Best wood to use for armor?

[TheManicMonocle]

So, I have a story idea, and what it boils down to is, I need a character to wear wooden armor. Assuming you're magic and can shape wood like clay, what's the best type of wood to use?

I know I could just say "magic wood" and go from there but I'd prefer not to.

[warty goblin]

So, I have a story idea, and what it boils down to is, I need a character to wear wooden armor. Assuming you're magic and can shape wood like clay, what's the best type of wood to use?

I know I could just say "magic wood" and go from there but I'd prefer not to.

Depends heavily on what wood the person has access to, and what sort of attacks they're trying to ward off. Given access to any wood on the planet, I suspect you're going to have the best luck with some variety of tropical hardwood since they can be both very hard and lack the prominent grain structure of temperate hardwoods.


There are two substantial problems you are going to have with wooden armor. The first is that wood - even very hard wood - is vastly less hard than steel or bronze. Weapons will bite into, and through, it with disturbing regularity. It won't work to turn a point or edge very well, because the blade will dig into the material and cut, rather than be deflected away. The second is that that, particularly for temperate woods, the grain structure is going to tend to cause the armor to break under impact. This is distinct from the first failure mode, because when wood splits the fibers separate from each other, rather than being severed.

To minimize splitting, you'll want a piece of wood that does not cross the growth rings in the wood. I think your best bet for doing this is to magically remove a hollow cylinder of wood made up of 2 or 3 or however many growth rings you need to get your desired thickness. Separate this into a sheet, then form to the desired shape. Ideally form multiple sheets, then laminate them together with the fibers running 90 degrees to each other directions to make plywood. This substantially decreases the risk of splitting, and will make it rather more cut resistant as well, but it will still offer nowhere near the protection of metallic armor for the weight or the bulk.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

So, I have a story idea, and what it boils down to is, I need a character to wear wooden armor. Assuming you're magic and can shape wood like clay, what's the best type of wood to use?

I know I could just say "magic wood" and go from there but I'd prefer not to.

Whatever is local will probably be good enough. Look into what wood is used for shields, and use that: if it is good enough for shield, it is good enough for armour.

That said, if I were in that situation, I'd probably go with bamboo, since it was actually used, while no-one ever used actual (tree) wood. I suspect it is too heavy, and likely has an issue with splitting along the grain when hit at the right angle.

EDIT: Brutally ninja'ed by warty goblin, although I'm encouraged to discover that my speculation was right on the money.

Grey Wolf

[warty goblin]

Whatever is local will probably be good enough. Look into what wood is used for shields, and use that: if it is good enough for shield, it is good enough for armour.

That said, if I were in that situation, I'd probably go with bamboo, since it was actually used, while no-one ever used actual (tree) wood. I suspect it is too heavy, and likely has an issue with splitting along the grain when hit at the right angle.

EDIT: Brutally ninja'ed by warty goblin, although I'm encouraged to discover that my speculation was right on the money.

Grey Wolf

I think the demands of armor are sufficiently different than the demands of shields that one might well prefer different wood. A shield is often used extremely actively, and so can (indeed must) be quite light. It can get away with this because when used actively it shouldn't be taking direct hits all that often, but instead turns them aside. Also because an arrow sticking an inch through the inside of your shield is probably not a huge problem. An arrow sticking an inch through your armor is a much larger one.

Norse migration era shields for instance were generally made of linden/lime, which about the same thing as American basswood. I carve American basswood, and it's extremely soft stuff, very easy to cut. But it's a good choice for shields because it's light and has a very weak grain, and so is relatively unlikely to split when flexed. So when your shield gets slammed into, it will tend to bend without splitting apart. The same thickness of red oak, which is much harder (and heavier) is much more likely to split under the same impact.

But that same red oak, being harder, will be much more likely to keep an axe from getting into your favorite ribcage. Assuming the axe blade isn't parallel to the fibers, in which case it's pretty likely to split it apart, just like it would the basswood. Which is why you really want plywood.

[Lord Joeltion]

Whatever is local will probably be good enough. Look into what wood is used for shields, and use that: if it is good enough for shield, it is good enough for armour.

That said, if I were in that situation, I'd probably go with bamboo, since it was actually used, while no-one ever used actual (tree) wood. I suspect it is too heavy, and likely has an issue with splitting along the grain when hit at the right angle.

EDIT: Brutally ninja'ed by warty goblin, although I'm encouraged to discover that my speculation was right on the money.

Grey Wolf
I can tell from experience that the American variant of bamboo is indeed quite resilient. As long as it is a blunt metal weapon, it doesn't splinter from impact* (it does vs serrated or slashing weapons tho). So it's very difficult to break a stick from that wood with a similar metal stick. On the other hand, we played with sticks from that wood as kids (untreated wood), and they did splinter and break after a while when smacked together, which makes me think it also makes a better blunt weapon than metal (probably because of a more balanced weight).

I think most of the resilience comes from the slippery surface and the shape of the canes; but given magic available to reshape; you could probably miniaturize them to form organic "nanotubes" :smallbiggrin: Or you can try the previous advice too.

