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Bone armor
Bone armor or shell armor is not a full suit, but rather several possible individual pieces that can be produced in a Craft Workshop by a dwarf with the bone carving labor enabled. As a rule, bone and shell armor is to armor made from any other material - a dwarf should rely on this only as a last resort, or for style points. But it's better than nothing - although bone and shell armour sucks, so do head, neck and internal injuries.
Although it is lighter, the difference in protection is usually too large to ignore unless speed is paramount - any very strong dwarf should not worry too much, and otherwise the loss in speed is still minor.
Bones and shells from different animals do not give different protection values, but, as with any armour, better quality improves protection.
There are 3 different pieces of armour possible with shell armour, and 1 additional with bone -
It takes 1 stack of bones (regardless of the size of the stack!) to produce any but the greaves, which takes 3 stacks. All have a base value of 15 except greaves, which have a base value of 30. (Unless you have a master Bone Carver and are using the shells/bones of a highly valuable animal, the difference in value produced is minimal, and greaves have a significantly higher protection value.)