Subject: chain mail armour

From: [email-masked] (Steve Rayner)
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 1994 09:21:46 GMT

If you are looking for info on making chain mail, there is a book on
blacksmithing with a section on arms and armour.

Title:      The Art of Blacksmithing
author:     Alex W. Bealer
Publisher:  Funk & Wagnalls
Isbn:       0-308-10254-1

This book shows chain mail with riveted links.  The Norwich Castle Museum in
England has some fragments of medieval mail, but the join is invisible. 
Must be welded links, and the wire is obviously drawn due to its uniformity.
The rings are also uniform indicating that they were wound on a mandrell,
then cut & welded. 

Hope this helps those looking for information.
             
                               Steve Rayner.

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From: [email-masked] (Robert M Van Rens)
Date: 25 Sep 1994 20:13:26 GMT

Bealer's description of the design and patterning of mail is dead wrong;
instead of using a pattern of four rings in every ring, he uses a pattern of
four rings in some rings, and two rings in others...which leaves huge gaps
in the mail,allowing some bright boy to shove something pointy through these
huge gaps and make you hurt real bad...take a look at Bealer's illustration
and description, and then take a look at any decent peoce of European mail,
and you'll see what I mean...good mail has the appearance of being
"knitted", while Bealer's construction method looks like straight chains
linked together at every other link by a single link...an inherently weaker
constuction method.  LIke I said, for more information, contact your local
chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism...they will be thrilled to
help you out.  And they can give you visuals, and maybe even samples, which
is more than I can ovr the Net...

                   Robert Van Rens

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From: [email-masked] (william thomas powers)
Date: 26 Sep 1994 12:18:55 -0400

Steve Rayner writes:
I agree, Bealers' book says the links were riveted, but I have seen the real
thing, it was welded, and a superb job it was.  The links were so uniform
that a mandrell must have been used.
 
Steve, I to have seen mail in museums in 8 countries and handled original 
pieces several times; so far and MOST of them were riveted. some alternated
punched ring rows with riveted rows, a very few were just butted, japanese
mail was often multiple loop rings and some were welded.  There is no 
"real thing" there are examples from over 1000 years and most of the world
 
The problem with Bealer and most of the books written up to fairly recent
times is that most of the writers had not tried making large ammounts
of mail and so were working from their preconceptions on how it was
done.  Most of their methods will work; but are much harder and time
consuming than other methods that use the same or simpler technology
levels and can be documented by research on original pieces or shown
in original depictations of mail making.
 
Thomas Powers
Columbus, Ohio

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From: [email-masked] (Steve Rayner)
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 08:00:43 GMT

>in original depictations of mail making.

Well, none of the mail I saw was riveted, but this may have been a local
way of making it.  My experience with other early hand crafted things, ie,
old clocks and watches is that different methods were used in places less
than 40 miles away.  By " Real thing " I meant real medieval armour, not
modern reproductions.  I have seen modern mail with links 2 inches or more
in diameter made by a local person, and it looked silly.  The mail in the
Norwich Castle Museum is in a very shallow case, but I had no time to get
permission to examine it more closely.  On the other hand, it is possible
to rivet a scarf joint so that the rivet doesn't show. I have done a similar
thing with the small cable chain used as fusee chain in old watches.  Rather
than form a head on the pins, which were made from annealed sewing needles,
turned to diameter, they were expanded in the holes the same way as riveting,
and filed flush.

In any case I will not enter into a flame war over this, my only intent
was to share what I observed with others.  

-- 
                                Steve Rayner.