Historical armor Thickness

Patchwerk · Post by **Patchwerk** » Tue Mar 27, 2001 1:02 pm

I've seen a lot written about what gauge metal to use for making armor for SCA, but are there some good sources out there for what the ACTUAL thickness of different armors were? I'm particularrly interested in scale, lamellar, and lorica segmentata. I know that there's probably a thread on this somewhere, but I haven't found it, so any help would be appreciated.

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Tue Mar 27, 2001 2:17 pm

There's a thread on the Armor Design and Construction board about armor thickness.

You need to supply a little more information to get a less- than- one- page answer. What time period are you talking about? What area of the world?

Anyway, some answers are there.

HELMUT

Alcyoneus · Post by **Alcyoneus** » Tue Mar 27, 2001 11:59 pm

And what is your rank? The average man-at-arms is not going to have the same quality (thickness/coverage/tempering) that the king is going to have. Henry VIII's 1520 suit is 100% full plate coverage, and weighs 94 pounds. Well, maybe there isn't metal underneath his foot, but everywhere else.

Helmets would vary widely. Are you talking about a 2-3 pound bascinet that would be worn under a greathelm, or one that would stand alone (and the owner didn't mind a little more weight to make sure he lived long enough to buy his next suit...). "Shiny Shapes" has some helms from mid 17th C that are specifically seige helms that weigh around 30 pounds.