How much did knights armour weigh?

Answer 1

Its about 20Kilograms or 45 lbs if made by tempered steel.

It depends heavily on which period you are talking about, as the design of such armor varied across the times.

What we think of as a Knight Suit of Armor is more properly called Full Plate Armor. It is a full-body covering, made of shaped steel plates, commonly using some sort of leather and/or chain mail backing to facilitate flexible joints. Such a suit is incredibly heavy - most wearers of such armor would have to be literally lifted into the saddle of their horse by a small crane, and only the largest and strongest horses could be used. A Full Plate Armor suit could employ steel up to several millimeters thick in places, and typically weighed at least 150lbs (70kg). Needless to say, movement in such a heavy suit was very limited - the wearer could not effectively walk, and thus, should they be unhorsed, was immobilized.

The other typical medieval armor suit of the Knight was what we commonly refer to as Plate Mail these days. This was a combination of lightweight chain mail, leather backing, and several large steel plates covering critical sections of the body, but not providing near-total coverage like Plate Armor. In general, probably only about 50% of the wearer's total body surface would be covered by steel plates in such a suit. This suit was much more flexible, and weighed significantly less than Full Plate, and allowed for the wearer to fight effectively on foot. However, it still significantly reduced the flexibility and mobility of the wearer. Depending on design and construction, such Plate Mail could weigh anywhere from 40 to 75 lbs (20 to 35kg).

________________

this is actually misinformation. plate armor was less heavy and had more even weight distribution and range of motion than a modern firefighter's gear(which while that still comes out rather heavy(65lbs or so) you must remember is entirely spread accross your body which reduces the "apparent weight" signifigantly). Our soldiers in Iraq wear heavier(can be over 120) than knights did and are more comparable in physical condition. A knight in full plate armor could easily get on his horse himself, did not need help standing if knocked on his back and could infact spring up(and back onto his horse even) quite quickly(common sense alone should have taken care of that bit even before looking for the relevent facts(which are easily enough found)...he'd be dead if not and you don't sucessfully market an armor that leaves the wearer helpless and dead for long), they did not have to piss themselves because it took so long to "build them into" the armor, and even the heaviest two handed hammers rarely topped 7lbs with most arming swords were closer to 2(less than some katanas), ect. Even armor meant for a large warhorse rarely weighed more than 70 pounds.

Between Hollywood myths renfairs and museums both A confusing purely decorative oversized parade armor and weapons or highly restrictive jousting braces for actual armor(or well knowing the difference displaying them together regardless to fill out an understocked or less impressive exhibit and while marked as such do little to explain the difference), and B actually managing to assemble some incorrectly(one put knee armor on the shoulders for example and was then the basis for the idea knights somehow couldn't lift their arms above their heads(how could one use half the weapons if that were the case? again. logic should clear this up even before research did)) misinformation is prevalent enough on the internet to be confused with fact if only a cursory search is preformed.