Silly Putty in armour ?

[valen]

I was wondering...has anyone tried to use Silly Putty in armour ?

It seems like a great idea - it's soft, flexible..and if someone hits it, it stiffens up, even breaks, to absorb the shock.

Seems like the perfect aketon padding, if you could find someway to stop it pooling...yes, I know it's a silly idea...but...intriguing.

john

[Uneg]

Nope, never thought about it - but I'd love to get my hands on some of this:

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,1 ... 04.00.html

[Louis de Leon]

Corn starch and water does the same thing.

[Bjørn]

I think that the silly putty would make it a very heavy aketon. The best part about silly putty armour is that if you fell down... you should bounce right back up.

Bjorn

[valen]

For anyone that's never seen silly putty, or heard of its properties, this is hysterical..

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/ ... silly.html

John

[Kilkenny]

I was wondering...has anyone tried to use Silly Putty in armour ?

It seems like a great idea - it's soft, flexible..and if someone hits it, it stiffens up, even breaks, to absorb the shock.

Seems like the perfect aketon padding, if you could find someway to stop it pooling...yes, I know it's a silly idea...but...intriguing.

john

Well, I think you've got it a bit confused as to how it would work on shock absorption. Stiffen up, yes - but in so doing I think you would find it *transmitted* rather than absorbed the impact.

I can speak from some evil experience as to the nature of silly putty in a mace head. Don't do it - it's like hitting/being hit with a brick. Feels all nice and soft and mushy when you squeeze it. Doesn't feel that way when it hits you moving at speed.

Gavin

[valen]

I've only got small bits to work with, but it seems like it'll absorb impact much like thick boiled leather armour; it's not quite as hard as steel, but stiffer than leather.

Hmm. Crayola are doing $75 for a five pound bag of it. Tempting.

John

[Alcyoneus]

I can speak from some evil experience as to the nature of silly putty in a mace head. Don't do it - it's like hitting/being hit with a brick. Feels all nice and soft and mushy when you squeeze it. Doesn't feel that way when it hits you moving at speed.

Gavin

I used to have a foam mace that did that...

[Kilkenny]

I've only got small bits to work with, but it seems like it'll absorb impact much like thick boiled leather armour; it's not quite as hard as steel, but stiffer than leather.

Hmm. Crayola are doing $75 for a five pound bag of it. Tempting.

John

You're free to experiment, of course. I suppose there's a chance that it will absorb instead of transmit. Personally I'll stick to more conventional varieties of padding with known performance traits. While I have more intellectual curiosity than is sometimes good for me, on the subject of Silly Putty in an armoured combat context, I had it knocked right out of me many years ago.

That damn mace hit way too hard. Can't imagine why it got banned. Oh, right, I was KEM.

Gavin

[justus]

There are some high tech materials that people are experimenting with, reactive armors that harden under impact but a otherwise flexible, I think bullet proof vests are the current application.

Imagine a fairly thin fabric that when struck, say with a sword, momentarily becomes rigid. I think they are having trouble with heat dispersion.

Now I just need to remember where I read about this, probably Scientific American.

-J