Back before Age of Shadows hit in 2002, when it was a single Armor Rating instead of five different resists, scale mail was crafted with ingots and scales, and the Armor Rating it conferred was related to the ingots used, in addition to some bonuses dependent on the color scales used. (I think I remember green helped resisting the spell Poison, and blue with individual Lightning spells. Can't remember any others with any authority.) When the combat revamp hit, the value of scale mail (dragon armor) was hit, mightily. For the past 10ish years, it has existed almost exclusively as a ceremonial armor.
Would be nice if someone decided to make it worth the effort to craft once again.