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Just a place to discuss armor. Hopefully this is not stepping over the Stab Vest thread from before…
In the following video, Tod discusses Cuir Bouilli and his method of making it. It’s pretty impressive for its weight:
Nice video, and I like Todd, though we disagree on a few things. I personally have found with my (fairly cheap, 175 lb draw) modern hunting crossbow, it shot through any kind of leather I tested it against, including some cuir boulli. None of it could stop the point of my Albion constable either.
Most of the tests I’ve seen online have shown similar results.
From what I’ve read, most “leather” armor used historically as armor (almost all of it outside of Europe) was actually buffalo hide or some other animal. In (what is today) India they used crocodile and hippo hide!
The most common actual leather armor I know of was cheaper grade lamellar in Central Asia, made of water-buffalo hide and often lacquered.
Generally leather in sufficient thickness to provide even marginal protection against real battlefield type weapons is quite heavy and stuff, and also fairly noisy. You might need say 8mm of leather for equivalent protection to 1mm of wrought iron (or the modern equivalent, ‘mild steel’). So you have to take that into consideration regarding weight and bulk. Leather of any kind was also not particularly cheap for settled areas unless you were in a cattle raising zone.
I think this is why textile armor was a much more common ‘poor mans’ armor.
It is also still debated whether the famous “Linothorax” may have included some cuir bouili
Just saw this over on myArmoury, and thought I’d bring it over here, too:
http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=39248
Really neat stuff. Viable for consideration in historical settings, as well as fantasy settings where more sophisticated materials aren’t available. So, next time you have that pre-Colonial campaign or bring over your Dwarf Fortress game to the tabletop, keep this in mind…
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