Chainmail - some points about
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- In which I ramble for a bit making a series of near-random points about chainmail, or mail, or whatever you prefer to call it.
There is much on mail on my website. Please check there first before writing to me asking questions on this topic.
www.LloydianAspects.co.uk
"It stops you dying." Probably the most important one.
Get a knife and try to stab through a piece of paper that is free-hanging.
Bodkin arrows would stick in when striking at shallower angles, yes, but there still comes a point when they zing off, and a shallow angle would cause the arrow to swerve and not transfer the full weight of the shaft into the target. Yes, we have reason to believe that bodkin arrows were designed to improve the performance of arrows against mail, which is a further bit of evidence that mail was good against arrows.
0:15 "When I say mail, it just refers to some armour of some sort"
Nah mate, 99% of the population thinks of either their email inbox or the post office.
Sorry to revive a post more than a decade old, but I wonder about arrows glancing off of mail like that. I mean, surely, there is a degree to which sloping, even when your armor is fundamentally made of a series of overlapping cylinders, as far as the arrowhead is concerned, would certainly improve protection in much the same way it does when using proper plates.
However, when your arrow is approaching such an array of overlapping iron rings even at a very steep angle, how much opportunity would it really have to glance off? Assuming the rings have circular cross sections, would it really matter which angle the arrow is coming in at? An impact striking a ring--rather than passing through the middle of it, I mean--should, I imagine, have a roughly equal chance of glancing upward or downward, at which point the tip of the arrow should be caught in the center of that ring or by one of its neighbors. So, rather than skipping off entirely, I imagine an arrow--and really almost any piercing weapon, to be honest--would be quite likely to stick into the mail even on very oblique hits.
Perhaps this is why thrusting and piercing attacks were one of mail's weaknesses as armor (relatively speaking, of course, though I suppose percussive impacts were its weakest area by far).
I should clarify a bit: When I say piercing and thrusting was a relative weakness of mail, I'm not imagining that it was at all incapable of stopping piercing, thrusting attacks. It was quite effective, to be sure. I just mean that where mail was about as good as you could ever hope to get against cutting attacks, piercing attacks could, indeed, stick in and force a ring or two open and piercing that way. It was by no means easy to do, but I feel like mail was still a bit more vulnerable to that than it was to an attacker simply trying to slice through it.
the best thing about these videos is, that they never get out ot date : )
+Angebissener Steinkopf. Well technically they were out of date 700 years ago :)
+John Nemo make it six bitch
***** it was a rhyme
6 time travellers and 0 who watch South Park (aside from yourselves ofc). Interesting crowd Lindybeige has!
+Terry Ghast I do find it odd. Because of it, I find myself in a perpetual state of awe.
I had a hilarious idea watching this. Lacquer a few dozen envelopes, glue them all together, and you now have mail mail.
Then you could have a male mail man in mail mail delivering mail to other males in mail mail.
if you glue lots of 2.7182 together you can get an e-mail.
you just destroyed my brain, my children are helping me collecting the pieces...
NO! AIDAN! NO! DON'T EAT IT!!!!!
I enjoyed this far too much.
Josh Adams
Or staple them together and you get Chain Mail.
Yes, there are numerous records in both Christian and Muslim chronicles about knights struck with multiple arrows but kept on fighting because their armor protected them. It must have been a demoralizing sight for their enemies, to see their most celebrated weapon, the bow and arrow, having no apparent effect on the knights.
Charles W They wouldn't have had much effect on infantry equipped with large shields, so it wouldn't have been a new experience for the archers. In fact the whole arrow-resistant cavalry thing had been know as far back as the Roman empire as similar things were written about Eurasian cataphracts. You wouldn't expect every arrow to kill or even wound someone, same as bullets in modern warfare. I suspect it was even more demoralising to be equipped only with melee weapons and having to keep weathering repeated showers of arrows with no way to respond and hoping none found a gap in your protection.
