Arms and Armour
Glossary of Terms


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The glossary is meant as a growing resource for students, re-enactors, and anyone interested in knighthood, chivalry, or the medieval tournament. The current page is but a brief listing of what we would like to have on the page; if you would be interested in helping with a given area, such as in heraldry, transcribing tournament accounts, translations, or research, drop the author an email at brion@chronique.com. Additionally, we would like to expand many of the definitions here; if you want to try one or more of them send your submissions to the email address above--we can use the help!

Dagger: A short pointed knife. There were many forms of daggers worn during the high middle ages; they are more frequently worn in illuminations than are swords, at least when knights and squires were at court.

Direct Reduction: See Bloomery Process

Dishing: The armouring technique in which metal is worked outwards to form a dish or bowl shape, known also as doming. The process is the most common technique used by modern armourers, and yet thins the metal. Raising is the opposite technique, by which the same shapes are attained not by stretching and thinning the metal but by compressing and thickening it. Dishing work is done from the inside and raising from the outside.

Double Harness: Reinforced harness for jousting, originating in the 15th century. Although special armours for the joust begin to appear during the 14th century, it was not until the 15th when special harnesses began to have names other than 'armour for the joust.' During the 16th century the garniture, or special pieces for the joust, came into wide fashion. Some pieces of fine garnitures remain in the Royal Armouries collection and in several Continental museums.

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