"The Franks . . . stood firm as a wall, and every foot-soldier wore a vest of thick felt and a coat of mail so dense and strong that our arrows made no impression on them . . . . I saw some with from one to ten arrows sticking in them, and still advancing at their ordinary pace without leaving the ranks." Don't know about you, but that sounds absolutely terrifying.
@@CountArtha I have read and been told that Saladin (who, imo, was truly one of the Great Generals of History 🙂) is pronounced, _"Sala-hadin"_ Would you happen to know if this is accurate?
@@munstrumridcully I would not. I don't speak or read Arabic, but Professor Wikipedia tells me that "Salah Ad-Din" is how a modern Arabic scholar would Anglicize it. 😉 "Saladin" might be how his name appears in Latin or French chronicles.
@@CountArtha I was just wondering because I seen it both ways-- like you said, I've read that modern scholars say _"Sala-hadin"_ , but then if I search for the pronunciation on Google, it says just _"Saladin"_ You're probably right it's probably just an anglicized version. Thanks for the reply! Cheers 🙂🤔🙂
Other potential advantages: 1. Easy to maintain. Just throw it into a barrel with some sand and roll it around for a few minutes. Clean. While being worn, the armor is self cleaning due to the rubbing action of the rings. 2. Easy to repair. Any broken rings can easily be replaced by an armorer. The armor doesn't have to be disassembled in any way. 3. Easy to transfer or hand down. Rings can be added or subtracted for a custom fit. You can give it to your son and even if he isn't your size it can be easily modified. 4. If well cared for, will last indefinitely. Other armors with leather or textile parts will eventually rot or fall apart due to use. Another advantage of a belt is that the byrnie won't ride up when you bend forward. You want this to happen if you're taking it off, but rather inconvenient if the mail shirt wants to come off in a battle because you bend forward for whatever reason. I believe this is mentioned in the sagas.
Just a curious novice to medieval arms and armor with a question-- Wouldn't maille always be getting rusty? Or did the wearers have ways to prevent oxidation? Like rubbing it down with oils, maybe?
@@munstrumridcully Vegetable oil would have been quite common in an army camp for cleaning weapons and armor. Modern soldiers use oil to maintain their rifles.
@@CountArtha I thought that might be what they did. I was just curious because I know that Iron-- or even the low grade steel they had in the early medieval period --would rust really quick. When the soldiers would fight in the rain, or you know, when it rains as they're on the march, and stuff. Their kit would just be begging to oxidize, lol I just wondered how they maintained it. Oil was my guess, but I wasn't sure if that would do the trick. Thank you very much for the reply in the information! Cheers 🙂🤔🙂
What he did at the end there is called a "Texas Switch." See, the whole first twenty five minutes of the video was performed by stunt man (the producers would never let the actual Matt Easton hit himself with a war hammer {insurance reasons}). Then at the end the stunt man ducks out of frame and the real Matt Easton jumps up and delivers the closing monologue. Those HEMA guys are pretty sophisticated cinematographers.
paulus phillipos Ah, fair enough. I googled "mail armor bernie" and it didn't do an auto-correct (and several pages came up using the 'e' spelling), so I assumed that was right. ... There, it let me fix it! (mentioning it so the responses don't baffle future readers)
Thanks for this, Matt. It seems like the RPG tropes out there have done mail armour a disservice, where to me, it seems very much like one of, if not the most, all-around effective armours from the pre-gunpowder era. Looking forward to more.
Something I've heard no one talk about with mail: it kind of helps you in combat to feel when you're hit. It's like the football padding story, the more invincible someone feels the more reckless they are.
Hell, I've seen applications of mail armor still in use today... my butcher uses mail gloves when cutting meat, so it must be pretty damn good at resisting cuts. I think this is one of those inventions that just works
One more little tidbit about hitting with a spike. Even if you do not burst a ring a do damage to them. The force is still more concentrated and will be spread less by the mail\gambeson. :) Also, it would be cool to hear about other pieces of armor that were common to be worn with mail at different times periods. Like types of helmets and gloves\gauntlets.
Thanks a lot for the video, Matt. Couple of points however. 1) The arms of your byrnie are woven wrongly. 4 in 1 mail is directional: in one direction it snugs, in the perpendicular direction it stays spread. The "grain" on your arms should be turned 90 degrees in order to prevent loose flaps of mail from colliding with the pommel of the sword that you're wearing, or with any other object such as belt. 2) I would contest the "weather neutrality" of mail. In very hot weather, the dark mail collects heat from the sun and can get very hot to the point of almost burning on touch (crusaders in the Outremer wore white surcoats over their mail). Similarly, in very cold environment, the mail could work as heatsink, radiating one's precious body heat, unless of course padded with thick enough gambeson. 3) The point of padding attached to mail: not only there was padding often attached, but in most cases, the edges of mail had linen/leather hemming for various practical reasons.
It's funny that you mention how easy mail is to put on and take off, I read a book series once (a fantasy series) that involved various chapters of knights, all but one chapter wore plate armor. The one chapter that didn't wear plate wore mail because where they lived there were lots creeks, rivers, & streams that crossed their lands so they wore mail in case they fell in since they could just remove the shirt and swim back up before drowning. It was mentioned that at one point a new commander was assigned to their order and he wanted everyone to wear plate like the other orders, this made them unhappy and they proceeded to toss their new commander in a stream/river wearing his plate armor while another knight jumped in wearing mail; the mail wearing knight (naturally) came back up while their new commander didn't, they simply figured he must have found something more interesting at the bottom of the stream.
It was a pretty enjoyable series. The world was somewhere in between Lord of the Rings and The Song of Ice and Fire. There was magic but it was limited and it was basically praying to your god to do something for you, there were some non-human races but no Orcs & Goblins. If you're interested in reading it's called The Elenium by David Eddings.
Skoruligr Ulfrsson First off, this book was completely fictional, not historical fiction but fiction. Secondly, although the book didn't go into great detail about it, it was implied that the body of water the knights were in was fairly deep and wide, shallow enough that if you sunk to the bottom you could still swim up but deep enough that it would be pretty hard to swim up to the surface or across while wearing plate armor. I'd imagine that this would be particularly true if you either didn't know how to swim or weren't a particularly good swimmer.
Nice shirt. Looks like 5/16" riveted mild steel rings, of perhaps 16 gauge. I'd guess the weight at a little under 20 pounds. I wish that I had the patience to make riveted mail, but I stick to costume grade butted ring mail for now. Chainmail definitely packs down small for transport. I made a chainmail mini dress in 16 gauge, 1/4" ring aluminum for a 5'6" model, packed it into a box that was 5"x5"x4", and sent it by post. Japanese armour used several different patterns. 4-in-1 and 6-in-1 Japanese mail used a central ring that was joined by either 4 or 6 perpendicular rings or wire loops, to the rings around it. In making this I've found that has two disadvantages. The first is that it must be more fitted to an individual user than a shirt like ours, because it doesn't hang in the same way. The second is that the gaps between rings are larger, for the same diameter of ring. They did, however, also make use of what is commonly called "European 4-in-1" by the mailing community.
