Any noticeable difference in the way the rivets are set in your current maille compared to your 9 mil stuff? Are these pin rivets? I forget.
Comparing pin to pin, they seem very similar; a swelled shaft opposite of the head, not domed. I couldn't get any decent cell phone pictures to show a side-by-side of it. The only difference I can see so far is that the 6mm ones are, of course, smaller; I'd say 1/3 to 1/2 smaller sized dome rivets.
I think they anticipate losing some rings or rivets, and they sent a small baggy with what looks like 50 or so loose rings and rivets. It's not enough to tailor, and they did the basic tailoring before selling it, so I'm sure it's meant for maintenance.
Oh good thing I went with wedge then. I've had a lot of issues with IceFalcon's dome riveted, I wouldnt recommend that stuff if you want to keep your gambesons. Unless you use a leather buff coat or a canvas gambeson it will wear linen ones out in no time. The ring popping thing is because the rivet holes are punched and not peened to the point of becoming solid with the ring. MOST wedge riveted maille is peened to the point of being solid with the ring. Thus I can only really count like 5 rings on my wedge hauberk that are not peened properly. Thats part of the reason I went for wedge though I cant really speak for the dome riveted round ring with alternating flat punched ring allbeststuff maille but it could be different.
Wedge is great for 9mm. I haven't seen anywhere that offers 6mm wedge riveted. Cap-a-pie (
http://www.capapie.co.uk/) in Europe does offer 7mm wedge, but they don't offer hauberks with it, and they don't have any details on the faulds, not even the ring size. They do have 7mm wedge voiders, and I may get some mail from them in the future.
I've had 9mm round ring riveted from IceFalcon and GDFB, mild and stainless too. IceFalcon and GDFB both have some poorly set rivets here and there, but I'd only lose a ring or two a season. Part of that may be because I didn't wear the haubergeon much due to weight and only wore a fauld. I've lost no rings from the fauld in 3 years (IceFalcon 9mm stainless pin).
My linen Revival arming coat is hanging in there pretty well, it has blown out one seam in the back of the shoulders but that's internal thread failure and 3 seasons worth of faire wear and all of our combat demos too. There are different weights of linen, maybe Revival uses a heavier one? The other thing that can tear with pin rivets is that mail is counter-intuitive. Wear the nice dome head side *inside* and the peened ones *outside*. This leaves the smooth heads facing inwards and reduces snagging; it may not eliminate it, but it'll at least reduce it.
I think I've worn the 6mm haubergeon more this year alone than the 9mm over a few years, because the 6mm sleeves flow and move MUCH better under later period plate than the 9mm do. Overall usage might be part of it. The other part, I think might be due to the tapered / tailored sleeves; it's right on the cusp of being too small. I need to get the elbow "baggie" tailored in at some point, since it pulls when I flex inward fully, but the haubergeon was meant to be a stop-gap until my voiders that I ordered 9 months ago arrive. The 9mm that I tailored, I cheated by chopping a triangle out of the upper arm, and using lacing to bring it in tight after it's on, since the spaulders / pauldrons would cover it anyway.
Well, less than a full season worth on this, and I have *lots* of rivets blown out. Only spotted one or two missing rings from a quick once-over, but wow, the missing rivets. Easily 50, maybe more.
Now, this was not just wearing it to faire, but fighting in it a few times too. Yesterday I got tossed like a wet monkey while wearing it too, so I certainly have not been gentle with it. It does seem to lose many more rivets than my 9mm did, but the 9mm is a different maker, so it's apples and oranges. I don't know if the difference in it is due to ring size or build quality between different makers... but be prepared for some maintenance with this.
Strange, none are missing from my hauberk.
Naythan, I believe yours is 9mm, right? It is probably the combat that tends to cause ring failure unless they are set poorly. I did a couple days of combat with steels last week and I think that definitely helped break a few rings when the idea of armored combat is thrusting at the mail.
