From: robertdf@microsoft.com (Robert Del Favero)
Subject: Re: armor, physics, and aluminum
Date: 29 Dec 92 00:05:36 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation

In reply to my article, Aelfgar von Echternach writes:
>I think the general point I'm trying to make is that, since the armor
>we make for SCA fighting is meant to protect against concussions, bruises
>and joint damage, as opposed to protecting against lethal sharpened weapons,
>we necessarily have to make our armor differently, and from a different
>approach.  

Here is the crux of our difference of opinion. I believe that authentically 
designed armor is equally effective against lethal sharpened weapons, 
concussions, bruises, and joint damage. I think so because I tried it, and
saw that it is so. You seem to be starting from the assumption that it can't
be so, and are arguing from that assumption; so I'm not arguing with your
logic, but with the assumptions which underlie it.

There is a fair amount of SCA "common wisdom" about armor that doesn't hold
up when one tests it by actually trying different things. The reason that 
I advocate close recreation of period style is so that we can learn by 
observation how period armor works. 

(Actually, the reason I advocate close recreation is that I was taught 
armoring by someone who practices such recreation. I learned from Master 
Roberto di Milano that we can learn far more from careful observation, 
recreation and thought than we can learn from thought alone. Roberto's 
reaction to an inadequacy in a piece of his armor isn't "OK, then they 
were wrong", it is "What have I done differently from them?". Hundreds 
of armorers worked over hundreds of years to refine armor. They provide 
us with a lot of information on what works or doesn't work. Roberto's 
become a very good armorer by using the real thing as his standard. And
the people who wear his armor in combat don't seem to get hurt any more
often than those who don't.)

(I also learned much from Mistress Niccola Sebastiani, author of the 
"How to make a Medieval Thing" series which has appeared on this forum 
before, and which is now appearing in TI. She makes a far more cogent case 
for recreation than I, and I refer you to her for a better development 
of the points I'm trying to make here.)

[I wrote some examples here of common wisdom that I've found to be wrong,
but deleted them in the interest of space conservation.]

My point is not to argue the specifics of a particular piece of armor, though.
Rather, I argue that until reasonably accurate recreations of period armor
are common on the SCA battlefield, we can't say that period armor is inadequate
for the purpose of protecting SCA fighters. Without experimental evidence,
we cannot say whether that hypothesis is supported or not.

The spectre of arts-Nazi bullying occupies a prominent place in any 
discussion of authenticity. I get strident when discussing this subject, 
but I absolutely don't want to tell people what they must do. I don't 
like to box things as SCA or un-SCA, but rather as more or less like the 
middle ages. (I.e., I look at it as a continuum, not as a boolean thing.)
I hope that I can convice people that attempting to recreate medieval 
things as well as possible is the best way to further the SCA's goal to 
learn and teach about medieval life.

>P.S.  I am interested as to the details of Vittorio's armor, I would like
>to know what amount and design of steel people are capable and are fighting
>in, I think it would be most intriguing. 

Well, before Vittorio got too fat for his armor, he wore steel from head
to ankle, in the style of Italian export armor of the early 1470's. The
look is basically that of the soldiers depicted in the illuminations of
France or Italy in the early 1470's. He wore an armet on his head, with 
a butted chainmail fringe. He wore a brigandine of bright non-indigo blue
brushed denimn-like material. The plates were made of galvanized steel, 
and were held onto the fabric by copper rivets grouped in decorative patterns. 
He wore steel pauldrons, arm harness and leg harness, including half-greaves 
for the fronts of his shins. I bought mitten gauntlets with individual 
fingertip lames from Roberto, as gauntlets were beyond my skill. 

The butted mail was inaccurate, of course. I used hot-galvanized steel for 
the brigandine plates, which closely resembles the tinned steel used in 
period. I did this for convenience, since the plates are inside, and
it would have provided no aesthetic advantage. (In period, an armorer would
probably have subcontracted the tinning to a specialist. It was common
in our period for armorers to buy parts, materials and subassemblies from 
others specialized in their manufacture, and to send pieces out for decoration 
and such. It was not the practice in medieval times for artisans to prepare
all their materials from the raw state to the finished product, as seems
to be the expectation in the SCA.) I point these things out as evidence 
that we do indeed make compromises, no matter what our views on authenticity.
It's a question of where and how we make them.

I made all of this armor under the supervision of Master Roberto. The 
arms, legs, and helmet were made in Roberto's shop, and required some 
specialized tools. The brigandine was made with tin snips, a sandpaper block
for deburring, a hole punch, a 4 oz. hammer and an auto body dolly. I did most 
of the final assembly in the front seat of my father's pickup while riding 
from Maryland to Connecticut. Overall, the armor weighed about 60 pounds, about
the median for similar armors made in period. I am six feet tall, and 
weighed about 180-200 pounds when it all fit. I was reasonably fit, and the 
weight didn't bother me much until the end of the day.

I received one injury while fighting in this armor, a cut on the 
bicep caused by a blow to the inside of the upper arm that pinched the 
skin against the edge of my upper arm armor. Had I been wearing the chainmail 
that belonged there, it wouldn't have happened. After I put on weight, I would
get bruises on my shoulders, chest and upper arms caused when excess body
material got pinched between pieces of armor. This was evidence that the  
armor no longer fit, though, and not a deficiency in the design.

This has gone on too long. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issues,
though, and will continue to do so as long as it keeps being interesting.

Vittorio del Fabbro

robertdf@microsoft.com (Microsoft pays other people to articulate its opinions)