Typically ( and yes there were exceptions ) japanese mail was used to hold metal plates and to cover joints. The majority wasnt rivetted and looked more like tiny split rings ( key chain ring ). By not being the main armor we can assume the performance drawbacks werent enough to switch to eurp 4 in 1.
Robert Saxell - Mail is whatever mail is, and that may not be anything which is easily described in fractions of an inch. It depends solely on the mandrel or windlass around which the artisan chose to draw or coil his wire. That varied. Today, mail is whatever the maker can easily find in a rod's diameter around which the coils may be wrapped, which may well be measured in mm.
I wanted to make a set of mail from inconel. Inconel work/age hardens. When you first get it it is quite malleable and easy to form. You wind your rings and weave your armor, then throw it in the closet for a month or two. the inconel hardens and becomes like spring-steel holding its form. It's also incredibly tough and would eschew the need for riveted rings. However, the price of inconel (it's most common use is in nuclear reactors) is rather high, and the mail itself would cost just about as much as your standard riveted ring mail. It would just be a lot less time-intensive to create. We made a full set of chain (non-riveted) from decent carbon steel, non riveted, and it took months to make a long sleeve sort of 'hoodie' and a set of trousers. Even un-riveted it was very strong (using pretty thick rings and a small diameter); however it was also very heavy. The full set of chain with grieves was around 70lbs. Normally it's a lot easier to make a chain vest, or a short-sleeve setup, or like what I'm building now which is a more eastern chain pattern, but with plates added in strategic positions and scales in others.
I wondered, is it possible, with modern tech to have welded mail? Instead of riveting the rings, couldn't they be welded with special tech. I'm a welder but never found anyone who could answer that.. Maybe with a TIG set up but it would be hard..
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I bought a series of VHS tapes by Hank Reinhardt, and he showed the different between hacking (with an arming sword) at a piece of meat protected by mail alone and mail with padding. The cliffnotes version is that without padding, you wind up with steel rings driven into your flesh in a ghastly fashion - important note being that this particular hunk of cow did not have any skin on it.
Great video (more armour talks!) I've been making chain mail for about two years as a hobby. One piece I've been making with wire only 1mm diameter wrapped into 5mm rings and butted together (had a go at riveting, not going to happen at that scale). What I've got so far is a piece 28/16 cm with just under 6,000 links it. Have done several test of it. I've found that stabbing it, with padding underneath, will bend one of the links (easy fix) but the padding is undamaged.
Always interesting. A couple details that I would like to throw out there just to add on what has been said. While many times people didn't wear a belt with mail rarely some peoples like the Byzantine wore an additional one sometimes around the chest to presumably help suspend its weight. Also padded garments under mail may very well be a practice popularize if not introduce by the moors as in may have been the mainstay of there armour when they arrived in Spain. Another fact hinting to that is that the other popular name of a gambeson was an aketon (alcotton) which is derived from arabic. And lastly plate armour actually has a greater antiquity than mail going back well before the Romans in the form of Greek bell cuiras and before that Mediterranean bronze hoop armours.
Very informative overview of one of the most successful and widespread armours in history. You are correct about the failure spots being likely the riveted holes: it has actually been mathematically proven through fracture theory and von Mises yield criteria in case of riveted bridges or civil structures in general (the traction stress seems to be concentrated rather than evenly distributed in thickness as it is in the rest of the ring). The effect is worse in case of non cylindrical rivets which I guess were easier to make. If only they had had welders... The lorica hamata and plumata (the expensive feathery version) were very often depicted in many stages of the roman civilization though sadly, even here in Italy, not many examples remain. I'm not sure if you mentioned it but one of the greatest advantages of this kind of armour are the cheap and relatively fast repairs: it could be repaired at camps while experienced blacksmiths and laboratories were needed to properly fix plates. Thanks and keep posting.
great vid, a lot of love for the intro about pedantic terminology i couldn't agree more. If you're going to continue with armour a look at the roman segmenta compared to the mail would be really awesome :)
Some positive feedback: It's nice that you have different thumbnails sometimes, makes it easier to find a particular video from your channel if there's a different thumbnail rather than if there was a picture of you in the same room on every single video.
Great video, lots of detail info. More please about mail and other types of armor. Some video on shields, especially medieval shields - the type without the central piece. How it was use in comparison to the typical "viking shield".
Thanks Matt, very interesting video. Strange, I'd only ever considered the use of war-hammers, maces, and later battleaxes to be a response to the development of plate, which was in turn a response to changes in cavalry tactics, specifically the transition to the underarm gripped lance.
I am in a local Amtgard group and one of the members who used to be there actually wore chainmail for endurance training. He usually wore a spandex shirt, the chainmail over that, and a light T-shirt over the mail so people didn't stare. One night when he was out for a run, a guy pulled a knife on him and tried to stabbed him multiple times. The blade never broke through the mail. This scared the crap out of the robber and he ran off.
I think there's no better proof of the efficacy of mail than the fact you can still buy mail gloves for butchers to use, we haven't come up with anything better. And of course mail suits for scuba diving in shark hazard areas.
hey Matt, love your channel. I wonder if you might take a look at the enormous psychological advantage that someone fighting in armor will have against someone without armor and how this will allow them to fight with far better tempo than someone who is afraid for their life. We moderns get hung up on the physical elements of medieval fighting, but in history, the psychological dynamics of a battle are at least as important. Thanks!
I read somewhere that mail armor is also easier to clean and maintain because to clean rust off, all you have to do is stick it in a barrel full of sand and roll it around. Don't know how historically accurate this is, however...
Great video, Matt! I really like mail armor, it's somehow better looking to me than anything else. Lamellar does come close, but doesn't quite make it.
Iban Ruiz Yeah MATT!! I'd buy more Scholargladiatoria stuff if you wear full armour and strip seductively to some Church monks chanting music down to a jock strap or bundled TIGHT girth cloth!! =D:::::::::: Yum!! Hey Ima perv BOOM CHICKA YOW!
I also guess that plate armour was developed further as lances became thicker and heavier and thus more able to pierce mail. We have to account for the fact that the main armour user of the time, the knight, was first and foremost a mounted warrior.
Also I think its important to note its very easy to maintain. To assemble one takes a fair amount of labor but to repair one is as easy as riveting some more rings into place and it doesn't exactly take a master artisan to do so whereas with something like plate your going to need a master artisan if one of the major pieces needs to be replaced especially if it has to fit precisely with other plates
Excellent video, Matt. Good point about 4-in-1 and 6-in-1. Btw, from what I read, Japanese mail was not riveted. The only criticism to this video is that when you demonstrate the action of the Warhammer against the mail you choose the wrong side. No question, hammer will do a lot of damage to the mail. However, both "crowbill" back of Warhammer and flanged mace were specifically devised to force chain links apart - back to your point that the rivet is the weakest part of the mail.
