Giloup92 But I guess "cuir bouilli" is pronounced other way than Mats. At least google translator says it other way. I always use it when don't know how to pronounce something ;)
+scholagladatoria +tomek3579 I had the same idea as you. Google Translator translated well "boiled leather " by "cuir bouilli", but strangely the pronunciation of "cuir" is not very good. "Bouilli" is good.
Cuir Bouilli You heat water a little (30°C) like a drinking tea. You had a certain amount of pork glue (made from the bones). then you obtain a sort of gelatin but much more liquid. The you immerse your leather in the liquid for 30 min. helped by the capillarity of the leather, the water get in the leather (bringing the pork bones glue). >>> The air in the leather is replaced with water/glue and escape in little bubbles. It LOOKS like it's boiled.
Is Matt's living room floor like the medieval version of batman's utility belt? First he's conjuring weapons from it, now it's sets of armour, next up, siege equipment?
scholagladiatoria Matt, as to the pronunciation. Modern French, which is post-revolution lawyer Parisian pronunciation is not such a very good approximation for medieval french. Just as the various accents in modern London is not a good approximation for Elizabethan English. As a starter, the r sound is not the throated sound of modern french - but of a rolled R. It is somewhat similar to the Russian R's, and are still pronounced by the older generations in the Quebec Canada, Lorraine, Normandie, Touraine, Orléanais(there, half the time it was rolled), Charentes, Poitou, Berry, Bourgogne, Provence( mixed R's too), Languedoc, Auvergne, Limousin and Gascogne. In some of these French regions and in most areas of rural Quebec, the R's are still rolled. Other examples are the difference between the sound of "oi" and "ai". The differences only started to appear in Paris around the 18-19th century. Before this development, there was only a distinction between "oué" and "ouè". As you can see, until very recently, the pronunciation of French was *Very* different from the modern Parisian one in the majority of the French speaking world. Modern Parisian is an cultivated articulated modern accent that was artificially created. When you see someone french trying to correct your pronunciation of medieval words in great detail. Pay no attention it as your pronunciation is probably just as close to medieval French as theirs. Both of you will just produce different kinds of errors and the medieval French would understand neither of your speech (neither will either of you understand his language either). Anything else is just arrogance and ignorance - something I feel greatly annoyed about. I feel this is important, if you read this, please reply "Read". is all that is needed. Thank you.
Coat-of-plates is easily my favorite armor type: it's nearly as protective as a full breastplate/cuirass but so much more flexible. (and a good one allows it to go all the way to your shoulder without limiting your mobility, unlike a rigid breastpiece that needs to stop short so you can move) It's like the perfect form of lorica segmentatta, and while it's a little more vulnerable to a lance than a cuirass, how can that not be awesome? Shame so few people know about it.
Could you make a video/s about the military orders like Templars, Teutonic Knights etc. ? Their armors, weapons...That would actually be fantastic Great Channel!
It amazes me how long it took the World to finally catch up to the Romans once it collapsed. All of the armour knowledge, weapons, tactics, engneering and large city works such as indoor plumbing and indoor heating. All of that was lost over the course of a few generations and it wasnt until the 1500s-1600s that Europe seemed to catch up to Rome and surpass it. I wonder if that could happen today? I dont think so personally because of the vast communication and knowledge available and just the sheer number of people.
Boredout454 "Armour knowledge"Was stil there.The romans themself stopped using the LS since it wans't worth it compared to mail.Tactics not really,at least not in terms of how sieges and tactics work.Engineering yes for about 300 or 400 years.Funny thing is that the romans themself didn't use any of it later *since they existed until the 15th century.*
Hi Matt, My Huguenot ancestors fled France under persecution for the protection of Frederick William the Elector of Brandenburg. Our family name was Germanicized to 'Kurrass' by the nineteenth century. There is a painting of Huguenot officers presenting themselves to Frederick William for service and I wondered if my family could have been part of this. Because of your great knowledge in this area, any information or advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!
Good point, the portuguese name "couraça" (the "ç" sounds like a "ss") it's the translation to cuirass. And "couraça" it's like something used to be a protective cover (hardened stuff) and closely associated with the word "couro" that means leather.
RyuFireheart In italian it is "corazza", which indicates exactly the metal back-and-breastplate armour, and by extension any kind of sturdy, hard and rigid protection for the torso. It comes from the latin term "coriaceus", meaning "made of corium" the latin word for leather. I think the origin is the same for all romance languages. In today italian, the adjective "coriaceo" is usually referred to materials that are hard but have a "natural" texture, such as tortoise shell or something that is hard to cut or scratch or generally tough and resilient, also figuratively.
