Originally Posted by
kikix12
Yes. But there are several locations around the stomach where attacks are not likely to be lethal (other than from bleeding out), or at least can be treated (and this also applies to fantasy medieval times, at the very least). Because of that, in tandem with the stomach absolutely needing to have freedom of movement of a certain degree, the armor actually does not protect it as well (hence the gaps and the open bottom of the "dress", despite there being some more armor underneath, yes).
For similar reasons (freedom of movement) neck, a very vital area that can lead to very fast death from even reasonably small damage, was not as well protected as chest or head. Because it is imperative for the head to be able to move, there were gaps in the plate armor in the area of the base of the neck where people actually very often attacked. You saw ever in a movie swordsmen holding their own swords blade leaving only a small tip with which they attacked?! Yeah, that's the way people used swords to aim for the gaps in plates, mainly for the neck area.
Yeah. Except I'm not sure why you wrote all of this since it's the same thing as I did. Except instead of comparing sword to a kitchen knife (a larger blade to a smaller blade), you're comparing kitchen knife to a letter opener (again, larger blade to smaller blade). We could go further down and say that you'll have a better luck with awl than with a letter opener cause awl is even thinner and longer. But what's the point?!
If you believe that a sword can pierce armor in a stomach, you should believe a kitchen knife (which is thinner), a letter opener (even thinner) and awl to do the same.