eli5 How were such intricate items like suits or armour and castle decorations made in the medieval era when they lacked advanced metal processing and precision tools we have today
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Time, there was little mass production for things aside from common commodities. This along with a big disparity between the rich and not so rich allowed there to be a experts who could craft exquisite things, and people who could afford to pay for them.
You see that in things like vehicles today; sure there are a decent amount of people that can afford to pay for a Mercedes, but not a lot for a supercar. This holds with middle to poorer classes, as a brand new Toyota is likely more expensive than an entry level Ford sedan.
Simply said: if you don’t have precise and smart tools, you need precise and smart humans.
Metal processing is relatively simple, if you focus on the basics… Just forge and hammer.. it takes a longer time, but you can do it with simple tools.
This made them really expensive, so not everyone had the “luxury” to carry heavy armor around the battlefield
Basic blacksmithing can get you quite far, it’s just ridiculous amount of work to do it all by hand. And just because something is intricate, doesn’t mean it has to be precise. You don’t need sub millimeter accuracy in a suit of armor because the parts don’t need to be interchangeable, a gorget of one suit of armor doesn’t need to fit to any other suit of armor.
The technical ability of artisans and craftsmen at the time was higher than many people think, but of course you needed highly skilled craftsmen to get good results. As such mass production was not possible and this made such items very expensive and it took time to make them.
People can do some impressive things when they’ve had thousands of hours of practice. You can make things by hand just as precisely as by machine, it just takes a lot longer. The limiting factor is being able to measure your work, so you can take off more material where you have too much. If you want more precision, you just switch to something that removes material more slowly.
They did have access to a fantastically good precision tool: humans with lots of time to learn and perfect their craft.
A important factor here is that the quantity of these things needed at the time was extremely low, compared to the length of their useful life after being made (and time taken to create).
A intricate castle or palace might take a hundred skilled people 30 years to make, but then it would stand like that for the next 700 years – needing only repairs and maintenance.
Similar with armor. A skilled blacksmith might need a few months to make a good suit of armour. That suit will probably stay in service for decades from then, unless the knight in question was flattened by a trebuchet projectile.
Metal is like plasticine when heated to propoer temperature. You can shape it any way you want. The orocess was quite time consuming but id did not required ro ket science tools.
Also dont forget that trademess made whole bunch if tools to ease their work. That inclues brons forms which helpes rivet complex decorations.
I can’t give an answer, but the answers above are all related to metalworking and technical proficiency… I’m curious if the real answer will be something like: the average castle did not have an excess of full plate-armour suits lining the walls, that is an invention of 19th century reimaginings- or something like that!
Another important detail was time. 3 people nowadays will print 100 armors using 3 machines in a matter of days then go home at 16:00. But a blacksmith would start working on a set in winter and finish 9 months later or stuff like that, working all day.
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