AKICOLJ - thread!

[desperance]

Okay, folks: someone out there knows this. You're in feudal imperial China: what is the toughest thread available to you, for sewing scales onto a leather armour? Is it silk, or linen, or gut? Or something else?

Comments

[affreca.livejournal.com]

After watching a friend try to sew with linen thread last weekend, I'm going to say that linen is definitely the weakest.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

I have a few spools of handmade linen thread (picked, beaten, retted, scutched and heckled by my dad, spun by my grandmother) and would agree. Except that when plied together, the somewhat 'hairy' nature of the linen makes the resulting thread very strong, since there's no slippage between the plies.

Still, it's not as strong as silk, which has less tensile strength than gut (although that depends on the animal). However, gut has a tendency to soften when wet, and since there'd always be some movement among the scales, waxing would soon wear off. On the other hand, silk tends to stretch somewhat when wet, so you'd have the same problem there.

FWIW, the Samurai armour had the plates held with silk thread.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

With scale armor, one can sew the scales such that a little stretch in the thread would not be a problem. Working with a known amount of stretch means you can overlap the scales to compensate.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Per the Osprey book on Late Imperial Chinese Armies (1520-1840), brigandine--iron plates sewn inside of or onto fabric.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Part of the strength of thread is how it is spun. If one had indefinite suply of slaves to work fine threads into stronger ones using macramee techniques, it would be possible to have incredibly strong, very fine threads.

Linnen thread can be made stronger by rubbing it with wax and pitch. The waxing appears to be reasonably common; the pitch I have only found in Germany; but that's the way I've learnt to sow leather, and there can be a lot of stress held up by very little thread.

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Pitch was also traditionally used in Sweden, and that's how my grandfather taught me.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Whichever of the above, plus magic?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Waxed silk, I would think.

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

Oh man. You mean they didn't sew that armor together using thread spun from the hair of the family's virgin daughters?

*is disillusioned*