08-28-2018, 12:12 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-18-2018, 11:22 PM by Dan Howard.)
Beautiful job. The tailoring looks to be very good - resembling some of the iconographical depictions as well as the Vergina cuirass - and the detailing is excellent. However the armour is way too thin. There are lots of examples of leather armour all over the world both in museums and descriptions in texts. Any made from leather this thin was assembled from multiple layers - usually two or three. If the leather was thinner then even more layers were used - up to seven.
You are wasting your time testing a kopis on it. You don't need armour to stop a sword cut; a thick winter tunic can stop a sword cut. Proper armour was designed to stop points - i.e. spears and arrows, which were by far the most common threat at the time. If you want it to stop points then you would need at least three layers of this tawed leather on the chest. You might get away with two layers if the back layer was rawhide, or perhaps semi-cured leather - rawhide is far more resistant to weapons than tawed leather. A spolas made from this material would need to weigh 7-8 kg to stand a chance of stopping the majority of spear and arrow attacks, which is significantly more than an equivalent item made from metal.
Edit: It should be noted that the softness of this leather makes it unsuitable for armour. The whole reason for the cuirbouilli process was to take soft leather and make hard so that it can better withstand weapons. Considering both the alum tawing industry in Athens at the time, their massive export market for white leather, and the white appearance of some spolas illustrations, it makes sense to incorporate tawed leather in the construction of the spolas (assuming that hide was actually used and not linen). However, in my opinion, it would only have been the outermost layer (and the pteryges). The inner layer(s) would be made from hide that was better able to function as armour, such as the above-mentioned rawhide or semi-cured leather.
You are wasting your time testing a kopis on it. You don't need armour to stop a sword cut; a thick winter tunic can stop a sword cut. Proper armour was designed to stop points - i.e. spears and arrows, which were by far the most common threat at the time. If you want it to stop points then you would need at least three layers of this tawed leather on the chest. You might get away with two layers if the back layer was rawhide, or perhaps semi-cured leather - rawhide is far more resistant to weapons than tawed leather. A spolas made from this material would need to weigh 7-8 kg to stand a chance of stopping the majority of spear and arrow attacks, which is significantly more than an equivalent item made from metal.
Edit: It should be noted that the softness of this leather makes it unsuitable for armour. The whole reason for the cuirbouilli process was to take soft leather and make hard so that it can better withstand weapons. Considering both the alum tawing industry in Athens at the time, their massive export market for white leather, and the white appearance of some spolas illustrations, it makes sense to incorporate tawed leather in the construction of the spolas (assuming that hide was actually used and not linen). However, in my opinion, it would only have been the outermost layer (and the pteryges). The inner layer(s) would be made from hide that was better able to function as armour, such as the above-mentioned rawhide or semi-cured leather.
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
