Roman/Greek Upper Leg Armor

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:53 am

Just curious, I have been doing research and have not seen any, but were there any Greek or Roman upper leg armor that has ever been made?

Kaliban · Post by **Kaliban** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:54 pm

just your skirt

MorGrendel · Post by **MorGrendel** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:54 pm

Yes, it was called Hamata, and it resembled chainmail. Also, as a stretch I think gladiators wore the leafed leather thigh protection like the greeks. I also want to think cav wore some sort of quilted protector, but that may be much latter.

boagrius · Post by **boagrius** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:03 pm

Scutt
I've got a patern for leaf blade upper leg armor, it may be a bit big for you but your welcome to it.

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:41 pm

Not quite sure what it is, but I will take a look at it.

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:43 pm

Was doing some research, some historians beleive that there was a segmented legs that were worn by some legionaires in one of the campaigns that they fought in. Can not quite remember the name exactly, Dionasus comes to mind.

It was made of overlapping plates like the lorica, just like the arm armor common on some gladiators. From the sketches, it would be pretty easy to make, do not know how well it would look though. If I have any spare leather, I might try to make a set, and if it looks bad, I can just wear it under the fighting pants.

boagrius · Post by **boagrius** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:29 pm

trying to get it to wrap the leg is the hard part.

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:00 am

Well I figured, once it is made, if you wet it and wear it dry it will help to harden the leather and give it the shape it needs. The only problem is the dye will most like bleed once it gets wet. Good thing I bought a black pair of fighting pants.

lilkender · Post by **lilkender** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:53 pm

You don't mention whether you have experience wetting/hardening leather... just remember that boiling it in water or soaking with hot wax will harden it much more than just wetting it, and it's going to shrink. Also remember to pad your leg with towels or something so you don't burn your leg (or hands)!

If it works, I'd like to see your pattern!

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:02 am

Well, I have only ever used un-hardened leather on my legs. It has been enough for me. That, and I refuse to wear plastic armor. I do not break as easy as some other Galatians, or I should say as hard. Still can not beleive Loki broke his leg and fought on it a couple of more days before going to the hospital.

Never really read up on how to harden leather, any advice on that matter would be appreciated. Any good site to look at, etc. Also about how much does it shrink once hardened?

MorGrendel · Post by **MorGrendel** » Tue May 01, 2007 9:34 am

Ha, dog my armor wil ya.

A faster method, which produces extremely hard and rigid shapes, is to dip the molded leather into boiling water for anywhere from 20 to 120 seconds. This technique causes the partial melting of the fixed tannin aggregates in the leather, making them plastic, causing them to flow and redistribute themselves throughout the fiber network of the leather.

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-ca ... l.html#cb4
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/ ... proved.htm

When I boiled I actually stayed around 170-180.

lilkender · Post by **lilkender** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:15 pm

Uh, "making them plastic" doesn't really mean making them plastic.

Here are two sets of instructions on cuir bollei:
http://www.armourarchive.org/essays/tho ... llei.shtml
http://www.arador.com/construction/leather.html

Do a search for cuir bollei, cuirbouilli, cuir bouilli... various other spellings or misspellings available...

How much it shrinks depends on how long you boil it and at what temperature, so it's hard to say. Remember if you leave it in your car trunk all summer it will melt and flatten... as well as stink.

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:37 am

Well, Galatians have a tendency (not sure on the spelling of that one) of turning their leather armor into mold Farms. I think Boagarius has had the record with 5 different types of mold on one piece of armor. (Ahrimens old lorica that I borrowed last time I was up there that was kept under your stairs outside.)
But, I never really know how my armor is going to be the next time I get to use it. It is at my parents house in Maryland and I only get to use it once a year because of the army. I try to lay it out in my old room so it gets good ventilation and will not mold. Just worried about it drying out in the Air Conditioning. Tried to convice my dad to oil it every few months but he did not bite.

107 to 117

Titus · Post by **Titus** » Wed May 02, 2007 2:32 am

lilkender wrote:Here are two sets of instructions on cuir bollei:
http://www.armourarchive.org/essays/tho ... llei.shtml
http://www.arador.com/construction/leather.html

Umm, thought it was funny but those are the exact same set of instructions just on two different sites and posted by two different authors.

110 to 117

lilkender · Post by **lilkender** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:37 am

Ha.. sorry, I didn't re-read them before I posted. I've done a lot of studying up on cuir bollei lately and tried to re-find some of the stuff I've read. Sorry to waste your time with two of the same thing :)

You know what you could do, is lend out your armor to a friend while you're away and have them take care of it. Er.. pick somebody who takes care of their own gear, though.

Do you oil hardened leather? I've never heard of oiling hardened leather. Oiling is to keep leather supple.

I once used Clorox to de-mold leather shoes (which sat in a Rubbermaid tub for months after Pennsic) and it did the trick and softened the leather... turns out bleach deteriorates the fibers.