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[timotheos]

Basically why not? I just came from a nice volcano fort which unfortunately had galena as the only ore till I hit the magma sea and got to the good stuff.
So in the mean time I was scrounging up every bit of iron I could get off the caravans and I suddenly thought "Hey silvers a weapons grade metal, I could use that for a few bits and I bet a set of silver helms and gloves would look great" Then to my horror I found I couldn't.
I didn't expect it to be great, maybe copper sort of level, surely if its good enough to make a hammer or axe out of you can make a few helms too? I know I could mod it in but this is the first time I've had this problem and it seemed odd to me.

[Loud Whispers]

Do you know why they never made silver armour in history? :S

[Monk321654]

Unless I'm mistaken, Silver is a soft metal.
It's heavy, yes, but unless you're making Blunts with it, it's bad news.
Not only does it weigh Dwarves down, it'll also be more likely to cave from impact.

[Loud Whispers]

Unless I'm mistaken, Silver is a soft metal.
It's heavy, yes, but unless you're making Blunts with it, it's bad news.
Not only does it weigh Dwarves down, it'll also be more likely to cave from impact.

Absolutely useless. You'd be able to punch dents in it.

[timotheos]

It can't be much worse than copper though, which is also fairly soft and easily dented. It just seemed odd that something which is, in theory, usable as a sword couldn't be made into some sort of armour.

[katana]

Unless I'm mistaken, Silver is a soft metal.
It's heavy, yes, but unless you're making Blunts with it, it's bad news.
Not only does it weigh Dwarves down, it'll also be more likely to cave from impact.

Absolutely useless. You'd be able to punch dents in it.

Right now it's kinda easy to punch dents in skulls too.

[Loud Whispers]

Unless I'm mistaken, Silver is a soft metal.
It's heavy, yes, but unless you're making Blunts with it, it's bad news.
Not only does it weigh Dwarves down, it'll also be more likely to cave from impact.

Absolutely useless. You'd be able to punch dents in it.

Right now it's kinda easy to punch dents in skulls too.

Do you want to know why they never made armour out of skulls in history? :S

[612DwarfAvenue]

surely if its good enough to make a hammer or axe out of you can make a few helms too?

Good for weapons =/= good for armor. Silver's decent for blunt weapons right now because it's heavy, but it's ass when used as armor. Whereas Adamantine's good for armor, but ass for blunt weapons.

Do you want to know why they never made armour out of skulls in history? :S

Spoiler: They'll use them for helmets in about 40,000 years (click to show/hide)

[Loud Whispers]

Because having a bullet proof helmet is just silly. Who needs brains anyways?

[Girlinhat]

Being a bit of a metalcrafter myself, let me tell you that silver is hilariously soft.  So soft that people don't use fine silver much, but instead use sterling silver.  Fine silver is 99.9% silver, sterling is usually 92% or therabouts, with the rest composed of mainly copper and maybe trace elements.  That 8% copper content is enough to increase the strength enormously - you could dilute silver with cardboard and make it stronger.  24k gold, which is 99.9% gold and comparable to silver in terms of density and strength, is soft enough that you can squeeze it between your thumb and finger and leave an impression.

Silver armor would be like putting wet clay over your body.  You're not fooling anyone with that.  The only reason silver weapons work is because weapons do not degrade and blunt weapons don't care about anything except density.  Silver blades are pathetic, and a silver warhammer would shatter after about 1-3 blows - or rather it would bend back like a young tree in a strong wind.  When weapons start to degrade, silver hammers are going to get nerfed HARD.

[timotheos]

10 minutes of research tells me that copper was never used for armour either. and if it ever was the only reason to use it over silver would be due to it being alot more common and cheaper.

And i'm sure i've seen films where people had bear/tiger skulls turned into helmets.

[Teneb]

And i'm sure i've seen films where people had bear/tiger skulls turned into helmets.

And they usually don't live very long.

[King DZA]

Pfft, who needs effective gear when you charge into battle wearing some shiny ass armor and a fucking skull for a helmet? people who want to survive no one, that's who!

Remember, the more badass you are, the greater your chances of survival. It's simple nonsense logic.

[Pawel1997PL]

^  It would provide a strong psicological factor, inflicting fear upon your enemies.

On semi-topic:Silver armor huh, imagine you have slade piercings all over your body, yes, that bad.

[Teneb]

Regarding skull-on-head: if you simply must use a skull on your head, I suppose you could simply wear it over a helmet. I don't think wearing a skull on your head is fear-inspiring, mostly because human skulls aren't big enough to be used as helmets. Everything else would simply look silly and probably get in the way of your view.