The Armour Archive

eh, South Louisiana here, which can get just as bad if not worse than florida during the summer...(our "droughts" still have humidity at or above 75% at times)...haven't tried mail yet down here, but leather and plate will cook you if you're not used to the heat. Seen plenty of good strong men go down after 10 minutes in plate while the little guy who's lived here all his life is still going strong after an hour in the same style of armor.

Georgia here. 90+ degrees, and 80-90% (or more) humidity in the summer.

One of the reasons I want to go to maille is this very thing. My leather brig just doesn't breathe. Is great for winter time...not so much for summer.

Just lookin' for that bank I can knock over to pay for new armour...

i can stand in the middle of the field at pennsic on a swampass kind of day and actually be cold/cool in maille when i would be roasting out of it.

Sweaty linen under a giant body sized car radiator works great.

my local group has a frostbite tourney in late january - i'm kind of afraid to see how cold it feels in armor.

This is of course personal preference... but for people worried about their mail getting holes in it as long as it's not absolutely destroyed it always looked better to me than perfect unbroken mail.

You're out, you've been in some scraps, things aren't pristine.

It's like watching an old roman epic with with everything shiny and perfect with no breakdown or wear and tear.

Then watching Gladiator.

Just my 2 visual cents.

Gaston Le Chauve wrote:eh, South Louisiana here, which can get just as bad if not worse than florida during the summer...(our "droughts" still have humidity at or above 75% at times)...haven't tried mail yet down here, but leather and plate will cook you if you're not used to the heat. Seen plenty of good strong men go down after 10 minutes in plate while the little guy who's lived here all his life is still going strong after an hour in the same style of armor.

Someone who fights at our practice is a Glean Abhann transplant. According to her, it is MUCH worse here than in Louisiana. Her S.O. has said the same.

I'm not trying to do a pissing contest, but Florida is pretty brutal.

And, regarding that the conquistadors wore it, they didn't have to wear armour UNDER their mail so it was safe.

I played briefly a couple of summers ago in Southern Florida having come from New Hampshire. I can attest it was like breathing soup. It was awfull. At the time I wore a riveted brynie under a SS lamelar body bracelet basicly. Within twenty minutes I had ditched the mail and I was still only marginaly functional. Butaly hot, humid, no breeze, my mild steel helmet rusting as I watched it kind of weather. My hats off to you guys that can hack it!
Drefan

hrolf wrote:i can stand in the middle of the field at pennsic on a swampass kind of day and actually be cold/cool in maille when i would be roasting out of it.

Sweaty linen under a giant body sized car radiator works great.

my local group has a frostbite tourney in late january - i'm kind of afraid to see how cold it feels in armor.

My gambeson has a lot of wool scrap, and fleece "batting" in it - cold & mail without a survival undergarment is a bad thing.