Re: Compiled Armor

["dbarrass_2000" <david.barrass@ed.ac.uk>]

Armour

Cloth is a strong armour and has been used as such.  The Greek hoplite
often used layers of linen glued together to make a strong Armour to
protect the body (Phillip of Macedon's grave contained an iron version
of this defense).  Some medieval soldiers wore their padding over
their chain mail. It was far more effective at deflecting arrows than
chain mail. Chain mail tended to hold the point and allow the arrow to
penetrate the armour

Don't be so dismissive of hide armour.  During the English Civil War
(mid 17th century) the soldiary wore a "Buff coat"  This was a coat
made of raindeer hide and was (by the reports) capable of stopping all
but the strongest sword cut.  These things were thick, the one I have
seen (Glasgow Kelvingrove Museaum) was about 5mm of solid hide, but it
 did have full length sleaves so must have still been reasonably flexible

Bridandine is metal plates sandwiched between layers of cloth/leather
and riveted to both of these layers.  A fine example in the Royal
Armouries at Leeds has a facing of red velvet with the heads of the
rivets gilded where they go through this layer.  Some excellent
examples were dug up at Visby in Denmark, the weather was hot so the
bodies were buried before the armour was stripped.  This site has also
provided insights to the Medieval styles of combat by the marks left
on their skeletons and Armour (well worth reading).

Lamellar.  The metal plates were wired together and did not need a
backing (it still needed padding).  This made a defense stronger than
scale (there was no direction from which penetration was easy), but
less flexible, but still more flexible than plate

What are your rules on alternative materials for the construction of
these armours?

David