Why was CHAINMAIL used for so long?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ค. 2024
- Jason Kingsley, the Modern Knight, investigates an item of armour that, arguably, was in continuous use for almost 2000 years. What is it and why? #armour #knight #chainmail
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"No armour will protect you from every threat". Well my good sir, step right up and behold! A suit of armour; made entirely of a strange new material. It comes from a land in the distant West and this miracle material is called - Plot. Saves you from anything.
lol
As an aspiring writer, myself, this is one of the best comments I've ever seen! 😆🤣
@@WindWolfAlpha *Bows*
And yet ...
i hate plot armour so much which is why i never watched starwars in every bit of media that wants to put the main character in 'danger' but not too much danger so they only suffer a minor wound as compared to the hundreds of faceless nameless NPCs that die from a breeze which is why i like films that have the balls to kill off main characters and think it should be done more
"how well does chain mail protect you?" *proceeds to stab self with sword like a true scientist*
How else can u check lol
@@weirdsciencethe2nd205 put the armour on a child instead
If Skyrim has taught me anything it’s that children are invincible so sounds like a safe test to me.
@@weirdsciencethe2nd205 I've heard it's more a slash resistant piece than a stab resistant piece, at least thats what they were saying on a different test vid
I have demonstrated with method many a time
Working as a doorman for several years i can tell you that our whole crew of roughly 20 persons dropped the kinda rigid stabproofed vests after a while cause of their uncomfortability. We all changed to (slightly modernized) chainmail shirts it offers much better protection against blades and much better mobility if you need to act fast. Another plus is the possibility to wear it discretely under your jacket. So, still my choice at the door.
excellent infomation, thanks.
Yip will come in handy when you’re beating the shit out of a pissed 9 stone student.
I think this then adds on to his point of time period. It's not 2000 years, it's closer to 2500 years if bouncers are using it. I know in ww1 it came back as armour for tankers as well so it's seen action in relatively modern warzones. Maybe the armour of the futures should look at mail.
@@Teners5 police officers still wear it depending on the area, divers wear it for "shark suits". never stopped being useful for sure
@@JohnDoe-tx8eu Butchers sometimes wear a mailled glove on the off hand. It is the same microlinks as the sharksuits.
To the man who first had the idea, "Hmm, I wonder if smithing a thousand little circles and connecting them together to make a shirt will stop my friends from dying as often." We solute you, you nameless legend. You saved millions of our ancestors
*salute
@@KieraQ0323 Solutations
And thus the arms race was born...
@@TheEvertw it started way earlier than that.
A great salution to a difficult problem
If you think chainmail is easy to defeat, try defeating it while an armed man who doesn't want to be stabbed is wearing it.
Yes, and keep in mind that the wearer can focus on the few threats that could defeat it, so he would be more effective at fending of those than if he was unarmoured.
@@TheGlassgubben Yep. It's a few less things to worry about, when you're in the middle of battle. If nothing else, not having divided attention can be the difference between life and death.
@@Bluecho4 Even when armored in a fight few people will deliberate take a hit to their chest . Any normal person will still pay attention to be not hit in the chest. And you actually need more attention to ignore attacks on certain body parts. Because instead of blocking/evading immediately you first got to analyze if the attack goes to a dangerous place. And remember while it should protect you on paper (parchment?), you are gambling with your life. That's why heavily armored tanks in WW2 still retreated when hit repeatedly by weapons that should not be able penetrate them on paper. Because the crews did not want to find out if the papers were right. (Plus the discomfort of being hit, and not knowing the exact weapon that's shooting at you).
@@barthoving2053 durrr
The Battle Of The Standard in 1138 is an excellent case study in the effectiveness of maille - a Scottish army of 16,000 mostly unarmoured infantry failed to overcome an Anglo-Norman force of 10,000 with a solid core of armoured Milites.
When Jason mentioned going about his daily activities in armor, I thought we'd see him at the grocery store in chainmail
😃 great idea!!
In my previous job as a medieval themed falconer (crazy asf I know lmao) I regularly had to wear mail like this alongside being armed and having a 10lb+ bird of prey on my fist also and lets just say I'll never forget some of the looks I got ahahaha. It's not everyday you see a 6,8' 'knight' shopping in your local co-op etc.
0:55 chain mail T-shirt, it deflects and protects, it’s and sweat wicking!
Did this a while ago, the looks of the people standing by were amazing. :)
Jason doesn't buy groceries! He has serfs for that. -_^
He should definitely be given his own show. Such a watchable presenter. Actually first class.
What do you mean? He has his own show here. Will get more views than on tele.
He has his own show. We're watching it lol
Couldn't agree more
If this was on tv I wouldn’t watch it. All I use TV for is console games and 4K movies. And fewer and fewer of thosebecause new stuff fukin sucks.
@@POdilo actually, probably not, you would be surprised that how often TV is still used by boomers
They stopped using solid rings for chainmail because producing solid rings required hammering out flat sheets of metal to which you would stamp out the solid rings. Once the process of drawing metal into a wire was produced around the 10th century it became presumably easier, cheaper and less wasteful to just make bunch of wire rings and rivet them together rather than stamp out solid rings from sheets of metal
I used to wear full head-to-toe chainmail to dive with sharks every day. My mail had smaller loops but it was still stinking heavy. It doesn't stop crushing force, but it will allow you to keep your limbs. The stuff is heavy but it works and that's why, in some professions (like working at an aquarium) it is still around. Thanks middle ages and thanks Sir Jason and Kasumi!
Similar technology is used in food service too. I used to wear chain link gloves while cleaning a meat slicer. I imagine there are similar industrial uses for them too. It's interesting in which ways it was adaptated and remains relevant.
@@BonaparteBardithion Tank Men during WWI had mail face masks to protect them from shrapnel.
the mail gloves are also used in the fishing industry, i use to work on trawlers and we used them while gutting fish, stripping shells and when using heavy lines to pull them in when a fish is caught. mostly this is a steel mesh but the guys i worked with said that the best were steel ringlets that were 1/5 riveted much like with medieval armor of the time.
whats the biggest shark uve had bite you in mail or that uve seen? also is it stainless?
@@mdstmouse7 If a shark bites you I don't think it will be stainless..
I live in an area in Normandy where there were skirmishes and small battles during the 100 years war. I often find small pieces of chain mail with my metal detector....
They have to be quite rusty and small. I was thinking most of them should have rusted away over the centuries.
That's cool
@@karliikaiser3800
It all depends on the chemistry of the soil and the elements and all that stuff. If you dig a few inches on Mars, the soil is no longer red
Good for u. I live in the host country which is savages who doesnt wear armour to war.
You have your license for that? France is pretty strict about using metal detectors and archaeological remains. A guy just got busted recently for stealing an enormous number of artifacts... claimed he found them in Belgium, which has more lenient laws, but he was actually doing detecting and digging in France.
In the early 90s I worked at a meat plant and regularly would wear about 20 pounds of mail. Gloves, sleeves and a split leg apron. Really felt like it was more of a burden than anything, then I saw a guy without his gear on cut himself, can't remember not wanting to wear it afterwards.
