From: ddfr@quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Subject: Re: Aluminum Armour (was Re: HELP WANTED RE KINGDOM AWARDS)
Reply-To: ddfr@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 18:07:56 GMT


"But first : I want to construct metal lamellar armour, and second,
in my opinion aluminum is lighter and safer, and third, it serves  my
reason for being authentic, which is to demonstrate how lamellar was
built, as well as any other metal.

Perhaps we differ on this last point : I see authentic construction
as a means to an end, that end being the dissemination of knowledge.
I don't see it as an end in itself. Perhaps this is an expression of
my engineering soul, which desires a purpose to (almost) all things.
Especially something like metal lamellar, which is a whole lot of
work." (Dennis O'Connor)

Two points:

1. I do not think anyone in this thread is arguing that for Dennis to
make aluminum lamellar is a bad thing, in the sense of worse than
wearing carpet armor, or plastic covered so as not to be visible, or
...  . His armor will be more authentic than much of what we do,
insofar as he is using a period form of construction. The is that it
would be still better if he used a period form of construction and
used period materials, and that since he seems to be reasonably
experienced and going to a good deal of trouble anyway, it would be
better for him to use that time and experience to do steel lamellar
(or hardened leather) instead.

2. Why would it be better? One answer, related to the quote above, is
that by using aluminum instead of steel he runs a serious risk of
disseminating false knowledge. 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.

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). 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, ...  . One result of his "dissemination of information" may
be a lot of people, less well informed than he is, getting a vague
idea that good, strong, lamellar metal armor weighs five pounds. 

Indeed, I would describe one of his earlier posts (if I remember it
correctly) as an (unintentional) dissemination of
misinformation--certainly he left this reader with the impression
that he was asserting that metal Mongol armor was substantially
lighter than it would be if made of steel sufficiently thick for SCA
fighting. Only in further discussion did it come out that he was
treating a conjecture as a fact, since he did not actually have
evidence on how thick the armor was. In the SCA, conjectures turn
into facts very rapidly--one or two transmissions will do it.

Furthermore, if Dennis chose to impose the constraint on himself of
using period materials wherever practical, that constraint might push
him in interesting directions--such as exploring period ways of
making light, strong, lamellar armor. The Japanese alternated rawhide
(very tough, period stuff that almost noone in the SCA uses) lamellae
with metal ones--did the Mongols? Would it work? (Hint--if you soak
rawhide in molten wax it gains very little weight but becomes
waterproof).

My point is not that Dennis should not go ahead and make his armor; I
do not know enough about his constraints, medical, financial or
otherwise, to judge that. But I do think that making it out of
aluminum does have real disadvantages which he does not seem to
recognize. By doing it that way he well learn less about period
lamellar armor, and be likely to spread less accurate information,
than if he used a more nearly period material.

David/Cariadoc