From: joanne_liu@net.COM (Joanne Liu)
Subject: Re: SCA Digest V5 #849
Organization: The Internet
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 22:49:11 GMT

        Reply to:   RE>SCA Digest V5 #849
Please take me off of your email-list.  I no longer work for this client.

Thank you.

--------------------------------------
Date: 12/21/92 1:13 AM
To: Joanne Liu
From: SCA@mc.lcs.mit.edu
!!!! Original Message >= 24K; See following enclosure. Preview follows !!!!


Received: by net.com (2.01/Mail*Link(r) SMTP); 21 Dec 92 01:13:39 U
Received: from mc.lcs.mit.edu by unet.net.com (4.1/UNET-1.1)
	id AA08549; Mon, 21 Dec 92 01:17:50 PST
Received: from MC.LCS.MIT.EDU by mc.lcs.mit.edu id aa12625; 21 Dec 92 4:02 EST
X-Digestifier-Version: 2.5 
Message-Id: <dig-SCA-5.849@mc.lcs.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 03:56:50 EST
From: Automatic SCA Digestifier <@mc.lcs.mit.edu:sca-request@mc.lcs.mit.edu>
Reply-To: SCA@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: SCA Digest V5 #849
To: SCA@mc.lcs.mit.edu


SCA Digest                  Mon, 21 Dec 92       Volume 5 : Issue 849 

Today's Topics:
       Aluminum Armour (was Re: HELP WANTED RE KINGDOM AWARDS)
                     Polish Persona and Heraldry
      Scope of the SCA (was Re: Through a looking glass, darkly)
                        HELP! name searching.
                         8th century persona
                      On the nature of armor....
      The SCA Religion? ( was: Through a looking glass, darkly)
                       SCA's Secret Handshake?
                    HELP! name searching. (2 msgs)
                    Re-joining the SCA as a Bandit
                      On the nature of armor....
       Aluminum Armour (was Re: HELP WANTED RE KINGDOM AWARDS)
                       Sca geography (was: thro
                    Re-joining the SCA as a Bandit
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 20 Dec 92 09:50:44
From: Dennis O'Connor <doconnor@sedona.intel.com>
Organization: Intel i960(tm) Architecture
Subject: Aluminum Armour (was Re: HELP WANTED RE KINGDOM AWARDS)
Message-Id: <DOCONNOR.92Dec20095044@potato.sedona.intel.com>
To: sca@mc.lcs.mit.edu

ddfr@quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman) writes:
] 2. Why would it be better [to use steel instead of aluminum]? 
] One answer, related to the quote above, is that by using aluminum 
] instead of steel he runs a serious risk of disseminating false 
] knowledge. 

Soe risk, yes : I'll address each point you raise.

] What material you use may have a considerable effect
] on what you can do with it, how it acts, etc. Part of the fun of 
] trying to do things more authentically is that the material teaches
] you--with the result that you end up knowing more than if you simply
] tried to fake it.

This is no doubt true of many projects, but I don't think the
differences between steel and aluminum or brass (which I've
seen one Persion lamellar plate using) make mch difference to
the construction of lamellar, since the plates are just little
flat peices of metal whith holes in them. Contrast this with
late-period armour that has fluting and compund curves.

] Consider the present case. Dennis does not know how thick the real
] armor ought to be, and he is never going to learn--at least, not from
] this particular project (he might come across the information in his
] reading).

Actually, I'm trying hard to find this information out. I'll need
it if I ever submit the armour to an A&S competition. I'll also
need evidence that, as I suspect, real lames were forged not cut.

] If he made the armor from steel, he would come closer (although still
] not perfectly close) to learning what that kind of armor is like--at
] what thickness it is uncomfortably heavy, whether it stretches or
] abrades lacing material, at what thickness it bends easily,

I disagree. If I were to simply cut my lames out of 20 guage hot-rolled 
sheet steel and drill holes in it, still not having a clue as to the
thickness of the real lames, it would be wrong for me or anyone else 
to assume this armour was close to period armour in weight. This is 
the error we see repeated again and again with mail, which even tho
period mail was made of iron-alloy just like SCA mail, it was typically
less than 1/4 as heavy.

If as I assume period iron lames were forged, they could be considerably
harder and more brittle than hot-rolled steel sheets. Plate armour
would probably have been anealed to take the brittleness out, but
lamellar is so easily repaired there's no need to do