Yup, I know a guy who was an apprentice butcher, company forced him to work without protection as it wouldn't arrive for another day. He cut his hand and fucked it, only has 30% usability left. Got a big settlement as it was legally required for the company to provide chain mail gloves.
Doctors said that his hand would have been completely fine if he had just had his gloves.
That's so hot bro did you get a chubby after seeing a guy get mangled?
A ways back I did a lot of medieval close combat stunt work (basically renfest stuff). Chain mail is absolutely amazing for a lot of reasons mentioned here, but I think one of the main elements that don't get brought up very often is that it BREATHES. Working/fighting for hours in a hot summer day and it's comparatively very comfortable to wear, whereas a gambeson would make you useless in that scenario. If you've have it lying in the shade for while doing some labor when you put it on it even cools you down and feels comfortable, even with the extra weight. Soldiers are not just there for fighting, so much of the work is logistics, fortifications etc and doing those tasks while battle ready requires comfort/not overheating. IMO it's the perfect balance.
Excellent point!
though you would want a surcoat over it in upper Syria and Egypt in the summer.
PLEASE...tell me how to get some for riding my motorcycle in humid Florida weather so the air can get through the suit. Where do I get it?
@@majedajaber9064 I've always been compelled how the crusaders in the Middle East didn't all die of heat stroke.
@@mikitz Half of them did. Saladin was successful in battle because the Europeans were overheated and dehydrated most of the time. He'd even build great fires upwind of them to make it even more horrible. Saladin would capture water access and then just wait for the Europeans to attack their fortified position once they were partially mummified.
I mean, better than just getting killed by Saladin's archers I guess? Early on in the crusades, the Knights seemed basically unkillable in full plate until the saracens figured out that you just force them to stay in their armor with poke attacks for 5 days straight and they pretty much just keel off their horses.
People also forget that armor is extremely useful at saving your life against a glancing blow. Without armor, a sword merely grazing your chest can open a wound that will bleed profusely - with mail or even padded armor like gambeson, those glancing blows become harmless, allowing the soldier to keep fighting. Not all blows were precise death blows - many were mere grazing blows that just barely touched the enemy, and armor was extremely good at turning those blows into a harmless strike.
also accidents. If you are in a line of a hundred other guys carrying pointy weapons and everyone is going crazy during a battle, there will be lots of people who accidentally poke here or there. Your arms move easily but if you are packed in between shields and other heavy people, you might not be able to move your torso to escape an accidental poke if you are shoved or someone else is shoved into you.
This applies to pretty much any type of combat or martial art.
Getting a full contact, perfectly powerful strike on someone is rare. It’s much more likely to glance off as you say or for the person to react and move slightly and partially deflect your blow.
Even in modern combat, look how many bullets simply wound instead of kill.
@@tsmspace Can easily imagine this. Played hockey as a teen in varsity and anytime we'd scrum together for a team chat or stand in line for a photo etc, we'd invariably end up accidentally smacking one another with our hockey sticks as we moved about or even just stood there.. harmless since they were just sticks and we had armor / padding.. but easy to imagine were they swords / spears etc and we had no armor on? Many a wounded person would there be just from standing in a line.
Infection killed just as many as a battle.
@@wobblysauce Agreed, but at the same time, I don't think that every cut would have resulted in infection and death. Despite what people think, they did have some actual medical knowledge during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, it wasn't all just bleeding and prayers. There's a fairly famous account of a young Henry V(?) having an arrow surgically removed from his face, granted he was a crown prince and a commoner likely would have died from the wound, but it shows that they actually knew about fighting infections back then.
It's so fun to watch how passionate Jason is about talking about medieval stuff. I love it, keep it up! :)
Thanks, will do!
All of these people doing the history in this stuff are passionate about it and put their mouth where there armor is.
@@luxordeathbed We put our money where the armor is! hehe. My full length hauberk was about $450.00. ;)
@stormy weather I very seriously doubt it for a couple of reasons. 1, In combat, the edges are nicked and dulled quite seriously. 2, the weak spot in the mail is the riveted ring, not the 4 solid rings, so even if a nice sharp edge did hit the one riveted ring, it is still re-enforced by the four solids. Add in the thick layer of the padded gambeson worn under the mail and it is a quite thick layer of armor. Historically, the two handed "great" sword came about after plate armor was showing up. Most all serious injuries were from blunt force trauma unless you found an opening in the armor.
Cheers.
@@ModernKnight could you do a comparison against metal scale armor? I would think it would be more effective against puncture than mail (so long as the strike doesn't come angled upwards of course) and keep the same mobility
Watching you put the mail on in 10 seconds makes me think no one would want to be in a place like, say, a camp that might be raided, without mail available to put on. A surprise attack makes it pretty impossible you'll get your plate on, but a surprised sleepy man can still put on mail.
Gambeson, mail, and a brigandine, you should be very protected very quickly
@@RhodokTribesman you could fight with the brigandine untied and you'd probably still be effective enough.
@@generic_asian_ Yeah, fs, the combo of all the stuff is just if time is willing (as I assume the dress time to armor ratio would be much better than plate, let's say)
More than that, it looks comfortable enough to rest/sleep in unlike many plate pieces. I'd say as a town watchmen or guard you could put it on in a hurry if off duty.
This is a moot point since AFAIK plate armor was always worn with mail underneath. So a plate armored soldier would have his mail shirt as well. It's not mail or plate, it's mail or mail plus plate, which makes the question do you want plate completely irrelevant; if you could afford it you would have it
Anyone who participates in HEMA knows that the vast majority of hits are of minimal force. Your main protection is your own weapon and your own defense. It is a rare strike that is delivered with full or even 75% force. As such, mail is very protective from those sorts of strikes. As you state, it's only the unexpected hits and a very rare hit if you've been disarmed that is likely to get through mail.
Yes Sir, You're absolutely right.
But there could people throwing arriows at you as well, you know
You're right. As a someone with some HEMA, and all 7 forms of Lightsaber fencing, your right. Yes, having a shield, and armour is helpful as well.
In this era, the main protection would be a shield for the majority of soldiers
And, as we all know, the only perfect armor of all time is the plot armor.
@@mortache Soldiers that couldn't afford mail would wear a gambeson (thick cloth armor)
Another important advantage of mail ... logistics.
Any apprentice smith can draw the metal into wire, turn the wire into loops, link the loops into chained pattern. Any idle soldier can pull (spare) links off the bottom edges to repair damaged vital areas. Anyone with a campfire and a hammer can pound deformed links back into shape with some success. Indeed, the mail is still useful even if poorly repaired on the field with bits of wire and string. And any commoner (or his wife) who owned such armour could resize or tailor an existing piece to custom fit.
True, although being so labor intensive also caused it to be rather expensive.