Mail, in some form, is actually still used in the meat processing industry and even in some woodworking with axes and knifes. In those cases even unrivited mail offers good protection against accidents.
I think another point to consider is that during the heydays of mail armour the knight (or soldier) would generally wear a quite large shield, which would make it very difficult to land a stabbing blow, where is with draw cutting you can still get around a shield (at which point the mails main function kicks in)
CarlosJoachim Yes, funnily enough we were talking about the contrast between cuts and thrusts with shields last night at training, as we were using shields a lot.
as for padded armor being sewed with mail (part where you talk about mail and padded armor as altogether part) there was similar thing in the middle east called kazaghat, or mail-padded/linen jacket. it was actually padded/linen jacket with mail inside. so depiction of what it seems "regular/casual" cloth can actually be armor. similar thing can be seen in byzantine empire too
I have always assumed that before the invention of the gamberson people would have worn their thickest civilian clothing or multiple layers of clothing under chain mail, and then at some point some clever person came along and said "hey why don't we make special bit of clothing to go under that mail.
King Rat Me too. Especially in the case of the Vikings, I imagined that all the layers of clothing they wore except in summer would be as thick as later dedicated gambesons.
Having worn mail myself without a gambeson, just a light sweatshirt or t-shirt, I've found that it will suck the heat out of you on a cold night. It could be that as soldiers became more of a full time profession again in the middle ages, people started fighting wars later or earlier in the year than before. Or maybe it coincides with the drawing to an end of the Mediaeval Warm Period, around 1300, when the planet cooled down noticeable and the so-called Little Ice Age began. Either way they might have felt an increased need to wear something warm under their mail and so started wearing the gambesons for that reason?
Ben Kirkby You do have a point there, this in reverse is the same reason why the crusaders started wearing tabards. Metal gets really hot in the sun and really cold in cold climates, so you'll generally want to put a loose layer of cloth over it to retain temperature. I also need to point out that cold may not have been so much of an issue, because the Medieval world had something known as the Campaign Season. This was generally around summer because spring was sewing time and autumn was harvest time. This means that summer is the perfect time for war in the region because if you gain land you would have a produce surplus due to not having to sew the plants you're reaping. This meant winter was generally a time of peace, because there's nothing to really gain from war in the winter unless your people are already starving.
I was watching the timer at the end and thinking "Matt has less than a minute to take it off!", and then Matt does a magic trick by disappearing and re-appearing without the mail.
i like that you brought up that bony points and mass weapons are the reason for small plates appearing on early chainmail. i saw a video where the links actually got smaller toward the cuffs and hem, instead of larger. [tho this was muslim chainmail]
Another reason why it may of taken a while for padded armour to be developed is making cloth is very labour intensive. Its introduction coincides with spinning wheels and better looms. Before then the amount of labour gone into winding spindles and weaving shuttles likely made a layered gambeson more expensive than the mail shirt. Then it makes you hot.
You know your reflection was visible in the glass behind you when you took the shirt off? So not entirely invisible :p Point about smaller links: Not always heavier. You'd have to use thinner wire for them to actually form the link which would make the link lighter, but it would also make the areas weaker (4mm is the smallest I've seen, and it is more like a cotton shirt than 6mm mail). I'm more used to double mail being used to reinforce areas - not sure if you've seen that (two links through the same point rather than 1). Plate: Having seen demonstrations of people wearing plate doing cart wheels, dancing (including Gang-am style!), I'm not convinced by your argument that plate was all that restrictive, or heavy to wear (I'll pass that one to the people who regularly wear plate harnesses... and dance in them... will also ask if they've done a tango as I know they've tried waltzing...). Yes, there are heavy plate harnesses (such as tourney plate) that is very heavy and restrictive, but regular plate armours? Not sure that's true.
When it comes to viking and people from the north parts of europe they lived where it was fairly cold unless it was summer. so the clothes cold be fairly thick or they had a couple of layers of clothing. so if the mail was worn on those clothes it would works as padding. Most likley not as good as a real gambeson but still fairly effective depending on the clothes under
I think it's also very important to remember that one's shield was their primary defense--not their maille. When you have a portable wall to deny access to your tender targety bits, you can get away with far less protection then otherwise. I probably scrap my gambeson too and just go at it with some maille and a shield if I was a Viking too. I'd take the gambeson if I didn't have a shield to ward off arrows--but otherwise I could see it being just a bit redundant. That's probably why you see so many men simply going out in a maille shirt worn over their normal clothes in earlier Medieval-era artwork and anecdotes. But in the case of a spear point or other melee weapon weaseling past your shield, you still have your maille as your "oh shit" last-resort.
I think my Hauberk full sleeve is 30-35 lbs. Im very flexible, I find my padding(which is a bid on the thick and stiff side) encumbers me more than my mail. I do find it curious that mail was used for wide period of time, and swords never became more pointed until the 14th century when plate is a lot more visible. Heh If you have time, can you make a video talking about crusader era combat and weapons or at least swords? Also I have friends that tell me that while mail was used in the viking era. It was very reserved for the upper class until up to the norman era. Cheers! Great Vid as always.
Mail was in use in the Roman empire pretty much since they adopted it. Cavalry continued to wear it when that plated stuff came about and the stocks of mail armor the Romans had lying around didn't disappear overnight when they began equipping legionaries with segmentata.
Matt It'd be interesting to compare a full coat of mail armour, (coif, helmet, full byrnie, trews) versus a suit of well made plate armour. I know what mail feels like to fight in but plate seems so much more mobile and less encumbering. There are tales of medieval jousters that could leap into their horses in full plate. I used to be able to ride a horse or wear mail armour. Now either of the options leaves me needing a Ginster's pastie and a ten minute breather. I think earlier, mail armoured blokes were more encumbered.
A while back I got interested in the topic of gambesons worn under mail before later medieva times. I didn't get too far but I found out about the existence of a small gambeson called the submarlis that the Romans wore under their armour. I have no idea whether all Romans used it or whether any contemporary societies used something similar. Also, I find it very surprising that people didn't work out pretty early on the advantages of a gambeson and belt with mail.
If you armed with those hauberk, and shield, and the top most sword on your wall, you would look more like a Norman warrior. Of course, I am familiar with mail, I have made one of my a 4-1 hauberk bigger that the one you were wearing, but not riveted. It was made of 1/16 inch wire coiled around 6/16 inch core, consisting approximately 18,000 rings. It weighs 10 kilograms. I do not usually wear it, because I am not exposed to any cut. I have seen Japanese mail from Edo period, it was made of something like 1/32 inches wired ring with, I am not sure, perhaps, 1/8 inch of inner diameter. It was very delicate and lighter than other mail shirts I found. And if the translation is correct, it is indicated that mail armor was used by Assyrian during the bronze age. Another issue about Japanese mail, on some part of Samurai armor, Japanese mail comprised of two different types of chain links, one is circular and the other is ... a kind of elliptical in shapes. Please see the illustration at the link below for different types of chain links I am talking about. i831.photobucket.com/albums/zz238/estcrh/samurai%20chainmail%20and%20armor%20samples/100_3328.jpg
Ooo! Would you do a video comparing and contrasting brigandine/lamellar armour and mail? I know you have that 15th century common soldier armour video.
