For a tournament helmet, ex: John Woodman Higgins Museum. 7” height, fully rough forged with the turning knuckle to the base, edges finished and the visor pivots drilled. The area at the chin and lower edge with considerable cracking and delamination, resulting from insufficient heating of the metal. There is minor controversy over whether armor was forged hot or cold. The later position is without a technical defense and based on images of armorers hammering with no fire source. Those with a background in metallurgy can easily overcome any arguments in defense of that theory. This element would have been roughed out on a drop hammer by a craftsman experienced in that operation who may have repeated that process several time in a day. The part would then go to another craftsman for the next step, probably roping the turning knuckle and ridging the chin. At this point, a, likely apprentice, misjudged the metal temperature, yet insufficient for forging and hammered the plate causing fatal cracking. It would have been relegated to a heap of scrapped parts which could, later, be cut for smaller plates like gauntlet fingers. Every European castle, and there were tens of thousands, had an armory and every armory has a scrap heap. Most of the castles did not survive, a large number being destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. Of those that did, most of the scrap was recycled, buried or lost. But some were preserved intact. A few were even walled over and rediscovered in the 19th century. So of all the scrap heaps in all the castles of all the European countries, this element survived while nearly all others perished. It was purchased by John Woodman Higgins, the steel magnate for study and perhaps display in the Higgins Armory, Worcester, Massachusetts.
