The Armour Archive

Greetings, fellow Archivers,

I am in the thought process of upgrading/improving to my next generation SCA harness, and would like to ask for a few opinions on suitability.

I am trying to balance the goals of historical appearance, with practicality on the fighting field.

The latest idea is to resemble the effigy of Walter von Hohenklinken, circa 1386. This would entail wearing from the inside out:

--a gambeson/arming coat, probably padded very lightly
--a mail shirt
--an aketon/second gambeson, at least lightly padded with full sleeves which cover the arms
--a short breast and backplate, no faulds

My question is on heat retention. I have worn my current gambeson, with my haubergeon/mail shirt and a brigandine. The mail tends to retain a layer of air, and I get warmer than when I wear just the brig or the mail alone.

Would this harness design be too hot to fight in, with the two layers of gambeson, and the trapped air space between them? My current gambesons are made of cotton, including the canvas and the batting. I am considering using some type of linen as well.

I want to pad/quilt the outer gambeson, only because of the fabric appearance on the effigy, and for more hip protection (I often fight great weapons, and my hips bruise easily, since I'm thin with no internal padding there ). I will likely have to add kidney protection in a waist belt as well, since the proper breastplate seems to ride high, ending at the natural waist.

Any and all well-intended opinions are welcome.

Perhaps you should consider layers of linen. I'm not sure from experience, but people swear by natural fibers and how they breathe. If you pad the hips but not elsewhere, you could probably keep heat down. You can also go without the sleeves on the outer garment which would leave you with fairly good cooling under the arms. An unpadded inner layer and an outer layer only padded on the hips, you'll have fairly good cooling. Compared to all that padding, anyway.

I don't know what else to suggest. Apparently there were some climate changes around that period that assisted in keeping cool.

Mike F,

The difference between natural and synthetic fibers, in my experience, can be dramatic. My first gambeson years ago had about a 1/4 inch layer synthetic batting. It was very hot under a mail shirt. When I switched to a thicker gambeson made of cotton, the difference was immediately apparent to me. I was much cooler, and could suddenly fight in the dry heat of west Texas (well, right up to about 98 degrees).

However, I have no experience with linen. I'm here in Turkey, where its just possible I might find some of the older, more medievally appropriate weaves of linen... if I know what to look for, which I don't.

My wife knows enormously more about fabric than I do, but she still has no experience with anything other than table linens.

I'm striving for authenticity here, at least in appearance. Perhaps the reason the heavy outer gambeson only lasted a generation or two was because of overheating...