netflix or any similar service.
@@rudolphaswad8723,
Totally agree.
They'll insert insufferable music and hire third rate actors to dramatize scenes.
No, this has facts and research and testing. Netflix wants Ancient Aliens style archeology BS. =P
i think there is one factor that isn't taken into account.
yes i understand that this is armor test.
But at the same time, it is to gain information about what effect it would have had on the battlefield.
And even if the arrows are not necessarily kill shots, the factor i'm thinking about, is the psychological effect it has on you.. getting pummled with these projectiles, and being in that armor, wether they go through it or not, you are flinching and whincing and your psychi is telling you , this is dangerous, i want to get out of here..
The demoralizing effect here is just as big, maybe even bigger on the troops bombarded by these arrows.
Loved the video, great colaboration, great effort from all !
That was so amazing to see! I did my Master's thesis on the longbow, the hundred years war, and a survey of contemporary art depicting armor from the period. I had turned in my final copy to my advisor when the first Arrows vs. Armour came out and I added a small forward that called it out as a great project that started to test what was only theoretical and how it was an important piece, but only a piece of the answer. Now to see this, I feel like everything I said has been vindicated and I can't wait to see your supplementary videos. Great job to all those involved.
What's remarkable is how carefully designed the armor was in that age. They knew "exactly" what they were doing.
Very impressive.
It's easy to think of people "back in the day" as being stupid, because lower technology carries the connotation, but it's likely that the well-fed and more intellectually inclined humans of the era were comparable to modern humans even if, on average, intelligence was lower (as implied by findings like the Flynn effect in the 20th century).
But in "that age", they would obviously be at the peak of knowledge of how to design that armour. So of course they knew what they were doing.
HI Boston,
I agree, it worked beautifully, but of course they had good motivators
@@mrbouncelol A skilled hunter today can hit a squirrel at 100m with a rifle easily. A skilled hunter in the middle ages could hit a squirrel at 50m with an arrow albeit less easily. Technology has doubled the range but the skill of a human being with a projectile weapon does not change. People have always been masters of their craft and it is the craft that has evolved not the human factor. Were people in past ages stupid? No more so than we are today. They were just much less informed about how the world works on a physical level and as a result could not achieve what we can today.
@@LordOceanus well said I was recently engaged in a debate with others on the pyramids and all the other ancient wonders. They were certain it was a long lost ancient super advanced civilization or aliens crossed the vastness of space to come here and make stone monuments. I don't get why people find it so hard to believe ancient humans were just master stone masons even though the earth is covered in evidence of it I mean we have so many achievements how is building the pyramid unbelievable.
Tod and Co: Making history fun!
Seriously, this is legit historical research, and it's fun, and entertaining. The full trifecta. Kudos to all.
Never forget there were many different types of arrowhead.
Not only did they use Hoskins but at Crecy they used "hammerhead " arrows too which caused internal injuries but did not penetrate
Bodkins why did the algorithm change it
If I could describe this film using only one word it would be “incredible.” Incredible archer, armor, craftsman, and production. I cannot say it enough, you all did an absolutely incredible job.
This series is probably one of the best historical projects on RUclips.
Outstanding work Tod. This is very much a work of history and is definitely a strong contribution to the literature. Thanks very much to you and the team. I personally think that these contributions should be formally recognised by a history department of a university. Very happy to hear there are more films coming.
Absolutely incredible film with the absolute best in their field! Thank you for pulling this together....and I have to say, HUGE props to the sound techs on this - amazing clarity, especially with that wind!
The mud must been a decisive factor. On flat dry ground they might move so fast, you can't aim for the gaps. But if your horse is shot under you, you land in the mud, turning weak sides to the archer. And then try to walk towards the enemy in the mud with heavy amor, makes you slow and easier to hit. That was surely the day, when the archers should lose, but didn't because of that factor, the mud.
Great job guys. What an efford you put down to this experiment. Experimental history and achaeology at its finest.
Couple of dozen wounded horses running about with men on the ground mud someone's got to get trampled plunging arrows face down in the mud visor full of mud get up open visor .....
