Dark Knight

[Bloodclaw]

P.S.S. Metal armor was actually very common in the Roman era. Mail armor (lorica hamata) was standard issue for heavy infantry (you wouldn't want to put much armor on light infantry) and plate armor (lorica segmentata) was basically the choice of anyone who was looking to spend money on armor.

Yes, I brain farted. I was thinking Greek Spartan period.

[Kitru]

Yes, I brain farted. I was thinking Greek Spartan period.

Sparta has been in Greece for about as long as Greece has been Greece. "Spartan period" makes absolutely no sense.

Even then, assuming you're referring to either Classical and Ancient Greece, bronze armor was in common use and was only supplanted by the glued linen armor because of weight considerations, not due to the rarity of metal itself. Still, the glued linen was remarkably resilient and wouldn't simply cave immediately under any kind of cutting force (else what's the point of wearing it in the first place).

At no point was the sharpening of shields actually performed for much the same reason that the Roman scuta weren't sharpened: hoplons were too big to be wielded as cutting weapons, and those shields small enough to be used as weapons would not have benefited from sharpening the outer edges because a blunt edge works just fine for the purpose and doesn't hinder the functionality of the shield itself (by increasing weight and decreasing structural integrity).