Posts: 793 Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Sun 09 Feb, 2014 3:07 pm
Yes, at least some of the flat ring mass produced repros have gotten closer than it usually gets credit for though there are still details to improve of course.
I just wish the round riveted ones would get the same treatment, but I suspect from my own experience that the round rivet type
mailles were and still are more work intensive to make and less easily adapted to modern methods of mass production.
I.e. I have to first press the rivet to stay in place, then drop forge the head and top to get the historical watershed "hill with cap" shape never seen on any mass marketed dome rivet mailles and very few of the custom ones.
This means we get these shortcuts where the riveting is double-headed or even looks like fish-hooks and the round rings are stamped too thin or too sharply at the overlap. The companies making these mailles aren't necessarily unaware of how it should really look but may not be able to figure out how to get that look and still have a product with a price they can sell at.