Armour and helm padding

[Valley of the Fir Trees]

Hello all, I am sure there have been threads on this topic before, but I dont have the time to search and read through everything to find what I need, so I was hoping to get some advice.

I am a new member of the SCA, and have just recently begun getting together armour to get fighting. I will be padding all of my stuff myself, and I want to look at least somewhat period, but at the same time I dont really have the time or sewing skill to make linen liners and padding from raw materials. What I need is something fairly easy to make and install, and still look at least fairy accurate. I will be padding a helm, knee and elbow cops, gorget, bracers and greaves. Any suggestions?
Thanks

[Gaston de Clermont]

If you don't have the time or the skills, you might have to cajole, convince or pay someone to do it for you. Posting a request to the classifieds/Want ads portion of this site might work.

[Maelgwyn]

helm - A linen liner isn't all that hard if you sew it to a leather strip and glue the strip to your helm. Other options that look decent aren't much easier. In a hurry you could glue in some ugly foam to use until you can finish a nice liner.

knee and elbow cops, gorget, bracers and greaves - I use 1/4 inch thick felt glued to the inside of the armour. For the gorget I use sheepskin instead of felt.

[Konstantin the Red]

You will, repeat will, acquire sewing skills sufficient to tackle such lining tasks in very short order, young man. This kind of tailoring is super easy, only marginally harder than a T-tunic. Being easy, it will also take you relatively little time; all you need is some time management.

Knee, and I believe elbow, padding of a period nature doesn't even involve tailoring: these are longish, tapering strips of woolen blanket wrapped in several layers around the joint in question, wide end first, and the narrow end tucked into the wrapped strip to hold it tight by friction.

All the padding greaves would need would be to prevent chafing -- nothing more, and nowhere but where the greaves bear on some bit of you. This is generally true of any plate armor aside from the helm. Speaking of which, what type of headpiece have you got? Barrelhelms pad differently from bascinets, which somewhat differ from burgonets, et cetera.

Your mandated safety gorget will get a little more comprehensive padding, which will be sweated into, as your head and neck are your major bodily radiators. Cover all the front of the throat with padding, and a strip over the spine also. You can manage with less padding on the sides, and a bit of ventilation there will not hurt anything.

[william]

I dont have the time to search and read through everything to find what I need

I dont really have the time or sewing skill to make linen liners and padding from raw materials. ...

But you *do* want well-working gear, right?

Sorry if this sounds rather rude, but if you want to get a good result you'll have to show some commitment and effort. What do you think the people on this board did? I'm all for asking questions and have learned A LOT from the experience present in the AA members (thanks to all!). My attempts to give back are feeble at best and I'm aware of that.

But stating something along the line of "hey, I want the stuff presented on a silver plate and ready for me to use, so please spend your time to re-type what you've posted before as I have better things to do with mine" ticks me off, sorry.

I'd strongly recommend to use the search function of this board.

William

[Gest]

Hi Valley of the fir trees,

For knee and elbow cops you can use EVA foam available from Mandrake's Armoury (http://www.mandrakearmory.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MA&Category_Code=MsWp). (scroll down a bit). The foam is black so it dosn't scream "foam". You can glue it in yourself or buy it with a pressure sensitive adhesive on one side. Or you can just wear knee and elbow pads. I urge you to think about making your own padding using wool, or canvas and cotton.

For padding your helmet, I second the fine advice others have given you, and urge you to make and install a padded lining. It's not that hard to do a running stitch with a needle and thread. It will take you about 2-3 hours to figure out the pattern, and about 4-5 hours to acutually sew it up, and about 2 to 3 hours to install. That's with no experience. Here's some instructions by Steve Sheldon of Forth Armoury (thank you Steve!): http://www.forth-armoury.com/photo_gallery/helm_liner/helm_liner.htm. I made my helmet liner using those instructions and it works great. P.S. You don't need a sewing machine to make the liner, and I used a push-rod made from a coat-hanger instead of the wooden dowel Steve used.

Also linen works really good for the liner covering because linen has an open weave and breathes. Here's a source for heavy linen: http://www.fabrics-store.com/first.php?goto=fabric_type&menu=f&fabric_type=1. You want a heavy-weight linen. The 4C22 NATURAL is 7.1oz/yd and is what I used.

If you're still daunted at the thought of making your own liner, it's okay for you to use foam to pad your helmet. I'm only recommending a padded liner becuause it's really just _that_ much better. Pretty much every one who has a period liner now, though, padded their helm with foam before switching over, so no one should be wagging their finger at you for using foam:==) You just need to use an approved kind of foam. You can use the EVA foam to pad your helm, or use the blue camping pad foam available from Wal-Mart.

Whichever way you decide to pad, before you start, go to a fighter practice and ask the other fighters to show you how they padded their helms, and knees and elbow cops. Ask what they like and don't like about it. You'll get a lot of insight.

Good luck...

-- Gest

P.S. If you go with foam for the helmet padding, ask an experienced fighter to help you. There's an art to it that doesn't meet the eye.

[asnyg]

Hi, I'm also a newbie, with a similiar question, so I thought I'd post here instead of cluttering up the forum. Since I'm spend hard earned cash on an awesome helmet, I've decided to do it with period lining. My question is, if you line with linen, etc, do you also wear an arming cap under your helm? I figured it would be a good first sewing project while I was waiting, but I want to make sure I need one first. Thanks!

[william]

Asnyg,

I wear a simple coif for comfort reasons (easier to wash, holds my sports glasses down etc.), but it is not padded like an arming cap would be. One feature of the arming cap I've discovered is that it can balance out some fitting problems in regards to the padding. My lady wore one when she was still using our foam-padded loaner helmet to improve fit. So, if something goes wrong with your liner it might be a quick fix (I'd replace the liner in the long run and see it as learning experience). Other than that I cannot see a real neccessity.

Well, wait. An arming cap would be a very good excercise to learn more about pattern adjustment, stuffing and such. So maybe you can make one anyway.

Cheers,
William

[mattmaus]

My advice...

Don't glue foam to your armor.

I, and several others local to me just use little rolls of duct tape. Press it in good and tight. Use several rolls, and alternate the direction that they run.

Don't glue foam into your armor. When you decide that you hate glued foam, it will be hell to get back out.

[Louis de Leon]

Don't glue foam into your armor. When you decide that you hate glued foam, it will be hell to get back out.

True. But if you do feel like using glue anyways, I'd recommend Goop. You can get it from Home Depot.

It's fairly easy to pick off if you choose to. Just grab it with needle nose pliers and twirl it up like spaghetti. Comes clean off metal that way.

[Valley of the Fir Trees]

Thanks for all the advice guys and I will use it, even the advice from the the grouchy German guy. Reminds me of a classic movie, South Park..."dude, what the fuck is wrong with German people?" Anyway, I see the point of his post, and thanks for the input.