I don't think the term "chainmail" is so bad. In Germany "mail" is translated with "Kettenrüstung" oder "Kettenhemd" word by word: "Ketten-" is the plural of chain and "-rüstung" is the term for "armour", "-hemd" is the term for well... a shirt ;) I think the term "chain" is very intuitive to this type of armour.
I've not finished the video yet, so I don't know if you've covered it. What's up with the sling on the shield? Did people wear and use them like you had in the first two minutes of the video? Slung, but still in hand? Or was it something you just felt like doing?
Five years on we have the lockdown longbow tests. A 160 lb longbow arrow can go through a wood shield, chainmail, gambeson and cause a nasty wound. Seems that a similar impact would shatter against good late medieval steel plate.
Another aspect of mail armor that may have contributed to its popularity was that it didn't need to be custom made for the wearer. The mesh is a lot more forgiving of imperfect tailoring than plate based armor systems. This means that an army can issue, recall and reissue the armor to various soldiers over an extended period of time. Chain mail is also very easy to clean up and repair if it gets damaged in battle, contributing to the longevity of a suit. I've got no evidence to support the claim- possibly you'd know where to look? But I like to think that a given chain mail suit could have been in service for several generations.
been considering constructing a functional Norman knights armor from say 900-1100, including a similar kite shield as you showed in the intro, a mail shirt, and a nasal helm with aventail, just wondering if you could suggest any specific models for a relative budget, and wondering how effective this would be for nylon sparring.
Lumpkins McDream From my limited knowledge, weren't aventails invented around the 13th century? I think they used mail coifs instead. Also a nasal helmet wouldn't be recommended for nylon sparring because it wouldn't protect the eyes (and face) correctly. You could have a mail coif or aventail that covers the whole face and the eyes, or use a modified nasal helmet with a grid covering the face (or faceplate), somewhat like that : gdfb.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/GDFB-H-040-SIDE.jpg
To clarify the weight of maille slightly, it is definitely possible to wear mail for 4hours+ without a belt. My first day of training in maille I didn't use the belt and I was only slightly worse for wear. It is better to have the belt but it is almost a luxury really. It isn't overly necessary, however a professional soldier probably would have worn one if he expected to be in a prolonged battle.
Hi Matt, I love your videos. I have seen some demostration were a chainmail was totally pierced by spears (not riveted ones). Maybe it was more effective against arrows than other kind of pierce damage?. Also it would very interesting to see a video of Byzantine lamellar, I saw some interesting documents from Timothy Dawson (Im not pretty sure about the name)from Australian university about Byzantine lamellar beign way superior to a lot of armours and I would love to hear your opinion about that. Sry if I wrote something bad. Not my tongue.
I would say maille resists a lot better to thrusts than to blows, the only part of the blow that it softens is the contact, the kinetic energy of the blow gets transmitted to the body in a fairly small area, the links that are directly under the impacting object and possible 1-2 rows of links that get stretched, around that area. Its probably why plate armor came into being. Axes and hammers provided to be sufficient danger to mail knights, so plate was developed, which led to development of better impact weapons, like flanged mace or pole-arm.
Another disadvantage to chain mail armor is that its heavy, you don't get your dexterity bonus to armor class, and you have disadvantage to dexterity (stealth).
+scholagladiatoria have you ever done reenacting in the roman era. It is much more convenient to wear a belt to help carry your stuff as well as make it better to lug around.
Well, due to the low heat capacity (energy required to heat a substance) of metal, wearing a mail shirt would warm you up quite a bit in the sweltering sun, also in cold climates this same trait could lead to hypothermia when not wearing other appropriate, matching clothing.
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"The Franks . . . stood firm as a wall, and every foot-soldier wore a vest of thick felt and a coat of mail so dense and strong that our arrows made no impression on them . . . . I saw some with from one to ten arrows sticking in them, and still advancing at their ordinary pace without leaving the ranks."
Don't know about you, but that sounds absolutely terrifying.
*****
It's from Ibn Shaddad's Life of Saladin.
@@CountArtha I have read and been told that Saladin (who, imo, was truly one of the Great Generals of History 🙂) is pronounced, _"Sala-hadin"_
Would you happen to know if this is accurate?
@@munstrumridcully I would not. I don't speak or read Arabic, but Professor Wikipedia tells me that "Salah Ad-Din" is how a modern Arabic scholar would Anglicize it. 😉 "Saladin" might be how his name appears in Latin or French chronicles.
@@CountArtha I was just wondering because I seen it both ways--
like you said, I've read that modern scholars say _"Sala-hadin"_ , but then if I search for the pronunciation on Google, it says just _"Saladin"_
You're probably right it's probably just an anglicized version. Thanks for the reply! Cheers 🙂🤔🙂
Other potential advantages:
1. Easy to maintain. Just throw it into a barrel with some sand and roll it around for a few minutes. Clean. While being worn, the armor is self cleaning due to the rubbing action of the rings.
2. Easy to repair. Any broken rings can easily be replaced by an armorer. The armor doesn't have to be disassembled in any way.
3. Easy to transfer or hand down. Rings can be added or subtracted for a custom fit. You can give it to your son and even if he isn't your size it can be easily modified.
4. If well cared for, will last indefinitely. Other armors with leather or textile parts will eventually rot or fall apart due to use.
Another advantage of a belt is that the byrnie won't ride up when you bend forward. You want this to happen if you're taking it off, but rather inconvenient if the mail shirt wants to come off in a battle because you bend forward for whatever reason. I believe this is mentioned in the sagas.
5 years later and your comment helped me with my homework. Thanks!
Just a curious novice to medieval arms and armor with a question--
Wouldn't maille always be getting rusty? Or did the wearers have ways to prevent oxidation? Like rubbing it down with oils, maybe?
@@munstrumridcully Vegetable oil would have been quite common in an army camp for cleaning weapons and armor. Modern soldiers use oil to maintain their rifles.
@@CountArtha I thought that might be what they did. I was just curious because I know that Iron-- or even the low grade steel they had in the early medieval period --would rust really quick.
When the soldiers would fight in the rain, or you know, when it rains as they're on the march, and stuff. Their kit would just be begging to oxidize, lol
I just wondered how they maintained it. Oil was my guess, but I wasn't sure if that would do the trick.