Though with that much mud (supposedly), will it affect the aiming for the archers due to the gaps being covered by mud and no longer obvious?
@@beohel maybe they had spotters like indirect fire from a machine gun beaten zone ?
@@garywheeley5108 I don't think so... I think it would be more likely that the mud slowed the knights down so much that the archers simply put as much arrows as they could into them with the expectations of wounding/killing the knights with the 1 in 4 shots rather than taking the time to aim. Where the knights are not killed or maimed, they would have been so winded/bruised/exhausted that they would not have offered much resistance when the melee began.
I was going to say the same thing. At Agincourt the initial expectation the French had, iirc, was for a cavalry attack across open ground. They apparently spent a good deal of the night before making sure their squires exercised the warhorses, walking them up and down the line, because they were concerned that in the cold, wet conditions it would take too long to warm them up when the attack started after first light. But in the event, the majority of the French men-at-arms went in on foot. I've read accounts that state that the plowed fields in front of the French position were seen to be soaked with rain and stirred up into a thick mire where the horses had been walked. Maybe that was the deciding factor. Or maybe not enough French men-at-arms had sufficient barding for their horses to be confident of making it across the intervening ground.
I once, many years ago, attempted to walk across a recently-plowed field that had been wetted down by a light rain. Probably a good thing the farmer wasn't there to see me try it, because I left a track that a blind man couldn't miss across his neat furrows. I also ended up exhausted and very nearly minus my boots, good lace-up hikers that despite being laced tight were very nearly sucked off my feet by the mud.
The plowed fields at Agincourt across which the French advanced were not merely wettted down by a light rain. It had rained, off and on, all night. Possibly for a day or two before. That's going to have slowed the advance down a lot. It also created an additional hazard, that of being knocked off your feet into the mud. While the Hollywood trope of the armored knight being too clumsy to get up without help is utter nonsense, if you got knocked down in thick, ankle- or calf-deep mud while wearing the armor shown you were going to be hard-pressed to get up again. Maybe a comrade pauses and gives you a hand, maybe your squire runs forward and pulls you up...or maybe you're stuck there until the English find you.
Watching this demonstration, though, I'm convinced that, had those fields been not been rain-soaked, Agincourt might well have been a very different story. With no mud to fight through the French men-at-arms would have been able to cover the beaten ground more quickly, and been in better shape to fight once they did. They *had* the armor to do it...maybe not perfect, but orders of magnitude better than what they'd been wearing at Crecy two generations earlier. Write this down, boys and girls: Weather ain't neutral.
This series has been such a pleasure to watch. Joe's shooting was incredible! There was so much knowledge and craftsmanship at work. Not to be forgotten are the production value, which is excellent. I'm so pleased with this.
That long list of Kickstarter backers shows just how worthwhile, how important so many of us considered this to be; and that's after you willingly cut the campaign short at an appropriate point. The crew really delivered on everyone's investment.
I can't believe there's more, but now I'm off to check out what these Kickstarter extras are! Thanks to everyone for many jobs well done.
Absolutely amazing work by all those involved with this, really appreciate the work that went into it and the results speak for themselves.
Just let us know when funding for Arrows vs Armour 3 gets going. This was already some of the best money I've ever spent.
Thank you for helping us out and glad you enjoyed it - not yet but maybe one day
Amazing and fascinating video! If you do a part 3 please add a way to gauge the force/impact on the wearer. It'd be great to know if the impact could concuss or even break smaller bones even when it doesn't go through
He does a test in another vid & it doesn't transfer enough energy to crack a raw egg, they don't produce that much energy (less than a 22lr) or momentum (less than an average punch)
I don't know if you'll read this Tod, but your first AvA video had a dramatic, life-changing effect on me, well it was more Joe's explanation on the biomechanics and because of your combined effect I've decided to start working out and improve my fitness and maybe one day be able to draw a bow such as the one Joe is using! Thank you for that. Truly amazing video! I was expecting it to be even better then the 1st one and it exceeded all my expectations!
edit: oh, yeah, forgot to say that I'm very disciplined, committed and the results are coming in! And I just may be able to draw it (not shot it, I'm no archer 🤣)
This was brilliant. Everything a historical documentary should be!