Scotland Forever ...unless you count the parthians.
Scotland Forever I believe Marcus Crassus would disagree with you there.
It was even worse for the Turks at the battle of Nicopolis when the French knights had plate armour which was just beginning to come into its prime over their mail. They charged straight in without support and blew through the Turkish horse archers until they found themselves facing a row of stakes behind which was the Turkish infantry composed mainly of archers. They were under a shower of arrows but unlike the English bodkins, Turkish arrows were not made to face armour that good and the French knights dismounted and sent their horses back, ripped out the stakes, marched through and slaughtered the Turkish infantry. Less than a thousand men nearly routed the Turkish army through the sheer force of their advance. But atfter defeating the infantry and some cavalry, they trudged up a hill in full plate, thinking the battle was over, and the Turkish elites, the Seven Regiments and Bayezid's household guard ambushed them and those they had previously defeated returned to the fight on the sides so they were surrounded and slaughtered.
Unfortunately "Chainmail" is less ambiguous than you might hope. If someone who isn't really into this sort of thing asks me what I do for hobbies, and I reply "I like to make chainmail," they generally look at me strangely and ask "As in 'forward this to 15 people or your genitals shall wither and your dog will get by a bus' chain-mail?"
Greg Bezanson Then call it "ringmail" since they are rings after all. :P
Greg Bezanson Are you the nigerian prince?
Greg Bezanson If someone makes such a reply I would argue you are well within your rights to look down your nose at them distastefully :P
Greg Bezanson Chain mail armor?
Zypofaeser Almost good, except sometimes I make other things out of chainmail too.
Dear Lloyd!
Actually, wearing chainmail in winter actually helps you staying warm! You just have to remember the layer to wear on TOP of the armour. Thin linen or silk or cotton will do. but a more sturdy garment works best. It turns the mail into a thermostatic layer, (iow, it insulates you) keeping you cozy and warm...
I know this from experience. We have REAL winters here. Down to minus 25 C at times, not just barely touching zero, and wearing chain mail helped keep me suffering from hypothermia quite a lot.
Insulation works with materials that have low thermal conductivity. Metal has high thermal conductivity. The fact that you require a layer on top of the armor proves how useless the armor itself is for insulation. The top layer has to insulate the armor from the cold air so that it doesn't conduct all your body heat away from you.
It makes sense, though, in much the same way as a wetsuit. The maille serves to create another air gap between the insulating layer and your skin. It also increases the thermal mass of the insulated system. Instead of having a tiny bit of air held at body temperature, there's a tiny bit of air and 30 pounds of steel to fend off a strong draft.
I theorize that it conducts heat between warmer and cooler areas of your body when kept behind the actual insulation- thus you feel warmer.
Zathaghil dude it's 7 years old... (the video)
He could have not know. Also the comment is still helpful to people browsing today
If you make your mail out of iron, do you then have fe-mail?
No, you have fe-maille ;P
ForgottenSix But only if your trying to be all ye- olde and pretentious
I envy the man that has that :)
+Satan dat puns!!!
opmdevil that was really bad.
I think youre the first person ive heard, that agrees with me on the point that chainmail is incredibly relaxing to just handle. I love the feeling of mail in my hand. On one hand its cold and hard as steel is, but yet its still soft and bendy....... my wife thinks im nuts when i sit and "fondle" a bit of mail. I even tried giving some to her, but she seemed rather unimpressed.
A friend of mine makes chainmail bikinis which have been a hit in certain areas of society. I think he tried to make half as well but they were less popular.
"my wife thinks im nuts when i sit and "fondle" a bit of mail" Hahahaha, you remind me so much of me.
I had the exact same reaction the first time I handled it! I couldn't stop working it over in my hand, it was so comfortable. I used to know a girl that liked to strip naked and cover her body in chain mail because of the way it felt.
