Here is a mail sample a vendor sent me. I am just curious what everyone thinks about it. It is flat-ringed wedge-riveted mail from India and it is pretty reasonably priced. The vendor says himself that it may not be the very finest available, but for the price (around $1300.00 for the coat, split front and rear, and tapering long sleeves) he doesn't think that anyone can complain. It looks pretty good to me without having to take out a second mortgage (if I even could).

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I don't have a similar mail to compare, but for me the price is a bit too high: the armour is clearly handmade, but without great skill. Some links are off center, they will probably came loose or break...

Someone has a similar armour priced?

The ID to OD ratio is off. I am of the understanding that maille doesn't let you see that much table through it when well made.

M.

Here are another couple of pics with the mail draped over my forearm. As far as I can tell by measuring, the I.D> appears to be 5/16" and the O.D. appears to be 1/2." The supplier said that the weight of the hauberk is about 24 pounds. Long over-the-shoulder coif w/ small face opening adds to it though.

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Some comparisons:

GDFB wedge riveted flat maille Hauberk: http://www.getdressedforbattle.co.uk/acatalog...aille.html - UK£ 575.92 = 956 U.S. dollars

Historic Enterprises Haubergon is short sleeved, but the price is much lower: http://historicenterprises.biz/haubergeon-wed...th=101_141 - $694.95

Cap-a-pie wedge riveted / solid links hauberk: http://www.capapie.co.uk/current.html - UK£ 470 = 780 U.S. dollars

GDFB Global full wedge riveted (code 1) Hauberk: http://www.gdfbglobal.com/chainmaille-hauberks.html - € 672.00 = 997 U.S. dollars

I'm sure there are more, I'm Euro oriented.

So paying higher price to an unknown maker doesn't seem very sensible.

The quality is the same from all the above suppliers. So just buy the cheapest. It is fine if you want something that looks a bit like historical mail. The links are too light and the riveting too dodgy to handle combat unless you are capable of making your own repairs. Ask for galvanised mail. You may as well save yourself the trouble of keeping it clean.

Well, I'll have the chance to see that for myself soon, Cap-a-pie all wedge riveted voiders and skirt are on their way to me right now. If the Royal Mail still functions. ;)

I strongly doubt that it's as bad as Howard says - a lot of people use riveted maille from the above suppliers in stage fights and mock combat without problems. Of course it's not completely accurate reconstruction, you couldn't use it for "destructive testing of medieval maille" and get any useful results (wrong material, slightly wrong shape of the overlap and rivet, several other deviations).

And I think combat that regularly damages your riveted maille isn't really that healthy to person underneath, unless you are wearing it on top of the plate armour. :p I mean, just a while ago people were completely satisfied with their butted "chainmail".

The cheapest I know of for flat-riveted mail is https://ssl.perfora.net/www.finditarmory.com/sess/utn154af73ad2551fa/shopdata/index.shopscript
$280 for half sleeve, $340 for full sleeve. From what I have seen the quality of the Indian made mail is pretty much all the same.
What I like about find-it-armory's is that from the pictures it seems to show some moderate tailoring.

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Ah, well I think it's all give a little, take a little.
I mean, one is not going to break the buget too much if the shop around for a good deal, one could use it whenever for whatever, it looks slightly more accurate than butted, one could customise it (in theory) and when it's past its heyday, you can recycle it :lol:
Then again, if one bought really good, high quality, real maille, well, I for one wouldn't fight in it, nor do any of the aforementioned things; plus it'd be super expensive!
So yeah, that's my two cents.

P.S. Can anyone recomend an Australian supplier? As I'm in the market for some voiders/gussets and ye olde international shipping hurts ones buget greatly :eek:

Have to agree with Dan on the quality of the maille sample in the images, some rough edges on that.

Not sure on the comment of quality being same from all the suppliers though. I have examples of GDFB, Capapie and Historic.

In my opinion Historic and Cap-a-pie are by far the best, in fact looking at the wedge standard I have from Historic, it looks very siimilar in quality to the Cap skirt i recently bought.

One thing I have noticed when looking at the really cheap stuff is that it can cut your gambeson to shreds. I carried a cheap shirt for a mate of mine back to his car recently and ended up some nice cuts on the wrist. :(

Can't recall the name of the company but the riveting was terrible, most of the links had blown and the edges were very sharp. He was happy as it only cost him £200.

On the subject of maille which is the reason I have just signed up after some years just lurking on the site. LOL

Does anyone have any thoughts on 6mm maille. Saw some 6mm from Cap-a-pie at the living history fayre last week and it looks really cool. Tempted to get some voiders and a standard in this but wanted to keep the skirt in the larger gauge. Any thoughts on if it would have been mixed in that way.

I have heard of and seen, in person, great maille from Icefalcon Armoury. If you go to the armourarchive.org he is having a stimulus sale through christmas.

Of course you are right regading the proper fit of a maile shirt. But you won´t get that tight a fit with a pull over shirt.

Jeff,

You might want to consider looking here: http://www.medievalrepro.com/Mail.htm. I can't say for certain, but the mail looks like it might be better quality, specifically with its inner to outer diameter ratio for rings, than the sample you've posted, and the price is similar.

I have a full maille suit from ice it fits me just fine, I've only had to modify it just a tad. The half sleeves needed to be taken in a little and I had to cut a little off the top of my chausses. Other then that excellent fit. Not to start a fanboy war but you shouldn't knock it till you've tried it.