I think it's funny when people spend time "proving" that mail or other armour wasn't effective: "Look! This longbow arrow goes right through it! How silly of them to use something that wouldn't protect them." Uh, have you seen modern armour? Modern armour's ratio of effectiveness to the lethality of weapons we're up against is a way bigger gap, yet we still seem to think it worthwhile for our police and soldiers to wear it. Kevlar may protect against 9 mm, but it's not going to do a ton against a rifle or anything more hard-core. Most bullet-proof glass is made to withstand handguns, not rifles. And why wear a helmet if a bomb can rip you to shreds, or an IED can blow you to smithereens? The reason, of course, is that the armour is for mitigating risk. It doesn't protect you from all threats; what it does is make a certain percentage of lethal attacks no longer lethal. And that's a big deal if you want to stay alive, doing a risky job, day to day.
Even the ceramic plates in most vests are only effective up to intermediate rifle calibers, but it's better than nothing and I can confirm that. I would not be here if not for my level 4 plates.
You would be surprised how little energy even a hardcore AP bullet will retain after passing through a moderately thick log, however. What would go through your soft armour twice over without a barrier will be stopped by it after penetrating a log, only inflicting a bruise or a contusion as a result. And we're not even talking about frag resistance. I think it's a much more fitting analogy for Medieval mail in modern context.
It is a silly argument when having armour beats not having armour every time.
@@jumpingbean69 I was always very amused that my ballistic armour came with a money-back guarantee in the event of failure. The government couldn't lose.
@@jeffkeith637 Remember your equipment was made by the lowest bidder.
The switch to full rivets may have made repairs easier. You only make the shirt once, but it would get damaged and being able to replace the lowest number of rings possible would be preferable to having to remove chunks for the sake of one split link.
My thinking too at first, but then I came thinking: why not make it 4:1 and then bring riveted for replacement?
Gradually more and more parts would become fully riveted, but initial production would still be quicker and cheaper.
Punching solid rings requires additional tools, and then you have to collect all the bits you punched out of the middle and turn them back into sheet iron, which seems like it would be a pain. Any shmuck can make riveted rings.
@@peterrose5373 I think that this is really it. Making chainmail doesn't require extreme talent in the way a comparable plate would. Just lots of time.
@@roberthammarberg7438 Maybe, but not by as much as the video says. The ratio of punched links to riveted links isn't actually 4:1, it's only 1:1. You can make clusters of 5 links with only 1 riveted link in the center, but attaching that cluster to a sheet of mail requires riveted links, so you can make at most 50% of your links by punching them out. As metalworking techniques advanced and the manufacture of wire became easier (while punching rings out of a sheet of iron remained as difficult as it ever was) the economics probably shifted and made riveting every link cheaper than punching out half of them. I'd hazard a guess and say that the disappearance of punched rings from mail probably coincides with the development and adoption of the wire drawing process, rather than making wire by slicing thin strips from a sheet of metal.
The manufacturing process may also be a factor to consider. We tend to think it demands 4x the time to do 4:4 because we assume one person is working on the shirt. But in the old days they would probably have more than 1 person working on the same shirt at the same time. Imagine 1 worker holding each link in one hand and riviting with the other, he would have to do the riviting movement 4 times for each link. Now think of 2 people working on each link at the same time, each worker would have to rivit twice, and so on.
Chainmail is still used today in food preparation and for shark suits. Butchers use it when dismantling a carcass so they don't accidently stab themselves. (the youtube channel Bearded Butchers talk about this occasionally) Chain gloves are still used by people who have to cut or chop lots of vegetables or fillet lots of fish. And of course divers who are going to be around large sharks wear chain as well, so they don't get bitten. It's really interesting how it's still useful today.
Credits to “Warlord, Thunder Bringer, Boudicca, Valkyrie, Gossamer, Talos” ...was there ever a stable of horses with such fantastically strident names?! Then of course there is ‘The Mule with No Name’ who has glory in nameless mystery! Thank you for these fantastic vids!
I don't know why, but I root for that mule every time he's on screen. Maybe he has an "underdog" quality to him.
I very much would like to see an update on The Mule with No Name! He’s by far the favourite of me and my wife!
I think the mule's name should be Odo,after Biship Odo,the half brother of William the Conqueror.
The mule looks so smart, I bet he's named Till Eulenspiegel (after the folk legend jokester).
The wise thing to do with horses is give them a little bit to nibble on, before throwing the rest of the food in, in order to prevent them from devouring you...
I used to fight in 13th century reenactment wearing mail. Somethings I found : it is surprisingly able to absorb quite a lot of impact if leather or fabric is under it. You inevitably smell of oil and rust/iron after wearing it. On hot days, sweat will make it worse and it does get hot and transfer heat. In cold weather it will sap any heat from your body and become ice cold. And yes, you definitely have to take it off like that and sometimes the folds jam into each other so you have to shake like your having a fit! Made even worse after a fight in summer when your sweating and exhausted....
I had to stand in a full hauberk on a cold windy day waiting at a documentary shooting. Didn't have my warm stuff with me I normally take to events.
That was hell
@@CIA-M oof. And that’s why I bought a well padded gambeson before a hauberk
yes, the Republican period of Rome saw the legionary wear a thin padded gamberson under his Hauberk shirt & helmet with leather around the neck area.
@@alexandersarchives9615 i tried to recreate the maciejowski bible style, so only have thin padding. better when im off fighting in the blazing sun
@@CIA-M yeah, I get having a thin gambeson for summer, but winter gets cold where I live... therefore having a few extra layers helps :)
"It's going to oof you..." hahaha Jason you have a way with words! Thanks for the great video.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Your comment on chainmail being universally recognised throughout the ages, made me think. We almost have the same effect with camouflaged uniforms. you could show a picture of a man in uniform to almost anyone and they would know he was a soldier. I would think the same with mail armour, you would know any statue, engraving or relief covered in little circles was a warrior.
Camo emerged no earlier than WWI and wasn't a mass thing until late WWII. Mass WWII uniform is still plain (grey+green or black for nazi, green+brown for the Soviet). If you look at XVIII- XIX century soldiers - you find them in bright very decorated uniforms with bizarre hats. Meanwhile, chainmail has been developed as early as in the Roman empire (so definitely before V century) and stayed in use all the way through the thousand years of Middle ages up to XVIII century (sic, irregular warriors. Not soldiers, but adventurers and explorers).
On the territories of Russia alone, chainmail is found dating back to VIII- XVIII centuries and in bulk. If you come at a small museum in any little town, the first three things you find there as ancient archeology are pottery, arrow tips and a piece of chainmail rusted into a stone.
I remember reading a book of fiction (it was a fantastic romance, too modern for fantasy, too weird for sci-fi), and there at some point a hero who comes out of XIX century or so bumps into US marines. (Weird, i told you. It also involves aliens). They're described as guys in some weird green spotted PJs.
I love how you and other TH-camrs tackle modern medieval misunderstandings. I teach history and usually dedicate one to two lessons for knighthood, medieval battles and combat gear. You’d be surprised with how eager teenagers are to learn about knights, medieval soldiers and their gear. Especially since I usually make my students fight each others with boffer swords after which we analyse what their ”injuries” would have meant in real life during the medieval times. Let’s say that most understand the value of armor after the demonstration. :)
that's a good idea, and I always try to remember they were the same as us, just with different expectations and technology.
Indeed. People of the past were not stupid. They just didn’t know the things we do nowadays, just like we have lost a lot of the wisdom that people of the past had gained over centuries. Thank you for being one of the people that bring the past to life for us modern folk.
