Greetings,

I wanted to post this on the vendors forum, but somehow could not ...

I am thinking about putting together a "kit" for somone from the late 10th century, very early 11th, with an "anglo saxon - norse" background, and middle to upper-middle class roots. Not yet converted to christianity, maybe a little pagan, maybe a norse dad/anglo saxon mom somewhere in a "multi culti" background that might be typical for that era ...

So far I have an Albion Reeve sword with a fairly authentic period custom scabbard from Tods Stuff, a spear with a spear point from GDFB (which I sharpened myself), a Franciska type axe from GDFB (also self sharpened), and a homemade long bow (around + 40 lbs, its my first try at this, a new one is in the works) with locally sourced arrows with short bodkin type tips (square cross section). I have a "viking" (not really liking that term, but ...) type shield also from GDFB, but its too bloody heavy, plywood, over 6 kg, so I will make something myself soon from planks ...

Other than clothing, which I plan to make myself based on evidence from archeological finds, patterns from a local "viking" reenactors (Birka site), or possible era depictions (e.g. Bayeux Tapestry, etc...), I am looking at getting a helmet and some mail.

I have been looking at this source which is relatively local:

http://spqr.se

Anybody have any experience with them, or has comments? Looks like at least some of their stuff is from GDFB ...

I am looking at this for a short mail shirt/hauberk (flat riveted)

http://spqr.se/product/ringbrynja-ch016/

and these options here for different versions of Spangenhelms

http://spqr.se/product/spangenhjalm-h010/

http://spqr.se/product/spangenhjalm-h033/

Any comments would be appreciated. The prices for the items are in SEK, which is roughly 10 SEK = 1 Euro, so the mail shirt would be around 350ish Euro.

Thanks in advance
Michael

Nobody?
:-(

The Makers forum is a forum where makers post topics. It is described as:

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Hi,

I've never heard of the company before so I don't know anything about their quality or business practices. It seems like they provide things more for the historical fighting market (Bohurt, BOTN, etc) rather than rigid historical items for the reenactment market. So that leads to ask you if you have a preference between those two, or if you want something to work for both, or if it matters?

By the looks, I would say mail is Indian made, just resold by swedish store. For mail I would recommend ukrainian makers, Michael Zavatskiy from Jolly Knight Armoury or Andrey Galevskiy. I have mail by Michael and it's a good mail. Half solid, half round ring round riveted (flat rings are not accurate for your period). Michaels's mail is more durable then Indian mail, all rivets are well riveted, they won't fall out and they don't tangle with rings because rivet heads are nicely round and not sharp so they don't tear the clothing under the mail. I paid 470$ with shipping for a three quarter sleeves shirt. If you are bigger guy, you will pay a bit more though. My ring size was 10mm but he does smaller too. https://www.facebook.com/michael.zavatskiy