Glued Linen Armour- a simple test

[Kineas]

I didn't even realize I made that error until I read this post. I read your original post far too quickly and completely misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you meant our contemporaries; I totally misread it. :oops: For the record, I do not think 'contemporary' means 'modern'. :mrgreen:

...And no, I am not an archaeologist :wink:

I read my last with some embarrassment, as well. Waxing pedantic, my wife calls it. I'm all too frequently guilty!

I'm not a fan of linen armor (glued) but I'll advance a semi-theory as to how to stabilize the edges without the work and complexity required in sewing edging all the way round--and I'll note that I think that this is commensurate with the period artistic evidence.

Many period vase illustrations in the period I study (6th and early 5th c. BCE) show some sort of edge tot the textile (or leather) surfaces. I admit that it might be decorative, but in my reconstruction of a leather and scale cuirass, I did those edges as riveted bronze. A riveted bronze edge on the linen thorax--whether glued or quilted--would protect the edges from delamination and also from all the other damage that a soft material can take--as well as providing a framework that allows a soft armor to keep a shape--even, for instance, when wet.

I think that one of my issues with glued linen is the difficulty in working it after the glue sets--even with all the appropriate tools and leather palms and the like, it seems to me a very hard material to sew. In period, with period tools, I mean! And to put holes in it--to mount scales, for instance, as we see on so many items of attic red figure--seems a great deal of work, whereas scales can be mounted easily on leather.

Only a quibble, I know.