My only feedback would be I would have loved to see Augusto and Will's faces as all of their hard work just got slammed into each other!
Great work everyone! Awesome content.
Thanks Zac. I've got the footage so maybe I'll make a "sad face compilation" overlaid with the sound of breaking arrows and smashing metal 😆
@@mchernett Make sure all the footage is in greyscale...
im sure there's got to be a lot of conflicting emotions there haha
Tod and everyone else, we're the ones that are thankful. This is leagues ahead of anything we saw until now. Absolutely incredible work.
Thank you
Yeah all other tests I have seen said 'look arrows dont peirce plate armour' leaving the question, why did England place such emphasis on the bow then? Just for horses and poorer units?q This test shows how well armoured knights were mostly safe but had weak points which could be exploited.
Its also worth saying that this and other tests focus on early 15th century armour. But what about 1346 armour which I am sure had more weak points. I get the impression that archers were far more effective in the early HYW but by 1415 were becoming less devastating?
The du diligence of your testing and the skill of your archer is truly fantastic. Speaking as one of the untold thousands of people who have pondered this historical rivalry, thank you for answering these questions. I would have never thought plate armor would have been so effective. I had always assumed that longbows would penetrate plate but hard science prevails. Thank you, this video was brilliant!
Makes me wonder how many French knights survived that initial battle pulse, withdrew and opened their visors to breathe or shout orders only to take an arrow to the pie hole. Great work Tod, Toby, Joe, and the rest!!!
Amazing watch!
A team of experts and men who enjoy his work and HISTORY. I never seen this channel and happy I now have
Incredible! It's great to see Augusto's craft improve so much, I've seen some of his older pieces and the pace at which he's gotten better is great. Honestly masters of craft here, this was absolutely worth the donation and there is a LOT to be gleamed from here. Great work!
Well, we wanted a comprehensive test and you guys certainly delivered. Much appreciated.
Man, props to Joe, he only missed two shots! And that bow looks heckin' thick. I love how this is a culmination of many masters of different aspects of shooting the target. Also this is all from one archer! There were so many archers during that battle (I'm assuming lol)
Regarding getting shot in the visor/eye slots, I can't help but think that the splinters would have been an extremely scary thing for the knights, more so than actual arrow in the eye. Upon direct impact the arrows would send off tiny pieces in every direction. Even one of those going into a knight's eye could spell disaster. A scratched cornea would hurt like all hell and effectively blind a fighter in one eye. An actual wooden splinter could be even worse, with the potential of getting lodged at a funny angle. Once the knight would inevitably blink the splinter would get wiggled/dragged around in the already-damaged cornea.
Contending with something like this while completely unable to do anything at all about it would be both awful and very dangerous. Lift the visor to remove the splinters? You're a bullseye for every archer within 30+ meters and it wouldn't help anyway. Soldier on? You can't effectively defend yourself because of restricted field of vision and loss of depth perception. Can't imagine this being an easily survivable situation.
Very good point!
Grasping at straws i see
Another thing to keep in mind in this experiment is its only one arrow one archer at angicourt, there were thousands of archers, not only are you possibly being swarmed with arrows like this, but youve also got the amount of noise from the arrows wistling through the air, and weve heard these arrows how loud they hit, imagine thousands of these hitting at a time, the sheer physiological effect would be staggering, plus seeing your comrades being hit by dozens of arrows it would be a terrifying experience that doesnt present through this awesomely done test! Well done!
