I was looking over your forums and it seems you have a variety of people who are well versed in historical armors and its craft. I’m doing some personal research and was hoping to get some information from people who truly have had “hands on” experience. After reading several forum entries I thought it best to make my own post and see what kind of response I might get.

Seeing as I do not own any armor or have access to any, it would be a great help to be able to ask those of you that do and get your expertise. I don’t imagine this will take much time, perhaps only a minute or two and I thank anyone in advance for your contributions. Also please excuse my lack of knowledge and or terminology; I’m very new to this.

**Assume that all armors consist of a full suit, head to toe coverage or best equivalent there of and were constructed using the most common materials available between 14th-16th century Europe. I also realize that with regards to protection, flexibility and weight, different weapon types of the era will have different effectiveness against various or alternate armors of the period. Im simply interested in a general overall rating based on your experiences and knowledge.

Please rate the following armors using a scale of 1-7, with one being the least and seven being the most.

With regards to...
(P)rotection, (F)lexibility and (W)eight

Leather P(1-7) F(1-7) W(1-7)
Plate
Mail
Padded
Lamellar

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to reply.

www.armourarchive.org

dig around there.

oh and also. I'm fairly sure most people didn't wear full suit of anything, mixing and matching is the key to a balanced budget.

This really is a very complex question. So much depends on the country, time period, and specific economic circumstances of the warriors in question. The Italian condottieri, for example, were probably the best equipped soldiers in Europe, with thousands of fully plate armoured men-at-arms, and many heavy infantry.

When it comes to flexibility, properly tailored mail wins hands down for flexibility, as the 'cuir bouli' (leather) used particularly in the 14th c. in Western Europe is rigid, like plate. Mail does not handle impact well without substantial padding underneath it, and its ballistic resistance is debateable. It does not glance blows like plate. Heavily stacked linen armour is a bit stiff, too; those garments using cotton in a linen shell I don't have personal experience of. Properly made FIELD plate is far more flexible than the popular notion, and really wears more like heavy clothing. It protects joints the best of any armour ever made. It handles blunt trauma the best, too. It will keep you from your business if you are a contortionist, but it will not keep you from doing what you need to do in hand-to-hand combat. The actual resistance to damage of any piece of plate is heavily dependent on its quality, however.