OK... on the show last night the guy said samuria armor was not has strong as plate armor.... I heard just the opposite. That due to the laminating it was.....Is the truth out there....

samurai wear laminated armor so they can have an easier time killing and getting killed because to die for one's lord is totally sweet. if one samurai started using gayass plate armor the other samurai would totally beat the crap out of him for being a samurai sissy.

jenfucius, have you been reading realultimatepower again?

Samurai armor was built out of splinted metal and heavy leather and was designed to deflect katanas and arrows, but could not deflect gunfire once guns emerged. Since the types of armor that deflected gunfire could not deflect arrows, armor became a bit of a secondary consideration since you were damned if you did and damned if you didn't.

What confused me is why stuff like light silk armor somehow deflects arrows better than heavy plate. Can someone elaborate on this? How the **** is silk supposed to stop a metal bolt?

Originally posted by Shumagorath
How the **** is silk supposed to stop a metal bolt?

I dunno, How does kevlar work?

regarding silk, i do not know why samuri wore it , but mongolian horsemen used to wear a silkshirt under their armour because if they were hit with an arrow, then the silk would be driven into the flesh with the arrow, which allegedly made it easier to remove from the body without causing additional damage-----

Originally posted by drunkenj
regarding silk, i do not know why samuri wore it , but mongolian horsemen used to wear a silkshirt under their armour because if they were hit with an arrow, then the silk would be driven into the flesh with the arrow, which allegedly made it easier to remove from the body without causing additional damage-----

As far as I know the samurai didn't wear it. But I've read armor threads on various forums and I'm always baffled by claims that flexible material "stops" arrows.

i think it was supposed to be that the arrow is spinning- so gets caught and twists the silk with it, i think it is prolly bs though

Regarding the "silk". Actually it doesnt guard against penetration. Besides the Samurais they were latter worn by the Mongols. They are suppose to make arrors easier to remove if penetration occurs. The silk is pulled in with the arrow but the barb area doesnt hook into the flesh.
Bamboo was also used in Samurai armour. Essentially like someone said metal plates or strips are laminated onto the bamboo with laquer resin. The armour was suppose to give the wearer good flexibility yet provide protection.

hey justme did anyone ever tell u you look like jerry springer?

Originally posted by Shumagorath
Samurai armor was built out of splinted metal and heavy leather and was designed to deflect katanas and arrows, but could not deflect gunfire once guns emerged.


Really we need to get the military involved in this medieval armor design then. What the hell are you talking about? Seriously I don't know, do you have anything to back this up?

As for the silk, I'd always heard that as well. I also heard that it was silk that was a lot thicker, coarser, and tougher than what we see today. If it worked it did so only after arrows and bolts were slowed, I doubt of its own properties.

Originally posted by Shumagorath

What confused me is why stuff like light silk armor somehow deflects arrows better than heavy plate. Can someone elaborate on this?

samurai must have been stupid then, because that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard!

Pound for pound, silk thread is orders of magnitude stronger than steel. Your not talking about that silk shirt you wear on a Saturday night here. How does Kevlar stop a bullet? Same principle.

Plate armor has its limits. The English and Welsh archers tore up the French armored cavalry in the middle ages because they developed a more powerful single stave bow. I can just imagine how the plate armor might stand against a Japanese O-yumi bow or the modern composite stuff available nowadays.

As for the laminated design, I suppose it must have been a trade-off, European plate armor was proptection-oriented first and foremost. It seems the Samurai sacrificed some protection for the sake of more mobility.

Incidentally, that's exactly what the Europeans did in the crusades. They swapped the plate armor for the chain-mail type. This made more mobility possible, as well as being lighter.

Originally posted by Dochter
Really we need to get the military involved in this medieval armor design then. What the hell are you talking about? Seriously I don't know, do you have anything to back this up?

I read in Secrets of the Samurai that one type of armor could stop arrows and another could stop bullets but neither could do both. It said something to the effect that the samurai became fatalistic about armor since it was a cointoss.

I haven't read the book in about six months so I may be misinterpreting, but I'm not making it up.

Speaking of armor, how much does a legitimate coat of samurai armor run for these days? I see prices ranging from 600-4,000 US dollars. I'm a bit confused as to what I should be looking for since I've been interested in buying a full out attire. Of course it's main purpose is looks (and the occassional moment where I don it and pretend I'm a samurai when no one is looking) but I want a legit coat too, nothing fancy and fake.

I can understand the silk part about how it would make it easier for arrows to be pulled out. My question is: If the samurai armor could stop swords, then how did they kill each other?

I know at first this question sounds stupid, but think about it. In all there training they teach quick slashes and strong strikes. But if you are wearing armor that protects you from those, what is the use of the sword itself?