I want chainmail as classroom fidgets,
@@CraftQueenJr only downside is that they make your hands dirty quickly :/
But you can make aluminium/copper/non-ferro metal rings and still fondle with it
=( am i the only one who didint suspected at all that he was wearing one?
i think it was unsuspectingism....yeah its racism for people that were unsuspecting!
So, extra weight, good heatsink, no movement obstruction plus you look cool.
That would be great for working out.
Just don't wear it out in the sun.
You work put my Lord?
@@azh698 yes people will stare. Quite uncomfortable. :-D
and all the knight in the old world probably sent each other chain mails in their free time for kicks
took me a sec. :D
Imagine a knight, full of arrows, is running at you seemingly uninjured with intent to kill. That’d be truly terrifying.
14 years later, this pops up on my feed. TH-cam forgot I watched it when it came out. Nice to see it holds up to this day.
Oh yeah, and it stops you from dying! Almost forgot that one :P
One important point to making (chain) mail easier on your shoulders: wear a belt, bunch up the mail slightly, and your hips will carry a lot of the weight. Which is what they're good at.
I do find the weight and movement of mail on the arms gets in the way of fighting, but with real weapons the difference was probably small enough compared to the weapon's weight that it didn't matter. A poorly constructed armpit would definitely get in the way of high swings and blocks.
@paperboard1 People did not layer armour much, except to add padding to hard materials. If stronger armour were wanted, they wore one thicker layer rather than two thinner ones that would take twice as long to put on.
Actually, those who insist on calling it "maille" should pronounce it like \mɑj\, not "mail". The word "maille" designates an element of a treillis, net, lattice or knitted fabric.
It does now, at least.
In Braveheart, there is one shot in which the King of England raises his arm and you can see that even the King has exposed armpits.
As a martial artist living in New England, who actually loves to fight in the dead of winter, I can assure you that wearing chainmaille in the winter is not a problem. Because of all that padding, it actually very effectively keeps you warm, despite the fact that you are wearing a hauberk. Also, a surcoat is invaluable during the winter - it helps to keep you warm and makes you look spiffy too!
Also, an interesting side effect of a good suit of chainmaille is, its known to attract the lasses!
Ok so....I've watched many of your videos and I can safely say you are now my favorite history teacher
@seoden It protects you against mail that has heated in the sun, which could scorch the skin.
Seeing this makes the point of how ancient craftsmen were a lot more knowledgeable then we give them the credit for. These were people who put a lot of thought into their work regarding it's usefulness in combat including it's functionability and comfort to the wearer. We often don't think about it in our modern times that they would have made things functionable.
Mithril is a fantasy metal which supposedly is very light and strong. The mail armour Frodo wears on The Lord of the Rings is described as saving him from a thrown spear in a fight, which is perfectly possible. In the Jackson film, however, we see a tree-trunk sized spear rammed into him by a gigantic monster, and he would have been killed anyway by the sheer impact.
I used to make chain mail. Mine were just rings plied together. I see examples of them being riveted together. It seems the way to go but, my god, how much time!
Yes, rivets are what you want for accuracy and efficacy.
You remember about how many labor hours it took to make butted. Now multiply by four. Once you've got your technique down.
The thing I love about these videos is that the only way you can tell what era it’s from is by the camera quality. A video from 5 years ago looks almost the same as a new video. It’s quality
No they did not have holes under the arms. For some reason, people making mail get scared by the complexity of the armpits. I didn't find it tricky when I tried. I have a page on my website about the armpits on mail shirts.
Depends on the context. In wargame rules, it could just refer to the amount worn, so "heavy" might mean covering the legs and with full length sleeves. Mail does vary in wire thickness quite a lot, and there are denser patterns of mail, such as six-in-one rather than the usual four-in-one. "Double mail" is sometimes used to describe mail with wire so thick that it overlaps a lot more. Such mails were rare and often very late - double mail was a response to firearms that was not successful.
Some revisionist points about this for all yall.
