Subject: chain mail

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 21 DEC 93 00:27:26 EST

dear gental   Yes i figure your from or hang areound the SCA.  I am both a
jeweler of sorts and a metal worker.  First let me say that chain mail has been
used by just about every metal working society in History including the metal
starved Japanies, and a
s late as the 1800's in Europe.  so what time period are you talking about. 
The split ring is authentick but you will allways be fixing it as times gose by
and is one of the forms that didnot survive as well.  The key ring form is
closest to the simple fo
rm of double link or triple link these are later developements in Europe and
I've heard that in the 1800's the quaddruple link would stop a musket ball. 
The problem was that the ball stoped in the middle of a persons chest taking
the chainmail with it.  y
ou could remove the chainmail from the corpse,wash it off and the chainmail was
fine undamaged.
Many cultures used a sericies of chainmail and plates allowing higher
protection to vital areas flexibilities to all the others.  You only had to
wory about someone with a heavy gauge ice pick planning to speradding the
links, which unsecured links will ea
sly do.  The best exaples of chainlink patterns out side of very specific texts
would be The encilopedia of jewelry making. or something like that it's the one
that retails for about $100.00.  If your going to use split rings I would
recomened that you do
what jewelers do for jump rigs slitly twist the ring apart then back together
after it's in place.  They don't try to pinch the rings closed like a crabs
claw.  The metals springeness will never allow for a complet closeur.
Also I have never seen to need to buy rings when you can buy metal spings or
wind the rings on a mandral and then cut them off aas needed most people in the
SCA know this trick.