Linothorax vs Quilted linen vs spolas

[PMBardunias]

And I'm going to introduce an element of doubt here, after a telephone call to an alum tanner in Scotland, who says that my "tawed" leather isn't really tawed, it is vegetable tanned and then alum has been used to whiten it.

I worried about this because from what you have shared the alum leather seemed too "good" to me. Too well tanned, not subject to wear. My understanding is that alum tawed leather should be somewhere between what you have and rawhide. The only Alum tawed leather I can find is for parchment- and even that may be tanned as well for all I know.

It would be facinating to play with the relative amounts of tawing and tanning to see what range of stiffnesses and durability can be achieved. Someone needs to just try the process for us.

As to why they wore armour lets not forget fashion- a reason that many shed armour as well. In many ways the armour makes the man.