*This of course doesn't cover crushing it between two blunt things.

[Jackalias]

I'm gonna say ebony, Osage orange, or Olneya both for their hardness and visual appeal.

[Potato_Priest]

That said, if I were in that situation, I'd probably go with bamboo, since it was actually used, while no-one ever used actual (tree) wood. I suspect it is too heavy, and likely has an issue with splitting along the grain when hit at the right angle.

This is actually not strictly true.

I'd encourage you to look further into the heavy layered wooden armors made and worn by the Tlingit and Haida (native american groups of British Columbia). Their armor was (from russian accounts) capable of stopping musket balls at moderate ranges, and was indeed made from actual trees. One historic collar piece that I know of was carved from yew.

Unfortunately, information on the art is scarce, but what is available is quite interesting.

[Brother Oni]

I'd encourage you to look further into the heavy layered wooden armors made and worn by the Tlingit and Haida (native american groups of British Columbia). Their armor was (from russian accounts) capable of stopping musket balls at moderate ranges, and was indeed made from actual trees. One historic collar piece that I know of was carved from yew.

You beat me to mentioning the Tlingit.

The other type of wood armour I know of is rattan as used by various southern Chinese tribes in the early centuries AD. Records indicate it was woven into the required shape then repeatedly soaked in water and dried over a period of months before painting with oil and allowing to cure.
This led to a strong durable armour that enabled them to withstand the iron and steel weapons and armour of the more northern Chinese (particularly the Shu Kingdom). Unfortunately the oiled cured wood was apparently quite flammable and Romance of the Three Kingdom indicates Zhuge Liang ordering the use of fire against the various Nanman tribes, causing horrific casualties.

[Fri]

I never thought of that but yes. Woven, layered rattan should make decent armor, similar to how people can make armor from layered silk. I know south east asian tribes also wear woven rattan armor. If made from some sort of fantasy rattan, or woven using magic, it might make better ones?

[lunaticfringe]

Bamboo is a grass, rattan is a liana (a type of vine). Neither are wood, yup I'm that guy is this thread. Apologies.

[WarKitty]

What sort of technological era are we talking? Armor design is going to be very different depending on what kind of weapons you're facing.

It looks like historically, most wood armor was either some kind of slats or rods woven together, rather than carved into a hard breastplate. But it seems to only really have been a thing where metal weapons weren't. The trouble is that, even for peasants, generally leather was a superior material to wood.

[Fri]

Okay, here's idea then. Make tree bark into fibers/threads, then weave them into armor. Reinforce them with wood plating. With magic, or fantasy tree bark, maybe you can make some decent armor with that.

Does tree bark threads count as wood for this purpose :smalltongue:?

Heck, pretty sure the chinese had some sort of paper armor, made from layered paper, which IIRC mythbuster tested and actually is quite decent, but its effectiveness drastically reduced (or completely useless) when wet (so not sure how useful is it for this purpose then).

[Alent]

Heck, pretty sure the chinese had some sort of paper armor, made from layered paper, which IIRC mythbuster tested and actually is quite decent, but its effectiveness drastically reduced (or completely useless) when wet (so not sure how useful is it for this purpose then).

I've seen a different variation on this where an armorsmith used Lacquer to seal and bind the paper and cloth layers folded together, flat, so as to both waterproof it and make it function like regular scale mail. It stopped a crossbow bolt in testing, and the finished product looked pretty indistinguishable from leather. His technique was pretty neat- He folded it in alternating directions instead of newspaper style, which made it easier to shape than the Mythbusters' attempt.

I have doubts about whether or not it was historically accurate, but it was an interesting take from someone trying to figure out how historical Paper Armor looked and worked.

[Scarlet Knight]

Since this is fantasy/ magic, make it something that just sounds awesome... like "That's Pippen Oakenplate"!

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Beuken (https://translate.google.com/#nl/en/beuken)....

[GrayDeath]

If its supposed to be "realistic", the above suggestions cover that.

If he simply melds his form fitting Armor out of the best" Wood he has access to, I`d say one of the Iron Wood variants. he needs to magically lighten it or be really strong though, that stuff is HEAVY.

[Telonius]

Magically shaped, I'd probably go with Hornbeam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpinus_caroliniana). It's really hard to work with, so getting a real-world set of armor from it would be extremely difficult; but I wouldn't be surprised if the stuff could turn an arrow or a light sword-blow.

[OracleofWuffing]

Something tells me there'd be style points for using some of the more colorful kinds of petrified wood, but that same something tells me that the petrification process probably makes the material even less usable as actual armor.

[Knaight]

Being able to shape the wood like clay seems like a fairly major capability - starting with a bunch of random kneading can effectively remove the grain, and that's without getting into techniques like rolling the wood into small sections and connecting them end to end. That would effectively make all attacks go against the grain, while the grain acts a lot like a fiber. This makes woods that split really easily across the grain but that are fairly hard to cut across the grain much more viable.

The structure also lets you easily make shapes with wood that would otherwise be prohibitively difficult. Make the rings small enough and you can have wooden mail, and the odd thickness and stiffness there might even be helpful when dealing with blunt impacts.