Looking to buy a cheap gambeson for wearing under a mail haubergeon that will fit me. I have a roughly 48" chest and would like it to be comfortable.
Also looking for a cheap set of leather bazubands for cheap. Aesthetically I love the work of Torvaldr here on the archive but dont have the $160 to shell out so if anyone makes similar ones for cheaper that would be great!
Side note: I will NOT be fighting in these probably so a bit of sturdiness can be sacrificed for price
If you're not planning to fight in it, you do not need a padded garment under mail.
A tunic would do- and would be more comfortable because the bulk from a gambeson's padded fill would be hot and restrict movement a bit.
I've worn a fair amount of mail for costuming, as well as fighting.
And if I am only planning to walk around in it, I don't even consider padding.
So a simple T tunic with long sleeves would work just dandy for what you are asking.
The next consideration is fabric.
If you are looking for living history, wool or linen is what you need.
If its more for costuming, cotton will work fine, and is much cheaper.
I really, REALLY advise staying away from any synthetic blend, because of both the look, and the fact that synthetics are usually rather uncomfortable.
The only synthetic that works well and is comfortable is rayon..but its a synthetic made from wood pulp or cotton cellulose, so its almost a natural fabric anyway.
(I've had good results from linen/rayon and cotton/rayon blends...but I still use 100% naturals over them.)
I have 3 pairs of "experimental" hardened leather bazubands that may be just what you need. They turned out pretty well, but because they were experimental, I used lighter leather than I normally use for armor, just because I had it, but didn't have much use for it otherwise. Instead of the 13-15 oz stuff that I usually use, these are more like 10-11.
They are the same general style that you can see on my site under SCA Armor-arms-bazubands-leather. They are basically black, with the add-on bits being colored differently for each set-oxblood, blue, and green, iirc. If you're interested, shoot me an email and we can talk sizing, etc, and I can send you pics. I'd like to get $70/pair.
Thanks for the headsup IronBadger, i had thought i still needed the gambeson to prevent chafing or something (goes to show how new i am haha) but will definitely look into a tunic.
