Chinese paper armour (for knights)
 

There are several entries to be found on Google and Mythbuster at youtube, but no film on paper armour in action.

Today I saw a German program were they used ancient Chinese scriptures to replicate a body-armour made of paper. Essentially it is paper folded several times, and the poieces you then have get put together like European scaled armour.

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/haupt...verwundbarkeit

Go to 11:30, before it is just other stuff, and demonstrations of collisions with medieval plate armour. From 11:40 on they demonstrate how the armour is being made, and then tested. After the "fight" between the two stuntmen, they demonstrate the armour on a dummy, against a European (sharp) sword, a Longbow arrow with a Botkin head, and a spear they used against cavallry in those times.

Unbelievable, one needs to see it. The paper armour beats European plate armour hands down. Plus it is cooler and lighter.

I heared of these armours, but thought they were a myth.

"Rock, scissor, paper" maybe should be re-assessed... :)

I saw American documentary (or was it British?:hmmm:) where they tested those. Very cool pieces of warfare history, its unfortunate that those armours' design makes sure none are preserved to today.

But paper and water is no good combo. I wonder what they did when it rained. Oiling or waxing them?

Probably! Or perhaps there was a layer of something other than plain paper on top?

I'm impressed with the weight difference - I mean, paper can be heavy. But 3kg vs 28kg - speaks for itself.

Measure...Countermeasure...
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6224/attachmentrr.jpg

;)

Wow, who knew? Great link, Sky! Just had my mind blown.

Seems a bit ironic coming from the culture that gave us the term 'paper tiger.' :03:

Now when the talking starts about "paper tanks", we are being warned!