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Old January 20th, 2005, 08:35 PM
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Tuidjy Tuidjy is offline
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Default Re: Ring mail hauberk vs. scale mail cuirass?

In the SoCA group I hang out with, we use 'hauberk' for any flexible sleeveless
armour, and 'cuirass' for stiff armours which cover either the chest, or the
chest and the back.

I should add that 'ringmail', at least in the sense we use it, is not
chainmail. It is made by sewing, or somehow attaching, relatively big metal
rings on some base (usually soft leather). Chainmail is made by combining
smaller rings, which end up holding onto each other.

As for cuirasses, we make them from stiff materials - metal, boiled leather,
or, sacrilegious as it may be, pLastic. Attaching scales on top of that would
be pointless.

As far as I am concerned, a 'scale hauberk' would be a sleeveless, soft leather
shirt with sewed-on scales. A scale cuirace would be the single scale of a large
reptile fitted with straps, so that it can be used as a breastplate.
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