Can you be my teacher?
@@ModernKnight they were us, just only yesterday
@@Razidurgh This might not be exactly what he was referring to, but I will try to answer your question in a couple of ways, then explain more in detail. The first answer is probably more along the lines of the answer you were looking for, and the second is what I believe to be an example of wisdom and knowledge that you may not have been considering. I mean no offense by this, it was just in how I interpreted your comment. :)
1. The knowledge of the composition and production of Wootz steel (i.e. true damascus steel) is lost to us, as recently as the 18th or 19th century. Modern damascus is just two or more distinctly different types of steels that are layered together in a pattern (i.e. "pattern damascus") which somewhat imitates the appearance but not the characteristics.
2. The knowledge of how and why the Late Bronze Age collapse occurred (and the inherent wisdom that can be distilled from the knowledge of how an entire civilization collapses). This is still partially a mystery to us- we have bits and pieces of the puzzle, but we don't really know the whole story and maybe never will.
I guess the bigger question I would like to ask back is, what exactly do you consider to be wisdom and knowledge?
How much knowledge and wisdom was lost when London burned in 1666?
How much knowledge and wisdom was lost when the Notre Dame cathedral burned last year?
How much knowledge and wisdom was lost from the tens of thousands of scrolls that burned in the Library of Alexandria?
I know the answer is most certainly not zero, but beyond that I cannot tell you.
We tend to view our modern notion of "knowledge" and "wisdom" through the lens of science (and I interpreted your comment as an observation that we have replaced historical knowledge and wisdom with more correct or more accurate knowledge through science and technology, which is why I am approaching my answer in this regard). This "scientific lens" is obviously very useful for us, and science is arguably one of the most useful tools we have for understanding the world around us (please do not think I am saying otherwise). However, knowledge and wisdom do not necessarily have to be encapsulated in a scientific context (e.g. the "medical humors" turn into "biology or human physiology" or "alchemy" evolves into "stoichiometry"- this is what I think of when you described knowledge becoming outdated or replaced).
Science strictly leaves out (among other things) questions of value or questions of morality, because they are not testable or provable within its scope or "framework" (a discussion on the limitations and scope of science is really interesting, but this comment is long enough so I will leave it at that). If we go back to the example of the Late Bronze Age collapse, it is likely to contain knowledge and wisdom around cultural and social phenomena of that time, as well as perhaps changes in the natural world (which science could potentially tell us about). Consider what it would mean if we lost the knowledge of the events of the Holocaust? There is a significant amount of cultural and social wisdom we can gain by studying these events and asking the questions "How and why did this happen? How _could_ this even happen?".
If you actually read my comment, thank you. It started off as a genuine intention to think of a good example to answer Laszlo's question, but then it morphed into a personal thought experiment that I thought answered the question even more deeply than intended. Only a few more days left in 2020- hopefully we can all revel in the knowledge of that and seek whatever wisdom will come from having survived it!
You know you're cool when you say "When I'm jousting or in a tournament" so nonchalantly.
God, that mail over your normal clothes looks so good. It's a good protection but most of all it still looks aesthetically pleasing.
Having made some chainmaille…One of the reasons for all the rings being riveted is easy of making! Forge welding that tiny ring to a solid ring is difficult. Peening a rivet is much easier
Full respect for constructing a riveted byrnie.
I have knitted a couple from butted links (ahistorical I know) and that took some serious time and effort.
Riveted? I can only imagine.
Once you get into the flow of it, it's a very riveting experience.
A man who even lists his horses' (and a mule's) name in the credits is someone I would ike to meet.
There's something about Jason's pure genuine demeaner that is utterly inspiring. Bravo Ser! Keep up the fantastic work!
Thank you! Will do!
@@ModernKnight Yay! WE WIN!
Jason seems genuinely excited to share what he's discovered. He has a way of talking about history like it's breaking news. Very inspiring.
@@USMCArchAngel03 That's it. His is an excitement and interest that cannot be faked and is really infectious.
*Sir. Ser is an invention of GRRM for his fantasy series.
I've made an entire maille shirt and coif all by my lonesome and just from that perspective, I reckon maille would have remained a popular form of armor for blacksmiths to *sell* for a long time because of what goes into making it
It'd be the perfect kind of project to hand off to apprentices. Most of the process is relatively simple, just very time consuming. Drawing wire, winding wire, cutting rings, flatting rings. Riveting rings. Lots of simple, but time consuming tasks that would also help apprentices train up various useful skills for the trade. And with a useful byproduct!
Looking at how this armour works I'm surprised in D&D they don't allow wizards and thieves to wear this kind of mail. It looks super flexible and don't seem to make undue noise. Great demo :-)
Well the creators of D&D were, and are, not exactly experts on medieval weapons and armor by any stretch of the imagination.
I think the lore explanation is that metal intervenes with arcane energies so if the wizard wears too much of it he can't cast spells reliably. In reality it's a balance thing, wizards are supposed to be vulnerable to balance out the powerful spells they can use. If wizards can wear armor there's no reason to play a martial. See 5th edition of DnD where wizards CAN wear armor and most martials are just pointless
This guy is living every nerds dream. He's a bloody legend.
"so I bought a mule from Spain..."
agreed
I want to be him when I grow up... I am 33 years old.
Develops video games, lives like a knight, truly.
@@scruffythejanitor1969 I'm sixty, and feel the same way! 😆
It seems like mail is superb at preventing cuts that lead to infection, which was probably a huge problem in the aftermath of battles.
If you take direct hit, well there’s probably not much a person of average means could afford to that’ll much help anyway.
good point, I didnt think of infection as an issue, but you're completely right.
@@ModernKnight thanks for the reply! It’s just a theory. The mail hauberk could be more like a modern helmet or 20th century flak jacket. That is, just because it won’t stop a bullet, doesn’t mean it won’t save your life.
@@ModernKnight I don't think that infection was as big of an issue as many people seem to think. There seems to be this popular belief that during the Medieval and Renaissance that the only medical practices they knew about was bleeding and prayer and that anything more serious than a paper cut was effectively a death sentence. But this isn't true, even a commoner would have had some basic medicines available to them (if they were lucky) and they knew that honey and, I think, vinegar had medicinal properties when applied to wounds. A young Henry V(?) had an arrow surgically removed from his face and survived and later Henry VIII survived a jousting injury and it's recorded that his doctors applied poultices to try to treat the wound even though it never fully healed, it didn't get infected to the point where it killed him off right away.
@@Riceball01 I disagree. Just because people weren't dying from infected paper cuts doesn't mean that infection wasn't a serious concern. Preventing infection is definitely one of the benefits that comes along with reducing the number of deep tissue lacerations. Even today, modern surgical techniques are primarily concerned with preventing infection, and wounds STILL get infected.
@@Riceball01 Tetanus had no prophylaxis or treatment and was a horrible, torturous death. Just that disease alone made combatants wary of any injury.
I remember going to a Renaissance faire as a child and wanting a chainmail shirt so badly... watching this video took me right back to that moment
Funny enough, nearly that exact method of removing the armor is how I had to take off my plate carrier. The weight of the armor plates makes it hard to just pull it up like a t-shirt, so you need to let gravity help you out.
