What's the point of a firm leather cuirass?

[Erenussocrates]

If it requires more handicraft points to create and if it has less armor than regular leather cuirass and weights more than a regular leather cuirass?

[Snowskeeper]

Shouldn't have fewer armour points; how are you making that comparison?

[Erenussocrates]

And yet it has. I'm making the comparison based on the stats of the items in game

[gnewna]

Sounds like something is hinky in your game, then, in my game, firm leather is better than leather.

[Cutlass Jack]

Comparing a found Firm Leather Cuirass to a found Leather Cuirass, the Firm is absolutely more armor rating than the other. About 4pts better at my light armor skill.

However when I compare both recipes at the tanning rack, the normal Leather Cuirass gets a substantial jump in armor rating over the firm.

One possibility is that it could simply be a bug in the recipe. The other possibility is that because the Firm has a higher Handicraft requirement, its not benefiting as much from my skill as the lower req regular version. I'm guessing its the latter, since suits I craft have better numbers than found versions overall.