Thank you very much for the reply in the information! Cheers 🙂🤔🙂
What he did at the end there is called a "Texas Switch." See, the whole first twenty five minutes of the video was performed by stunt man (the producers would never let the actual Matt Easton hit himself with a war hammer {insurance reasons}). Then at the end the stunt man ducks out of frame and the real Matt Easton jumps up and delivers the closing monologue. Those HEMA guys are pretty sophisticated cinematographers.
🤔🙂
HOWEVA, CONTEXT...
-Easton, Matt
man... people loved my comment hahaha
Somebody should start a re-enactment club called "Weekends in Byrnies"
HebaruSan I believe it to be spelt "byrnie"
paulus phillipos Byrnie probably has the same origin as the norwegian name for chainmail, "brynje".
paulus phillipos Ah, fair enough. I googled "mail armor bernie" and it didn't do an auto-correct (and several pages came up using the 'e' spelling), so I assumed that was right.
... There, it let me fix it! (mentioning it so the responses don't baffle future readers)
Clever... One of the wittier comments I've seen in a while.. One of the things I love about youtube comments section..
Ha! That's great, I love it! 🙂🤔🙂
This video turned a year old today. Happy birthday, mail!
Thanks for this, Matt. It seems like the RPG tropes out there have done mail armour a disservice, where to me, it seems very much like one of, if not the most, all-around effective armours from the pre-gunpowder era. Looking forward to more.
Something I've heard no one talk about with mail: it kind of helps you in combat to feel when you're hit. It's like the football padding story, the more invincible someone feels the more reckless they are.
Hell, I've seen applications of mail armor still in use today... my butcher uses mail gloves when cutting meat, so it must be pretty damn good at resisting cuts. I think this is one of those inventions that just works
One more little tidbit about hitting with a spike. Even if you do not burst a ring a do damage to them. The force is still more concentrated and will be spread less by the mail\gambeson. :)
Also, it would be cool to hear about other pieces of armor that were common to be worn with mail at different times periods. Like types of helmets and gloves\gauntlets.
Thanks a lot for the video, Matt. Couple of points however.
1) The arms of your byrnie are woven wrongly. 4 in 1 mail is directional: in one direction it snugs, in the perpendicular direction it stays spread. The "grain" on your arms should be turned 90 degrees in order to prevent loose flaps of mail from colliding with the pommel of the sword that you're wearing, or with any other object such as belt.
2) I would contest the "weather neutrality" of mail. In very hot weather, the dark mail collects heat from the sun and can get very hot to the point of almost burning on touch (crusaders in the Outremer wore white surcoats over their mail). Similarly, in very cold environment, the mail could work as heatsink, radiating one's precious body heat, unless of course padded with thick enough gambeson.
3) The point of padding attached to mail: not only there was padding often attached, but in most cases, the edges of mail had linen/leather hemming for various practical reasons.
It's funny that you mention how easy mail is to put on and take off, I read a book series once (a fantasy series) that involved various chapters of knights, all but one chapter wore plate armor. The one chapter that didn't wear plate wore mail because where they lived there were lots creeks, rivers, & streams that crossed their lands so they wore mail in case they fell in since they could just remove the shirt and swim back up before drowning. It was mentioned that at one point a new commander was assigned to their order and he wanted everyone to wear plate like the other orders, this made them unhappy and they proceeded to toss their new commander in a stream/river wearing his plate armor while another knight jumped in wearing mail; the mail wearing knight (naturally) came back up while their new commander didn't, they simply figured he must have found something more interesting at the bottom of the stream.
Riceball01 Sounds like a good series!
It was a pretty enjoyable series. The world was somewhere in between Lord of the Rings and The Song of Ice and Fire. There was magic but it was limited and it was basically praying to your god to do something for you, there were some non-human races but no Orcs & Goblins. If you're interested in reading it's called The Elenium by David Eddings.
Riceball01 Love that series.
Riceball01 That is silly. You can still swim in plate armor, there is documentation of English knights falling into rivers and swimming back.
Skoruligr Ulfrsson
First off, this book was completely fictional, not historical fiction but fiction.
Secondly, although the book didn't go into great detail about it, it was implied that the body of water the knights were in was fairly deep and wide, shallow enough that if you sunk to the bottom you could still swim up but deep enough that it would be pretty hard to swim up to the surface or across while wearing plate armor. I'd imagine that this would be particularly true if you either didn't know how to swim or weren't a particularly good swimmer.
Nice shirt. Looks like 5/16" riveted mild steel rings, of perhaps 16 gauge. I'd guess the weight at a little under 20 pounds. I wish that I had the patience to make riveted mail, but I stick to costume grade butted ring mail for now.
Chainmail definitely packs down small for transport. I made a chainmail mini dress in 16 gauge, 1/4" ring aluminum for a 5'6" model, packed it into a box that was 5"x5"x4", and sent it by post.
Japanese armour used several different patterns. 4-in-1 and 6-in-1 Japanese mail used a central ring that was joined by either 4 or 6 perpendicular rings or wire loops, to the rings around it. In making this I've found that has two disadvantages. The first is that it must be more fitted to an individual user than a shirt like ours, because it doesn't hang in the same way. The second is that the gaps between rings are larger, for the same diameter of ring. They did, however, also make use of what is commonly called "European 4-in-1" by the mailing community.
morallyambiguousnet How fitting of you to supplement a video about ancient and medieval armour with measurements in an ancient non-metric system!
Robert Faber Thought seriously about adding the metric equivalents. Decided against it ;)
Typically ( and yes there were exceptions ) japanese mail was used to hold metal plates and to cover joints. The majority wasnt rivetted and looked more like tiny split rings ( key chain ring ). By not being the main armor we can assume the performance drawbacks werent enough to switch to eurp 4 in 1.
Robert Saxell - Mail is whatever mail is, and that may not be anything which is easily described in fractions of an inch. It depends solely on the mandrel or windlass around which the artisan chose to draw or coil his wire. That varied. Today, mail is whatever the maker can easily find in a rod's diameter around which the coils may be wrapped, which may well be measured in mm.
It's really nice to see that you're doing more on armor. I've seen a lot of people asking for it, so it's cool that you're doing it.
I effing love getting a dose of no-bullshit practical history! Love your videos long time.
Awesome video as always, Matt. A great reference for armor aficionados and fantasy authors alike.
Also, maille just means 'mesh', so it could be a mesh of other things. Chainmail is (ironically) the most specific you can get.
I wanted to make a set of mail from inconel. Inconel work/age hardens. When you first get it it is quite malleable and easy to form. You wind your rings and weave your armor, then throw it in the closet for a month or two. the inconel hardens and becomes like spring-steel holding its form. It's also incredibly tough and would eschew the need for riveted rings. However, the price of inconel (it's most common use is in nuclear reactors) is rather high, and the mail itself would cost just about as much as your standard riveted ring mail. It would just be a lot less time-intensive to create.
We made a full set of chain (non-riveted) from decent carbon steel, non riveted, and it took months to make a long sleeve sort of 'hoodie' and a set of trousers. Even un-riveted it was very strong (using pretty thick rings and a small diameter); however it was also very heavy. The full set of chain with grieves was around 70lbs.
