[Artemisia] help - AS IN GAMBESON

[ravenmacleod at comcast.net]

Period examples of Gambesons are really neat actually.

There are combinations of linen or cotton. There were actual laws regarding how a gambeson (or padded jack or akiton) were created. I'm not sure but it was somewhere between 7 and 15 layers of Linen, the linen was rotated as it was layered not unlike how kevlar is made. Often layers of pitch were put between the layers of linen.

For many the akiton of Gambison was the only form of armor so it had to be pretty stout stuff. It seems to me though that after a while it became stylish to look as though all you needed was the gambeson or "lintner" so people wore little armor (like a brestplate) or wore their armor under their fancy gambesons. Weather form followed function of function followed for is another question entirely. 

--
Raven MacLeod 
Esquire 

En fides abunde virtus, en virtus abunde fides. 

If people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all. --Michelangelo 


-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "L.J. Richards" <richardslj at bresnan.net> 

> On another note, am curious -- 
> 
> is it period to use cotton canvas or a very heavily woven linen or ?? 
> Cotton or wool batting? 
> A particular quilting design stitch? 
> Any surviving pieces to telll us? 
> 
> HE Bronwen (who doesn't want to make one but is curious ONLY!) (ha) 
> 
> 
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