Heh. Yeah, Conan tended to wear a byrnie at least, whenever he could. There are many instances in the REH stories where 'knives broke upon the links of his mail' or 'spears bent on his armor', and in particular, Beyond Black River has Conan saying something akin to "If more borderers would wear harness, there wouldn't be so many skulls adorning Gullah's altar."
However, in true pulp fiction fashion, Conan is often depicted as being bare-chested for cinematic effect. I can live with it
