How was armor manufacture in the past, with emphasis on older civilizations?

by TyHag

I saw a picture of some armor today on reddit. After some quick googling, I read that chainmail may have been invented as early as 800 B.C. Has armor always been manufactured in a "factory" like setting for the multitude of armies throughout history?

WARitter

You may be interested in some of my previous answers when it comes to the later Middle Ages and Early Modern period, especially my writings on Milan and on munition armour:

Manufacturing and Supplying the Armour of Weapons of a Late Medieval Army
From Ore to Harness: The Steps of Manufacturing Plate Armour
Why were Milanese armourers so successful?
The Armour Industry of Milan, contd.
Manufacturing Munition Armour
Two Podcast Episodes [About the armour industry]http://askhistorians.libsyn.com/webpage/askhistorians-podcast-083-the-european-armoring-guilds-and-people-1300-1600)