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Amazon Maille
Sir Ulrich:
I used to make butted maille out of stainless steel wire, which my dad wouldnt let me make it from galvanized cause he said it was "toxic". Little did I know it was only toxic if you HEAT IT UP and breath in the fumes. I also made it out of copper but it often came apart and was too heavy, also I used a mini bolt cutter to cut them and they didnt butt together that well and came apart. I spent hours doing it to no avail, I got tired of doing it and decided to test it against some arrows, needless to say it went right through. I still didnt know ALL maille was riveted except in japan, but looking through my old files I saw a pic of wedge riveted maille I saved as long ago as 2005. I just was more of a "rennie" in those days and didnt care much for historical accuracy. I would be quite satisfied with maille I'd make myself but that I am saving for when I have the tools to do it which I probably should invest in soon. Making butted is good practice to make riveted though also it's better to make your own butted rather than buy the hauberk, at least with making sleeves, I think Sir Edward made his own butted aluminum maille and it was bingo wing free. Bingo winged maille is really an eyesore for me to be honest, especially with the longer sleeves, on short sleeves it's not nearly as bad looking.
My riveted hauberk is 17 gauge, my old one was 18 which seemed kinda thin for me. I am not sure what gauge my chausses are but I am guessing either 17 or 18. I have never made my own rings for riveted maille, but if I ever do I plan to use iron wire rather than steel and find out a way to make it historically dome riveted, rather than the double ended indian made dome rivet. Or I will just use wedge rivets because they're easy to make and rivet and they're fairly strong and still period for the century I am doing (late 13th early 14th).
For now I will just settle for having wedge riveted with solid punched links, which my hauberk is 9.5 MM 17 gauge, and my chausses are 8MM and my coif is 7MM. Still need to get hand protection though, my gambeson has those integrated mittens which I was planning on modifying my hauberk to have added mittens with leather palms, with the gambeson's mittens acting as the padding for my hands so I don't have to sew padding to the hauberk.
B. Patricius:
sounds fair enough Sir Ulrich. I found quite a few sites and references for making completely period mail. I heard the annealed rebar wire is fairly close to original in makeup. The trick has been finding that thin enough, everything I've found in local hardware stores is about 14 gauge or so. In the amount of time it takes, my "fakie" kit of mail I'm doing right now will take me, all of it, chausses, mittens, coif, etc about the amount of time it would take to make one leg of chausses in a period dome rivet. So for now, my kit is getting it assembled and looking good enough as a compromise. I know how to make period mail, I also know how long it takes, and I'm not happy with India's, or its pricetag
Sir Ulrich:
Mind linking to some of the stuff on how to make period riveted maille? I might be interested in trying it out once I get the tools.
Sir James A:
--- Quote from: Sir Ulrich on 2013-05-08, 03:57:01 ---Of course that problem can be remedied easily by having a canvas gambeson or splitting the hauberk to be a lace on like James Anderson's hauberk
--- End quote ---
Yes, it does help reduce the snagging while getting the mail off and on. The primary benefit of it is that it lets you put it on and off like a jacket, so you don't have to do the "mail dance" or have it bunching up on you as you pull it on overhead. I have a haubergeon split in front, and one that isn't, so it's easy to make direct comparisons on. I have a thread on here about leather edging the mail for ties once it's split, the pictures are outdated and from my hauberk, I did a haubergeon recently that I think is a better job, but the process is pretty much the same, I just used waxed linen thread instead of shoe laces.
B. Patricius:
--- Quote from: Sir Ulrich on 2013-05-08, 09:31:44 ---Mind linking to some of the stuff on how to make period riveted maille? I might be interested in trying it out once I get the tools.
--- End quote ---
So as not to hijack this thread, I'm starting a new one on recreating period riveted mail:
http://modernchivalry.org/forum/index.php/topic,2475.0.html
Sir James, any chance can you link your leather edging post to my thread I started up above? that'd be great!
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