Lukas MG wrote: |
Are you sure, all Indian mail is created equally bad? Pretend I hadn't said anything about where the mail was from... wouldn't you have expected the mail to perform just the way it did? Proof against the sword it would have encountered, not enough protection against later swords and similarly shaped arrow heads, etc... that's EXACTLY what you would expect. In fact, Mike Edelson got very similar results using very high quality mail: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=11131
His Albion Talhoffer performed pretty much exactly like the longsword I used. So I don't believe this stuff is as bad as you make it out to be. Maybe the quality of Indian mail generally got better, or this one just is superior to most. Regarding the "intended for costume, not warfare": That argumentation is flawed. Albions aren't intended for warfare. Most spend their time hanging on walls, looking pretty. NOTHING made today for the modern collector is intended for the use it would have seen back then. Yet I don't see anyone complaining how Albions aren't good for tests. For what purpose something was made is irrelevant, as long as the end product fits for what you want to do with it. Further more, "costume" doesn't inherently mean bad quality. It can be perfectly good, or not. So, ignore for a while the origin of the mail used and focus on it itself. I uploaded some pretty close-up pics, look at the mail and tell me, what's off about it. That will make this discussion much more relevant. Mark Shearer's questions go in the right direction I believe, if the rings size/thickness is wrong, it has a much higher impact on its performance that its land of origin. |
Your statement about Albions swords not intended for warfare strike me. Are you sure about that ? Of course we don't need to use a sword on a battlefield today, and modern swords are not made with the intent of kiling someone. But an Albion is still a real weapon, and it could probably be successfully used by a soldier on a battlefield in the medieval time, if we could time travel. Considering that serious sword makers like Albion or Arms and Armor base their swords dimensions and characteristics on museum swords, which were made during the medieval period, the result of a modern made sword should be pretty similar to what was used on a medieval battlefield (except that swords today have better steel and would be probably too perfect in their overall look and finish).