A modern plate certainly isn't much like ancient maille, but the fast way of removing the latter really activated a memory there.
Thanks for sharing, that's interesting.
A modern plate is like a medieval brigantine. You can find ones which are really close in construction.
@@annasolovyeva1013 well it functions more like a cuirass
"Its going to oof you."
A new battlecry has born: "I am going to OOF you!!!"
@@DaCoolCrushIceKillah i read this aloud w a Scottish accent LOL
Go oof yourself
'Hoc est ufere tibi'
You have genuinely taught me more than my history teacher about medieval life
Same here, and I got a history degree at university.
Edit: To be fair, I want to stress the word “life” in the statement above.
@Ice Hockey is Pretty Pretty Good In my History GCSES we learnt about medieval crime and punishment, interesting enough, but it was too specialised to be any fun - especially when we had to do essay after essay about the same topic
@Ice Hockey is Pretty Pretty Good I think so because there is a lot of anthropology and archaeology being taught as general history.
(The Postmodernists don’t trust the written sources the way traditional historians did - “written sources tell us more about the time of the writer than the time of the subject.”)
Nothing gets covered properly in middle school or high school.
@@silvermoon4068 crime and punishment was painful to study
What a lucky man to be able to live his interests.
One other thing about chain mail: it just looks good! The Crusader Knight in his chain mail, tunic, and great helm is one of the most imposing and fearsome looks in history (at least as far as modern illustrations of it go).
Divers use chain mail as protection from sharks today, so perhaps the lifespan of this armor is greater than even 1,000 years! 🌹
Plus butchers use mail gloves as well.
Hi, Adam. Yes, and I’ve seen oyster shuckers use mail gloves, too. Another use for mail that many people aren’t aware of is for electrical workers that perform maintenance on high tension cables. They don an entire suit of mail and are lifted to the energized wires by helicopter. There the worker grounds himself to the wire while still on a platform beneath the helo, then physically transfers to the wire itself in order to travel along it for inspection or repair. The mail suit (forgive my non-technical explanation) allows the worker to physically touch the wires while directing the electrical charge around his body instead of electrocuting him. You can find viddies of that amazing job here on YT. I’m sure there are other uses for mail in today’s world that I’m not aware of.
@@nuvostef Oh yes, I forgot about those. I've seen videos of that, they're very cool.
Dr Megavolt does a similar thing:
th-cam.com/video/Fyko81WAvvQ/w-d-xo.html
2000 Years now! Chain was from BC and if its still in use now by divers / fishermen etc....
Some police in germany were using them back in 2016ish time I think. It looked rly neat.
I think many modern people forget that war isn't like sparring in a gym. War is mostly marching, digging, riding, etc., so the gear soldiers wore needed to be appropriate for those tasks as well as combat. The best harness in the world is useless if it isn't on you when the enemy appear.
I have this argument with martial arts and MMA people when they say ancient martial arts are useless they forget that it was for killing and the martial arts today is not.
Yes, and by far the easiest way to carry armour is to wear it, unless you're some rich nobleman who can have his harness transported in a cart.
@@johnree6106 ancient martial arts are useless in a contemporary modern day setting, sure. But at the time, they were the most effective systems available. The belabour the point that Jason made in the video; people were not stupid, they used what was available to them as effectively as possible. You’d be incredibly naive to say that about 700 years would make no difference to our understanding of effective fighting systems!
@@genuinejoe2103 Having done both Military CQC, and Modern MMA there is a distinct difference in the two. One is meant to disable or kill, and the other is basically play fighting in comparison.
Which is something most MMA fighters don't seem to grasp, is the point. While yes, there are advancements and certain things can be effective. I'm not about to try to wrestle a man down, and arm bar him. I'm going to aim to invert Elbows, Knees, gouge eyes, Crush throats. Whatever is readily available.
It's going to be as quick and dirty as possible. There is a good reason that MMA fighters in general are afraid of, or avoid street fighters. Because one is a sport and the other could potentially be life and death. There is an exceptionally different mentality and flow to the two.
@@HauntingSpectre The anecdote of the Spartans being banned from wrestling at the games because they did not believe in a sports version of Greek wrestling and the martial version included eye gauging and breaking bones and joints. And the normal ancient Greek wrestling had very very few rules already, not being allowed to blind your opponent intentionally was one of those very few ones...
Love that he loosens the cinch before he sits down. Horse comfort comes first.
Plot armor is a real thing. The guy who dies can't right a story afterwards. An old guy in my church was a WW2 veteran and he had many stories about everyone dying around him but he obviously made it. He had real life plot armor.
"history is written by the winners" in other words :)
Other's would call it luck or circumstance
never thought i would watch someone talk about chainmail for almost half an hour without getting bored
Welcome to the nerd club. Just wait until you learn about machicolations.
I found him to elaborate and repeat a little too often, so I skipped around, but generally good info
@moop that’s what those are!
Welcome. New to nerdy things? Try Lindybeige's talk on siege ladders
Fun fact: Some departments of German police to this day still have chainmail shirt at their disposal, to deal with criminals armed with edged weapons
Most stab protection inserts in soft body armour of police forces around world are basically chainmail...
@@bjornlange7483 true that, but i am talking about the full on chainmail shirt with long sleeves and complete with hood
@@bjornlange7483
Not really, modern soft body armor with added cut/stab protection has a layer of waxlike plastic for that. Before that a fine metal mesh was used.
@@StormBringare oh I have to disagree. Mine has chainmail...
@@bjornlange7483
So it's an older model? 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, the removal technique at the end is what Jill Bearup refers to as "the undignified wiggle dance". It's comforting to know that every knight had this little taste of humility at the end of every battle.
I think popularity of chainmail (I use this term) is in its inherent simplicity. Rings are quite simple to make and it can just be weaved to intended shape and "sewn" together if broken. They are still used so it ain't going anywhere either in applications where cuts can be expected.
One of the things people bring up, that "it can break bones" at least for the Roman period was not a huge issue. Roman doctors were especially good at setting broken bones, and their main trouble was in treating deep lacerations, cuts, and piercing wounds, which maille is very good at preventing.
So maybe you might suffer a broken collarbone, and that would be okay, because at least your shoulder joint wasn't cleft in twain, and you were able to stab the other guy in the neck, and live to fight another day.
Additionally, with a sharp cutting implement, it's not too difficult to lay flesh open. If you want to try and get through the armour with a big powerful blow, you're likely going to open yourself up in some way where a person could "slip" (using boxing terminology) in and counter your big powerful blow. You're better to go for the places that don't have the armour, but those are not nearly as easy to hit as centre-mass, especially not when they've got a nice big shield in their other hand.
In addition to being a very useful modern analog to explain the risk of attempting a powerful blow, your boxing analogy has the added bonus of invoking an image of a Roman officer wandering about his drilling soldiers and periodically yelling the Latin equivalent of "protecc ya'self at ALL TIMES!".
You get a like!
