Goat Skin Segmentata

[marsvigilia]

I am thinking about using goat skin to make a segmentata.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Baaaaaaaaaaa........HHHHH! :roll:

[Matthew Amt]

If you come to the workshop tomorrow we can all take turns slapping you! Or whipping you, if that's where you're going with this....

Or do you mean using goatskin for the internal leathers? Or did you mean a goatskin subarmalis?

Oh, wait--do you mean goat hide with the hair still on it?? Now THERE's a mental image....

Matthew

[M. Demetrius]

Tony, are you working from that parchment scroll that was found in the wrecked Roman grain galley that sank off the coast of Peru when it was leaving port with the hold full of Indian corn? Are you sure it wasn't lamb skin?

[C. Apollonius Priscus]

I think that perhaps he saw one or two of them in the "epic" movies of the 1960's and is going to replicate one...

[FAVENTIANVS]

Don't waist your time.

[M. Demetrius]

He's right! A waist is a terrible thing to mind! 10,000 dieters can't be wrong, y'know.

Are you planning to braid the goatskin for extra strength?

[FAVENTIANVS]

I mean: you do not squander your time!

[Matthew Amt]

It's okay, Ivan, I think he's just yanking his Beloved Commander's chain. Though he does stay home all day with 3 hyper kids, so maybe he's finally gone around the old bend, eh?

Of course, if he shows up tomorrow with some great documentation, we'll have a neato project to work on! Not holding my breath...

Matthew

[marsvigilia]

I see that I must be extremely specific with you gents. No I was not thinking about armor panels made of goat skin in some twisted twist on the Italian style. I was wondering if people thought they might be strong enough for the internal leathers. And just maybe whether any DNA testing had been done on the decomposed scraps of leather on the archeological finds.

Matt, yanking you chain is always great fun. However, I claim plausible deniability. I hope to make it to tomorrow workshop. But, I'll have to give the family the slip.

[Marcus Caecilius Avitus]

I'm pretty sure goat skin, like pig skin, stretches. Be careful or you could end up with a slinky seg.

[Martin Moser]

I was wondering if people thought they might be strong enough for the internal leathers. And just maybe whether any DNA testing had been done on the decomposed scraps of leather on the archeological finds.

Goat leather IS very tough and tear-resistant for its thickness, probably more so than cattle hide, especially when alumn tanned. I don't know about tests for those finds, only about shoes. Soles and 1st cent. style caligae are practically always made of bovine leather. Uppers for other shoes are made of other leathers as well and often more so. For something like segmentata internal leathers I'd go for bovine leather personally, but I have no data/tests really to back this up.

Hope this helps (a bit at least) ...

[Matt Lukes]

And just maybe whether any DNA testing had been done on the decomposed scraps of leather on the archeological finds.

Yeah, right- they've got Iove only knows how many amazing artifacts in boxes in store rooms around the world that have never even been described or photographed for lack of funds and someone's going to do DNA testing on mineralized leathering to determine the species :lol: :wink:

I understand the same thing as Martin- that goatskin is the most puncture and abrasion-resistant type of leather, but what you'd have to find out is what it's stretchability is like. Given that it's used a lot for gloves because of its durability, data might be out there for its other characteristics...

[Marcus Caecilius Avitus]

My experience.

I used it for various gladiator manica and it stretched, quite a lot. roll:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I bought goat hide for doing the lining of my cheek pieces, amoungst other things, but it doesn't seem the ideal candidate for segmentata leathers...