light armor information

[Mike Habib]

This is largely an outgrowth of the thread that was recently running on purchasing accurate leather armor.

I'm looking for texts (or any resources, really) that cover information on 'light' armor (especially leather and quilted).

I'm particularly interested in trying to figure out how leather armor was actually put together. It seems to offer pretty poor cutting resistance (judging by comments in the previous thread), so I'm curious how leather armor was constructed to maximize its utility (however limited that may have been). I see a lot of leather armor for sale that is obviously fantasy oriented, but it recently occurred to me that I don't really know what it _should_ look like either.

Cheers,

--Mike Habib

[Adam Bodorics]

Oi!
FoA, leather gives good protection... of course, simple pieces of leather does not, but correctly hardened pieces are good. Far from being as good as even m&p, but they can save a life, as thick leather absorbs shocks well. Of course, they are ruined faster than steel, but I've a photo buried somewhere depicting a leather bevor covered by riveted mail.

They were used mostly before the 15th century, but about a year ago (or like this) a swiss auctioner offered an original gothic vollharnisch of hardened, multilayered leather, with a kettlehat being more than 2.5cm (cca 1") thick.
So it should look like standard armour, just thicker. I would recommend the House of the Wolf, they make extremely good stuff.

What do you mean by quilted? Simple padded cloth? If you mean that, they were some kind of last chance... even worse than leather, but they would stop lighter cuts, or absorb their energy so much that it'll "only" leave a shallow wound.

I hope I could help...

[Neil Bockus]

I'm not too certain on its construction, but if you check out the cut-test videos, Mr. Clements makes a few cuts at hard leather, and to what I could see it held up very well; it appeared as if the sword had a hard time biting into it.

[Mike Habib]

Thanks for the replies; I'll be sure to check out House of Wolf, as well as the cut-test videos. It's rather heartening to hear that leather held up well; leather armor strikes me as quite interesting and aesthetic, and I'd be a bit disappointed if it proved ineffective.

Cheers,

--Mike

[Randall Pleasant]

Neil wrote:
I'm not too certain on its construction, but if you check out the cut-test videos, Mr. Clements makes a few cuts at hard leather, and to what I could see it held up very well; it appeared as if the sword had a hard time biting into it.

Neil

Sorry, but that was not the results of the test cutting by John Clements. The following quote is found in another recent thread:

John Clements wrote:
Yeah, I have cut through all sorts of leathers both hard and soft, thick and thin, with relative ease using a variety of sword types. It was surprising how little resistant leather gave. Only very thick and very hard leather provided any difficulty and even then not against thrusts from tapered blades. It's no wonder that maile and quilted cloth were preferred and that, weight for weight, plate armor was a vast improvement over hard leather.

See the "leather armor?" thread.

[Neil Bockus]

I apologize for my ignorance at not researching the topic further. It will not happen again. My comment was made on the basis of the cut-test videos in which a hard leather slab withstood the cut of a sword several times, while attached to a punching bag. I will read through the other forum, as it will shed more light to me on the subject.