Normally it's a lot easier to make a chain vest, or a short-sleeve setup, or like what I'm building now which is a more eastern chain pattern, but with plates added in strategic positions and scales in others.
I wondered, is it possible, with modern tech to have welded mail? Instead of riveting the rings, couldn't they be welded with special tech. I'm a welder but never found anyone who could answer that.. Maybe with a TIG set up but it would be hard..
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I bought a series of VHS tapes by Hank Reinhardt, and he showed the different between hacking (with an arming sword) at a piece of meat protected by mail alone and mail with padding. The cliffnotes version is that without padding, you wind up with steel rings driven into your flesh in a ghastly fashion - important note being that this particular hunk of cow did not have any skin on it.
Great video (more armour talks!) I've been making chain mail for about two years as a hobby. One piece I've been making with wire only 1mm diameter wrapped into 5mm rings and butted together (had a go at riveting, not going to happen at that scale). What I've got so far is a piece 28/16 cm with just under 6,000 links it. Have done several test of it. I've found that stabbing it, with padding underneath, will bend one of the links (easy fix) but the padding is undamaged.
wow, what a vid! You got a new viewer here. I was looking for some quick facts about mail, this is way way better.
Always interesting.
A couple details that I would like to throw out there just to add on what has been said. While many times people didn't wear a belt with mail rarely some peoples like the Byzantine wore an additional one sometimes around the chest to presumably help suspend its weight.
Also padded garments under mail may very well be a practice popularize if not introduce by the moors as in may have been the mainstay of there armour when they arrived in Spain. Another fact hinting to that is that the other popular name of a gambeson was an aketon (alcotton) which is derived from arabic.
And lastly plate armour actually has a greater antiquity than mail going back well before the Romans in the form of Greek bell cuiras and before that Mediterranean bronze hoop armours.
I did not realize that maille resisted thrusts so well. Great video!
Very, very informative. I'd like to see more of these about other pieces of armor.
Very informative overview of one of the most successful and widespread armours in history. You are correct about the failure spots being likely the riveted holes: it has actually been mathematically proven through fracture theory and von Mises yield criteria in case of riveted bridges or civil structures in general (the traction stress seems to be concentrated rather than evenly distributed in thickness as it is in the rest of the ring). The effect is worse in case of non cylindrical rivets which I guess were easier to make. If only they had had welders...
The lorica hamata and plumata (the expensive feathery version) were very often depicted in many stages of the roman civilization though sadly, even here in Italy, not many examples remain.
I'm not sure if you mentioned it but one of the greatest advantages of this kind of armour are the cheap and relatively fast repairs: it could be repaired at camps while experienced blacksmiths and laboratories were needed to properly fix plates.
Thanks and keep posting.
great vid, a lot of love for the intro about pedantic terminology i couldn't agree more.
If you're going to continue with armour a look at the roman segmenta compared to the mail would be really awesome :)
"You won't be able to see me for a second"
A photographer must be always mindful of reflective surfaces!
Excellent video . Clear and informative . Thanks
Fortuitously we can see your reflection in the lovely glass cabinet behind you.
Some positive feedback: It's nice that you have different thumbnails sometimes, makes it easier to find a particular video from your channel if there's a different thumbnail rather than if there was a picture of you in the same room on every single video.
Chainmail shirt, best worn with a threadcloth jacket and a hideleather belt while carrying a barsword and a boardshield.
Great video, lots of detail info. More please about mail and other types of armor.
Some video on shields, especially medieval shields - the type without the central piece. How it was use in comparison to the typical "viking shield".
Thanks Matt, very interesting video. Strange, I'd only ever considered the use of war-hammers, maces, and later battleaxes to be a response to the development of plate, which was in turn a response to changes in cavalry tactics, specifically the transition to the underarm gripped lance.
15:35 The Matt Easton Total Body Aerobic Dance Workout. Coming soon to a HEMA club near you!
Enjoyable and informative. Thanks for posting.
I am in a local Amtgard group and one of the members who used to be there actually wore chainmail for endurance training. He usually wore a spandex shirt, the chainmail over that, and a light T-shirt over the mail so people didn't stare.
One night when he was out for a run, a guy pulled a knife on him and tried to stabbed him multiple times. The blade never broke through the mail. This scared the crap out of the robber and he ran off.
I think there's no better proof of the efficacy of mail than the fact you can still buy mail gloves for butchers to use, we haven't come up with anything better. And of course mail suits for scuba diving in shark hazard areas.
Really really good and informative video!
looks like your shield has seen better days
Oh, that is a new shield!
This was absolutely fascinating.
hey Matt, love your channel. I wonder if you might take a look at the enormous psychological advantage that someone fighting in armor will have against someone without armor and how this will allow them to fight with far better tempo than someone who is afraid for their life. We moderns get hung up on the physical elements of medieval fighting, but in history, the psychological dynamics of a battle are at least as important. Thanks!
I read somewhere that mail armor is also easier to clean and maintain because to clean rust off, all you have to do is stick it in a barrel full of sand and roll it around. Don't know how historically accurate this is, however...
Julia Nadeau you are correct, sometimes even plate armour was treated thusly as well.
"I do have quite a lot of things to say about armor" Well no shit, 9 years later and he's still not finnished
Great video, Matt!
I really like mail armor, it's somehow better looking to me than anything else. Lamellar does come close, but doesn't quite make it.
Yeah, ok, you can take mail off quickly. But can you do it... seductively? Can you do an strip tease with mail armour?
Plate is so hooooot.
And it's a full 20 minutes of seduction.
Iban Ruiz If you find someone wiggling their body while almost doing a handstand seductive...
Anythying can be seductive if you squint hard enough at it ^^
Iban Ruiz Yeah MATT!! I'd buy more Scholargladiatoria stuff if you wear full armour and strip seductively to some Church monks chanting music down to a jock strap or bundled TIGHT girth cloth!! =D:::::::::: Yum!! Hey Ima perv BOOM CHICKA YOW!
Iban Ruiz You can see his arse in the glass behind him, does that count as seductive?
This was very informative. Thanks for making it.
Thanks for your invaluable advice, sir, next time I'm fighting a person in mail shirt I'm going to aim for the bony parts.
I also guess that plate armour was developed further as lances became thicker and heavier and thus more able to pierce mail. We have to account for the fact that the main armour user of the time, the knight, was first and foremost a mounted warrior.
Also I think its important to note its very easy to maintain. To assemble one takes a fair amount of labor but to repair one is as easy as riveting some more rings into place and it doesn't exactly take a master artisan to do so whereas with something like plate your going to need a master artisan if one of the major pieces needs to be replaced especially if it has to fit precisely with other plates
Matt sounds like a High Elven Lord
Excellent video, Matt. Good point about 4-in-1 and 6-in-1. Btw, from what I read, Japanese mail was not riveted. The only criticism to this video is that when you demonstrate the action of the Warhammer against the mail you choose the wrong side. No question, hammer will do a lot of damage to the mail. However, both "crowbill" back of Warhammer and flanged mace were specifically devised to force chain links apart - back to your point that the rivet is the weakest part of the mail.
