Shield Practicality

[Quinn Wilson]

Interesting, I'd never even heard the wrapping in leather idea before. Good thing I started this, It's been a real eye-opener. Thanks!

[JeanryChandler]

That is interesting, maybe thats another reason why there seems to be much more evidence of padded armor (gambesons etc.) than leather in use historically. In fact come to think of it when I was researching armor most of the leather armor (bakharets, leather with metal reinforcement) was in the East, Russia and Turkey. Wonder why that would be? Even there though padded armor seemed more common, they had those special gambesons with the semi-attached sleeves...


JR

[Robert Subiaga]

This is just a hypothesis, but maybe the Russians et al simply were closer in proximity to areas where larger-scale herding was the economy. The more leather is available, and the less it has to travel, perhaps the cheaper it was. (Anyone actually know the relatively price of leather, cloth and steel in Russia in the late middle ages or Renaissance?)