regarding fantasy studded leather, I would say that its fabrication was a result of fantasy authors' misinterpretation of brigandines. My guess would be they looked at brigandines from the outside and saw this leather jacket with studs, and thought "Ah, leather armor with studs, probably the studs gave some sort of deflecting quality to the leather....... because of reasons", but they never looked on the inside of the jacket to realize the studs were actually meant to hold the inner steel plates of the brigandine in place

"Fancy the leather armor, huh? Something to be said for going light."--Whiterun Guard

It'll never be as good as tupperware armor.

While providing very little protection vs forward thrusts of spears or swords, thick and hardened leather do provide protection against glancing blows and slashing attacks. Leather is nature's invented 'armor'. Some leather armors were quite effective. Please do more research on the Mongolian leather armor which were hardened with horse urine over a long process. Underneath the hardened leather armor, the Mongols covered their torsos with tightly bound silk cloth which formed a form of a multi-layered kevlar effect and prevented arrow heads from making puncturing wounds to the body if they penetrated the hardened leather armor shells.

I feel like "studded leather" armor came out of a misunderstanding of rivets that could have been used to secure a layer of leather to a backing such as a plate or some mail.

The ancient Chinese indeed used leather armors. It was made from multiple layers of stiff or hardened rhino rawhide, and then lacquered several times to make it even more resistant. The earliest example we have was found in the tomb of Marquis Zeng dating back to the year 425 BCE.

that sasuke shirt ... man I love you

Leather was an essential part of armor, whether it be straps and fittings for your plates or chain, or for padding to make your helmet fit better or be more compfortable. But lets remember people, leather was never the "main ingredient" so to speak, of armor.

I used to watch Skallagrim a lot, then I got addicted to Lindybeige's videos (I still watch their videos sometimes, but less than I used to), and now it is Metatron's turn, it seems. It's 2:50 am over here and I'm watching videos about armour and weapons. Great.

"there isn't a lot of material on leather armour" LOL

This Video is so old, Metatron has about the same level of sophistication as I have in mine now :) Makes me hopefull for the future and goes to show his progress.

The Greek spolas (tube and yolk armor) is now thought to be either thick leather or quilted linen, not glued. Late Hallstatt and Early La Téne cultures used it as well, maybe even later.

I found the Metatron's last week and have been hooked since then! Keep up the good work man!

Why the hell do you have 7K subs???? With the material you work with, you deserve a million '-'

This video made me retcon all the light armor in my rpg into Gambesons, light plated Aketons, and, because its still fantasy, Silk Woven armor with Chitin Plating for extra protection i just call Bringadine. Yes, i know historical bringadine was not chitin plated or silk, but its easier on my players to say "I wanna purchase a Suit of Bringadine" rather than "Chitin-Plated SilkWeave"

A friend and I tested a breast plate sized piece of bison rawhide against several knives, a spear and a tomahawk and the results were surprising. It was incredibly tough, and very difficult to penetrate more than superficially.

Armor is to protect from cuts and punctures. Anything that can do that, to any degree, can be considered armor. Whether it be a quilted jack or full suit of plate. Some protection is better than no protection. What type of armor was used depends on the time and place and the resources available. Where metals are scarce or expensive then wood/bamboo, horn/shell, leather and even paper was used.

I always enjoy your videos. Thanks for your insight on this topic!

Thanks for this video. I'm trying to write a medieval story and your videos are a great resource! Nice armour. Looks great

We have here in Greece examples of leather armor,the Theban hoplites wear leather cuirasses instead of bronze. made of hard leather I believe

I think you are right about parts of the armor being leather. From the little I know about in the Europe and American areas. The Marines wore leather bands on their necks in the 1700 and 1800s. This helped preventing cuts to the necks. Also the reason he U.S. Marines are called Leather Necks. I know Japan used leather, iron, and silk together in their armor.

I was imagining armors for people before the iron/bronze age... The result was... Scale armors made from shells. A gambeson made with leather and some bits of wood. Ribs or another bones from animals tied together with leather... But i guess people from stone age used shields instead.

