Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Full Steel Plate armor is made from steel and other softer irrelevant materials.

According to Wikipedia, Steel has a hardness of 4 to 4.5

So there you go. Also note that most metals are not very "hard", but they're "tough". The ability to bend and distribute pressure is much more valuable as protective armor. Being hit in an area with a blunt object ignores how 'hard' your armor is and pushes the pressure straight into your body.

Additionally, "hardness" is not related to brittlenes. This is why glass is harder than steel. Steel bends because it's meant to bend, but it still holds strong regardless.


One of the measures that you're looking for in armor is "toughness": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughness

A nice measure of this is "fracture toughness" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fracture_toughness) which is the toughness of a material before it breaks regardless of bending. If you notice, steel alloy is much much tougher than glass even though glass is harder.

Diamond has a toughness 7.5-10 MPa/m^2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond#Hardness). It's noted as being worse than many engineering materials, and it is. Diamond is used well as a cutting edge because it is very resistant to deformation; you want to keep that blade sharp and precise.

Long story short, gemstone armors are an awful idea if you want to prevent damage. Just made up rules and call it "magic".