I believe though that "couraça" in portuguese is meant more like a "protective wear" than "something made out of leather". In Brazil we sometimes use "couraça" in reference to turtle shells (which are made of bone), rhino's thick skin (which is indeed living leather), and sometimes even to tank armor. I don't know if it's the same in french (as I can't speak it), but it really doesn't seem to mean the armor was originally made of leather, even though that could be the case.
Great Video. It's a theory I've held myself but couldn't find too much info on. I've copied some experiments from online trying to make cuireboille myself with mixed results. I did manage to make some decent small pieces tho. I have no problem imagining that a full cuirass over a thick gambeson all covered by a hauberk would be a solid defense. Especially against arrows, as the cuireboille was decently cut resistant. It took a lot of pressure and a very sharp razor blade to cut the pieces I did to shape. Anyway, thanks for covering one of my favorite topics. Especially as I think leather has a bad rep for armour. I have a leather covered breastplate with faulds similar to the one online at platener, and it's taken a good beating and still in good shape.
I've made cuirboulli in the oven, originally by melting wax into it (bad idea for cutting defense as the wax makes the leather easier to cut) and later by simply soaking it in water and drying the piece at about 170 F until dry. Becomes beautifully tough. I still have a few basket hilts out of 12oz leather on old shinai from back in the days before better options. Rock hard 10 years later.
To share my pedantic two cents, "flak jackets" as you call them have been out of service for a while now. The current technology is referred to as body armor, ballistic armor, ballistic plates, etc. Love the videos!
I feel like a jerk pointing this out, but where you are standing it looks like you have a sword going through your head like one of those novelty arrows.
LOL! Imagine a guy in medieval times walking around for the rest of his life with a sword through his head because it would kill him if it was pulled out.
Nice video on cuirasses. I've always understood it to mean just the torso (& potentially an integral skirt, if it has one) of the armor, to which pretty much all other pieces attach, regardless of what it is made of. I seem to recall that the Chinese even at least as far back as 100-200 BCE already had been using lamellar/multi-plated cuirasses: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Terracotta_Army_Pit_1_-_2.jpg
I suspect that you are right about this. Boiled leather armour has a long history. I think the Romans used it. The reason that we would be unaware of it from the middle ages, is because unlike metal armour, there wouldn't be any examples of it around anymore. It rots and gets eaten by animals.
Actually your pronunciation was nearly perfect! Props from a native French-speaker. It could have been interesting to see you wear that cuirass, too. For demonstration purposes.
You need to edit in images. Then these videos would be effectively as good as short documentary episodes. It can't be hard too hard find public domain images and throw them in, I would imagine.
9 лет назад
In portuguese, cuirass is "Couraça", and leather/ hide is "Couro", in fact both words sound pretty much the same, it's very common calling the hard leather from the chest and back of an animal of "Couraça". So, portuguese, it's right in to say that boars, cows and turtles have a "Cuirass". Maybe this is the origin of this word.
Finally Some more videos about armours! I Really think they are a piece of art but couldn't find anyone on youtube that talks in depth about'em.. Also, the plate armour you showcase, is it from the XVI century ?
scholagladiatoria OK Thanks alot :) My reanactment company reanact as a late 15th century 'Bourguinion' merc company, do you think this style of cuirass would be ok ? I would ask them but I've asked too many stupid questions already :p
Rafaello Fareday I have boiled leather (actually, more like cooked in beeswax) armguard, and it's as hard as footbal shinguards, so yes, pretty efficient :)
Cuir bouilli was perfectly real. In the Age of Gunpowder, you also had so-called buff coats, which were useful against cutting weapons and were generally combined with metal helmets and cuirasses. What wasn't real, to the best of my knowledge, was the weird biker gear you see in lots of movies and RPGs, which looks like regular soft leather and therefore not especially useful as armour. The common variant "studded leather armour" makes even less sense, and may have started out as a misinterpretation of a brigandine.
KorKhan89 rawhide was used for clothing in the frontier and may have provided some protection from light abrasion only. as for armor it would do little to protect the wearer.