Metatron love ur videos keep doing them i find them quite nice and educative and some are funny like the katana vs longswords debunking but yes keep it up

Quite noisy, seems leather armour is not for sneaking around in........

Oh the fucking irony that the New York Times is saying that the truth is important. Also, good video Meta, that too.

I definitely prefer plate, or even mail, over leather armour.

I think that leather you have there would be cool over mail.

Wouldnt you still want to wear gambeson underneath some kind of hardened leather vest?

Hi Metatron... as a quick update to the question of leather armour. A couple of weeks ago I visited the Turaidas Pils (castle) in Sigulda, Latvia. On display there is a really interesting pauldron of hardened leather which, if I recall correctly, dated to the 15th century. The piece, found discarded within a wall cavity during relatively recent structural repair work, certainly doesn't appear to have been some quickly bashed together piece of rubbish from the period, but rather, a very carefully and professionally molded, and decorated item. I did photograph it, but as is often the case, the mix of display lighting and glass surrounding the piece made it all but impossible to get a good shot of. Anyway, it's in the castle museum at Sigulda. P.s... very much enjoy your videos, kindly keep it up. Cheers !

Nice dorkish armor :)

That quick dismissal of studded leather kept me wondering... Of course the studs themselves are useless, but what if the studs are there to bind two or more layers of leather, just as the Aketon is made of layers of cloth bound together? They couldn't just sew them, it is hard to pierce leather with a nail and the leather edges would eventually cut the threads with the movement of the armour so the would have to rivet them. I've seen explanaitons that images of studded leather are misinterpretations of brigandine, but what if they are misinterpretations of riveted leather?

Metatron your channel rocks always something different

Another great informative video well done.

What if leather armor was used like a mail, or plate armor? I mean, if they put it over a gambeson, they get the protection of both armor, and if the segments were made properly then it wouldn't restrict the wearer's movement. I think it would be lighter than maille(if you don't want the leather to be overly thick, which is not a good idea if you want to move freely), and maybe cheaper than it(iron was kind of rare at those times so, you know).

Holy smokes! Comparing your video from 2 days ago to this one (which I happened to come across from another web search....) You've really physically changed! Your work is really showing; you've lost some kinds of mass, and gained others... well done!

In my country (Romania) there was a widely used piece of leather "armor" that survived to the present as a clothing accessory in some rural areas. It's called "chimir" and looks like a very wide waste belt. The modern decorative version is just around 10cm wide and made of soft leather, with small utility pockets and decorations, but the ancient one was over 20cm wide (covering most of the abdomen) and made of thick tanned or boiled leather. It was used by peasants when they had to support the army at war, because of the small population that was fairly common in medieval times and in most cases they weren't equipped with any armor or weapons (they used axes or pitchforks).

In Vietnam, there is evidence in documents of laws since the 16th century: each province had to supply 100 buffalo hides a year to make armour for the army, or if a soldier misses 3 times in shooting test, he had to pay 2 buffalo hides. Thought we don't know how they do it or what it look like but we know they did use buffalo hide to make armour for common soldiers.

I love your videos it they help me prove some points on some things with my friends

Buff coats were commonly worn alone without a breastplate from the 1640s until they faded away in the early 18th century.

Samurai from before the introduction of the gun would be known for their leather armour. A special super tough laquer would be applied on the leather. The Swiss peasant army was also known for their leather armour. Tight fitting and cut at the joints to make movement possible. This would later become a fashion in the renaissance.

Good evening Metatron! This is my all time favorite channel. Thanks for everything. Anyways, I was wondering if Greek Hoplites ever wore leather armour? I have seen depictions of this, although I know it wasn't a historically accurate depiction.

A set of lamellar made with hard and thick leather scales worn over a gambeson is quite good protection. It is quite light as well.

