From: helm@jade.ucdavis.edu (Catie Helm)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Expensive Armour
Date: 5 Oct 92 06:03:39 GMT
Reply-To: helm@jade.ucdavis.edu
Organization: Geology Department, University of California, Davis

>
>(In any case, the best defense I have for using suede is that an
>undyed hide of the same size would have cost me over A$100 ... which
>would have made my budget ... interesting. ;)

If you've alredy spent money, don't let the authenticity bug get in
the way of using your leather, for crying out loud...  Only purists
like me would ever really notice, and I'm not in the habit of giving
anyone a hard time just because they used a leather not known in 
period.  My God, if that were the case, then every piece of leather
made out of chrome tanned would be a target...  I've always put the
modern leathers in the same catagory as modern fabrics - it's what's
available now.  I wouldn't sweat it if I were you.

>I could see the problem for Lady fighters in coats of plates. By
>definition, the armour is made up of smallish pieces, which would
>be insufficient female breast protection by my reading of the
>marshal's handbook. However, given the large question mark over
>14th century body armour development, (due to those blasted
>surcotes) I wouldn't think twice about putting a beastplate
>in, either seperate or rivetted to the coat.  

I know a lady in Caid who has used a coat of plates design safely
for years, because the way she overlapped the plates gave her the
equivalent effect of having solid protection.  And she was a buxom
lady too!  I believe that a good coat of plates design specifically
made to redistribute the force of a blow towards the sides is fine,
but check with your principality marshall just to be sure.

>(That's a point. I can always sew a proper surcote and cover up
>that nasty suede. Now, where can I get some cheap silk ... ;)
>
>Another alternative might be a cuirboilli bra; Twcs,
>would a design work that covered the breasts, clavicle and neck
>in one unit? Or would it need to be in two pieces to give enough
>flexibility? (we have three new Lady fighters in our Shire, and
>very limited armouring skills - i.e: Gothic is not yet an option,
>though Mistress Madelaine is drooling for it :)

I would not favor any design that could potentially channel the force
of a blow into the sternum.  On the other hand, I don't think it would
be too hard to make a 14th century milanese segmented breastplate out
of cuir bouilli - and that would give you good solid protection and
a design that could easily be made out of leather (following Cariadoc's
recipe for making waxed leather).  There's a photo plate of the breast 
plate I'm speaking of in the Men-At-Arms series book on Italian Armies
of the Middle Ages (if you need the ISBN #, then give me a hollar and
a few days - I don't own a copy, but my friend Bucky in Sacramento does).
It also has an early gothic line to it, so you could indeed make
Madelaine happy...

>-- Richard of Dunheved, Lochac.
>Forma Propositum Perpetuo Praecedit. 

Twcs
Regna? Quae Alia Regna?
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Catie Helm, internet: helm@geology.ucdavis
Stable Isotope Lab, Geology Dept.
University of California, Davis
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca