06-11-2009, 03:58 AM
Hi guys,
From a recent thread on the 'linothorax', and having never heard of anyone actually trying it, I found myself interested in doing a quick little test to see just how practical it would be to even have glued linen armour, all the theoretical arguments for and against aside. I used 320g hide glue (excellent stuff) and heavy 100% linen, and dry it seems it'd make very sturdy armour, but with just a relatively small amount of rain (20 minutes outside in light drizzle, at around 15C) and it de-plied quite readily. Of course that's really to be expected from hide glue given its solvent is water. Today I tried a second test (here it rains all the time except when you want it to LOL) with two samples this time, one well-coated with linseed oil, and one well-coated with paste beeswax. Neither one fared much better- granted it was a bit warmer, around 22C, but the rain lasted only about 15 minutes and was again rather light. The outermost layer of each came off readily, although the wax-sealed sample seems to have done a bit better than the linseed oiled one. I found, as would probably be expected, that more penetration occurred at the edges, which I did coat liberally, but clearly only a binding would really help any. Even so, the outer layer was still permiable enough to allow the glue to be softened substantially.
All-in-all though with just this little exposure to rain, I'm not terribly impressed nor particularly apt to think this would be a practical armour. Even in the driest contisions, sweat would surely be an issue. Given how gummy the rain made the outer face, sweat on the inner would be rather unpleasant I should think.
I suppose really the most I can say is that plain hide glue is not the most likely to ever make this idea succeed- perhaps there was another adhesive the ancients had that was more waterproof?
From a recent thread on the 'linothorax', and having never heard of anyone actually trying it, I found myself interested in doing a quick little test to see just how practical it would be to even have glued linen armour, all the theoretical arguments for and against aside. I used 320g hide glue (excellent stuff) and heavy 100% linen, and dry it seems it'd make very sturdy armour, but with just a relatively small amount of rain (20 minutes outside in light drizzle, at around 15C) and it de-plied quite readily. Of course that's really to be expected from hide glue given its solvent is water. Today I tried a second test (here it rains all the time except when you want it to LOL) with two samples this time, one well-coated with linseed oil, and one well-coated with paste beeswax. Neither one fared much better- granted it was a bit warmer, around 22C, but the rain lasted only about 15 minutes and was again rather light. The outermost layer of each came off readily, although the wax-sealed sample seems to have done a bit better than the linseed oiled one. I found, as would probably be expected, that more penetration occurred at the edges, which I did coat liberally, but clearly only a binding would really help any. Even so, the outer layer was still permiable enough to allow the glue to be softened substantially.
All-in-all though with just this little exposure to rain, I'm not terribly impressed nor particularly apt to think this would be a practical armour. Even in the driest contisions, sweat would surely be an issue. Given how gummy the rain made the outer face, sweat on the inner would be rather unpleasant I should think.
I suppose really the most I can say is that plain hide glue is not the most likely to ever make this idea succeed- perhaps there was another adhesive the ancients had that was more waterproof?
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