As far as I can tell, and according to some experiments, leather armor does offer protection but it's less effective than plate or lined armor. As a matter of fact it was used by civilizations who did not have access to vast amount of metal and/or fabric, like the mongolians or the japanese for example. And for the lorica segmentata, actually there is archaeological evidence that it was made from metal :) westernclassicalstudies.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/armour-from-corbridge-2.jpg

There's no doubt leather armour, if done right, can be very effective. Full thickness cowhide is >10mm thick. Use it raw and dried or tanned and hardened, will provide protection either way. My raw hide mallet is tough as any hard plastic. The Viking round shield is a prime example of raw hide used for protection. There seems to be a misconception that it was a wooden shield, but the flimsy wooden disk was only there to give it shape and act as a filler in-between the two layers of hide.

Looks really cool Thank you

You did mention plates attached to leather. A great example of this would have something like the Visby coat of plates. I would love to hear more about them.

The Japanese had scale armor made out of rawhide called Hon Kozane. It was typically heavily lacquered, looking a bit like shiny plastic. Japanese scale is also laced in such a way to form rigid lames, a breastplate of Hon Kozane is just as rigid as one made of steel, it is not flexible. In later periods, scale was considered high class and was more expensive than solid plate, this was to the point that there are even armors made of solid steel plates that have notches cut in them to imitate the look of scale.

Looks badass dude. Should have included a greatsword or greataxe to complement it for the Wearing Time segment!

Leather armor in ancient times; Very interesting topic!! Recently, I was reading about the ancient Egyptians. particularly some of the military items that have been reassessed as to what their original function was. One of these was a leather cloak, ie, Leather Armor! If you haven’t been apprised of it, you might find it very interesting. It was meticulously layered and stitched and probably afforded the Egyptian Pharaoh/Egyptian warrior, adequate protection from enemy archers, swordsmen, etc. Any how neat channel!!

parlerai mai nello specifico dell' armatura lamellare (Lamellar Armour)? Complimenti per il canale! mi sono iscritto da poco ma ho già guardato parecchi video e li ho trovati tutti molto interessanti e informativi senza però risultare pesanti. Complimenti anche per l'inglese e il giapponese sembri quasi un madrelingua :)

Brings back memories of Cinciti Sword & Sandal epics on the 1950’s. Probably because it was cheaper than metallic & they didn’t have fake metallic spray can paint back then.

Gustaphus Adolphus Rex died in his Leather armor made from moose. It still on display somewhere or the other. He was incapable of carrying heavier armor due to a wound earlier. The idea for his moose made hauberk came from the vikings which used it extensively.

I read somewhere that Eastern soilders would sometimes wear silk under their leather armour, so that an arrow that would pierce the leather wouldn't pierce the silk. The silk would go inside the flesh, wrapped around the arrowhead, so that the arrow could be extracted without catching on any of the soilder's flesh.

I think that simple leather armor is not a less expensive option than metal plate armor, but rather a more primitive one. I've heard historians speculating that legendary warriors, like the Assyrian Goliath or a war-time Pharoah from Egypt, likly wore leather armor simply because the technology to refine and forge metal into practical armor hadn't been developed yet. After all, most of these civilizations had just developed bronze, let alone iron or steel.

You are great, man!

I guy I knew in the SCA had a set of full plate-like armour that he made of thick leather boiled in beeswax, and I was checking it out, it'll stop a lot of damage, a guy with a knife would have a VERY hard time trying to stab though it, you'd pretty much have to be on the ground or let him just go to town for you to get hurt. I guess what I'm saying is , it'd be fairly effective .

My assumption, is if it was traditional than boar hide might have been an option. In more modern terms a half or three quarter split hide is insanely protective. I owned a pair of Raitchle mountaineering boots some years back that were half split boar hide. One of my less intelligent friends accidentally discharged a 22 pistol into my foot. Without a reinforced toe my boot stopped the round. I honestly didn't even feel the impact, and didn't realize it had impacted my foot until I found the round itself. I admit it was just a 22 short so not a huge amount of power, but it was nearly point blank. Whatever the view on the armor, Raitchle does make some damned fine boots.

