Where we craft
beautiful products and then try to destroy them.
Sure, it looks like
armour. There is even documentation of some types of
leather armour back as far as the 6th Century BC. But
does it really have decent protectiveness or does it
just look good? We decided to start submitting our
different items to some harsh testing in an attempt to
display the qualities which we find to be necessary
for real use. We especially focused on the hardened
leather items. We
began with a
quick video of one of our "cuirbouille" shoulder cops
standing up to a two handed overhead blow with a 6
foot 2X4.
We then tested the
combination of both 7/8 oz leather and 13/15 oz
leather with butted steel chainmail and riveted steel
chainmail.
This is the test with
butted mail. It is obvious that against a decent
piercing blow that the chain offered little if any help.
The
same test performed with riveted mail. We had the same
result with 7/8 oz and 13/15 oz leather. About 1/16" of
the dagger was all that could get through.
Next
up is the Italian molded elbows we craft for our 15Th
Century Italian Arms. The elbow is molded using
our traditional cuirbouille method. they take a
couple of hefty whacks with an 8 foot 2X4 with no
noticeable damage.
This is same elbow
deflecting sword blows. Notice how even when the elbow
does not turn with the blade the rounded shape causes
deflection. A small scrape is all it sustained.
Our gorget with the
cuirbouille hardened collar taking some nasty abuse.
Our Late 14th Spaulders/epaulettes
vs. a sword thrust and slash.
Check back. We plan on testing more of
our armour as time permits.
