On a very thorough thread on the accuracy of reproduction mail (http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...mp;start=0), I ran across the illustration below. This illustration clearly shows how a wedge shaped rivet would allow a closed mail link to be relatively flat on the back/skin side.

Prior to wedge rivets, when round rivets were used, did the rivet contain a dome on the skin side like modern tinner's rivets or was it also flattened in some way? If so, how?

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I believe it was flat on the inside. You can observe domes on both sides in cheap reconstructions. It is easier to assemble maille not having to think which side of the ring is outwards/inwards.

I use a pliers of two sets of depressions. First set has bigger dome outwards and smaller one - inwards. It fixes the rivet in place. The second - finishing set has same size dome outwards and no depression inwards. It doesn't exactly form a nailhead inwards, it just slightly widens rivet at the base achieving similar effect as in wedge shaped rivets.