Keep in mind that this is butted, round right chainmail. The chainmail worn by knights and vikings and warriors and such was largely flat-ringed, riveted mail. In scotland and ireland it appears that the rings were round,but they were still riveted and as such the rings have restricted movement.
While I don't agree that vikings fought with straight arms, I own such a long-armed riveted mail hauberk, and the stuff is actually quite rigid and it catches easily on itself, it does restrict movement to a degree. Taking high-armed sword swings becomes quite difficult with the weight of the armor and its rigidity.
Museum pieces are also not an accurate representation of weight, their rings have worn down considerably (the armor is compromised and unwearable), the mail itself is of abnormally high quality, and it is all of a rather recent make, not of the quality of early medieval chainmail; which generally explains why it has lasted so long.
@TOMHYLE88 Yes, thick padding is stiffer than chainmail. The stab vests are super-dense cloth.
My website has the details. The URL is in the description for this video.
It's symmetrical, it's just that it's noncommutative symmetry,.
+Sal sean no, it’s just not symmetrical
Mr. Dapper
It discuss symmetry. It is symmetrical.
Sal sean it discuss symmetry? i don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but chainmail just isn’t symetrical
Mr. Dapper
Typo.
It has a symmetry.
+Sal sean it has translational symmetries, not rotational symmetries (well maybe 180 degrees rotational symmetry). Nevertheless, the word isotropic describes it better than symmetrical. It isn't isotropic.
Some armour had plates with holes around the edge for attaching to mail. the mail would be in between the plates, not behind /under them. With gothic field plate, the knight would have mail patches sewn to his padded leather suit worn under the armour, where the gaps in the plate were.
@CantStopTheMadness1 Riveted mail is a LOT more expensive, though. Aluminium mail is made for lightness (for actors etc.), so avoid that. If the ends of the wire rings come to a chisel-like point, because they've been clipped with wire cutters, avoid. Fancy modern coatings on the wire - avoid. If you cannot lift the entire shirt by one ring without that ring's bending - avoid. Rings that are large are best avoided (say, above 12mm internal diam).
Possibly the reference is to the total thickness of mail plus the padding worn with it.
One really significant advantage that should be mentioned is that once you have the wire, chainmail can easily be be made and repaired by unskilled workers. So even though it's rather time-consuming to make, that can more than be made up for by having everyone in the village on the job assembling sections of mail while a couple of blacksmiths work on cranking out the wire.
Still another big advantage is that since mail has some give, you don't have to custom fit it to each individual like you do with plate armor.
So, bottom line is that you can equip every last soldier with the stuff as long as you have the ability to smelt ore.
Pincushion Crusader is gonna be my new 2003 Xbox gamer tag.
The heat sink effect is not so noticeable if the mail is in direct sun. My mail is tailored with many expansions and contractions (see my website). The rings are 6mm internal diameter and about 9mm external, so that makes the wire about 1.5mm thick.
Mainly dinner parties, gymkhanas, knitting circles, that sort of thing.
"I think ive said enough for one video" well times change :D
I still prefer the short videos. Even tho i end up watching more than few hours i just feel better that at least it was 10 videos not 2
JnnyUtah35 said ""Go to my website, you'll find advice on how to make chain mail armpits" - I don't know why I had to repeat that... I think that's just a sentence I never would have thought possible in the history of the English language"
And I wanted to like that post, but I can't because google+ SUCKS ARSE.
40Kfrog nooooooob
@frost2021 Generally no. There is a misconception that this happened because people see mail in the armpits and such like gaps in the plate. Actually, though, those bits of mail were patches attached to a padded suit worn under the plate. Some small plates for things like knees and shoulders were added over mail for a while as knights gradually made the transition from ail to plate. Mail under plate is very inefficient. Better just to have thicker plate.
Something I noticed whilst using your site's guide to making chainmail: You suggest using a pair of sidecutters or a hacksaw, but I have found a way to quickly amass a large amount of rings.