Mail, in some form, is actually still used in the meat processing industry and even in some woodworking with axes and knifes. In those cases even unrivited mail offers good protection against accidents.
I think another point to consider is that during the heydays of mail armour the knight (or soldier) would generally wear a quite large shield, which would make it very difficult to land a stabbing blow, where is with draw cutting you can still get around a shield (at which point the mails main function kicks in)
CarlosJoachim Yes, funnily enough we were talking about the contrast between cuts and thrusts with shields last night at training, as we were using shields a lot.
scholagladiatoria That is quite a nice coincidence! Any interesting conclusions from the sparring/discussion?
as for padded armor being sewed with mail (part where you talk about mail and padded armor as altogether part) there was similar thing in the middle east called kazaghat, or mail-padded/linen jacket. it was actually padded/linen jacket with mail inside. so depiction of what it seems "regular/casual" cloth can actually be armor. similar thing can be seen in byzantine empire too
He was hitting himself in the chest with the wall-hammer hard enough you could hear it in his voice.
I have always assumed that before the invention of the gamberson people would have worn their thickest civilian clothing or multiple layers of clothing under chain mail, and then at some point some clever person came along and said "hey why don't we make special bit of clothing to go under that mail.
King Rat
Me too. Especially in the case of the Vikings, I imagined that all the layers of clothing they wore except in summer would be as thick as later dedicated gambesons.
Awesome stuff. Very interesting.
Having worn mail myself without a gambeson, just a light sweatshirt or t-shirt, I've found that it will suck the heat out of you on a cold night.
It could be that as soldiers became more of a full time profession again in the middle ages, people started fighting wars later or earlier in the year than before. Or maybe it coincides with the drawing to an end of the Mediaeval Warm Period, around 1300, when the planet cooled down noticeable and the so-called Little Ice Age began. Either way they might have felt an increased need to wear something warm under their mail and so started wearing the gambesons for that reason?
Ben Kirkby So you were saying winter was coming?
Ben Kirkby You do have a point there, this in reverse is the same reason why the crusaders started wearing tabards. Metal gets really hot in the sun and really cold in cold climates, so you'll generally want to put a loose layer of cloth over it to retain temperature.
I also need to point out that cold may not have been so much of an issue, because the Medieval world had something known as the Campaign Season. This was generally around summer because spring was sewing time and autumn was harvest time. This means that summer is the perfect time for war in the region because if you gain land you would have a produce surplus due to not having to sew the plants you're reaping. This meant winter was generally a time of peace, because there's nothing to really gain from war in the winter unless your people are already starving.
I was watching the timer at the end and thinking "Matt has less than a minute to take it off!", and then Matt does a magic trick by disappearing and re-appearing without the mail.
i like that you brought up that bony points and mass weapons are the reason for small plates appearing on early chainmail.
i saw a video where the links actually got smaller toward the cuffs and hem, instead of larger. [tho this was muslim chainmail]
25:54 "Oh bugger, the mail is on fire!”
Great as usual. Thanks.
Another reason why it may of taken a while for padded armour to be developed is making cloth is very labour intensive. Its introduction coincides with spinning wheels and better looms. Before then the amount of labour gone into winding spindles and weaving shuttles likely made a layered gambeson more expensive than the mail shirt. Then it makes you hot.
Is it only me or does his voice sound a bit different? It sounds... more badass and British somehow.
Brilliant video, fascinating CHEERS MATT :)
I really miss the dead cactus that used to star in your videos.
I've worn modern armor for days on end. You'd be amazed how good it feels to take it off after a long period of time.
Saw you remove chainmail shirt as a REFLECTION!! In the glass doors of the cabinet behind!!
You know your reflection was visible in the glass behind you when you took the shirt off? So not entirely invisible :p
Point about smaller links: Not always heavier. You'd have to use thinner wire for them to actually form the link which would make the link lighter, but it would also make the areas weaker (4mm is the smallest I've seen, and it is more like a cotton shirt than 6mm mail). I'm more used to double mail being used to reinforce areas - not sure if you've seen that (two links through the same point rather than 1).
Plate: Having seen demonstrations of people wearing plate doing cart wheels, dancing (including Gang-am style!), I'm not convinced by your argument that plate was all that restrictive, or heavy to wear (I'll pass that one to the people who regularly wear plate harnesses... and dance in them... will also ask if they've done a tango as I know they've tried waltzing...). Yes, there are heavy plate harnesses (such as tourney plate) that is very heavy and restrictive, but regular plate armours? Not sure that's true.
When it comes to viking and people from the north parts of europe they lived where it was fairly cold unless it was summer. so the clothes cold be fairly thick or they had a couple of layers of clothing. so if the mail was worn on those clothes it would works as padding.
Most likley not as good as a real gambeson but still fairly effective depending on the clothes under
I mean the modern winter coats we use today are essentially gambesons with slightly less stuffing! xD
Even in the summer, not that warmmm Every morning I check the weather to bike to work, it's usually around 15 C all summer.. Not even room temp..
This is an oldie but goodie
i love how Matt sounds like a soccer hooligans
"Context" is starting to become one of my favorite ideas, too. I'm not sure why. Maybe it just gives me an excuse to buy more weapons :D
I think it's also very important to remember that one's shield was their primary defense--not their maille. When you have a portable wall to deny access to your tender targety bits, you can get away with far less protection then otherwise.
I probably scrap my gambeson too and just go at it with some maille and a shield if I was a Viking too. I'd take the gambeson if I didn't have a shield to ward off arrows--but otherwise I could see it being just a bit redundant. That's probably why you see so many men simply going out in a maille shirt worn over their normal clothes in earlier Medieval-era artwork and anecdotes.
But in the case of a spear point or other melee weapon weaseling past your shield, you still have your maille as your "oh shit" last-resort.
I think my
Hauberk full sleeve is 30-35 lbs.
Im very flexible, I find my padding(which is a bid on the thick and stiff side) encumbers me more than my mail.
I do find it curious that mail was used for wide period of time, and swords never became more pointed until the 14th century when plate is a lot more visible.
Heh If you have time, can you make a video talking about crusader era combat and weapons or at least swords?
Also I have friends that tell me that while mail was used in the viking era. It was very reserved for the upper class until up to the norman era.
Cheers! Great Vid as always.
Now I want a video of someone attempting the same undressing manoeuvre, but with plate.
Great video!
great now i feel like dressing up head to toe in mail and challenging somebody to a sword fight
Mail was in use in the Roman empire pretty much since they adopted it. Cavalry continued to wear it when that plated stuff came about and the stocks of mail armor the Romans had lying around didn't disappear overnight when they began equipping legionaries with segmentata.
