Viking Leather lamellar Armour; lamellar Cuirass; Leather Armor; Viking Armor

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Lamellar armour should not be confused with laminar armour, a related form of plate armour which is made from horizontal overlapping rows or bands of solid armour plates (called lames) rather than scales. By comparison, lamellar armour is made from individual armour scales, which are laced together to form a strip of armour which appears to be solid but is not. Close up view of Japanese (samurai) hon kozane, lamellar armour constructed with small individual scales/lamellae known as kozane. Swope, Kenneth M. (2009), A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592–1598, University of Oklahoma Press

Armour made up of leather, horn or metal segments forming a protective layer was relatively common in the East, especially among the tribes of the steppe. Metal lames were frequently used in the Roman East as they offered the best quality protection, although leather could be hardened by boiling or waxing to provide considerable protection without adding much weight. The Western Xia made modest use of heavy cavalry, of which it had 3,000 at its height. [74] Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234) [ edit ] A brigandine is a form of body armour from the Middle Ages. It is a garment typically made of heavy cloth, canvas, or leather, lined internally with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric, sometimes with a second layer of fabric on the inside. As a result of the Mongol invasions, their lamellar armor became popular in other nations, including China (such as the Yuan Dynasty, 1271–1368) and the Middle East (such as the Ilkhanate, 1256–1335). English literature in the early 19th century mentions Chinese rattan shields that were "almost musket proof", [92] however another English source in the late 19th century states that they did nothing to protect their users during an advance on a Muslim stronghold, in which they were all invariably shot to death. [66]

Leather lamellar armor

During the Song dynasty (960–1279) it became fashionable to create warts on pieces of armour to imitate cold forged steel, a product typically produced by non-Han people in modern Qinghai. Warts created from cold work were actually spots of higher carbon in the original steel, thus aesthetic warts on non-cold forged steel served no purpose. According to Shen Kuo, armour constructed of cold forged steel was impenetrable to arrows shot at a distance of 50 paces. Even if the arrow happened to hit a drill hole, the arrowhead was the one which was ruined. [69] However crossbows were still prized for their ability to penetrate heavy armour. [70]

Chinese armour was predominantly lamellar from the Warring States period (481 BC–221 BC) onward, prior to which animal parts such as rhinoceros hide, rawhide, and turtle shells were used for protection. Lamellar armour was supplemented by scale armour since the Warring States period or earlier. Partial plate armour was popular from the Eastern and Southern dynasties (420–589), and mail and mountain pattern armour from the Tang dynasty (618–907). Chain mail had been known since the Han dynasty, but did not see widespread production or battlefield use, and may have seen as "exotic foreign armor" used as a display of wealth for wealthier officers and soldiers. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), brigandine began to supplant lamellar armour and was used to a great degree into the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). By the 19th century most Qing armour, which was of the brigandine type, were purely ceremonial, having kept the outer studs for aesthetic purposes, and omitted the protective metal plates. The History of Song notes that Song "tools of war were exceedingly effective, never before seen in recent times," [71] and "their weapons and armor were very good", [71] but "their troops weren't always effective." [71] According to Sima Guang, since most military problems came from the north, the military establishment in the south was neglected, leaving soldiers without armour and even cities without gates. [72] In Asia, lamellar armor eventually overtook scale armour in popularity as lamellar restricted the user's movements much less than scale armour. [1] Use and history [ edit ] Lamellar armour worn by Koryak people References to "great shields" occur in their usage on the front line to protect spearmen and crossbowmen. Shields were also commonly paired with the single edged dao and used among cavalrymen. [30] Descriptions of the Battle of Guandu mention that Cao Cao's soldiers employed shield cover above their heads each time they moved out into the open due to oppressive arrow fire from Yuan Shao's wooden towers. [31] Dark armour [ edit ] According to Meng Hong, the reason for the Mongols' success was that they possessed more iron than previous steppe peoples. [78]Huaiwen made sabres [dao 刀] of 'overnight iron' [su tie 宿鐵]. His method was to anneal [shao 燒] powdered cast iron [sheng tie jing 生鐵精] with layers of soft [iron] blanks [ding 鋌, presumably thin plates]. After several days the result is steel [gang 剛]. Soft iron was used for the spine of the sabre, He washed it in the urine of the Five Sacrificial Animals and quench-hardened it in the fat of the Five Sacrificial Animals: [Such a sabre] could penetrate thirty armour lamellae [zha 札]. The 'overnight soft blanks' [Su rou ting 宿柔鋌] cast today [in the Sui period?] by the metallurgists of Xiangguo (襄國) represent a vestige of [Qiwu Huaiwen's] technique. The sabres which they make are still extremely sharp, but they cannot penetrate thirty lamellae. [41] Initially for centuries laminar armour was just a less expensive version of lamellar armor. Laminar was just made from horizontal strips of armour laced like strips of lamellar plates, but without extra-lacing and notches imitating strips of lamellar armour. And like in lamellar armour these laces could be occasionally cut during battle; the laces also frayed when an armour was worn for long periods without being mended. The Chinese Empire and other Central Asian and Middle Eastern nations the Mongols faced served as inspiration for this hybrid armor that Mongol Empire warriors wore over the course of centuries. Scale and lamellar armor were the most common types of Mongolian armor. Hardened Leather