Absolutely fantastic. I had always assumed the results would be similar to this and seeing it finally properly tested is great. Of course there’s always been the 2 camps of “arrows devastate armor” and the camp of “arrows could never penetrate armor”. I had always assumed it would be somewhere in between. After all, if they used plate armor, often with no shield, it’s because armor WORKS however, it’s not 100%. Almost like volley fire with muskets in the 1700s, the tactic is to shoot enough volleys at them and eventually a bullet will hit. This video further reinforces that way of thinking. As a knight, you risk it because you know that your armor will protect you very, very well. And as an archer, you know that if you shoot enough arrows at him, eventually he will be killed or injured enough to be rendered useless and unable to fight. So the tactic must have been to shoot as many arrows as possible at the target. One of the main advantages of the English warbow was their ability to rapidly shoot arrows - much faster than a crossbow. So as a knight in agincourt, in just a span of 10 minutes, you may be hit by hundreds of arrows. All it takes is one of those arrows to penetrate and shatter your arm as we saw. Or 1 arrow to find the gaps and weak points, penetrating mail and killing the knight. It’s an extremely fascinating concept that the English likely employed “strength in numbers” by shooting as many arrows as possible. Now, I’d love to see more test with crossbows. There’s the (myth) that crossbows were for penetrating armor and longbows were for killing unarmored opponents. Of course we know that it was likely the opposite. I speculate that crossbows were weaker and better for killing lightly armored and unarmored opponents only, however they were very easy to use (can be trained competently in a matter of days rather than years), and you can take your time to aim. Meanwhile the warbow had a higher poundage, was likely better at penetrating all forms of armor due to the strength of these bows. But to train the archer took years, and it is much harder to aim as you can only hold the draw for a couple seconds at most. Super cool stuff
I wish that I could do more than just like and share this video; it is, absolutely, fantastic work by everyone involved. You are all, what I would consider, among the foremost experts in your various fields, and I sincerely hope that you all take massive amounts of pride in these collections of videos.
Beyond how informative and entertaining this video is, I loved hearing a group of grown men giggling like a bunch of children.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:12 Tod's *Workshop is conducting "Arrows versus Armour 2," testing medieval armor with arrows. The armor, meticulously crafted by Augusto, includes pieces based on historical references like the Wallace Collection A69 helmet and Churburg Castle originals.*
03:22 The *armor, made of mild steel, replicates 14th-15th century French designs. Thickness variations are strategically employed to balance protection and weight, with the breastplate, arms, and visor ranging in thickness.*
06:29 Tod *emphasizes the importance of using mild steel in the armor to represent the common material of the time. The aim is to test the armor's effectiveness against arrows and gain insights into the real-world challenges faced by knights.*
08:18 The *archer, Joe Gibbs, uses a 160-pound self-yew bow, replicating historical bows from the Mary Rose. The arrows, with iron heads, are based on period-appropriate designs, aiming to simulate authentic conditions.*
10:53 The *initial test shows the armor effectively protecting against arrow strikes, with only minor dents and no penetration on the breastplate. The armor's design, including the aventail, proves successful in preventing serious injury.*
19:49 Further *tests reveal vulnerabilities, especially in the lower torso covered by mail. Arrows cause significant damage in these areas, highlighting the limitations of medieval mail armor against powerful arrows.*
21:36 Simulating *flanking shots, the armor's sides are exposed, revealing potential weaknesses. The tests demonstrate the strategic balance in medieval armor design, with reinforced frontal protection but vulnerability on the sides.*
23:22 Armor *is effective; wrist hit but still functional. Arrows hitting articulation, penetrating bone.*
24:26 Armor *dynamic: plates stop arrows, mail turns some, but not all shots. French attacking English center.*
25:39 Archers *targeting knight's exposed areas. Armor absorbs impact, limiting damage.*
26:25 Decibel *reading of arrow impact surprisingly not loud. Back exposed, kidneys hit, armor's varying effectiveness.*
28:02 Armor's *effectiveness observed. Questions about potential differences with case-hardened armor.*
29:26 Reviewing *footage: armor successes and failures. Results suggest a balanced outcome between arrowsmith and armorer.*
30:52 Varied *arrow hits: bouncing off, penetrating, and glancing. Aventail pierced; discussion on armor's impact.*
31:44 Testing *case-hardened arrowheads. Assessing if case hardening improves arrow penetration.*
34:53 Case-hardened *arrows show improved penetration. Discussion on medieval understanding of arrow effectiveness.*
37:10 Testing *arrows on neck and face. Aventail pierced; potential risks to delicate areas discussed.*
39:13 Arrows *penetrate helmet; one through the eye socket. Evaluation of armor effectiveness and potential vulnerabilities.*
42:01 Summary: *Wrought iron performs well. Plate armor effective at weak points. Case-hardening's impact inconclusive, calls for evidence. Acknowledgments and future supplementary films mentioned.*
Made with HARPA AI
Saw this pop up, smiled, made a cup and got ready to enjoy 2.0 of what brought me to this channel back when it debuted Arrow vs Armor 😁
Thanks for staying with me/us and hope you enjoy. There is loads more to come
@@tods_workshop Appreciated 100% but seriously THANK YOU, to you and the group of people that help pull off these from concept to final production.
