Leather Armor and how to make it work in fiction

[Saint of M]

This is not a discussion on if it existed. It did. To the degree it was used can be debated, but it has happened.
This is one on how to make it work in fiction, and since its going to be a thing despite how many of us wannabe historians and actual historians might cring, its still going to be a thing in fiction for decades to come. So how to make it believable, if not realistic; after all, its fiction. You know the writers are lying to your face, its a work of fiction. You just have to add a few truths here and there to stave off the the part of the mind that goes: Hold on a minute! So get your ideas on the table and lets see what we come up with.

My take: There are a few things we need to solve, to make this work-ish.

First problem to solve is production: What is it made of. LEather, of course, but what animals. The problem here will be quantity and quality of leather as most animals won't make for good armor, while others might. Regardless, this is alot of time and energy needed and a grand investment as you have to raise the animal to the point it can go to market, or track it down and hunt it. If its below a certain age, probably not going to be the best quality you can get for your armor.

Here are some examples.

Cattle: Usually an adult domestic cow of some sort, this is one of the more common ones out there and is noted for being very strong and durable. Due to these qualities it gets a lot of mileage out of what can be made out of it. Those made from the younger calffs are usually for more high end designer bags due to being finer but not stronger than an adult cow. Both can be used for the shell (outer) component of handbags and clothing. I think most saddles are made of this as well.

Buffalo is tougher, perfect for a good pair of workman gloves.

Goat: Probably not going to be used for defence. While great for clothing and bags, its pretty thin.

Lamb: Softest and most elastic. Often form fitting, comfortable against skin, and can be reshaped after wearing. Good for clothing and gear, maybe not armor.

Deer: Soft and strong, flexible, washable, reslitiant, perfect for high use items like boots, gloves, and so on. Probably not the best for taking up arrows. Elf, is heavier and thicker, but I doubt it could muster much defence. Mose has been used by some First Nation Peoples when they were dealing with other pregun foes, so it might work.

Pigskin: What American Footballs used to be made of. Soft, thin, durable, and tough; most commonly found in suad now a days. Not sure if wild boar is any different but doubt it.

Crocodile/Alligator: Depends on what area you get it off of. The belly and inner leg areas are most often used in clothing and accessories as they are softer and more flexible, but give crocodile time to age and you can have tough back scales. There are even rumors of crocks that have survived bullets, like Africa's infamous Gustav, but most of them probably can't take the lead. Maybe arrows or bolts froma distance, but not sure. Either way, the harder back scales is probably what you want.

Kangaroo: Perks of working in the arts and crafts area of a Boy Scout summer camp. We did the leatherwork merit badge. Anyways, its from here I learned Kangaroo is often used as shin guards for football/soccer. Having taken hits from there from a soccer ball, that has to be a good guard.

Stingray: More durable by a long shot than cow hide, it was used for the handles of Katanas back in the day. Now mostly bags, wallets, and belts and the like.

Second issiue, in what form. I think there are a few we can pick from .
a.) A coat made of scales that can be replaced as the get damaged. I learned of this one from National Geographic's: Tut's Treasures-Hidden Secrets. They were tightly laced together, almost giving it a dragonhide look.

b. Some bracers and shin guards, say for archers.

3. A combination of it with metal, being used in areas to have some protection but still allowing the rest of the armor to have maneuverability. After all if you can't move fast enough than your foe can find a spot to stab you, you won't last long. Shin guards, keep that from getting damaged. Arm guards, well, a bow string going against your arm hurts alot...alot alot....alot alot alot alot.

Final issue, who would wear it. I can see town guards, maybe some higher ups in villages using it. More hunter gathers might have something similar. Most would probably be more mercinarial types that couldn't afford metal armor yet, or used in the combination fashion. Gambeson, padded or quilted armor, works pretty well, and can be used by most of the lower ranking troops. Maybe lower ranking commanders or soldiers that have proved themselves so are given something to add a little more protection might be in order.

That's all I can think of. What about the rest of you?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Don't forget sticking a leather layer on your wooden shield.

Also, don't forget just wearing leather clothes, not a great form of armour but it'd help against someone hitting you with a stick. A bit.

