The Armour Archive

This past sunday my efforts at encouraging a new fighter towards being more period were greatly rewarded. Unfortunately it was to the detriment of his well being on this occasion.
This guy joined us last September and already has a nicer kit than many longtime knights I have seen. Almost every practice he shoes up with some new improvement to his fighting gear (most of which he made himself). His most recent addition was a maille byrnie, which he plans to use primarilly for tourney and for demos.
Anyway, it was close to 90 degrees at practice on Sunday. Not spectacular, but unusally warm for this area in June. He just about collapsed on the feild. We got him into the shade and found out what he was wearing. A sweatshirt (to prevent armour bites he still hasn't worked out yet), a jack of plates (as protective armour), a long sleeved tunic (to hide the elbow cops required by SCA rules), a heavy stuffed gambeson (simply because his persona would have had one, possibly polypropolene stuffed), and 25 pounds of maille from India.
I could not believe how many layers he was wearing, and fighing out in the middle of the blazing sun too. He is fine now btw, no damage suffered.
I helped him reduce the number of layers he was wearing so he still gets the same look on the field. Just let this serve as a reminder to all you nice folks who wear armour, be smart about it, get in the shade when you need to and drink more fluids than you think you need.

Off all of the stuff on the guys kit, the sweatshirt should be the first to go. Flonzy is doing a lot of research into what soldiers wore under armour in several different periods AND what materials. When he is done I think it will be fantastic. Ask him for details. Also last year I crashed at the end of match after wearing, a quilted doublet (black), a long sleeved cotton shirt (black), a pair of sweat shorts (black), a poly cotton pants (burgandy), and heavy leather boots (black), and long leather gloves (buff). I do not wear as much, take off as much of my outfit as I can between bouts, drink lots of fluids and eat natural sugars, and am looking into more period materials that appear to be more breathable.


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"As long as there are fanatics there will always be heretics

Blue camp pads from Wal-Mart do not make good gambesons in August (or any other time for that matter). Nuff said!

Last night I fought for the first time in my new kabadion. I had been using a generic gambeson that used poly batting. Kabadion uses cotton batting. Huge world of difference. I felt 10 pounds lighter. Make sure you're guy has cotton rather than poly.

Fortunately, cotton is in persona for me. Well, not fortunately, that had an influence on my period selection.

It was also the first time I tried putting my vambraces/elbows under the sleeves, and it worked out marvelously. Here's what I did: cut the arms off another gambeson I made that didn't work out (learning how to sew and all), and just slipped em on, then the armour, then kabadion sleeves over the top. 2 layers total, fully hidden arms, for a period appearance.

Vladimir

Your buddy sounds like a person willing to spend a few extra bucks to make himself look more period. He could replace his gambeson with one made of all natural materials. Wool, cotton, and linen breath and let the body sweat properly. Polyester blend material is bad to wear for that reason. In this post http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/Forum4/HTML/001257.html we talked about how late raw cotton was used to stuff gambesons. Another good way would be to buy a bolt of 100% linen and layer it like a 15th century padded jack.

His tunic should be made of a light wool or linen. It would be durable and breath.

If his jack has foam padding he should remove it. Foam heats up fast and retains that heat.

I have not done an early persona that would wear chain but I have thought about it before. I would wear this. 1) A shirt made of linen. 2) A kidney belt. 3) A well-padded gambeson over the kidney belt, I would attach the elbows to the gambeson by points, and cloth cover them with the same material as the gambesons exterior to hide them. 4) The chain 5) If you think it necessary for looks and light wool tabard.

For cheap fabric go to http://www.fabricdragon.com/. The lady who runs the site does not keep fabric in stock on the site, but if you email her and tell her what you want she will find what you need. I got a thin 100% green wool for 5$ a yard. My local stores cheapest price was 13$ a yard. I also got a bolt of 100% linen for 3$ a yard.

Hope this all helps. If I remember you are in VA, so am I and we can look forward to some real hot and humid days this summer, and good garb will help you out.

Flonzy

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Cheap garb is as bad as plastic armor.

I understand why but

"A sweatshirt (to prevent armour bites he still hasn't worked out yet), a jack of plates (as protective armour), a long sleeved tunic (to hide the elbow cops required by SCA rules), a heavy stuffed gambeson (simply because his persona would have had one, possibly polypropolene stuffed),"

The sweatshirt really hurt him, and the polly batting was the last straw.

Metal isn't hot. I freeze in my white harnes when it's cold.

Replace the batting with cotton and he should be ok.

KUDOS to him for effort and willingness to do it right.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Vladimir:
"a heavy stuffed gambeson (simply because his persona would have had one, possibly polypropolene stuffed), and 25 pounds of maille from India."
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Never use a poly fill gambeson - It is absolutely the worst for heat buildup

My gam is 80/20 cotton/poly, and it isn't bad at all. Of course, it's only one layer.

There's no way I could stand wearing linen on the field. I can't even wear my linen tunics walking around at Pennsic during the day. They're 100%, but I sweat like a pig in them. I don't find them to be as breathable as cotton or even wool.

HELMUT

What type of look is this guy going for anyways? That could make a huge difference in what he needs. The sweat shirt had alot to do with the heat as well as the gambeson (if it's polyfill).

Bran


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Courage is not the absence of fear, it's the ability to overcome it.

The problem here appears to not be the authentic parts, but rather the inauthentic. Natural fibers are your friend.

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Owen
"Death is but a doorway-
Here, let me hold that for you"