COP questions

[D.Z.P.]

I have a COP kit on order form Mad Matt and I need some advice on the construction of it.

1. Should I use leather or cloth?
2. Would I be way off if I incorporated part of my device into the design of the "shell". For example making it multi colored or would it be proper to use just one color?

I have looked at effigies, paintings, woodcuts, etc. and I have decided that I am really bad at looking at pictures and deciding what people are wearing si I don't even know what I am looking at.

I am shooting for mid 14th Century in the southern part of Germany.

Any help would be great.

[Cian of Storvik]

IMHO leather will be hot, but it can be durable and less maintenance (if you use upholstry leather or oil tanned). You can fall into mud, and hose it off or clean with saddle sope. Do NOT use suedes. They tear easily.

Cloth will be cooler (especially linen), but then when it gets dirty and sweaty, how do you clean it with plates riveted to it? Do you hate your washing machine enough? Some people make a coat of plates with pockets that the plates slide into. The rivets are just decorative (but they'll still tear up your washing machine), and they can remove the plates if they get bent up and need repounding.

I don't know about colors, but for simplicity sake, I would say stick with a single color and wear a thin layer tabard/surcoat/jupon over it. You can make one for every occasion (personal colors for tournys, kingdom/baronial/houshold ones for melees etc.)

-Cian of Storvik

[Karl Helweg]

I have a number of both cloth and leather coat-of-plates that I use and keep for loaner armor. At the end of the day both leather and cloth work well but cloth can breath a little better although it needs replaced more frequently (about every five years). The leather seems to look better to most people.

I personally believe that CoPs also had heraldric decorations but usuually they wore a tight surcoat or jupon over their armour. Germans seem to have favored surcoats laced up the side(s) rather than the English exagerated wasp waist jupons "buckled" or laced in the back or side.

Germans seems to have also liked dagging on the bottom of their CoPs, chainmail, pauldrons, and ailettes. All of these along with heraldry make this armour look good to us today too.

Are you going to use the mammaliers and chains? That seems to have been the height of distinct German fashion.

[D.Z.P.]

Are you going to use the mammaliers and chains? That seems to have been the height of distinct German fashion.

I am not sure what mammaliers are. I was thinking of doing the chains but I need to take a good look at the rules and decide if they are legal here, and if there is a way I can make them to my liking.

[Karl Helweg]

"Nipple rings" to attach the chains to. Usually there were two chains one to the dagger and one sword pommel. Sometimes one to the helm; just long enough so that you could take it off an set/hang it on your shoulder in reach. Sometimes a chain to the bottom of the shield which might help against those J-shots.

I doubt that there are any SCA rules against chains the issue is that they will slow you down and nobody is willing to accept this handicap.

[D.Z.P.]

I am thinking about the CoP as kind of "dress armor". Not that I won't fight in it, but that I will fight in it when I care more about what I look like than about how well I do.

Speaking of chains, where would I go about getting a set of chains that don't look like I bought them at Lowes?