I think that boiled leather, like modern plastic offers pretty good protection from impacts, especially when padded. It is also lighter and more flexible than metal, and much easier to live with. So it is a reasonable compromise
Yes, boiled leather is absolutely real and effective. It can be made of varying hardness and thickness. I've taken a metal meat tenderizer to a small, slightly bent, scrap on a counter and was unable to do more than scratch the surface very slightly. (and bounce the tenderizer back up a couple inches) A good strike from a proper weapon would work, but it is most definitely rigid armor and seems to have mechanical properties similar to modern, high-strength plastics from what I've seen. (at least under good conditions)
For the curious ones: Soak a piece of leather ( no need to be large) 5 minutes in room temperature water. Submerge it one minute in hot water ( about 80C) Check your boiled leather.
I think, as a "latin derivated language speaker", that cuirass (couraça in portuguese )is more close to something meaning CARAPACE for you guys. But the radical of the word came from leather nonetheless.
You mention "the artwork" a lot. I'd love to take a look at some, but it's difficult to find on the internet without clues, since there are so many video games and enthusiasts. Think you could show us some medieval artwork in the videos? I remember you did that with the wooden shield and it was very helpful.
So given that the earliest effergies show some sort of strips at this attachment point under tge armpit, they seem, from the onset to be re-enforced with Something. Thereby the reference to 'cuir' could be simply the covering of the garment that was taking it's ridgidity out of metal from the onset. Although initially they could have used other ridgid plates like cuir boUilli, 'Whalebone' or suchlike.
U've got a very nice Cuirass ! Would you please explain why the the late 18 th century Cuirass used by the famous French Cuirassiers was considered as tiresome and cubersome for both man and horse O.o. I cant understand that because Man at arms in the 16 th century were using heavier and more cumbesrome armour yet they could fight effectively .Thanks in advance :)
As those whom replied earlier stated by that time muskets could penetrate armour rendering it's benefits negligible compared to the additional deployment speed of unarmored cavalry. The additional weight of the armour would blow out a horse faster in a prolonged march.
It's funny, because the word for leather is almost the same as In Spanish, "cuir" ~ "cuero", and the word for boiled very alike to the English word, "bouilli". Languages hold history.
Of course, because Spanish is based on Latin just like French and the biggest contribution to English vocabulary is actually French, even though the grammar is closer to German, as would be expected in a Germanic language.
Great video but, i want to sugest if you can, speak about the Guadañas or Scizes, i heard they used in batle, the farmer tool like dangerous weapon in close combat, even other contries like Frech, Germany have musseums where they have this weapons, if you cant i understood, this days only a few know how to used and a few know how to used in combat, only some other marcial arts like ninjutsu know how to used like the kabas, in the day used to take vegetables but in the nigth to take soul, have a good day mister big master swordman.
Great vid. To what extent do you feel the position of the bottom of the breastplate transferred weight off the shoulders and on to the hips? Having never worn armor, I can't judge for myself, but I've read sources on both Western and Oriental armors that indicate that taking the weight off the shoulders was critical to preventing fatigue caused by the armor's full weight on the shoulders.
Well... The etymology of the name can be simply an interpretation and not necessarily a description, The leather is a hard thigh that protects animals, so, something hard you use for protection, can be named after that other hard thing. In Spanish, "corasa" (Armor, shield) come from "Cuero" (leather), not for being made of leather but because work like leather. Sorry for my English, is not that good.
Was the fauld ever (in its time of use) compared visually to a skirt? And did the fashion of the day have an effect on when their decline in use?
9 лет назад
Ok as a french speaking person your etymology made me tic : indeed, we often use the word "cuir" for "a hardened skin over the skin" or "a better layer of protection". So I checked the etymology and "cuir" comes from "Corium" meaning "Leather (of animals)","Robe", "Fur". But it was also used in a familar manner to say "skin" of a man. And it was also used to say "bark" of a tree. It was used to represent something that protects an objects or an individual. I am not sure at all that the word "cuir" was used in the sense "leather" when referenced in "cuirasse". It can means "leather" but it can means "second skin" or "hardened protection over the skin". Not to say that leather armours didn't exist, but I thing that your etymology is not sure. I would recommand you check with an armour historian speaking fluently french and having studied medieval and classical latin extensively. Oh, and congratulations for your pronounciations. By the way, in "Cuir bouilli", the "ou" sound is more like the "u" in "und" in German.
Do you have/know of a video that goes through the sort of timeline of armour? If not is it something you have considered doing? I saw a project by a photographer that traced the kit of english soldiers from I think the 1100s to relatively recently, but it would be interesting to have an accompanying historical context monologue for the changes.
Actually boiling it is I fact very possible. I can speak for history but I recently wanted to harden some leather and found a source that said to literally boil the leather and it came out much harder and tougher than it was originally.
