08-12-2014, 01:57 AM
Quote:Leather makes good armour - it has been used for millennia.
Linen makes good armour - it has also been used for millennia.
Neither are as good as metal armour.
It's curious that the tests in the book in question show the superiority of glued linen armor over bronze plate. According to the authors, glued linen provides the same resistance to arrows as bronze at two-fifths (40%) of the weight. Perhaps their bronze was too soft, but the disparity nonetheless indicates that either a) glued linen was better than than layered linen or b) linen was better than bronze.
Of course, based on the above, glued linen even resists arrows as well as or better than an equal weight of hardened steel! If the two-fifth figure is accurate, the 20-layer glued linen weighs only 2lbs for 15x15in section. Steel would have been about 0.8mm to weigh the same. Based on Alan Williams's numbers, 0.8mm hardened steel would require only about 60 J to pierce with an arrow.
Quote:Williams has shown that hardened leather provides less protection than a similar weight of quilted linen. So in order for leather to provide the same degree of protection as layered linen, it has to be heavier than layered linen.
I don't see weight figures for the leather tested by Williams in The Knight and the Blast Furnace.
