anyone know anything about these brigadine boots?

[Armourkris]

I found this while rumaging through my random saved armour pics. I seem to remember them being turkish, but other than that i cant remember a thing about them. In any case they look like they might make for an interesting project.
Does anyone have any info about them or of any other examples? Anyone have any other photos? this one isn't really the greatest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/74293956@N04/6773267835/

[Russ Mitchell]

They're Mongol -- I've seen the original now in two separate exhibitions. The type was in wide use on the steppe among the Kipchaks, and were seen for that reason as far SW as Egypt. Their weight was handled with straps going upwards which are theorized to have lashed at the belt. You also see said straps on Cuman babas, and somewhere there's a crusading reference of a guy lopping a dude's leg off at the thigh so that his booted leg bounced around on the strap (which wasn't cut) while the horse was running around with said dude on him.

One of these eons I'm going to bite the bullet and make one of these, but I've never gotten off my butt enough to do so.

[Armourkris]

Russ, when you saw these could you tell how much of the boots were brigadine? I'm assuming the plates are riveted to an inner lining layer of the boots, but I'm not sure if they should extend to the top of the foot, or just the shin/calf area. Also do you know what sort of time period they were used in?

[Russ Mitchell]

I couldn't see a full cross-section, for obvious reasons, but the top of the foot looked sufficiently bulky and the plates sufficiently fine that it's totally plausible. I didn't see any "collapse" to the foot which would argue against it. I can't vouch for the full time range, as my familiarity with the "near steppe" and Mamluk military drops off sharply in the 15c, but these would DEFINITELY have been in use during the classical "crusading" period: 13th century guaranteed, 12-14 or even 11-14 entirely reasonable. Earlier than that, the predominance of splinted greaves I think makes it less likely. But the Silk Road is a big place, and the Hungarian stuff I know is only its western anchor. Best answer I can give you.

Side note: I'm completely in the hurt-locker financially b/c of some unexpected vet bills and house-repair that's knocked my budget on its ass for the next six months, but this is something I *absolutely* should be wearing for my Cuman gear -- if you decide you want to make some of these, let me know, and I'll kick in either for parts or labor as much as I can and collaborate with you.