07-14-2010, 06:18 PM
Quote:Yep, me, too. Inspired, that is. I'll be using linen, probably pretty heavy weight, and quilting by hand. That's gonna take a while. Oh, well, so be it. Not everything that's good comes quick and easy, right? :wink:
I have made a few quilted patches of linen (each measuring around 20cm by 20cm) of varying layers (10-15) and with stitching set at varying closeness (i.e. some were tightly spaced and some were loose). My tightest stitching was about 1.5cm apart and the loosest was about 4cm apart. They were all quilted in a square, grid-like pattern. The process is not very fun, as you can expect, but it is not impossible. The patches are somewhat rigid but far more flexible (even the most closest stitched) than others have touted. When tested against a bow and arrow the quilted patches perform moderately at best. There is no advantage that I can discern.
I also made and tested a quilted and stuffed test patch about 45cm by 45cm. The stuffing was sheep's wool. I also tested this against a bow and arrow. It did far worse than the non-stuffed quilted patch. It seems this type of armor would have been good for protection against slashing blows, but not piercing ones.
Scott B.
