Subject: steel mesh/armor

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 96 12:49 CST

I've noticed a few individuals talking about making armor recently. Perhaps 
you can help me. 
I am trying to locate the steel mesh, for lack of a better description, which 
is commonly seen on armor outfits that would have been worn by knights (in 
movies, reenactments, etc.). It seems to be finely woven and often has a 
polished finished. It appears as if it contours whatever it lays upon. Am I 
making any sense?

If you know of a commercial source for this material, sizes, gauges, etc. I 
would appreciate  any info you can provide.

Jeff Reiter
Frankfort, IL
[email-masked]

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From: Ralph Snel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 1996 12:59:07 MET

> would appreciate  any info you can provide.
I made my mail from 2 mm (galvanised) wire, wound around a 10 mm bar. 20000
rings, with a total weight of 20 kg. I made a coif (the thing on your head)
from smaller rings, same wire but 8 mm bar (if I remember correctly, maybe
it was even 6 mm, but it springs out a bit after winding). This looks much
better and pretty close to the "real stuff", when used as prime protection.
_Under_ full suits of "plate" armour a much thinner version of mail was worn,
a shirt sometimes weighing less than 5 kg (I've seen these in a museum).

And then there's the stuff that you see in movies... It's knitted with a
special pattern, the thread is very thick, and once it's ready you spray-
paint a piece of paper with silver paint and push/rub the knitted stuff on
the paper. Like this the highest parts of the thread get silver painted, and
the rest stays gray. From a distance this looks like the real stuff, if you
don't know what the real stuff looks like in the first place. Else you
recognize it from a mile away.
(I've heard that you can order these knitted suits somewhere in England, and
that you shouldn't get them wet, or you can use them for a kid next time).

Ralph Snel
[email-masked]
Sweden