Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[i are not good with compu]

There isn't a lot of information on Bone armor that I can find... all they did was pretty much say "Bone armor exists" but presented no further information...

This is the problem I'm running into now, but here is something relevant I found amongst the riff raff:

The use of horn in protective armor was pretty widespread, horn is good, dense material, has an excellent weight-to-strength ratio, and was easy to come by. The horn was usually cut into strips and sewn into heavy garments (like the Jack or the Jazerant), or onto them (like the Brigandine).
Bone on the other hand is not good armor material, although it has great density. The thick pieces are just to heavy and cumbersome, and the thin pieces to brittle. It may look great in fantasy art, or a computer game, but it has limited potential.
Having said as much, I will immediately proceed to give an example of bone armor that really worked. In Iceland, where I come from, there is a referance in one of the old Sagas, about an outlaw who made what is called �valnastakkur� or �pebbleshirt�, the pebbles being the phalange from a sheep�s foot. The phalange is a digit actually, located just above the hoof, and it�s a very dense piece, roughly the size of a 9v battery. Holes were drilled in these pieces of bone and they were strung together with rawhide strips to make a vest, bone-mail you might call it. I�ve seen a recreation of this thing, it goes down to the mid-thigh and is heavy as hell, but you can move about freely in it, and it would probably stop a medium range arrow.
I have no information whether bone-mail was used to any degree in Scandinavia, or anywhere else for that matter, but I thought it added a nice touch.

So basically, horn good bone bad, with some exceptions.  This is pretty Europe-centric, though - I imagine relatively resource-starved cultures improvised such things despite the drawbacks and dubious effectiveness.  Which, really, is what you're doing when you make bone armor in DF anyway.  I find it odd that so many sources list bone as an armor material without any further explanation though.

[Neonivek]

Other uses of Bone armor is basically fear tactics to strike fear into your enemy.

The Japanese (or more specifically Samurai) are infamous, among REAL historians and not Japanphiles, for using the most inefficiant ordaments and armors for fear tactics... though this most likely developed because they couldn't afford real armor most of the time. In fact their armor was specifically developed for fear tactics.

So as we can see, not all armor is made to be effective as armor

[Pilsu]

Not a whole lot of useful stuff to craft out of bones or shell once armor and bolts are removed. I suppose a bone skull cap is better than a leather one

Then again, it's a crafting profession, it's not like it needs utility

[Neonivek]

Not to mention being a fantasy setting it is more then reasonable to think of these fantasy creatures having efficiantly strong bones (a Pheonix), scales, or shells

[Pilsu]

Cow bones, very high fantasy 

[Creamcorn]

I can imagine elvs being able to weave various threads/leaves; maybe some bone or wood while they're at, and calling it armor.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Elves will purchase metal and metal items from you so why don't they ever use any of it for armor or weaponry?

[Creamcorn]

Elves will purchase metal and metal items from you so why don't they ever use any of it for armor or weaponry?

[Stout]
[Small]

Not to mention they don't buy coal or use picks. Or use any magma safe materials, so magma smelters are out of the question.

[Tormy]

Not to mention being a fantasy setting it is more then reasonable to think of these fantasy creatures having efficiantly strong bones (a Pheonix), scales, or shells

Exactly my thoughts, just wanted to post something similar.

Cow bones, very high fantasy 

What are you talking about? 
Dragon bones, troll bones, demon bones...do I have to list more? 

[Mikademus]

Turtle shell breastplates. 

Ah, yes. They're very good in general but for some unexplained reason highly vulnerable to being jumped on.

[John Johnston]

On the subject of wooden weapons, I believe fire-hardening the tips makes them a good deal more effective.  Good for a spear, not so good for a sword, hopeless for an axe.  Probably.

[Footkerchief]

On the subject of wooden weapons, I believe fire-hardening the tips makes them a good deal more effective.  Good for a spear, not so good for a sword, hopeless for an axe.  Probably.

It would definitely suffice for a bolt, arrow or thin spear.  When I was a kid I whittled pointy sticks that were sharp enough to cause a nasty abdominal wound, even before I charred the tips.

[Aqizzar]

Turtle shell breastplates. 

Ah, yes. They're very good in general but for some unexplained reason highly vulnerable to being jumped on.

Dammit.  I didn't need another total conversion mod to plan out.

AARGH It's writing itself in my head already!

[Pilsu]

What are you talking about? 
Dragon bones, troll bones, demon bones...do I have to list more? 

Pssh, you're making bone armor, worst you've faced so far is an ornery kitten

[MagicJuggler]

Other uses of Bone armor is basically fear tactics to strike fear into your enemy.

The Japanese (or more specifically Samurai) are infamous, among REAL historians and not Japanphiles, for using the most inefficiant ordaments and armors for fear tactics... though this most likely developed because they couldn't afford real armor most of the time. In fact their armor was specifically developed for fear tactics.

So as we can see, not all armor is made to be effective as armor

Hoo boy, don't get me started on Japanophiles. Had the misfortune of getting into a "Katanas are teh awesome" debate, to which I go "actually there are weapons that were probably deadlier in melee. The falx and rhompania were exceptionally deadly curved weapons, their efficiency forcing the Romans to upgrade the armor specifically for them..."
"But Rome never conquered Japan..."

Think of the idiocy of that statement...I would have said "But that's because cavalry archery counters melee infantry as the Romans learned at Carrhae" but you can't argue with these types of people.