Here is the big thing about blunt damage as opposed to lacerations. The human body can withstand blunt force a lot better than lacerations. A soldier could still fight on very effectively suffer a broken bone or 2, while 2 or 3 shallow cuts takes them out of the fight.
Plus infection killed as much, if not more, people than the wounds they suffered in battle up until recently.
Even if you don't have good doctors who could set bone, you're generally more likely to survive a broken bone for many years, rather than a laceration or gaping wound that could bleed out in minutes. That's why stabs and cuts were the major source of battlefield death: the damage itself was overshadowed by the leaking of vital fluids and/or organs.
A broken bone is hardly unproblematic, especially if it heals incorrectly, but it's only really an immediate concern if it starts puncturing something (whether the skin outside or an organ). If that is avoided, you can at least survive the day, and potentially get it set before or after the fusing of bone sets in. Bleeding out is a pressing issue that even modern doctors or medics aren't always able to stop.
And none of this gets into cuts or stabs that lead to infection. Unless it's peeking through the skin, a broken bone probably won't lead to a slow death from disease.
@@Bluecho4 Even if we only consider open wounds, stabs were much more dangerous than cuts. I recall seeing somewhere that a Roman author noted that whilst a footlong cut was survivable, a 4 in. deep stab could be fatal. Any armour that can protect you against _most_ stabbing and cutting implements is good armour.
The argument that an enemy may inflict a crush wound through the armor makes no sense anyways. If the strike was enough to break bones through mail it would have broken those same bones if you didn't wear mail, on top of other injuries the mail prevented
This reminds me of an anecdote from I believe WW1: when the American army introduced a new helmet to its troops, the amount of soldoers with head wounds increased dramatically. This perplexed the American doctors until someone figured it was because the soldiers that would have died from shots to the head now survived with a head wound. The helmets did their job
This is the best ad I’ve ever seen. This man hit the jackpot somehow and decided to make bomb ass history vids and I love the dude for it.
Not sure if you know but he's the joint CEO founder of Rebellion Games mainly known currently for the Sniper Elite and Zombie Army games series. They also own the rights to Judge Dredd comics.
@@nath9091 Yeah, he's pretty well off. It's good to see he's using putting his fortune to good use by helping to educate.
One of the best and most practical things that this channel is the actual interaction with horses. It’s very likely that horses would have been ubiquitous in military settings but also common in any house that could have had any means of affording them.
I finally understand that song that goes “shake it off, shake it off”
they went from 4 solid to all rivets because they started to make mail from wire not plate. The solid rivets were punched out of small plates then the riveted link was made by hand. Once they started to wind the wire to make the links there was less waist of material. The round wire was hammered flat to make the same shape. I would say its to save on material as labour would still be very cheap compared to the cost of iron or at that point likely steel.
Not sure what you mean here. Mail was never all-solid rings in medieval Europe. It started out all-riveted in the early medieval, then gradually transitioned to 1:1 solid rings and riveted in the high medieval. This was a big labor savings. In both cases the primary fabrication technique was drawn wire. Punched rings are generally inferior.
@@MinSredMash 4 in one means 4 links connected by one. In the video he states the solid links use to be connected by one riveted link. He goes on to state how he did not know how or why they switched to all riveted links. Links where not drawn into wire in the early times they where punched out of plate. These would be solid links not drawn wire. I know a repeat but the switch was when they made all links from wire. Hope this clears if up.
Punched out of plate? Punch, plate and wire are all expensive artefacts
I fear 4 solid and 1 riveted ring mail is quite impossible to make
@@MinSredMash i wonder how one would make a mail out of all solid rings. Some magic metalworking perhaps
Gimli: "It's a little tight across the chest!"
Ugh. You had to remind me that scene :/ In the book Gimli didn't take any armor from Rohirrim. Rohirrim didn't have *anything* approaching the quality of his own, dwarven armor. I understand it was comic relief scene, but still meh.
@@FrikInCasualMode I had the same split-second reaction to that joke, but the best part that made me like the gag was when the waistline of the mail hit the floor with a clank. So Gimli was that much stockier as well as that much shorter, showing the double difference in kinds.
What made it even funnier is knowing that John Rhys-Davies, the usually dignified veteran classical actor who played Gimli, is actually about 6'2" (195cm) tall. The scene setup on the day (and many days) must have looked extra silly, with either a cameraman standing on a ladder to get the down angles, or John playing the scenes from down on his knees, with his boots sticking out the back :)
@@animistchannel2983 "The first step in casting for a dwarf is to find the tallest actor you can."
@@FrikInCasualMode How about the scene where he is trying to see what is happening, on the wall during the battle at Helm´s Deep, and says they should have picked a better spot, when in fact there is a crenellation just next to him that he can see through? Stupid comic relief, made no sense.
Have it taken up a bit too!
Brilliantly put. What you say about this armour is equally true of modern armour. No armour is perfect (modern ballistic or chainmail), frequently it protects you from the most common injuries on the battlefield, and perhaps more importantly, it downgrades potentially fatal attacks, to mild or serious injury. I have heard the same things you were saying used to describe modern ballistic armours precisely. Chainmail stops a casual slash from severing an artery and stops stabbing attacks from penetrating your entire thorax. Thats a 95% positive user rating right there.
Many modern stab proof vests use a chainmail layer. So technically it's still in use
Shark suits, buchery, it still has places in protective gear.
For a significant portion of time being able to arm quickly may have been more important, too.
Think thats the key point isn't it. You can leave mail on and if you get ambushed or otherwise surprised you have some form of protection. Your plate on the other hand does no good (and some degree of hindrance) sitting in a chest on the back of the cart
whenever I'm putting on my Roman maille, I have to 'hop' to get it on, I tend to cheekily call it the "hamata hop". it is indeed a fascinating technology.
I tell the public when they put on Malle to do the Roman Jump to set the links in their proper place. Getting it off is usually a two man job....
@@Dr_Will_Tarr Getting it on and off by oneself isn't that difficult, just takes some practice. Although having a helping hand is welcome when it happens. In my Roman school programs I'm usually helping young students in & out of armor, but that's because they've never worn it before.
The horse did notice the extra weight, but was too polite to ask if you had been eating more lately. :-D
Once again I watch one of your videos about medieval and earlier armor and see parallels with modern body armor. Kevlar is lighter weight and defeats MOST of the threats of the modern “battlefield” but people will pretend it’s useless because it won’t defeat a direct impact from a rifle round. It’s also easier to wear with civilian clothing and easier to conceal. We have incredible ceramic armor that can defeat more threats but Amin’s civilians, police, and most soldiers you ubiquitously see Kevlar worn either on its own or in conjunction with plate armor.
12:57 "it's going to oof you" - I am loving this kind of explanation
I read this just as he said this. Far funnier
You really ought to invest in an arming cap, Mr. Kingsley. Speaking as a fellow long-haired man, it really helps to keep one's mane from getting in the way or being damaged.
Quite True.
I imagine he has one, seeing as he has a full plate harness.
My hair fell out in my 20's. Little did I know this just made me more efficient in every way, from showertime to arming time.
I do miss my long hair, but then I watch the pained expressions from my group members as they put armour on and realise that its a blessing in disguise to be cropped.