 

[Agema]

snip

There are basically two things you'd need to consider:
a) Usefulness (protection)
b) Cost

If it's too thin or weak, it's not much use. After that, it has to be available and affordable in sufficient quantities to meet need. So for your average grunt, a cow (or equivalent) is perfect: good leather and there are zillions of them easily available due to farming. If you have to hunt something, that's much more labour intensive. A noble could use leather from something extremely rare - thus expensive. These factors probably also favour large animals. Firstly, likelihood of thicker skin, secondly that stitching together 100 lemming-skins to make a cuirass is likely to involve time, expense, inherent structural weakness and increased maintenance. Much leather armour is probably rendered pointless because cheaper padded fabric armours (such as in a gambeson) are basically as good.

Boiled leather is substantially harder, but still way short of metal for resisting piercing and cutting. Obviously, it has the advantage of being lighter and allowing freer movement. But the lack of widespread adoption of leather armour - at least for the body - probably tells us it was a relatively unsatisfactory middle ground. I suspect leather was far more likely for things like vambraces, helmets and greaves (possibly reinforced with metal plates / strips). Also shields.

a.) A coat made of scales that can be replaced as the get damaged

I am deeply unconvinced. Scale or lamellar armour was a thing, and with metal plates could be highly effective. But it is relatively difficult and costly to make and maintain, and I cannot for the life of me see why leather would be a good idea for the scales / plates given its weakness and the ease of making quite large areas. Unless you're writing a fantasy novel, and you have some fantasy beast with super-hardened skin.

Final issue, who would wear it. I can see town guards, maybe some higher ups in villages using it.

Firstly, again, we consider whether boiled leather or normal. I think proper boiled leather is probably going to be quite specialist and costly, and probably used by people at the affluent end. Normal leather, it is dubious whether it has any much advatage over cheaper fabrics as armour. I suspect people had bits of leather clothing, or archers may have strips to protect their arms from bowstrings more from personal/societal choice and circumstance. I doubt it was much used as official kit, for those armies that had them back in the day.

 

[Palindromemordnilap]

I mean surely in fiction you can make it work however you like as long as it fits in the rules of your established world? If there's magic floating around then maybe its enchanted leather because organic materials hold magic better than metals or whatever

You also might want to consider what you're adding to your leather btw. You could have leather as a base but still add, say, a chestplate and some pauldrons to it for a bit of added protection where it counts

 

[deleted20220709]

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[TheMysteriousGX]

Well, heavy leather works reasonably well as protection against scraps, racks/gravel, and if thick enough, accidental/blunted blade hits, as well as being fairly weather resistant. There's a reason motorcycle protective gear, trench coats, and craft gloves are made out of it.

Buff coats were actually fairly popular, resistant to slashes and some blunt damage, though if you were expecting to take a hit, hopefully you had some metal to wear over it. It was typically made from buffalo or ox hide.

Buff coat - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That said, if you're equipping an entire fighting force made up of the common man in Europe, you'd go with some style of quilted or glued cloth armor. Relatively cheap, surprisingly effective, and doesn't require ranching.

East of Europe, scale and lamellar armor were both popular, and used either metal or boiled leather scales.

At the end of the day it comes down to what materials are around and what weapons they have to protect from. Leather doesn't tend to do a whole lot against, like, spears, but it's pretty good against a slashing sword.

 

[09philj]

Buff coats were actually fairly popular, resistant to slashes and some blunt damage, though if you were expecting to take a hit, hopefully you had some metal to wear over it. It was typically made from buffalo or ox hide.

Buff coat - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Buff coats were particularly popular with light cavalry of the first half of the 17th century. Firearms made most heavy armour poor value for money, so the typical cavalryman would wear a cuirass and pot helmet with a buff coat underneath to protect his arms and legs from small cuts and scrapes, which were an occupational hazard when charging round a battlefield, and could prove fatal in the bad old days before antiseptic and antibiotics. Contemporary pike infantry also used cuirasses and pot helmets but generally didn't use the buff coat. Musketeers rarely went armoured at all.

 

[Agema]

East of Europe, scale and lamellar armor were both popular, and used either metal or boiled leather scales.

I think leather scale or lamellar barely exists in historical record, and where it does more in primitive civilisations.

It's not very practical. Scale / lamellar requires small plates sewn together, with the key point being that those plates should be hard to get the best out of them. But even the toughest leather is relatively soft and weak, and such armour will both provide modest protection and disintegrate rapidly when taking blows. It would be cheaper, easier and more protective to use much larger plates if using leather. I cannot help but wonder if even the limited leather scale / lamellar armour found may have been more decorative than functional: something for nobles to look good in on parades (to save themselves the weight and discomfort of metal armour) rather than in actual combat.