I had always thought hard leather was literally boiled, then when wet moulded to a shape, & when it dried it was hard as you describe. Is that not the case? You mention the friend who achieved the effect by soaking then baking the armour at low temperature. That would seem to be a significantly more complicated method. I wish I had some raw hides here so I could try it out! Maybe I'll get the chance in a few weeks.
i see on internet someone made a leather armor recording on some archeologyical find and what he did is put some kind of paint on the leather and the result is something very hard
A question of use: I wear lamellar on my chest in the SCA. For the last 6 years I've refered to the breast & back of my kit as a cuirass. Is this use out of line do you think?
Modern soldiers don't wear flack jackets they wear bullet proof vests. flack jackets where only ever used to stop flak or frag and where almost usless at stopping bullets.
scholagladiatoria You pronounced "cuirasse" as well as you could for a british tongue, but "cuir bouilli" sounds more like "ku-ir boo-yee". In french, "cuirasse" may as well refere to breast and backplate + skirt, than to breatsplate and backplate, and even breastplate alone. Of course, that where the word "cuirassier", the heavy cavalry type of unit, comes from.
Prarp Vadanathorn scholagladiatoria The R is actually quite good. The C to the U sound at the start is what needs the most work. Too high leading into the U making it sound almost like _coo-ee_-rasse. It has to be lower and you have to waste more air to make the U sound more drafty/windy/blown. I'm not a linguist so I can't exactly guide you all the way through but the position of the tongue and where the blowing sounds are different between French and English pronunciation. French is usually higher and toward the palate while English is much more throaty.
scholagladiatoria Ive got a question that arose from a debate I had over the internet relating to armor in video games. Was any kind of plate armor worn directly on skin without a lining or covering? Also, which would be hotter to wear, many layers of cloth and leather or steel plate armor with just a shirt underneath (or whatever would have been historically been most common to have underneath)? My friend was arguing that since metal conducts heat away from the body you wouldn't build up as much heat wearing metal as you would with layers of fabric, but I'm guessing that the extra weight of the metal would cause you to use more energy to move making you produce more heat, plus a breastplate or other kinds of plate armor probably dont "breath" like fabric and leather do. Since you've actually worn different kinds of historical armors you could tell me from experience which is hotter to wear. Thanks!
+scholagladiatoria It seems to me that from the pieces of armour he has showcased so far that what you habe was a late 14th century/early 15th century suit of plate armor made specifically for foot combat. Am I correct?
Am I misunderstanding this or does it appear to be very similar in usage as a gambeson? Both were worn under chain and plate to lessen force to absorb damage. Of course my chronology may be WAY off (wrong time period).
That's one segment longer than what im used to in an english skirt... i think it has the same number of segments, but each is longer, so it just looks if you took one of it'd look "right" to me. It almost looks like bronze age charioteer armor
it is interesting where does the name come from...in Bohemia Cuirass changed to Krunýř witch is translated as shell (like tortoise shell) which is something like her protective skin aka leather thing... perhaps its similiar for france?
Has the backplate been there from the start? In the end the backplate got dropped. The famous cuirassiers (I think that's where most people encounter the term first) only had a breastplate (with the original 'bullet proof', i.e. a dent from a pistol shot used to test the quality of the work). Is it known, whether cuirasses were originally for infantry or cavalry or did appear fro both at about the same time? It's also interesting that in French cuirasse became synonymous for armor, so that armored ships also adopted the term. In German the term for all kinds of armor (Panzer) seems to have been derived from Pansen (belly). So, did we have an age of the leatherclads (given that the French built the first modern armored ships) and were German knights protected by their potbellies? ;-)
Segalmed We don't know much detail about the earliest types of coat-of-plates and breastplate, but the types wer do know about basically protect the front and sides primarily, usually..
If the fold is in the english style, shouldn't it be made in reverse to the one presented ? So that the fold openings face downward ? I'd say its more protective that way as most attacks would just slide down instead of getting purchase between the folds.
John Van Honkerton The sound effects came as a result of comment drama over the silent intro, and being unable to find an appropriate musical clip (avoiding inauthentic new-age keyboard/drums is a must), but music from the times he comments on - classical, folk - is hard to find freely, and even harder to cut down to five seconds!.
