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MANICA Reconstruction
#1
Salvete omnes,

I made a rather pleasant discovery about a week-and-a-half ago, realizing that what I'd considered to be 'left-over' 2.6cm-wide strips of 0.5mm thick sheet brass turned out to be perfect for a MANICA with lames the dimensions of those found at Newstead. Here's what resulted- the only difference is that the Newstead artifact has only a very small number of lames- maybe 13- and that's not nearly enough for me at 1.86m, so mine has a few more :wink:

It's constructed as a direct copy of the Newstead, using the one short intact lame as a pattern for the placement of the rivet and probable liner lacing holes, and the re-assembled uppermost wide lame determining the maximum length.

These turned out to produce a limb defense that's just excellent- it's very flexible, lightweight, and doubtless provides complete protection from cut wounds.

The bottom-to-top arrangement- dictated by the internal leathering rivet holes being on the forward edges of the lames- means blows coming from the front- where they'd almost always come from- would be deflected along the arm and away rather than the edges of the lames catching a blade as would happen were they arranged top-to-bottom.

The narrow dimension of the lames allows great flexibility such that a wearer can bend his elbow well beyone 90-degrees, probably approaching 45-degrees without any trouble, and the wrist can be bent forward to its maximum as well.

The relatively thin lames, which Mike Bishop reports ranged from 0.3 to 0.5mm in his monograph on the Lorica segmentata, are quite light and flexible so there's no danger of the edges ever cutting the lacing for the liner, as well the lames themselves change their curvature slightly as the arm moves, muscles contract, and so on, maintaining a good fit. The laminated form as well as the round shape makes these lames quite capable of preventing any form of cutting that wouldn't already cause significant crush injury as well (i.e., it won't stop an axe). The light weight- this piece weighing only 825g- means it shouldn't adversely affect the sword arm as heavier armor might, to no real significant benefit. Its light weight too means there's no danger of it sliding down and as can be seen in the photographs, it is quite securely held on with just two leather thongs- the one across the palm is to keep the forward end tight to the back of the hand and doesn't really contribute much to keeping the MANICA on the arm. So it would see the complicated leather pauldron and harness setups some replicas have deemed to be needed don't seem to have been strictly necessary on the real thing. I don't even thing there's reason to expect straps and buckles were used since I don't believe any has been recovered in context with manica fragments anyway. There are a pair of rings on one of the two MANICAE from Carlisle pictured in Bishop & Coulston's RME2, and it may be that a thong through them secured the upper portion- they're on the uppermost wide lame- but the large lacing holes of all the others provide more than enough room for additional thongs at any point along the piece. I simply found that just above the elbow and the wrist worked well and nothing more was necessary.

Until I'd tried mine on for the first time I thought MANICAE were interesting, but wasn't ever really a big fan of them- now I think they're SO cool 8)

[Image: PDR_0020b.jpg]

[Image: PDR_0013.jpg]

[Image: PDR_0016a.jpg]
See FABRICA ROMANORVM Recreations in the Marketplace for custom helmets, armour, swords and more!
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Messages In This Thread
MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-06-2007, 10:42 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-06-2007, 10:45 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-06-2007, 10:54 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-06-2007, 11:11 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-06-2007, 11:15 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-06-2007, 11:19 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Caballo - 12-06-2007, 11:40 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-06-2007, 11:45 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-06-2007, 11:45 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Caballo - 12-06-2007, 11:48 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-06-2007, 11:48 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-06-2007, 11:51 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Aedinius - 12-06-2007, 11:51 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 12:02 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-07-2007, 12:05 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 12:05 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 12:09 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 12:19 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-07-2007, 12:34 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 12:38 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-07-2007, 12:41 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 12:45 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Magnus - 12-07-2007, 01:08 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Tarbicus - 12-07-2007, 07:08 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Jvrjenivs - 12-07-2007, 08:34 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Caballo - 12-07-2007, 05:06 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Comerus Gallus - 12-07-2007, 05:19 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 05:21 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 05:26 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 06:29 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 06:43 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 07:02 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Matt Lukes - 12-07-2007, 08:09 PM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Magnus - 12-08-2007, 12:59 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Caballo - 12-08-2007, 09:28 AM
Re: MANICA Reconstruction - by Marcus Mummius - 12-13-2007, 09:01 PM

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