Even the short hairs on the back of my neck got caught *very* easily when putting maille on or trying to turn my head with it, its part of the reason I started wearing turtlenecks at training, I can't imagine how bad it would be with actual long hair.
I love how your black horse lowers the head and nodes slightly on every lance hit... that horse is rooting for ya to do well, and probably going to chide you somehow if you miss for any reason. Loved seeing the personality there. Very serious horse, and loving the interactions. She is magnificent, what a beauty, what a flow of grace when she moves.... like a gentle shadow moving in a slight sine wave, very focused... wow, just love this vid. thank you.
thanks for watching.
6:26 _"which is why it was in use so long: nobody uses stuff generation after generation after generation, if it isn't actually functional and useful"_
Hear, hear!
the exception of ceremonial equipment must be made.
@@larrymayfield6118 it's ceremonial equipment is still functional for ceremonies :)
@@DuckieMcduck haha fair enough
Splendid! I was thrilled to get to watch one of your videos sir knight! Thank you for sharing, a fantastic job, as always. For the Romans I'd just like to add that probably the period term would be thoracomachus, as sub armalis (pronounced "soob") ", even though it is Latin, is more of a modern term, similarly to how lorica segmentata is how everyone calls the Roman segmented plate armour, even though again, the name is Latin, but it's not period. A more probable name for segmentata would be lorica laminata. I say probable because we just don't know, but we do know that the Romans called the segments laminae, hence the possibility of it being called laminata. Anyhow just a small addition to a very good video! Looking forward to more.
ps: I hate taking my mail shirt off. I always protect my hair with basically an improvised bandana, before I start the process. I do that when I put it on too. Probably not historically accurate, but it keeps the rings from plucking out some of my hair.
Hey Noble One: Have you tried going bald? Has worked wonders for me, no more hair catching.. But I disagree on you last point: I bet everyone (who had worn mail at least once before) put something over their hair, just as you do, I don't think there was ever a period where ppl enjoyed having it ripped out in clumps :D Maybe that's why late Viking/ early Normans loved the shaved back and sides hairstyle, with the mop on top: your neck hair getting pulled by mail has gotta get old REALLY fast when you are riding along on a horse. Anyway Ciao my dude!
Thanks Metatron, I hoped you'd provide more details about the Roman side of things, as you know so much about that period of history and say Latin much better than anyone else I know. My schoolboy latin is both rusty and badly pronounced, though I imagine that these islands had people with funny Latin accents even during Roman times.
@@ModernKnight Centurion, in Cockney accent "Get your laminaataah on lads"
Generally most soldiers keep their hair short, because it gets annoying in conjunction with gear.
They could just have used those padded caps, that go under the mail hood or helmet, for this purpose.
I mean, they are going to be worn anyways, why not make the most of it?
Great Dane axe? I'm now picturing a Great Dane with an axe.
lol, I knew someone would point that out!
As a side note, some hunting dogs wore mail way back when. I can't remember where I saw the pictures though.
Scooby-Doo-Hew.
@@mpj12345 Some were following their masters into battle. Here is a famous one: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_(dog)
@@mpj12345 I saw a show on TV, about hunting feral pigs, where they put body armor on the dogs for protection from the boars' tusks. Of course, it was leather or kevlar, not chainmail - but, still. And I think they put armor or padding on police horses, where they still use them, for crowd/riot control. Materials have changed, but even for animals, armor hasn't entirely gone out of style.
The content is excellent as is the commentary, but the way he wispers to his horses while grooming them is just lovely.
“Chain” Mail can looked at as metallic “fabric”. Although, labour intensive to produce, the fitting of mail must have significant similarities to the tailoring of cloth textiles.
I used to make maile and from my research, the last time that it was used on the large scale was about 1910 in India. It was used longer than anything other than animal hide (which may have been used for thousands of years). As for why:
1) It was easier to make than plate armor.
2) It was more of a 'one size fits most' than plate armor.
It's interesting, isn't it, to note that metal chest pieces existed both before and alongside the heyday of maille. It just works
interesting thing is, and i've tried to locate as many sources as possible, but making maille may be easier (in terms of skill), BUT it takes MUCH longer, at least twice as long, sometimes a bit longer depending on what part of the body you making it for.
It follows the old saying: "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." It's relatively cheap. You do not need massive stores of refined steel to make it. Repair requires fastening new links - nothing more. If it's rusty, drag it through the sand. If it's muddy, let it dry and then shake it out....THEN drag it through the sand. It's easy to put on and take off, and protects against the majority of incidental cuts and blows. Add a shield, maybe a coif or other neck/shoulder protection, a helmet, and you're good to go. Add gambeson to taste. Requires little to no training to know how to wear. Were it not for crossbows, I'll bet it would have lasted to the age of gunpowder.
pretty much what I thought! it lasted nearly two thousand years because the threats didn't change, there's a video from the Royal Armouries showing English civil war plate armour being at least proof against period pistol fire at close range, but it still fell out of favor quickly due to the massive cost in time and money to make
All good points, as well, chain mail is flexible, and allows for a pretty much normal range of bodily motion, unlike plate.
It has. See comments from people using it today for shark protection, in policing situations et.
@@andreww2098
I'll have to check that out.
Mail was definitely not cheap, it was extremely labor intensive to produce.
Man I giggled like a child when he had to twerk to take the mail off 😂
in my larp group, we used to call it the chain mail cha cha cha
@@dinespetersen8711 We also called it the "chain mail wiggle" amongst other names.
22:37 Me taking off my sweaty workout t-shirt hahahaha.
Drawn steel wire becomes a thing in the 14th century. This meant that while each ring had to be individually smithed before, now you could just cut pieces of steel wire, flatten the ends smith it into a circle and rivet the ends together. Even if that means 4 times the riveting the total amount of work is less than the old way of making mail armour.
About the vulnerability of your arms, your left arm (for a right-handed person) would be protected by your shield. You're not going to battle without a shield, would you?
Yep, I remember putting on a hauberk for the first time. Everything felt great until it came time to take it off. It was quite snug, so there was a slight 'panic attack' when it got stuck half way. Then I remembered someone saying 'gravity is your friend', I did the upside down dance and it just fell off.
After watching hundreds of videos by
- Modern History TV
- Skallagrim
- Lindybeige
- Metatron
- Shadiversity
- Tod's workshop
I guess I know everything I need to become a Medieval Knight. Hand me a sword and I'm ready to go!
Nope. Go and watch Scholagladiatoria and Knyght Errant.
Guess my channel's not that famous yet.
I just noticed the lumber behind you. OH MY that's some LOVELY timber and came from a VERY LARGE tree.
The most charming horse is, in fact, a mule.
Talking of mules, Marius mules did carry mail long before medieval times
The felt padding was half the amour for sure! I love the description of the (first) crusaders having so many arrows shot in to them (completely ineffectually) that they bristled like porcupines with all the shafts. The thick "felt" jackets they wore in combination with the chain basically stopping everything the enemy had to throw at them.
In a time before antibiotics, infection killed more people than the original injury, so, preventing minor cuts was just as important as preventing broken bones.
