04-02-2007, 11:32 AM
My god, that's one heavy, thick subarmalis. I'd hate to use that in any kind of weather above 5 degrees celcius...you'd be overheating everytime you went on a simple route march. As Dan mentioned, no-one is debating that leather can't protect you, but for a high ranking officer to wear simple hide when they had the best assets to procure a metal cuirass of the finest quality...doesn't make sense.
Not much thicker than my kevlar vest I wear every day at work, which does not breath at all. Gets miserable in August, but you sort of get used to it. I find a branze cuirass does not breath anyway, so the subarmalis mostly just catches sweat, and truly does not add to much to the overall heat. This does encourage the short no sleeve tunic though. cooling the extremities cools the blood circulating resulting in an overall cooling. Not saying you will not be hot, but it is doable. I directed traffic 4 hours in the heat one day. Swallowed about a gallon of water, but lived. The helm catches and retains a ton of heat too.
I guess my point is, after about 1/8 to 3/16 inch of leather... the rest is just not going to add that much more heat. Chest armor only covers about 30 to 35% of the body.
Not much thicker than my kevlar vest I wear every day at work, which does not breath at all. Gets miserable in August, but you sort of get used to it. I find a branze cuirass does not breath anyway, so the subarmalis mostly just catches sweat, and truly does not add to much to the overall heat. This does encourage the short no sleeve tunic though. cooling the extremities cools the blood circulating resulting in an overall cooling. Not saying you will not be hot, but it is doable. I directed traffic 4 hours in the heat one day. Swallowed about a gallon of water, but lived. The helm catches and retains a ton of heat too.
I guess my point is, after about 1/8 to 3/16 inch of leather... the rest is just not going to add that much more heat. Chest armor only covers about 30 to 35% of the body.