Take a 1.5 cm or 1 cm diameter wooden rod and wrap the wire around it as many times as you can, exactly like a spring. Then, grip the dowel-with-wire in a vice and take an angle grinder down the length of it. Once you have taking the grinder to the end, simply run your hand down the rod (after it has cooled down of course) to harvest the rings.
oh, another thing I thought of: Instead of making the latten rings from a completely different metal, why not simply dip them in copper sulphate? It will cover them in a layer of copper that will look good without weakening the maille
buy copper sulphate powder, dissolve it in water and dip the steel in is what I did. The replacement reaction is near instant and completely safe. You can pick copper sulphate up at a chemist, or at least you should be able to. I wish I had a drill press, apparently it makes making riveted mail a dream
It should. Hell, if you do it to galvanised and scrape the copper off you should get plain, ungalvanised steel
This guy is so wholesome. Is legitimately into this kind of stuff
Possible, but it isn't the ideal, nor what they did. Metal armour was layered with padding, not with other metal armour. Mail was used to cover gaps like the armpits on suits of plate, but it was patches of mail on a padded leather suit. If they wanted more protection from p[late, they'd just make the plate stronger. Putting mail under plate would be noisy and cumbersome.
A Brit who says, "different from"! You *are* a rare bird. I truly enjoy your eclecticism.
Early plate armor was worn over maille. The Churburg armor is probably the best example of this. Eventually, maille was reduced to just being sewn into the joints of padding (the armpit and elbow) to protect places that plate armor couldn't.
I believe I can add slightly to the heat sink point. I have worn chain mail while working at a forge (all windows and doors open in the dead of winter because it gets so stinking hot in there) and just walking around in snow. Mail has a very extensive surface area which loses heat very rapidly. Because of this, yes, exposed mail in the winter can suck all the body heat out of you and kill you, and even a small exposed edge can feel as cold as suddenly grabbing an iron bar that was left out in the snow. However, as long as it is well covered, mail doesn't have this problem. Wearing a winter coat with mail underneath really isn't any different from wearing a winter coat without armor, except of course now you're more resistant to damage. You just need to prevent the cold air from reaching the mail, particularly wind. The same is true of heat: strong heat sources (even the sun in warmer climates) can be devastating on exposed mail, which can get as hot as sand at the beach that burns your toes. But if the mail is covered, the heat doesn't get through, and the mail doesn't heat up until you do. To top this off, even the slightest breeze cools the mail incredibly fast (remember, you were trying to prevent wind in the mail in winter), which allows a unique feature. Simply grabbing the end of your coat and fanning it cools a huge part of your mail, achieving in seconds what an air conditioner might take minutes to replicate. I found when I was working the forge, I hugely preferred to wear my winter coat all through the session, with mail underneath, over wearing a T-shirt. Exposed skin felt like it was baking when I approached the forge, which the insulated coat prevented, and when I took a breather to cool off while the metal heated up, the mail made these breaks more effective in less time. This is a huge weather advantage over plate which basically amplifies both heat and cold conditions and can't be covered by normal clothing that is maybe a size or two larger than normal.
I love that even the old videos teach me so much!
3 questions:
1: What is the pattern of your Chainmail?
2: What kind of rings is your chainmail made of? (Butted, welded, riveted etc.)
3. What steel is your chainmail made of?
I am curious about the craft to just faif around while my weekend grinds on for work.
A man on the Armour Archive reported that, when he was at SCA Gulf Wars in the USA, he got a bit shivery when a cross breeze hit him. He was wearing a byrnie with a horsehair padded linen gambeson underneath. It was 90'F & 85% humidity. He was rather please at the effect. My personal favorite bit of armour is my 3 layer linen gambeson. It's so awesome for wearing while in armour in the heat of a Nevada summer.
