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James Arlen Gillaspie
Industry Professional
Location: upstate NY Joined: 10 Nov 2005
Posts: 587
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 Posted: Sun 11 Jul, 2010 11:44 am Post subject: |
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Oh, I forgot one really good trick! Keep a bucket of cold water around to put your hands in. It will help you to shed heat very effectively and quickly 
jamesarlen.com
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Sun 11 Jul, 2010 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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Can't add anything meaningful to the discussion other than to note that I have been amazed how quickly I build heat trying to get into full plate by myself when I don't have helpers. My armour is (or was) not the highest quality stuff available but I don't think that is what drove the heat buildup. I was also stunned at how quickly different parts of my body cooled and felt better once the steel came off. I found that I was much more comfortable without the arms and legs in the mix, or with them and not the core (breast and back). Even taking the greaves out and replacing them with thigh high leather boots felt like a significant improvement in heat regulation.
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
Last edited by Joe Fults on Sun 11 Jul, 2010 8:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Sun 11 Jul, 2010 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Joe Fults wrote: | | Can't anything meaningful to the discussion other than to note that I have been amazed how quickly I build heat trying to get into full plate by myself when I don't have helpers. My armour is (or was) not the highest quality stuff available but I don't think that is what drove the heat buildup. I was also stunned at how quickly different parts of my body cooled and felt better once the steel came off. I found that I was much more comfortable without the arms and legs in the mix, or with them and not the core (breast and back). Even taking the greaves out and replacing them with thigh high leather boots felt like a significant improvement in heat regulation. |
Really happy to have confirmation about my impressions that putting on the armour by oneself seems to create an immediate heat build up proportional to how hard a strap and buckle is to reach: If I put on my breast pate first I can hardly reach the buckles for the arm harness, if I put on the arms first I have trouble putting on the breast plate.
Doing it alone is possible but the more complete the plate the harder it becomes: I can do it almost all by myself but the sticking point is if I add a gorget to the mix, then it become a question of finding a trick like partially buckling some pieces and trying to do the " Cirque du Soleil contortionist thing " before trying to finally tighten the now almost unreachable buckles.
In other words a little help makes it all much much easier, and relevant to heat build up I think it is in part psychological because frustration and anger seems to make the body spend tons of energy = Heat.   
I also noticed that once past the " putting on stage " and one calms down one does feel hot and sweaty but it generally becomes almost a comfortable womb-like heat unless the outside heat is really extreme.
Oh, note the overheating of putting the armour on seems oppressive even when in a cool 70 degree F. low humidity room indoors out of the Sun ....... so doing it outside in high heat and humidity in the Sun is almost suicidal, or at least feels that way.
I agree that leaving of the leg or arm armour and/or including taking of one's helm helps a great deal in keeping the overheating to manageable levels: I wonder if this may explain the popularity and habit later on in the plate era to go to 3/4 or 1/2 armour ? I also assume that fully enclosing plate would be limited to just before or during a battle or when expecting a battle and that only partial armour would be worn for travel in dangerous territory or on a raid or cheveauché.
Having pages or squires to equip up or un-equip quickly would make it a lot more tactically sound to wait until the last minute to put on the maximum coverage of plate armour.
In the earlier maille only period getting in or out of a hauberk and wearing it for extended period would have been much easier and faster with or without help.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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