[Jonathon Hanson]

Hello, I am looking to make a hauberk and am wondering what your favorite wire thickness/inner diameter combinations are. I am not new to mailing, having spent a year and a half on a 14g 1/4" haubergeon weighing 45 pounds. Clearly you can see why I want to try again and make another shirt that while authentic-looking and historic does not weigh that much. I was initially sold on 16g 1/4" mail but I am worried it is not dense enough when compared to the iron age finds covered in the Mail Research Society articles. For instance, the Gjermundbu mail has an ID of only 5.5mm and many Roman mails have similar IDs. Unfortunately, the articles do not cover anything but early European mail so I have no frame of reference for medieval, middle eastern etc. What wire thickness/id combination do you prefer, from the standpoint of being plausibly used in battle but also light enough for wear?

[Sander Marechal]

Are you going to make riveted or butted mail? I don't think you can make it light enough with butted mail. The rings would bend open.

[Jens Boerner]

Maybe that helps http://www.themailresearchsociety.erikds.com/

There is a broad variety of ring sizesin medieval maille; here in nuremberg we do have a shirt from the 15th century, hanging in one of the back rooms of the german national museum, which has rings with 6mm (outer!) width. It is more like cloth than armour. Quite lightweighted also. But on the other hand, there are rings with 12mm and larger. The thing is more the thickness, replica rings tend to be to thick and to have to heavy studs...

[Scott Woodruff]

My advise is go as small as you can. It's purely a cost/labor thing. Smaller is better, bigger is cheaper. Personally, I went with 16g at 9mm od. Seemed like a good compromise, though it was going pretty slow and I only finished about 2 square feet before getting distracted by another project.