Chain Mail

From Beerio’s Manual
Chain armor is great defense against cutting damage. If constructed properly, also offers a reasonable amount of protection against piercing damage such as from a spear or knife thrust.
The viking style of chain armor is recommended. Viking style armor consisted of flat rings (think of a washer) alternating with round ring types (think of a piece of metal wire in a simple loop) with padding underneath. (This will be explained in detail later when I have time to update the site)
Keep in mind that chain armor is useless against bullets and blunt trauma damage such as from a base ball bat.
A variation on chain armor is ring armor where the rings are sewed or glued directly on a cloth or leather backing.