You got mail
*chain mail
I'm really fun at parties :D
Ring mail*
What's hate mail made of?
it's made of i-got-no-life alloy xD
+GiacomodellaSvezia Tears, lots and lots of Tears
Dude I once met once carried chainmail under his regular clothing when he went to a mock-protest to train riotpolice. Boy were the riotpolice surprised that their batons did nothing against him. (Didn't work against tackles).
+Lawrence Tider Chainmail is not gonna do anything against being hit by a baton. If anything, it just makes it worse as the metal get's pushed into yourself. More so if you're wearing it *under* your clothes. I have a feeling you are making this up.
+TheDeathRises Chainmail isn't worn on the skin. Chains spread the blow over the entire body.
Lawrence Tider You said he wore it under his clothes.
+Lawrence Tider Ya man you need something like a gambison. All the mail can do is stop cuts, not blows.
+Lawrence Tider How does Chainmail react to a Tazer?
It stops you from dying:D
That is quite useful feature in armor.
I love how that was the last point
Doesn't work in movies
Almost forgot that fact!
There's something nice and awfully nostalgic about videos like these
I've found that if you don't go with the two L's and the E, people often confuse it with chain letters.
Its also useful for search indexing. Try googleing for mail vs maille, and see what you come up with.
I really don't have any preference as to which is more 'proper', but having gone by both chainmailkid and chainmaillekid for more than 10 years, I can distinctively say maille communicates much more clearly.
I have been doing a lot of experimentation for chain mail for industrial purposes lately. I am finding that small ring chain mail like that does not constrict movement of the shoulders, but it does constrict movement of the elbows. The mail on the inner part of the elbow lock each other up and do not allow full bend of the elbow. I will keep working at it to make a better design.
Noel Craig Sorry, "expansion and contraction rings" only makes sense to me in the context if chemistry, and I do not believe that is what you meant.
4 in 1 was enormously more common, and most of the 6 in 1 stuff I've seen has been fancy for the sake of it. It is less flexible, harder to make, and heavier. You can make mail more protective simply by making the wire thicker.
OR making the links SMALLER.
Example: 3/8ths inch inside diameter down to 1/4 inch diameter.
Makes the mail about 20-30 percent denser. Also ups the WEIGHT of the mail by several pounds
I do have riveted mail, but the shirt I wear in this video is not.
The tomb, I believe, though commonly referred to as his, is merely assumed to be his from the fact that its date is about right and it is very rich. Yes - Phil the Second, Alex's dad.
10+ years of my man on TH-cam. My only wish is that I found him earlier, because the content has been ace since the start.
I read archaeology at uni. While there, I was also part of a re-enactment group, but the academic course was not in re-enactment.
Plate armor made to fit the wearer does not slow him down much. But you'd still wear bits and pieces of chain mail to cover the gaps in the plate suit, or you'd wear a regular full chain mail underneath if the plate suit is only chest, arms, gauntlet etc.
I'd guess that plate is better at transferring force from one part to another, and better at getting blows to skid off.
@Unguidedone Yes, mithril and adamantium also come recommended.
Yes, as in 'the old'. The symbol that looks like a 'Y' is, in this case, a variant form of thorne used in the Tudor period.
Good. The world needs armour at a time like this.
Ancient & medieval armour making -> Mail -> Garment patterns -> Armpits
I have seen reconstructions of late hauberks done this way, but I don't know what the evidence for this is. It is always difficult/dangerous to say "They never did it this way" because unless one knows EVERYTHING, one may have missed an example. Having buckles up the back means that you need someone to do it up for you, so it is easier and harder.
You would never wear it next to your skin in hot sunny weather. Yes - the crusaders wore tabbards over the mail to keep the sun off.
The wording in your videos is amazing, can't help but crack up at some of your responses to things.
Thanks, your site has most of what I'm looking for to start on my mail making journey
I've been watching you're videos for a couple of hours now. You're hilarious. "It stops you from dying." I love you :P
It is more comfortable and impressive to poor people, but you need a decent thickness of metal to be protective.
