[Ansteorra] Punch tests

[Chris Zakes]

At 03:41 PM 11/11/2009, you wrote:

>one of the things that I persomally would like to see taken into 
>consideration with testing ,is that more often then not I have found 
>with experience with lots of different fabrics is wear.  A 
>swatch  carried around in the bag and washed withe the armor , not 
>worn has different wearing out properties. Sweat and dirt , 
>stretching and movment , even just the way a baldric rubs on the 
>chest or back of the garment will wear diff then just a swatch carried around.


My rapier armor is a doublet of three layers of Trigger fabric over a 
shirt of one layer of Trigger (there's a long story about why I don't 
use linen.) I normally have two separate shirts for fighting, so I 
can put on a clean one for Sunday.

Anyway... What *I* do is make a "test peplin"--the center back peplin 
on my doublet is three layers of the doublet fabric, plus a layer of 
the shirt fabric--so it exactly matches what I wear, and gets the 
same sweat, sun exposure, and other abuse that the doublet does. If 
anyone wants to test my armor, that's where to test it.

All this being said, within the past few years I've tested some of my 
Trigger armor that's 15 or 20 years old (retired because the trim was 
looking scruffy) and it still passed.

         -Tivar Moondragon