I chopped up an old belt which was about 3-4mm thick and put some. Pieces in boiling water. It shrinks and go's rubbery and will dry to a shape. When it dried it was like a piece of plastic or resin. It eveutally snapped. If it was cut into the shape of a vest and attached to someone when the leather was drying it could make some form fitting body armour. With layers I could see how this would be somewhat good protection against edges and blunt force trauma. I think my biker jacket would provide a bit of protection against common blades that's are not sharp etc

An indirect confirmation of the existence of some kind of leather armor can be found in etymology, in words such as the italian "corazza" (english "cuirass", french "cuirasse"), which comes from the latin "coriacea", meaning "made of corium", the latin word for leather. In english is a specific type of armor, but in italian is also a generic word for "hard and resilient protection". It had to be a pretty common kind of armor material for the word to stick around this long.

Considering that during the early bronze age the Egyptian army wore padded cloth armor, it would be natural to assume that as metal refining methods improved, sturdier armor would be needed, it's not that much of a stretch to see many countries would for a time use leather armor. During the battles of Marathon & Thermopylae, the Persian army still wore predominantly cloth, leather, & wicker armor because it gave a significant advantage when dealing mostly primitive tribes living in the wide-open Indo-Persian plains & steppes.

All I can say is, looks very cool when your trowing punchs.

That 'fantasy armour' would be interesting to see in a hardened / rawhide assembly. (Also, Love that green).

Greek hoplite armor could be made of leather. The consensus is that it was made of fused linen, but there's nothing about the design that precludes leather. Something for fantasy writers and role-players to consider.

I collect ethnographical photographs and I can say that leather armour was much more common than many people think. Unlike metal leather was a by product of eating livestock so it was not a scarce resource. I have seen Argentinian, Paraguayan, Congolese, Chinese, Indonesian, Filipino, Sudanese and Assamese examples and undoubtedly there were many other places that no photographic record survives.

we kown that leather is not as sturdy as iron,but the thickness can be thicker.For example ,in one dynasty,most of iron armours with the thickness of 1-2mm,while the leather armour with the thickness of 4-5mm

Leather lammelar armour looks cool.

Great videos. I just thought it was weird that the under part of your leather armor isn't dyed. It's like a great big target that can be seen from a distance ... ie shoot arrow here.

Since you asked us to saw what we think, I will. I personally think it looks hideous however genuinely think you should buy whatever you like. I greatly respect that you acknowledged your specific leather armor as fantasy, whereas some would passionately defend it's place in history. I liked your quick and to the point analysis of leather armor. Obviously you didn't cover everything but I'm glad you didn't because I probably wouldn't have time to watch it all in one sitting. You paved the way for more content on the matter which I appreciate. Love your channel, can't wait to see what you do for 200k subs when you get there but congratulations in advance.

i belive the "vikings" wore 4 to 6mm leather lamellar boiled in beeswax and pinetar over a hauberk of mail, then over a gambeson.. i have my self worn this and i told my friend to fire a couple of arrows at me. what i wont do for science hehe.. and it only pierced 1 time out of six the bow is 70 pounds and made from ash..

Love the color, very emerald and beetle like

I saw skall's vid on leather, and boy I was surprised at the hardened leather.

And remember, the Metatron has precious things!

I assume the video is about body armour and the medieval period, but leather is known to have been used in shields in the Bronze Age. Homer's Iliad describes the shields used by several of the Greek heroes in terms of how many ox-hides thick they are.

