How fitted are your mail sleeves?

[Sir James A]

I just got done spending about 10 hours refitting my generic butted mail hauberk, and I think I have enough rings left over to make the 1/2 sleeves into full sleeves. The sleeves also have a LOT of space in them; with it on, they are over double the size of my arms.

How much slack is in your sleeves?

I've also noticed an odd triangular "gap" at the armpits where the mail doesn't connect at all. It's maybe 10 rings across. Is that for movement, or was it lazy assembly? I don't want to close it up and find out that I need it, I'm reallllly slow at working mail.

[Sir Edward]

My aluminum mail (the only hauberk I have that matters) has the sleeves tapered so that the slack at the elbow (where the sleeve ends) is probably about than an inch below my actual elbow when I hold my arm out straight. It tapers to that from a wider shoulder attachment. I have it sized for wearing fairly thin layers though. I'd have to widen it again if I start wearing thicker gambesons under it.

Basically my rule of thumb is that it's too tight if it inhibits bending your arm, so ideally you want just enough slack that it doesn't happen, but no more than that.

I left the armpits open on mine as well, but it was more laziness than anything. I could add a few rows of rings and close it up.

The armpit is hard to get right. You need some expansion patterns in there so that when you left your arms over your head, it can expand without pulling up the whole body of the hauberk. But not so much that it bunches up uncomfortably when your arms are at your sides. So they probably did it to more easily make it move properly without more complex tailoring.

[Sir William]

Sir James, congrats on a grueling job well done!  I was thinking about the gap in your armpits- you have a butted hauberk, right?  It has been my experience that in butted hauberks, you'll experience ring-loss at sections where movement is near-constant, mostly underarms and on occasion, elbows if you're especially active in that hauberk.  This happens because of the stretching that occurs when you move your arms, be it during dressing or drill- the rings will eventually separate, even the hardest ones (although mild steel being softer, this occurs more frequently for hauberks made of mild steel butted links) and you'll see gaps in those areas.

I need a fitted hauberk so I was flirting with the idea of getting a welded link hauberk as the one place that makes them does it to individual spec which would work out grand for me, provided I can afford it.