Medieval armor was thick, often uncomfortable, but very functional. As time went by, the suits became thicker and thicker as the weapons used became heavier, larger, sharper, and deadlier. Here, I will be classifying armor into various styles and types of armor.

 

Cloth

Clothes.. everyone wore them. Cloth armor provided protection against the elements and minor protection against small hand weapons.

 

Leather

Leather armor was often the cheapest most common armor in the earlier times. Protecting against blades, these light cured skins provided little protection against crushing and impaling weapons. Leather was often used with fabric. Various additions were made to this leather. Processes such as boiling leather in with wax hardeneed it and made it much mroe effective. Armorsmiths wove metal into the leateher occasionally, making studded leather and scale armor.

 

Chain

Chain was invented to counteract the heaviness and rigidity of solid plate armor. Chain Mail <-- was basically a large sheet of small rings interlocked together. This sheet was very flexible, and offered a decent amount of protection from cutting weapons to impaling weapons. The disadvantage of chain was that the rings themselves were weak, and a well-aimed stab could drive the rings into flesh, causing infections. Chain was often worn under plate armor as added protection.

 

Plate

Plate armor was the best and most impressive of all the armors created during medieval times. Solid forged sheets of metal were carefully engineered to interlock and fit together, creating a flexible suit of metal that could often stop thrusts and cuts. Heavy and unforgiving, tales often tell of knights who fall off their horse and are unable to stand because of the weight of their armor. Plate armor was often worn over chain, leather, and cloth/padded armor, making it very difficult to pierce plate with the standard melee weapons.