Truly an update from the first splendidly maverick go at it, and enjoyed the extra data/result crunching that all parties had as it went along but really was nice 360° view of it by the end.
Let me say, you guys sure didnt make it hard to stick around and looking forward to extra future projects and always checking for more from you all, from Tod making things, to Toby talking about the data around the times and Joe plunking things like the pro he is 😜
Absolute props to all the minds, hands, and intent behind this. Special shout out to our archer for pulling a MASSIVE draw for a whole afternoon for us. Excellent work to you all and much gratitude!
After watching this i am even more interested in more ARROWS vs ARMOUR. Especially when looking at other time periods. (Before and after Agincourt)
I know there is way less evidence for how the armour and arrows were exactly made, especially the further back you go. But i would love to see more of it.
Nonetheless, this was a monumental piece of work and i got surprised a lot of times there. I loved seeing it and especially how the shapes of the armour influenced the protection ability so much. (Even the 1.X mm armour managed to deflect many arrows and such an arrow, as tested previously, goes through this thickness easily if it is just a plate.)
Thank you very much to all of you for doing this video and thank you for everyone who made it possible to be a free video on youtube.
Agreed, there was so much to be interested in and yes all possible because of 1200 peoples generosity - thank you
A shield would be extremely useful to cover the weak points of the armor. Cover yourself with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other and rush down the archers. But a large number of archers shooting arrows at you would also be terrifying. Either way I wouldn’t want to fight on a medieval battlefield
Like so many others I’ve been keenly anticipating this video series and the results are just fantastic. We’ve all just been given a glimpse of something which has previously been confined to imagination and speculation. I’m so impressed by the combination of expertise, knowledge and effort which has combined to create this. Hats off to Tod and the team for making this happen.
This was spectacular. So many other tests have ignored the fact that armor has gaps, defects etc. Imagine being hit with 10 or more at once. It’s going to find a gap or ring your bell
Tod and the team, you guys knocked it out off the park with this one. This is literally top tier historical experimentation.
Thanks
For this reason, units such as Swiss Pikemen, resistant to archers, did not emerge before the armor technology was well developed
Chain mail armors and scale armors were weak against arrows if used alone. For this reason, chain mail armors and scale armors were used in combination with shields. However, keeping shields up for hours was tiring, and some open body parts were less protected against arrows. Armies using these armors were particularly vulnerable to arrow attacks from the flanks and rear.
Also, the use of two-handed weapons made it almost impossible to hold a shield. With these weak armors, you wouldn't want to use a two-handed weapon when you're under a shower of arrows.
Despite better protection, manipulating a one-handed spear was more difficult than two-handed one. For this reason, such weakly armored infantry preferred the strategy of laying down their shields and raising their longer near them shortly before the enemy cavalry engaged their charge. Another method was piles driven into the ground. However, this second method resulted in fewer maneuvering options. Moreover, dropping shields was a particularly bad solution against mounted archers.
The phalanx is almost the only example where very long spears are used with a shield. Soldiers in the phalanx order used the shield by putting their forearms in a cuff. So they could use the long sarissas partially with two hands. However, they used sarissas one-handed in the first line for better protection with shields, especially when there was a threat of enemy archers. Moreover, the maneuverability of the extremely long sarissas was limited due to the shield. This issue was fixed by having 3 line soldiers point their sarissas at the enemy. Thus, the enemy that the first line missed could be speared by the other line. When this organization was disrupted due to terrain conditions or lack of discipline, especially Roman Legionnaires could easily push sarissas aside or up and enter close combat with their large shields, and armies in the phalanx order were losing the war.