***** I don't need validation for my opinions, they're already valid though quite insignificant if I'm the only one having it. The strawpoll would show what people think about the intro and if 90% of people say they get shivers from scraping metal, maybe something should be done to the intro sound. I know I'm personally sensitive to sounds from scratching chalkboard to scratching metal pan with a fork which is why I'm not demanding anything as if I was entitled to do so. I was only asking for a strawpoll about it and Matt can decide what to do with the infromation given whatever he wishes to.
Do you think the development of the medieval cuirass was influenced by the bronze cuirass worn by some hoplites in Ancient Greece, or had knowledge of this type of armor been completely lost?
Maybe it was also that coat of plates were made with leather. Same with the hard leather "cuirasse" you talk about, you could rivet some metal plates to it to make a coat of plates. Then with progress in metallurgy, one piece metal breastplates appeared :)
JuliusAkavirius Romans could already produce large plates, but most medieval forges could not (even helmets were riveted of 4-8 plates!). Scale armor could be produced since antiquity, but did not appear to be ever popular in western Europe until the brigandine was introduced. It is plausible that scales of leather were used as well, since it is easier to make them (size of starting meterial, problem of deformation during shrinking...) and maintain them.
edi Mail is equal or superior to scale and lamellar in many aspects (not all though). Mail was common from the iron age in western europe as the main armor type. Mail contrary to popular belief is very easy to produce compared to plate since you only need to make wire and not forge metal plates.
edi Thing is that the LS wasn't really used often and aslo wasn't that effectic compared to mail.And early medieval forges could produce plates as good as roman ones(hint:They dind't have better forges.). "but did not appear to be ever popular in western Europe until the brigandine was introduced." It was used in europe it just never got very common.And if you can produce sword and axe blades you can produce small plates.
Letum Mors I did not want to imply that no forge could make it, but most could not. Just look at early medieval helmets and compare them to later ones (which are made out of one piece).
I've been finding the question of leather armour pretty problematic. From what I remember, you made a video in the past which basically said that leather armour almost never existed outisde of fantasy which mostly seems correct. But, as a student of medieval Welsh history, I've noticed that there are sources which refer to the Welsh wearing "leather corselets" without any significant surprise/ indication that this was unheard of. These sources date from the 12th C at the earliest so probably before the time of the cuirass described here. Also, these aren't meant to be knightly armour to be worn with mail but common wargear among all types of Welsh warriors. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Dewi Bevan Interesting - the original language would be vital in investigating this - modern translations are often very misleading. There are mentions of 'hardened' leather breast defences being worn over mail, but 12th century seems quite early to me (though there are period references to Richard I wearing an iron 'breastplate' over his mail at the end of the 12thC.
scholagladiatoria It's not impossible that a translation error is responsible as I read one translation that just translated it as "haubergeon" but it's translated far more often as leather and has been discussed at length by historians who are meant to be experts. That said, I've found leading historians to be dead wrong or just repeating inaccurate stuff without checking surprisingly often. Hopefully if I read the original latin sometime (the main source is Gerald of Wales', Description of Wales) I can get to the bottom of this. Did the Romans ever use leather cuirass type things or not? That's another thing I've heard said a lot but can't find much evidence for.
Dewi Bevan I don't know a lot about Roman armour, but I believe that they did have some types of hardened leather armour (maybe only decorative officer's armour though?)... but I'm not sure.
Dewi Bevan It could have been rawhide (untanned hides) an not strictly leather. Rawhide is known to be used as armour, but I can only recall it being used in the form of lamellar.
Tananjoh Rawhide definitely can't be ruled out. However, it may be significant that at a different point in the same source the author mentions the Welsh wearing shoes "roughly constructed with untanned leather." On the one hand it shows they were familiar with rawhide but one might also expect the author to stress how rough and untanned the "leather corseletes" were, which he does not.
Nice ! THanks for showing. Nice waisted cuirass you have there. Thanks for showing :) The thing with visby is, that most CoPs there seem to be outdated. I am no expert on this, but the lack of waist of these ton-formed CoPs (absolutely demodé in 1361) indicate, that those are old CoPs stored in a armoury. They seem more like 1330-armour at the latest going by the mass of other evidence in mid and northern europe. Gotta get thordemans work on this. Doesnt come the word cuirass form the italian corazzina ? Your cuirass looks very 1415ish, will you be in Azincourt ? :D
Blank- blade Yes all my armour is based around the Agincourt period (and coincides with Fiore dei Liberi's treatise) - I won't be at the event sadly. Yes the Wisby coats of plates were probably all quite old-fashioned by 1361, but that makes sense on a number of levels - firstly the people of Wisby were not very wealthy, secondly this armour was the stuff that got thrown away with the dead, and lastly it was probably always common in medieval warfare to see arms and armour from a generation earlier still in use.
