Scale Armor

Scale armor is another very early armor, possibly one of the earliest armors made of metal. Although one of the earliest metal armors it was also made from other materials. Some common materials for scale include; leather, bronze, copper, iron, reptile scales, and lacquered leather.

Although it can be made with a number of hole arrangements, all scale is fairly basic. An olden day craftsman tasked with making some scale armor would need several things. First, some type of backing for the base of the armor. Leather and cloth were popular ones in ancient times. Next he would need an iron will to fashion hundreds, if not thousands of tiny scales out of leather, metal, or whatever material suited his customer's fancy. If the craftsman survived the arduous task of creating the scales he would need some type of material to fasten the scales to the backing. Rawhide, silk, rivets, and metal staples are some common fasteners for the armor. So if the poor craftsman survived the process he would have produced a wonderful piece of armor, ready for an able-bodied soldier to protect himself with. In the ancient days, his joy of completion wouldn't have lasted long as I'm sure his next order would be ready to start as soon he finished.

Overall scale was very good protection. It was stronger than the previous armors of the time, mostly leathers and possibly some minor cloth protection and still afforded good maneuverability for soldiers. The scales overlapped about halfway to allow for even greater protection. Eventually the armor smiths would discover that if they made a slight depression in each scale to make a bowl shape it would give even greater protection. Other than that small modification, scale stayed relatively unchanged for 2,000 years until recent times.

The last major development is a type of armor called Dragon Skin armor. The vest is made by Pinnacle Armor and is very similar to ancient scale armors. The vest is made out of many overlapping silver dollar-sized plates made out of ceramic plates. Because the armor is manufactured like scale, it is far more flexible than equal level protection bullet proof vests. The armor can allegedly sustain more hits from bigger weapons too. Maybe other types of ancient armor can benefit from being upgraded with modern day materials and creation techniques. Who knows what the future could bring.

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