Just out of curiosity, I thought I would ask opinions of this maille from those who own it. I am considering purchasing one of the alternating solid and wedge riveted hauberks, but I would like some input first.

Dan, I am well aware that this stuff is not 100% historically accurate ;) If I could afford Eriks maille, I would certainly buy from him.

I asked a similar question before and the answer that I got brought me to decide on this one (until I can afford something by Erik.) I also received a good many PM's about the subject. We truly have some great resources on this site. :)

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=...7%27+Chest

Here's that thread, if you'd like to review it:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=22849

Paul Mullins wrote:

Dan, I am well aware that this stuff is not 100% historically accurate ;) If I could afford Eriks maille, I would certainly buy from him.

lol

I own a haubergeon from Kult of Athena which is the alternating solid/wedge riveted. I love it. Looks great, is fairly light, and hasn't given me much trouble yet (see below).

The one drawback I had with this item was the nastiness it was covered in when it arrived. I know that it is a cheap and easy way for them to keep it rust free, but it required several soaks and washes to get the oil off of it. After a few hours of cleaning, I'm a very happy purchaser and would recommend it. Not exactly the highest end on the historically accurate scale, but for the price, it's tough to beat.

Honestly, you could put whatever oil on it you wanted to. I was just not a big fan of whatever they used prior to shipping it to me. It stank and covered anything it touched with a black residue.

I'm pretty sure its just cheap petroleum bearing grease, applied warm. The gunk came off pretty thoroughly with a tumble in a plastic bucket of solvent. I used diluted degreaser designed for power washers. I rinsed that off with very hot water, laid the mail out on a pile of rags and blasted it with WD40, turning it over a couple times. The next day I sprayed it with light sewing machine oil and hung it to drip off the excess. I had all this stuff in the shop already so I used it. No rust, no black gunk on my arming cote.

Cheap paint thinner, turpentine, whatever would probably have worked as well. That would save the trouble of rinsing and blasting with WD40. Work with the stuff you have on hand or can buy cheaply.

If you don't care about your arming garment's looks, just tumble the mail in a bucket full of rag bits to soak up the excess. It won't rust with a light coating of grease left on it.