Blank- blade The word comes from latin (coriacea/coracea), so it sounds pretty similar in all neolatin languages, but it's much more probable that "cuirass" was incorporated from french than from italian. Also, in italian it's "corazza", not "corazzina". I'm italian, but I actually just checked in an etymological dictionary to be sure it wasn't an historical term =D
In the early age of gunpowder, you could get bulletproof armour, meaning that it had been tested by firing a bullet at it, leaving a mark but not penetrated. So no, armour didn't disappear that quickly. What you did see was that armour covered less snd less of the body, e.g. Leaving the lower legs or the arms exposed to allow easier movement. But plate armour was still pretty mainstream well into the 17th century, only starting to disappear when muskets became more effective. It still appeared in specialised roles, like heavy cavalry (called cuirassiers) as late as the Napoleonic period.
is it just me or are there literally no good reconstructions of cuir bouilli? if you google it in images, the most realistic thing you can find is from a video game. are there any modern armor smiths who can make effective leather armor?
Rikka Takanashi Easton said the same thing in some other video; one of his millions. no one really knows how it was made, there seems to be someone who might have gotten close, but there appear to be many who claim this and aren't.
+It's Just Milk I Swear There are no armor smiths from any time period that make leather armor. A smith is a craftsman who works in and is very skilled and knowledgeable in a particular METAL, making leather armor is a completely un-related process even though the goal is the same. In other words your looking in the wrong place, you should be looking for leather-workers (the people who would make saddles, belts, water-skins... etc. ) not smiths. ( granted it is possible for someone to spend decades of their life becoming a skilled smith and then spend decades of their life becoming a skilled leather-worker, or vice-vera, but they would not be as skilled as a person who had dedicated their talents and time to just one)
IDK how accurate it is, but I always think of saddle leather when I think of cuir bouilli. Modern leather is treated in many different ways... I wouldn't be surprised if some leather workers somewhere still made the old school stuff, especially in some remote corners of the world.
The problem with the French word Cuirasse is that its used for all sorts of things,Cuirassier is the Napoleonic cavalry but Cuirassé is a battleship for some obscure reason.
Zombigotron Except of course French has lots of other words for armoured, and if you wanted to say something was armoured you'd never use cuirassé. Plus every large combat ship was armoured.
LtKharn For cavalry, the connection was simple: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuirassier For war ships, I suspect they were inspired by the historical prestige of the cuirassé and the cuirassiers. Also, note that when armoured war ships like the ironclad and the armoured cruiser were introduced, people generally stopped wearing armour, with the exception of heavy cavalry like the cuirassiers, so maybe they made a connection between the two? Given that France was a cultural superpower at this time, it even affected other countries - in mine (Romania) even today we use the word "cuirasat" for battleships, even though French navy was considerably inferior to the British one... Simply put, saying something like "armuré" just doesn't have the prestige and cultural impact that "cuirassé" would have...
Matt,what's the possibility of a gamison jerkins under this "boiled leather".A surface to block a cut over a surface to absorb the blow of a blade,ax,or lance...Kind of far fetch,but still,an idea from a slightly drunk Yank lol.
Would a hardened leather cuirass be a reasonable piece of armor to wear while traveling? Would it be odd to see someone wearing one in a town or city in the medieval period?
+Level 58 Death Knight well, as far as i know, the leather used for those was thicker than that of a plate armor, so the cuirass would essentially be nearly as heavy from a weight perspective, so it wouldnt really be that reasonable, i mean, those thongs are fairly heavy, what makes them uncomfortable
+Level 58 Death Knight it doesnt get as hot, but i dont know how well boiled leather holds up against rain, because normal leather doesnt do to well in my experience.
Wait.....so padded mail is superior to leather in every way......but they wore leather on top? I don't buy it. "leather thing" doesn't mean it was tanned leather or leather alone. My guess is layered raw hide, or leather lamellar of some kind. That would provide the best piercing and impact protection as well as a logical transition to a coat of plates or solid cuirass. Tanned leather on top would technically be better than just padded mail.........but it doesn't really address any of the shortcomings of mail since leather isn't very good at resisting piercing or impact damage either.
Great video ! By the way, your french pronounciation is not so bad in comparison with lots of english speaker! It is very hard for you british to do our " R " and our " ou ", as it is very difficult for us to do your " th " and other sounds