I think the history channel may have been referring to the padding BENEATH the chainmail, eg - a gambeson. Chainmail would always be worn with padding some form of padding underneath it, the chainmail protects against slashing and stabbing, the padding protects from blunt trauma.
I think we can all agree that chainmail is some pretty good stuff.
I came to this channel looking for Medieval content, but I found an incredible performer! Great job Beige!
it is super awesome how passionate you are about this stuff
I guess the finer chain-mail would be good for removing body hair. Possibly more painful than arrows.
Yeah but you would always wear padding/clothes underneath anyway and the coif (or the part of chain mail that goes on your head) also has padding under it so it wouldn't pull your hair
Plate armour, when made out of better steel, was thinner. They tried hard to save weight.
I wore full length 12 weave chain mail at a role playing event (basically 6 weave but double ringed, proper re-enactment armour), everyone avoided it and warned me off but it was actually very comfortable. Definitely making one when I have the rings for it.
Concerning the heat sink effect: The ancient crusaders started to wear a white linnen tunic over the mail protecting it from heating up an boil the knights alive. So it had quite the oposite effect...
btw. those white linnen tunic developed into the colored and decorated ones used by the lords and knights in the 14-15 century
@MrTrykster The weight distribution would be better with a byrnie (T-shirt), and the shoulders would be protected, including from downward blows skidding off the helmet. A mail tank top would still be better than nothing, though.
@IcEye89 I don't store mine on display. I just keep it in a bag. Yes, hair can get caught, but I just put up with it.
Yes, so the arms on most hauberks hang open and heavy, and do not hug the arms the way the torso is hugged.
@zachsbanks "European pattern" standard 4 in 1. See my website for all the details of expansions and contractions etc.
Ah, how refreshing to see a video from you! It's been a while.
Chainmail is wonderful stuff, isn't it? I hear they still use modern versions of it today.
@fpscrash1992 Use round-section wire, not square. For comfortable jewellery you should go for smaller links. Just start.
@Bankstercide Welding was done by heating things up in a forge. How could they do this with mail? Today we have spot-welding tools using electricity and high-pressure flammable gas.
i have a jar of staples. its almost like metal slime. it's pretty cool.
I've seen well-executed tests that show that [chain]mail, at least long-sleeved mail, actually restricted movement more than plate armor. It was determined that this was because the weight of plate is more evenly distributed over the body (at lest the arms and shoulders) than mail.
"It stops you from dying" I want some chainmaille : )
Next time I go to the doctor I'll ask for chainmail treatment! :-D
@h1zchan Direct strong sunlight onto mail can make it hot - that's why crusaders wore tabbards over their mail. English sun is very rarely that strong, though. Having to carry extra weight makes you hot from the effort alone, of course.
@lordmat666 I reckon mine too 250 hours (small rings). When I finished I didn't know what to do with my hands when the telly was on.
I think he buried the lede; “Stops you dying” is the most important sentence, to my mind.
I have worth Lorica Segmentata (Roman legionaire armor), over chainmail, over a leather jerkin. Worked well. It's heavy though. It helps to pad between the chain and plate to prevent damage as the armor rubs. And yes, every indication is that this was not ever done. However, with lighter and better armor today, better metals, it is more possible as the armor is considerably lighter.
Thrusting through mail can be done, although a spear would be the ideal weapon for delivering maximum force to pierce the links. Legionaries had access to segmentata, which was superior in almost all respects, however it could only be produced en masse when you had a large economy such as that of Rome, Carthage etc. After Rome's collapse and the ensuing 'dark age', mail armour again became the standard. Hence the overwhelming popularity of mail for the following 1000 years or so.
@Franklolful See the mail section of my website.
Almost a million subs ! Great work Lloyd !
Like mine? A lot, but there are companies (like Get Dressed For Battle) that keep a whole village in India employed making lower quality mail at amazingly low prices.