Leather armour

Leather armour refers to pieces of armour made of animal skins.While leather clothing was common and the typical vest or coat of rigid leather did exist and were worn, these were usually nor considered real armour, they indeed offered little protection against sword cuts or thrusts and literally no protection against heavy blows.

Real leather armour was made of thick, boiled leather, many layered, hardened, glued leather (often up to six layers or more,) laquered or glue coated leather or rawhide.Also leather-covered linen and padded armour did exist and of course leather was worn beneath or upon other types of armour such as mail or plate.

Though there is some evidence that early Cuirasses may have been made of Kurbul, the most common types of leather armour actually were either leather lamellar or leather scale armour.Also types of leather helmets existed as well as gloves, arm guards and vambraces, though most of these were intended to be worn in combination with mail or plate.

These types of leather armour were very sophisticated and effective and quite expensive,and not to be mistaken for a cheaper substitute for metal armour at all.