Buff coats were actually fairly popular, resistant to slashes and some blunt damage, though if you were expecting to take a hit, hopefully you had some metal to wear over it. It was typically made from buffalo or ox hide.

As I'm aware, the buff coat was not so much used as armour (although it could resist light, glancing cuts), but as padding for metal armour and protection from the weather as it was water resistant.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I think leather scale or lamellar barely exists in historical record, and where it does more in primitive civilisations.

I mean, there's museums of the stuff in Japan. Granted, iron scale was more effective than boiled leather, but you work with what you have

 

[Agema]

I mean, there's museums of the stuff in Japan. Granted, iron scale was more effective than boiled leather, but you work with what you have

Okay, granted, but two things:

1) I think metal was supposed to be used: where there's leather, it's usually in less critical areas to reduce weight and/or save money.
2) Japan was a primitive society, in ways - it was so insular it had relatively little exposure to the rest of the world, and its military technologies were therefore in ways limited and dictated heavily by tradition.

Japanese armour was pretty rubbish compared to contemporary medieval European standards: a suit of full plate not also offered considerably better protection than samurai armour, but was also lighter (15-20kg compared to up to 30kg).

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Okay, granted, but two things:

1) I think metal was supposed to be used: where there's leather, it's usually in less critical areas to reduce weight and/or save money.
2) Japan was a primitive society, in ways - it was so insular it had relatively little exposure to the rest of the world, and its military technologies were therefore in ways limited and dictated heavily by tradition.

Japanese armour was pretty rubbish compared to contemporary medieval European standards: a suit of full plate not also offered considerably better protection than samurai armour, but was also lighter (15-20kg compared to up to 30kg).

Never said it wasn't, just said it was prevalent. It was reasonably effective against the weapons and tactics it faced, and as soon as it wasn't they stopped using it, just like any armor.

Which is probably why we don't see a lot of proper Leather Armor in general: it's not much for effective, if at all, than quilted or glued cloth armor, and its worse than almost any sort of metal. It's only real use is either edge case, as backing for other armor, or specifically regional.

 

[Agema]

Which is probably why we don't see a lot of proper Leather Armor in general: it's not much for effective, if at all, than quilted or glued cloth armor, and its worse than almost any sort of metal. It's only real use is either edge case, as backing for other armor, or specifically regional.

I think we're all agreed then: leather armour sucks.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Leather armor in fantasy is generally depicted as a kind of light armor. It's the armor you wear when you can't afford better armor, or when you need full freedom of movement.

But this isn't how leather armor was used, and doesn't really play into its strengths at all. A far better option in that role is the gambeson (or buff jacket/buff coat/whatever). Gambesons are ubiquitous in historical medieval warfare, and yet weirdly absent from fantasy, probably because they look kinda goofy. But they basically meet all the criteria you would need for light armor. They give you lots of padding and some resistance to blades and arrows (surprising resistance, actually) while still giving you full range of motion. Plus, they're fairly easy to make using plentiful resources, and thus cheap.

But here we get to the other big thing about historical armour which is seldom shown in fantasy. Historical armour is all about layers. It's not a case of either wearing a gambeson or chainmail, you'll wear your chainmail over your gambeson. Where leather armor comes in is that you can boil leather to make it rigid, then wear your solid leather plates on top of your gambeson/chainmail/whatever you can afford. It's not going to be your light armor for sneaky rogues, but it's a way of adding more layers to your armor without adding much additional weight or cost.

So who would wear it? Foot infantry, who want as much protection as possible but want to be able to run around without getting exhausted from the weight of metal plate armour. People from cultures which don't have the technology or skill to work metal plate, but still want a rigid outer layer. If you're in a fantasy setting where people have limits on using metal armor, like druids or wizards, leather plates would also be an option for them.

However, there's always going to be that issue of do you wear leather armor or do you just wear a thicker gambeson? Again, this is the main issue with any kind of leather armor. The gambeson is so good at what it does that it's kind of redundant to use anything else.

 

[deleted20220709]

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[Secondhand Revenant]

Elf, is heavier and thicker, but I doubt it could muster much defence

O_O

Elf leather armor... Maybe for an evil character