Since effective armor technology against arrows was not developed in the early period, many armies could not stand against armies consisting mostly of heavy and light horse archers, such as the Huns, Turks and Mongols.
Lamellar armors and Laminar armors, which were more common especially in the east, were slightly more resistant to arrows. But it was still far from being a good solution.
In the 1300s, after the Mongol invasion, armors containing plate pieces similar to lamellar armor began to come to the fore. This increased the protection of soldiers against enemy archers. During this period, especially mail and plate armors and brigandine armors became popular. Especially mirror armor was found in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. These armors had some arrow-resistant parts. But also, battleaxes, maces, war hammers and polaxes could be effective against these armors. The expensiveness of full plate armor limited its use outside of elite soldiers.
Ironically, in the 1400s, when armor technology was well developed, the Ottoman army began to use firearms widely, and they gained the upper hand against the heavily armored armies in Europe. After the Ottoman Empire, the use of muskets became widespread in other armies. The use of armor parts other than the arrow-resistant plate body armor gradually decreased.
Utterly fantastic. The best testing of arrows and armor that I have ever seen. This needs as much exposure to the WORLD as possible. God willing, some Hollywood director will actually make a movie where armor actually functions the way it did in history. Well done to everyone involved. It was great to see the smiles on everyone's faces. No one was disappointed at the results not matching what they expected, they were delighted to show the truth, the reality, not what they might have hoped for differently. Most particularly, the proof that armor worked, plate armor worked very well, and the weak points were where the injuries occurred. It was shown, but not emphasized that the lower abdomen, legs, pelvic area was very vulnerable without plate, just mail. I'd scour the historical records for a prevalence of injury or death as a result of arrow wounds in that area. Frankly, that was the high percentage shop in this video. Forget going for shoulders, neck, eyes. Shoot him in the guts, the pelvis, etc. Those were much more likely to be effective. And I'd be more afraid of the close miss to my junk than I would the arrow that splintered on my helm or visor!
Probability of going through:
helmet ~0%
breatplate ~0%
mail/no plate ~100%
arms and shoulders at varying angles - 25% or less
So, if there is no plate over legs - about 30% of body is exposed
If there is - probably 5%
That's huge difference
Well ofc its best armor vs arrows you ever seen, because it is by far the most acurate ever made. :D. There is nothing that comes even remotely close.
And this is even a decently nerfed case due to severely lower than historical level of padding.
Pre full suit/heavy plate there was as much if not more mass in fiber/padding as from the metal of the armor itself on a knight exactly because of the effect multiple layers of cloth have on dispersing force of a projectile. That naturally lowered as the armor itself became the protective factor, but there are still accounts of for back then larger men (1.8m+) having what with some basic math amounts to between 5.5 to 6.3 kg of cloth (or for a simpler comparison, your winter clothes mostly under but partially also over the metal).
You, gentlemen, have outdone it with this production! This is the best historical armor or archery film/documentary made to date! So much irrefutably brought to light it's mind-blowing. I wish for a day when future layman history buffs will look back at this and think, "that's all common knowledge." If such an enlightened time ever comes you lot can know for a fact that these experiments paved the way. Cheers!
This was SO up to the hype. Unbelievable, I actually clapped when it ended! Thank you to the makers and the funders for this amazing project.
(I must add : Dr. Capwell patting "the Knight" on the shoulder overrun me with wholesomeness)
What an athlete that archer Joe is. Can't say I'd believe any army had every archer be like that guy.
@@sofa_max It's impossible for a society consisting for a large part of subsistence farmers to produce that many Joes.
This was absolutely fantastic. A long awaited and thoroughly rewarding follow up. Massive congratulations to everyone involved. Proud to have been able to support on kickstarter and if you have plans for a third I'd be more than happy to support once more!
The amount of skill, knowledge, and dedication combined to produce this is honestly awe inspiring.