A mail shirt will let you get bruised but minimize cuts and punctures
on one of my birthday's I spent it at a town fair with my local SCA group and one of the knights let me wear his chain mail shirt for the day because it's my favourite type of armour. It felt so amazing and I loved the weight of it. The next day my whole torso and back was that "had a great workout" kind of sore. 15/10 don't need the gym, just wear chainmail and do everyday things, it's way more fun hahaha. Love your videos by the way and you really are living the dream. Keep it up!
As someone who makes modern maille (jewellery and accessories mainly using mostly aluminium rings) 1, rings that are already closed are a HUGE time saver, 2 maille on the scale of a shirt takes a very long time unless being made as a team, 3, while much lighter than plate, it is heavier than you'd expect.
And especially with experience with maille, this video was super enjoyable!
its like watching a medieval instead of car themed james may
NGL watching you shake that mail off was pretty funny!
I just bought a short sleeved chain mail shirt. I’ve worn one before briefly as part of a display thing. I always like brushing up on the background of things like this.
Sounds great!
Love how the horses are all individual in their reactions: from “oh, I’m going to be on camera?” to “hurry up, I’m hungry” to “nice to see you again!”
Any armor that was in use for almost a thousand years was "effective." These people weren't stupid. I'm sure guards could patrol a city or a castle all day in that stuff. Or walk Hadrian's Wall. And guards who were not on duty, could easily slip into that shirt during emergency
Exactly there's also this annoying thing in movies and books where guards with chainmail and spears are somehow pushovers ... The guys got the perfect armour and weapon to stop a sword or knife ... Hes got reach and protection ...
@@andrewshraga7301
And they're going to be fast and mobile. So yeah, very dangerous if they've been training all their life
My 1st chainmail shirt weighed 45 1/2 lbs.! It was dip galvanized flattened rings. Even with a heavy padded gambeson vest underneath, after a couple of hours my shoulders ached, and I had ring marks on my shoulders.
I got rid of that shirt, and replaced it with a 25 lb. Stainless steel mail shirt.
your shaking was noble
Cody's Lab has been proving the viability of daily-use mail for years 😊
Was about to say the same thing. It's slightly heavier because it's made of copper, and he's doing it for a different reason (to simulate wearing a space suit), but the results are roughly the same.
Imagine climbing a ridge to look down into an army camp as they settle in for the night, and seeing thousands of warriors bent over twerking there Armor off haha
A lot probably slept in chainmail you be surprised at what you can sleep wearing if tired enough, also if someone attacks you are armored already.
Two men help each other take off their mail shirts. Makes sense to me.
@@mpetersen6 The woke are now petitioning that mail sounds to close to male and now we have to refer to it as nonbinary armor 🤣
@@johnree6106
I know it's a joke but please do not give them any ideas. How long before the US Mail is attacked as sexist. But the Post Office does trans gender letter carriers. Mailwomen 🙄
@@mpetersen6 Happy new year, and yeah it was a joke, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if there really was a petition to change the name.
The horses and donkey are so gorgeous!
One thing to also remember about the drawings that were done back in the day: artistic license. We all know what modern artistic license takes with armor. Who's to say that they didn't also do that with the artwork depicting someone cleaving someone to the navel with a sword to play up the attacker and/or downplay the defender? And if IIRC, most of these artists were not known for actually being there for the battles, so there's no guarantee that they even understood how armor works, or what kind of weapon would make a would like that.
Or just real but very rare events, like more modern medal commendations and accounts.
"and sers Arthur and Mark did see a poor soul (almost) cleft in twain by a monstrous blow by our man."
On the difference between using solid links or only riveted: you counted wrong the amount of riveted links when solid links are used. Half of the links need to be riveted, not quarter. Those patches of four solid and one riveted ring need to be connected to each other by riveted links.
good point, yes you're right.
@@FlinnGaidin only if you could somehow fuze the rings together
@@tedarcher9120 I think I imagined something incorrectly in my head when I wrote that, lol.
I honestly don't know how Jason can go through his day without a permanent ear-to-ear grin. I remember the first time I got a horse up to canter, and the feeling kept me in ecstasy for days. If I were to ever ride while wearing mail, the Tolkien nerd in me would probably succumb to fatal amounts of glee.
lol, I'm pretty happy much of the time.
@@ModernKnight I'm happy to hear it, Sir! And you do look it! I'm glad to see you sharing your joy with us!
I know I'm 3 years late but I will try to guess some of the reasons why it was popular for so long before watching the video:
1. It's easier (though perhaps not faster) to make than many other types of metal armor.
2. It offers a relatively high mobility and comfort.
3. It takes less space to store than rigid armor types.
4. It is more effective than often thought (this is a more modern shortsightedness, I suppose).
5. It is relatively cost effective.
6. You can stack it with many other types of armor.
7. It is easy to (at least visually) conceal.
8. It can be easily repaired when damaged.
9. A "default" sized mail shirt can fit most average warriors without refitting.
10. It's easier to put on than armor with separate pieces and many straps.
I think 10 is pretty good. Maybe there are some of my concepts on the video or perhaps I even came up some good ones that weren't. I'll watch the video tomorrow as it is getting late 😅
In terms of tabletop RPG's I've found it intresting that rather than making you harder to hit, some systems have armour reduce damage.
I think that a system which makes armor reduce damage is better.
It's not that you are not hit. It's that the energy of the hit is absorbed by your armor. Some of it may go through, particularly if it is a heavy hit, but it would hurt less than without armor.
My favorite RPG by a longshot is Mythras. When you attack someone, they can (and should) parry in response, and if someone rolls well enough they get all sorts of options. Anything from choosing where to hit to tripping your opponent. Good enough armor can make you more or less impervious to someone just whacking at you unless they roll well enough to do stuff like that. Like, mail will block all of the standard damage from smaller swords unless you're strong enough to stab through, attack an unarmored area it or get the opportunity for a real killing stroke.
You don't gain HP over time, and it's location-based, so if you *do* get stabbed it can be very bad. But it's designed so that you'll usually just be *seriously injured* rather than killed outright, and that's if you don't just yield when you realize you're outmatched. Most people really don't want to murder other people outside of a battlefield context.
10:25 Ah yes, that's a Nord footman, I remember hiring these by the hundreds in Mount & Blade. Best low-tire unit in the game.
Wouldn't it be trained footmen? I think footmen only wear fur but trained footmen wear mail
@@combatraptor4592 Might be, it's been a while since I've played vanilla.
Yup, byrnie armour are used by nord trained footmen & veteran archers in vanilla Warband.
I'm considering this video a Christmas present. Thanks
You should!
I used to be active in a historical reenactment society and have worn mail at least two or three hundred times. I can say you are 100% correct about the most practical way to take off mail: we would jokingly refer to this as "the ring mail shimmy".
Years ago i bougt a stainless welded t-shirt style shiny chainmail. It was very comfortable while sleeping, shouwer and doing other stuff. When it gets dirty, you can wash it with clear water, no cuts from whatever and it did not wear of. And it trains your body over the day by its wheight (3kg). It feels really great. But the problem is, it did not grow with my belly.