The leather armor which I've found to be more historical from a production standpoint, are the various types of sewn leather tunics and girdles. I have quite a bit of experiemce making period reproductions, and those are my favorite and by far, the most comfortable and wearable leather armors. These ranged from skirmisher and light infantry armor to cavalry armor. I'm speaking of Antiquity of course. Sort of a ubiquitous sort of light armor worn all over the ancient world was a sort of scaled leather tunic with a linen lining and copper or bronze scales or rings sewn onto the leather scales. The pattern of the scaling depended on the type of soldier using it. Skirmishers and light troops overlapped top to bottom to defend against missiles and light weapons, whereas something like a cavalry girdle was the opposite, to protect the vitals and guts from penetrating injuries from below. These could range from quite light for skirmishers, to quite heavy such as some of the kit worn by Persian armored horsearchers, since scale was more resistant than chainmail to the composite bows used in the East. These armors could be made very crudely and cheaply, but could also be extremely well made and offer very strong protection depending on the scaling.

hey man,another great vid like always,I had a question, have you ever heard of the book/game series called the witcher? and if so what do you think of some of the armors and clothing that the main protagonist, Geralt wears (from a historical point of view of course) cheers!

How I see it, the closest things to leather armor might be a coat of plates or brigandine. But in those cases, just as you said, the leather is only a component or a 'vessel' to which metal plates are riveted

Good video. Leather was used and was practical.

Walks into work wearing the leather armor, starts yelling "firebolt!!"

Green armor was worn by Angus McFife of the band Gloryhammer. Despite the names, the band has pretty good musicians

if i remember correctly in China Lammaner Armour made of iron or leather was very popular especially during the three kingdoms period as well as thick silk garments like a gamberson.

Almost seems to be like wearing a very fancy ganbinson over a less fancy ganbinson. I have done leather crafting as a hobby, still do when I can afford to, and would not rely on it for armor. That suit for LARP is definitely too cool. I even like the color.

I truly think (and just my thoughts) that the idea of studded leather armour may have come from an illustration seen from the wrong angle so to speak. Say a plate armour covered in a layer of leather with rivets "studs" protruding through (similar to what can be seen in some museums,). Thus it appears ar though it is simply leather though when handled or further examined it is indeed more akin to plate or splint armour. Though if looking at an illustration from ages gone by it might seem to be studded leather but in truth not so much.

The problem in my mind about leather armor is that ounce cut, the structural integrity is gone (for that specific strike not necessarily following blows). essentially if you pierce it, it stops doing work against the attack. cloth on the other hand tends to bunch up, allowing more material to make contact with the weapon thus protecting you more. an underlying gambeson works to alleviate this but it seems like a lot of effort to put into something when more cloth would likely do better. It does seem to serve well vs. non weapon related blunt forces, such as falling or or to simply put, stiff padding. leather leg guards make perfect sense, similar in effect to knee pads or elbow pads. for example: if a warrior drops to a a knee in order to to slip under an opponents guard or simply to avoid being struck, he would likely avoid a disabling knee injury that cloth simply would help (as much) to avoid. so in agreement w/ the Metatron, it was much more likely leather would have been used as an augment of more conventional armor, or as lashings, harnesses, straps, etc. rather than as armor in and of itself. sorry if it seems like i put words in his mouth, was just my interpretation.

Hardened leather, plastic-like, doesn''t really compete with gambeson. It is not going to be a semi-flexible suit. It is going to compete with metal, formed into plates, helmets and so forth. So, whenever metal becomes affordable, leather armor disappears.

Some North American native tribes could make shields from bison leather that could even stop bullets from early musquets, no problem with arrows and knives. Same kind of leather could be used to make armor and it would provide good protection.

Leather armour made from crocodile hide were used by some of the pharohs in battle in ancient Egypt. Though haven't seen much info on how effective it was in battle.

Leather can be extremely tough to pierce. I believe Skallagrim has done tests using rawhide and it took multiple hits to barely pierce it.

Leather could have been used as a lining protecting the miserable affects of metal next to the skin. Metal gets really hot and really cold while a thin lining of leather would prevent the temperature transfer to the skin. It could also protect the skin from any sharp bits in the armor. The access to leather rather than cloth was probably much easier.

The premium armour of warring state era in China were made of rhino skin. There are theories of Asian rhinos were hunted to extinction in China because of the demand for armour. The early laminar armour were also made out of lacured hard boiled leather. They were very common.