DushinSC
PS, if you absolutely had to take off plate armor quick you could grab your dagger and cut the straps/buckles/points.
DushinSC Or promise your squire a young lady for the night.
***** Isn't that what Matt implied in this video?
English Heart Pretty much.
Matt
It'd be interesting to compare a full coat of mail armour, (coif, helmet, full byrnie, trews) versus a suit of well made plate armour. I know what mail feels like to fight in but plate seems so much more mobile and less encumbering. There are tales of medieval jousters that could leap into their horses in full plate. I used to be able to ride a horse or wear mail armour. Now either of the options leaves me needing a Ginster's pastie and a ten minute breather. I think earlier, mail armoured blokes were more encumbered.
A while back I got interested in the topic of gambesons worn under mail before later medieva times. I didn't get too far but I found out about the existence of a small gambeson called the submarlis that the Romans wore under their armour. I have no idea whether all Romans used it or whether any contemporary societies used something similar. Also, I find it very surprising that people didn't work out pretty early on the advantages of a gambeson and belt with mail.
If you armed with those hauberk, and shield, and the top most sword on your wall, you would look more like a Norman warrior. Of course, I am familiar with mail, I have made one of my a 4-1 hauberk bigger that the one you were wearing, but not riveted. It was made of 1/16 inch wire coiled around 6/16 inch core, consisting approximately 18,000 rings. It weighs 10 kilograms. I do not usually wear it, because I am not exposed to any cut. I have seen Japanese mail from Edo period, it was made of something like 1/32 inches wired ring with, I am not sure, perhaps, 1/8 inch of inner diameter. It was very delicate and lighter than other mail shirts I found. And if the translation is correct, it is indicated that mail armor was used by Assyrian during the bronze age.
Another issue about Japanese mail, on some part of Samurai armor, Japanese mail comprised of two different types of chain links, one is circular and the other is ... a kind of elliptical in shapes. Please see the illustration at the link below for different types of chain links I am talking about.
i831.photobucket.com/albums/zz238/estcrh/samurai%20chainmail%20and%20armor%20samples/100_3328.jpg
The hole for the rivet creates a stress concentration, that is why that area is more likely to break.
Ooo! Would you do a video comparing and contrasting brigandine/lamellar armour and mail? I know you have that 15th century common soldier armour video.
I don't think the term "chainmail" is so bad. In Germany "mail" is translated with "Kettenrüstung" oder "Kettenhemd" word by word:
"Ketten-" is the plural of chain
and "-rüstung" is the term for "armour", "-hemd" is the term for well... a shirt ;)
I think the term "chain" is very intuitive to this type of armour.
Cheers Matt. How about a video on leather armour, never really understood how it could be effective in battle, please enlighten me :)
great vid as always, see you in ScholaGladiatoria forum :D
Saw your reflected arse in the glass when taking off the mail ;p
hjorturerlend I shoot all my videos without pants on.
Haha
scholagladiatoria why ( ⊙ o ⊙ )
hjorturerlend why do i read comments before watching the video? :( now i was waiting the entire time watching it...
sky4eyes Why not
Please, follow this up with a video showcasing your harness of plate. Worn or not worn, I really want to see it!
I've not finished the video yet, so I don't know if you've covered it. What's up with the sling on the shield? Did people wear and use them like you had in the first two minutes of the video? Slung, but still in hand? Or was it something you just felt like doing?
RexPrometheus It was slung over the shoulder to help hold the weight of it and taken off if fighting.
Five years on we have the lockdown longbow tests. A 160 lb longbow arrow can go through a wood shield, chainmail, gambeson and cause a nasty wound.
Seems that a similar impact would shatter against good late medieval steel plate.
Another aspect of mail armor that may have contributed to its popularity was that it didn't need to be custom made for the wearer. The mesh is a lot more forgiving of imperfect tailoring than plate based armor systems. This means that an army can issue, recall and reissue the armor to various soldiers over an extended period of time. Chain mail is also very easy to clean up and repair if it gets damaged in battle, contributing to the longevity of a suit.
I've got no evidence to support the claim- possibly you'd know where to look? But I like to think that a given chain mail suit could have been in service for several generations.
been considering constructing a functional Norman knights armor from say 900-1100, including a similar kite shield as you showed in the intro, a mail shirt, and a nasal helm with aventail, just wondering if you could suggest any specific models for a relative budget, and wondering how effective this would be for nylon sparring.
Lumpkins McDream From my limited knowledge, weren't aventails invented around the 13th century? I think they used mail coifs instead.
Also a nasal helmet wouldn't be recommended for nylon sparring because it wouldn't protect the eyes (and face) correctly. You could have a mail coif or aventail that covers the whole face and the eyes, or use a modified nasal helmet with a grid covering the face (or faceplate), somewhat like that : gdfb.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/GDFB-H-040-SIDE.jpg
To clarify the weight of maille slightly, it is definitely possible to wear mail for 4hours+ without a belt. My first day of training in maille I didn't use the belt and I was only slightly worse for wear. It is better to have the belt but it is almost a luxury really. It isn't overly necessary, however a professional soldier probably would have worn one if he expected to be in a prolonged battle.
Hi Matt, I love your videos. I have seen some demostration were a chainmail was totally pierced by spears (not riveted ones). Maybe it was more effective against arrows than other kind of pierce damage?. Also it would very interesting to see a video of Byzantine lamellar, I saw some interesting documents from Timothy Dawson (Im not pretty sure about the name)from Australian university about Byzantine lamellar beign way superior to a lot of armours and I would love to hear your opinion about that. Sry if I wrote something bad. Not my tongue.
I would say maille resists a lot better to thrusts than to blows, the only part of the blow that it softens is the contact, the kinetic energy of the blow gets transmitted to the body in a fairly small area, the links that are directly under the impacting object and possible 1-2 rows of links that get stretched, around that area.
Its probably why plate armor came into being. Axes and hammers provided to be sufficient danger to mail knights, so plate was developed, which led to development of better impact weapons, like flanged mace or pole-arm.
Is it just me, or is his voice a lot higher in this video?
it's different but idk that it's higher. maybe he had a cold?
To me his voice sounds deeper than usual. He probably had a flu or something weird happened with the audio.
Another disadvantage to chain mail armor is that its heavy, you don't get your dexterity bonus to armor class, and you have disadvantage to dexterity (stealth).
As long as I roll above 10!
I mean that depends on the system your running, chain mail in pathfinder allows you to retain your Dex bonus.
Reality not d and d
great vid i enjoyed it
+scholagladiatoria have you ever done reenacting in the roman era. It is much more convenient to wear a belt to help carry your stuff as well as make it better to lug around.
Well, due to the low heat capacity (energy required to heat a substance) of metal, wearing a mail shirt would warm you up quite a bit in the sweltering sun, also in cold climates this same trait could lead to hypothermia when not wearing other appropriate, matching clothing.