Custom Chainmail

[Sir Ulrich]

That looks nice, as well tailored to the arms as I did mine with just enough room for flexibility. Probably even a better job than mine now that I come to see how closely fitted it is. Maybe one day I will commission my own maille from this, not in a rush for it now cause my current one fits but once I get bigger probably will. Looks better than allthebeststuff's tailoring job.

[Sir Nate]

The Mail Looks Perfect!
Makes me wonder if allbeststuff does mail tailoring, I know they can alter stuff before shipping it, But if they will take someones hauberk and then do it. Im sure they would but then again the shipping would probably be well over 100 dollars.

[Ian]

Custom Chainmail builds the shirt to your measurements, they don't alter an existing shirt afaik.

[Sir Nate]

Custom Chainmail builds the shirt to your measurements, they don't alter an existing shirt afaik.

That makes sense

[Sir William]

I can't imagine that ABS is altering existing shirts as well, but it isn't beyond the scope of believability.  I'll know soon enough.

[Sir Douglas]

So what's the weight on that? I imagine proper tailoring would shave off a little bit of weight as well. At least, compared to off-the-rack stuff.

[Ian]

So what's the weight on that? I imagine proper tailoring would shave off a little bit of weight as well. At least, compared to off-the-rack stuff.

18 lbs, but I need to trim the skirt back about 5 inches.

[Sir Douglas]

Wow, that's not bad at all. I was figuring at least 20.

[Sir Wolf]

nice

[Eva de Carduus Weald]

Okay I am officially drooling for my own one of those here. Being 5'2" and 117.6 pounds means that it won't take too terribly much to put together in comparison to some of the ones I have seen about but I have no idea on how well plate works with mail, so this is great. Thanks for the post!

[Ian]

Okay I am officially drooling for my own one of those here. Being 5'2" and 117.6 pounds means that it won't take too terribly much to put together in comparison to some of the ones I have seen about but I have no idea on how well plate works with mail, so this is great. Thanks for the post!

Eva, for my period of interest wearing plate and maille is a requirement.  If you have well fitted maille, it will not inhibit the proper function of the plate.  It also requires the plate be made to fit you properly while wearing the maille.  You can see my plate harness in my avatar picture.  Under all that plate is a full shirt of maille like you see at the top of my original post.  But for all of this to work well together you have to start from the outside in; that is good arming garments fitted to you, maille fitted to that, plate fitted to the combination of that etc.

[Don Jorge]

Okay I am officially drooling for my own one of those here. Being 5'2" and 117.6 pounds means that it won't take too terribly much to put together in comparison to some of the ones I have seen about but I have no idea on how well plate works with mail, so this is great. Thanks for the post!

Eva, for my period of interest wearing plate and maille is a requirement.  If you have well fitted maille, it will not inhibit the proper function of the plate.  It also requires the plate be made to fit you properly while wearing the maille.  You can see my plate harness in my avatar picture.  Under all that plate is a full shirt of maille like you see at the top of my original post.  But for all of this to work well together you have to start from the outside in; that is good arming garments fitted to you, maille fitted to that, plate fitted to the combination of that etc.

That is the best advice I ever got...Soft Kit, Arming Garments, Mail, then Plate...build it like an onion...that way you can adjust and measure properly!

[Sir Nate]

Agreed to the above.
Eva-
I purchased butted mail, then padding, some plates, and ended up with a nice looking kit. But plenty inaccurate to history and a waste of money.
Even my current avatar picture is the butted mail.
For a hauberk you can have a custom make, which would be the best option.  But you can look around sites like allbeststuff.com for mail you like(but make sure to find the type of mail that suits your century)
I will stress getting a soft kit first, then arming garments.
Also
There are two types of mail makes,
Riveted and butted.
Butted is cheaper, no historical, and the rings are butted together and can be pushed apart. It would fail miserably of tested in combat.
Riveted is where the mail rings have rivets put into each ring and then a pin(wether or not that is or is also called the rivet I am unsure) holds the ring together.
There are more variations of ring shapes and rivet types for mail. It is debated what different types are more accurate for different century's.
I don't know the type Of mail used for 14th century, but here are some mail types I know.
Domed ringed-rings are round
Flat ringed-rings are flat
Integrated- rings alternate from solid rings to rings with the rivets
Alternating - rings alternate from flat to round riveted rings
Other terms are full domed riveted
Round rivets(the rings pin is a rounded rivet)
Wedge rivets(the rings pin is a triangle)
Some call hauberk a that are non alternating "Full"
Like full domed ring hauberk.
Types of hauberk a will usually say something like this
Integrated, flat ring, wedge riveted hauberk.
There is also preference to what is better flat rings or domed, and round rivets and wedged riveted.
Btw. Hauberk is a mail shirt that can go down to ones knees and be full sleeved.
And haubergeon is short sleeved. (Men not as wealthy as others would buy haubergeons because they are less mail, therefore more affordable.

Please anyone correct me if I am mistaken on certain terminology.

[Ian]

Please anyone correct me if I am mistaken on certain terminology.

Well, you asked for it

Butted maille did exist historically.  There are ancient examples but in order to be effective in combat butted rings must be made from very heavy gauge wire.

Terminology as used by the retailers -

Maille is broken up by ring type, rivet type, and sometimes patterning

Ring Type -
  Round - Round rings are standard rings made from bent wire. 
  Flat - Flat rings are more like a washer.  In period round rings were whacked with a hammer to flatten them out.  It increases their strength by making them much more resistant to bursting open.  Modern flat rings are manufactured differently for practical reasons and are similar but not quite like real flattened medieval rings. 

Rivet Type
   Dome or Pin - Round headed rivets with a pin shank that secures the ends of the rings together
   Wedge - tiny little triangles of steel or iron compressed in to the drifted hole where the edges of the ring overlap.  The advantage to modernly manufactured wedge rivets are that they are much nicer to underlying clothing layers and it doesn't get caught on itself as easily as pin riveted.

Patterns -
    All riveted - every ring is riveted (period for a lot of the 14th century)
    Alternating - every other row of rings is riveted, the in between rows are solid rings that require no rivet (like a solid washer or uncut ring)

Material
     Mild steel - soft steel, will rust, requires maintenance and oiling
     Stainless steel - obviously not period, but they do a good job of making look like normal steel - virtually maintenance free


Period and status will dictate the type of garment, be it a short sleeved, mid thigh length garment, or a long sleeved, knee-length garment etc.
   

[Eva de Carduus Weald]

Wow thank you all for the information. I didn't even realize there were that many types of mail out there. What style rings were most common to 14th c?

I think that is a great idea to start from the inside and work out. I am beginning to come up with a plan, it is one that will take a very long time to come to fruition but that gives me time to research . Everyone here has such awesome advice! Thank you guys so much for sharing, I might actually end up looking like a real fighter at some point even if I never draw sword!