Hello, Metatron. Your videos are very interesting and instructive. I have just one little question: where are you from? For what I can grasp from some "r" s, you could be Spanish or Italian, I think the second one to be right for how you pronounce some of the vowels. Am I right? In any case, keep the good work going. Cheers.

I just noticed, the first video of yours I saw, the great helm video, your hair was pretty short then, and the long hair makes you look quite a bit younger (even though you're technically older since then)

That shirt is awesome.

Nice!

I have a half suit of curboil leather armor that I made myself. Using instructions I found online back during the Renaissance days in the late 90s early 2000s. Obviously as I've grown a little rotund it no longer fits as it once did as it was custom-made for my body by literally molding it to me. In Essence we cut out two pieces in the shape of a tank top shirt one for the front one for the back. Made out of cow leather. We folded these two pieces up and boiled them in a pan on the stove I forget the time that we had to have it in there for after reach this point I put on a thick wool sweater, and my friend took the piece out of the pot on folded it using some mitts to keep from being burned, placed it over my chest, which I held in place with a couple of pencils to keep from burning my fingers he then wrapped my torso with ace bandage I think it took two rolls, to hold it to form I then sat back on a couch and waited for 30 minutes, needless to say it got a little warm in there. After the 30 minutes we took off the bandages and took the now semi hardened piece of leather and put it over the side of a 5 gallon bucket to finish curing and did the process all over again for the back. Afterwards once they had dried for 24 hours on those buckets, we came back made sure that the pieces stayed confirmed to my chest and back. And used a mixture of a block of paraffin wax with styrene powder, melted into a bread pan using a double boiler technique and brushes to brush wax thoroughly into the two pieces of armor. Once that was done we used rivets to attach the front and back pieces to large piece of soft thin leather in the shape of a bath towel with a hole cut through for my head and riveted the shoulders to that piece of leather. The arms with the pauldrons I purchased at a Renaissance fair and attached beside the straps for the shoulders. The legs are worn on a belt separate from the Torso armor. This armor I can tell you from experience fighting in it provides adequate protection against most blows. And a leather has enough give to distribute the blowout word lessening the point of impact a little bit and preventing any penetration weapon from coming through. Obviously I have not tried to use this against Real weaponry let alone shoot at it with a bow, as this was rather an expensive and time-consuming procedure I would rather not damage my armor. But it would seem to me after wearing that too many Mark battles better suit of leather could exist and would provide protection enough to Warrant wearing at least over the vital areas of the body.

About those leather coats belonging more to the renaissance than the middle ages... that's largely true of the iconic shining metal armor too, right? So it could fit into medieval fantasy just as well?

Years ago I read that bison leather was so valued for armor that it led to the extinction of European bison, subsequently bison leather from the Americas was used for armor.

Leather shoe soles, on traditional expensive shoes, seem fairly resistant to abuse. I have no idea what process is used to make them. It might also be interesting to look at the historical geographic distribution of iron. Areas without rocks don't have iron, so deserts, steppes and plains (where it's easier to mine cows) might change the balance.

oh btw, I just recently tried hardening some small leather pieces by boiling it. It shattered when I put it on a hard surface and hit it with a hammer, quite interesting

Maybe a medieval 13th Century knight could've worn leather armor over mail armor for some extra protection and absortion of impacts

I had a discussion on this topic with a Danish reenactor, and he mentioned one interesting topic about gambesons "used" by sailing cultures, such as the vikings. He said that they probably didn't use gambesons that much (At sea at least) because when a gambeson gets wet (For instance you fall from a drakkar into the sea) it soaks so much water, that it becomes thrice as heavy, increasing your chances to drown dramatically. He mentioned also, that most of them weren't armored at all (Some clothes to protect against the elements at least), except maybe a looted helmet. The rich guys, on the other hand would have maybe lamellar (Leather or steel) or maille armor, with leather jackets unerneath for padding (For the same reasons, that at sea you want to be as light as possible, otherwise you have no chance of survival if you fall overboard) On the continent, however, they might have prefered gambesons, for their protective abilities.