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Author
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Topic: 13th Century Mail
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chef de chambre
Admin & Advocatus Diaboli
Member # 4
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posted 05-23-2000 11:07 PM
    
Hi Lord_of_Leon !Welcome to the forum ! I'm by no means an armourer, never mind a mailieur, but I do have some ideas that may help. I think that some of the 'tailoring' of the mail to such a fine degree was done through the leather thongs that would be threaded at the wrist and above the elbow to aid in weight distribution, rather than a skin tight fit to the mail itself. Another possibility on the same lines might be a slit in the underside of the mail near the wrist that might be closed with leather points. I would be interested to see what those more knowledgeable on the subject might post.It is a very good question you ask, I think you might be on the "cutting edge" of experimentation - this is what living history is about (partialy), looking at images of objects that do not survive to the present, and then trying to reconstruct an actual object.  ------------------
Bob R.
Registered: May 2000 | IP: Logged
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Rodric
Member
Member # 227
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posted 08-16-2002 02:04 AM
I have just found this old topic and though I might be alittle late I can actually answer this. I recently, (6 months ago), made a new hauberk for my late 12th-early 13thC potrayal. My new hauberk has an intergral coif, full length sleeves and a muffler for the right hand. The mail on the sleeves runs the same way as the mail on the body, that is the mail on the sleeves does not fall "open" as it normally would on a simple "t-shirt" style hauberk, the coif fits neatly into the body of the mail all the way around as well. How did I do this?
I started by making a large circle of mail using idler rings, as you would to make a coif top. This large circle has a hole in the centre for my head to go through, when sitting on my shoulders you want this circle/cape to be large enough to extend down pass your nipples, maybe even further and to well and truly go over your shoulders. Now this is where it gets tricky, you need to work out where you want the arms to start and begin to extend the mail in this direction on both sides, you will also need to begin extending mail in between the arms front and back to make the body. As all this is coming off a circle of mail, the mail for arms and body will all lay the same way,,,,,make any sense????When you have a sufficient amount of the arms and body done you need to make a gusset to bring the arms in to form the tubes for arms and body, this is a real pain in the bum and it took me 4 attempts to get it right, because the mail runs in a downward way you can merrily begin tapering using idler rings to get a nice even taper, this also means your mufflers will run the same way and look gorgeous. Obviously the attached coif will also run in neatly, as again, the mail all runs the same way. I have probably made a mess of trying to explain this but trust me it works and looks a million dollars and because when it is all together the shoulders are slightly angled, rather than square like a "t-shirt" pattern, the hauberk sits so much more comfortably on your shoulders. I have no idea if this is period but it more closely replicates the look in manuscripts and effigys than anything else I have seen. An added advantage is that because the mail on the arms runs like the body, swords seem to slip off my arms and shoulder rather than grabbing the open mail on other hauberks. -------------------- Cheers
Rod
Sweat more in Training. Bleed Less in War.
Registered: Oct 2001 | IP: Logged
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posted 05-23-2000 04:10 PM
posted 08-22-2002 09:25 PM
