Home page

A boy's padded jack

August 2005

My son is a cross-bowman and this year, he wanted to be active in a siege reenactment at a major event that we attended. Special arrows had been ordered for that event but comming in at 80km/hr, they can still do lots of damage. Anyhow, with the horses and blunt weapons all over the place, I still would have wanted my boy to have full protection, arrows or no arrows.

I've already invested $1000.00 this year just for his German salad (helmet) and cross-bow reproduction so I couldn't afford a breast-plate as well, especialy knowing that it most probably won't fit him by next year :)

So I decided to go with the next best thing ; A padded garment communly known in modern days as a Jack. I would have liked to make it 100% accurate but again, knowing that it won't fit him in just a few months, being short on time and being so majorly costly, I decided to make it only accurate to the eye.

So we are reenacting a siege around 1471 under Charles the bold, Duc of Burgundy. The best sources that we have for this type of construction would be a citation in the ordinance of Louis XI of France, paintings by Memling and illusrations in René of Anjou's "Livre des tournois". As stated in the ordinances, a jack would be padded with multiple layers of linen canevas or skins ;

"And first they must have for the said jacks, thirty or at least twenty-five, folds of cloth, and a stag's skin being the best cloth that has been worn and rendered flexible, is best for this purpose, and these jacks should be made in four quarters. The sleeves should be as strond as the body, with the exception of the leather, and the arm-hole (assiette) of the sleeve must be large, which arm-hole should be place near the shoulder, that it may be broad under the arm-pit and full under the arm, sufficiently ample and large on the sides below. The collar should be like the rest of the jack, but not made too high behine, to allow room for the salade. This jack should be lace in front, and under the opening must be a hanging piece (porte piece)of the same strength as the jack itself. Thus the jack will be secure and easy, provided there be a pourpoint without sleeves or collar of two folds of cloth, that shall be only four fingers broad on the shoulder; to which pourpoint shall be attached the hose. Thus shall the wearer float, as it were, within his jack, and be at his ease; for never have been seen half-a-dozen men killed by stabs or arrow wounds in such jacks, particularly if they be troops accustomed to fighting."

Not wanting to invest *too much* and still wanting the protection to be effective, I decided to go with tefflon padding and leather left-overs as interlining. Tefflon is sturdy *and* fire-proof. I've made a few tests by punching into the many layers and by slashing it with knifes and swords and it appears to be working pretty well. So I went for it. Even a big knife slash only manages to cut through the first of many layers. The arrows that we were using, even at a close range, would simply bounce back. In other words, Perfect ! :)

So I used 2 layers of thick double-tefflon coated padding (4 coats of tefflon for two layers of padding) generally used to pad iron-boards, with a layer of leather inbetween covered inside and out with a heavy and sturdy linen canevas. I based my construction on items #3, #12 and sleeves #8 & e of "The company of Saynt-George'Dragon #3" that can be downloaded on this page ;

http://www.companie-of-st-george.ch/dragons_1.phtml

The quilting for this garment was made by machine and all main seams were closed by hand.
Here are fitting pictures of the bodice ;

Here's a picture of the unfinished sleeves. Note that the sleeves have only one layer of tefflon padding (2 coats of tefflon on each sides of the padding) and no leather interlining. Also note that I didn't make them mahoïtered (ball-cap-sleeve) like the image seen at the top of the page as they are meant to fit *over* a pair of *already* mahoïtered and padded doublet-sleeves. I also decided to make the sleeves detachable for practical reasons and I'm very glad that I did.

Here are pictures of the finished product. It closes in the front with hidden hooks ;

And here are pictures of it being worn without the sleeves. You can also note that an additional quilted waistseam has been added for a better fit since my son had grown over 2 inches between the time I've drafted the pattern and the actual event less than 3 months later ;

Both the armcye and the sleeves are finished with a narrow linen band, cut on the bias and finished by hand. The sleeves are then spiral-laced to the bodice with leather strips passing through simple holes.