Hi jonathan

During the Indian mutiny in the 1850s british troops at the siege of Delhi came under fire from musket rifle and arrow fire all agreed that arrows were the worst. Slow enough to be seen coming to fast to avoid plus a man falls over hit by a bullet he has a neat hole and some blood troops found the sight of bodies with arrows sticking out of them disturbing. Having been on the receiving end of arrows in re-inactments I can testify to their effect against that I have to say that a good shield and training reduces effect mental and physical add armour and it's effect is massively reduced.

Hi Michael

Off the top of my head I can not give you the name I have it some place in my libary I am trying to find it one was in France it was famous for the production of shields and pavises. I am pretty sure that there were a couple of Italian towns as well they operated in the same way as towns which produced arms and armour placed to make the best use of raw materials.

A small point on shields and two handed weapons it was not unknown for Saxon huscarls to have a small buckler strapped to their left arms / elbow in battle I have tried the same while using a long sword. The buckler did not get in the way and offered an interesting bonus allowing the option of using buckler to block leaving sword free to cut. The macedonian pike men also used a small buckler in conjunctions with a 16ft pike.

Gary,

There is a mail standard at the BM with a 6-in-1 top and 4- in-1 lower half. The lower half is also flat rings and the top is round. There are others but Eric would have to chime in or Russ as I cannot think of any others off the top of my mind.

There are plenty of historic accounts that show mail penetrated and the wearer killed. There are also others that tell the opposite. In the end this is generally true for many types of armour. Most tests done have been pretty poor. Even Williams as Dan stated used a bow that was far to weak to give really meaningful results.

As Dan said some mail was 'proofed' against arrows. There is no question in my mind one can make mail to various uses and strengths. The above mentioned mail standard is one of these. The weakest place is 6 in 1, round and thick linked. This was clearly done intentionally for added strength and rigidity over the throat. In many inventories there are interesting types of mail listed but in the end we likely will never know exactly what they were unless we find some very detailed accounts which seem unlikely but not impossible.

RPM

I have written an essay that surveys many of the commonly used eyewitness accounts. It is scrupulously referenced and will make a decent starting point to any further discussion when myArmoury publishes it. To summarise there are many many different types of mail. Some are more resistant to arrows than others. For those who wanted mail that was proofed against a heavy longbow, they could get it. The only real questions relate to its prevalence and the various pros and cons of such a construction.

And I wish the people would stop cited backyard experiments with Indian riveted mail as some sort of evidence relating to the effectiveness of historical armour. There is virtually nothing in common with the stuff coming out of India and any surviving pieces of mail. RIVETED does not EQUAL HISTORICAL.

To emphasize what Dan has said, he has submitted an article which does address many things that often go round and round on forums like this. Having an online reference to quickly point people to each time will, in itself, be of great value. This goes beyond the value of the content itself. It will be a nice addition to this site and the 'net community as a whole.

This part is off-topic but I feel the need to express it so that others will know why such materials are not yet available to the public: Dan has really stepped up to the plate to write such an article and the fact that it's already not online is entirely on my own shoulders and no others. My work schedule and attempts to rebuild my career in today's economy have taken a toll on me and left me with very little extracurricular time on my hands. I can only offer my word that I'm doing my best to get everything done each day that I can.