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David Evans




Location: Rotherham, West Riding
Joined: 09 Sep 2004

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PostPosted: Fri 07 Jan, 2011 1:26 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The trick with wool is that it isn't just wool...........

Wool fabric comes in a whole host of styles, based on weaving and post weaving treatment. There are a range of wool fabrics common in England at least that were aimed at the more colder times of year. Frieze and Rugge are the main types. Frieze appears in records from about the 1410's, Rugge from about the mid 1550's. Both are very heavy, very fullered and felted wool fabrics with some considerable weight and thickness.

Stuart Peachy at http://www.stuart-hmaltd.com/historical_fabrics.php has both frieze and rugge available and they are almost 3-5mm thick. and pretty much windproof.

Add a lining of welsh cotton, a loose weave and fluffy finish as a liner to a frieze coat and they are rather warm, even in the recent cold weather the UK has had. There are records of suits of doublet and breeches of frieze, throw a jerkin of leather and a coat of even more frieze on top and I think you may start sweating....

There is a record from 1606 of a contract to supply clothing to the Spanish Netherlands forces that issued breeches of broadcloth, lined with linen and interlined with welsh cotton.........I hestiate to guess just how heavy breeches made from that mix would be....!
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Johan Gemvik




Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Joined: 10 Nov 2009

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PostPosted: Sun 09 Jan, 2011 7:36 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've trained and play acted a lot in various types of metal armour over the past 20 years in cold weather, sometimes in very cold weather and snow storms.

If you wear it with the metal naked as the outermost layer in really cold weather it will cool you down, especially closely worn torso armour. The trick to not get it to act as a cooling radiator is to have one of more outer layers on top of it.

I'd wear maille or plate under a thick wool coat or tunic. Then of course the padding and/ or clothing you wear under the armour also helps and if it's not "arctic" cold you don't need an outer layer at all.

"The Dwarf sees farther than the Giant when he has the giant's shoulder to mount on" -Coleridge
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Johan Gemvik




Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Joined: 10 Nov 2009

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Posts: 793

PostPosted: Sun 09 Jan, 2011 7:45 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Not a problem for most here perhaps, but both Kydex plastic and stainless steel can become brittle in really cold weather. I've seen it crack under hard blows that in normal weather wouldn't do anything to it. Mild steel seems to work better in really cold weather.
"The Dwarf sees farther than the Giant when he has the giant's shoulder to mount on" -Coleridge
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Larry Bohnham





Joined: 20 May 2010

Posts: 98

PostPosted: Thu 13 Jan, 2011 5:36 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Stainless has a high nickel content (makes it stainless) but that will embrittle the steel compared to mild carbon. To get stainless to cooperate at low/high temps it must be alloyed with other metals to improve the Young's modulus. Inconel is one such steel but very $$$$. We used to use it at the rocket ranch for things that were exposed to rocket motor exhaust and then had to plunge into space.
"No athlete can fight tenaciously who has never received any blows; he must see his blood flow and hear his teeth crack under the fist of his adversary..."
Roger of Hoveden, d.1201

a furore Normannorum libera nos Domine

"Henry, get down off that horse with that sword, you'll put someone's eye out!" Mrs. Bolingbroke's advice to her son, Henry, on the eve of the battle of Agincourt
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