[Kuo Xie]

Hello, I am tailoring my riveted hauberk for a closer fit and I'm running into some trouble with the gussets. In the past I have worn butted costume hauberks which always fall apart at the armpit because the motion of lifting the arms places a lot of strain on the area, so I want to be sure I do this right. The rough time period I'm going for is late 13th century Central Europe. Here are the methods I am going to try out, please excuse the crude diagrams, I'm not much of an artist:

1)


2)


3)


The red lines represent the rows of mail. Which of these methods will produce the best fit, durability and mobility? I would appreciate help from the pro and hobby armorers on the board.

[Mart Shearer]

Method 2 most closely approximates medieval European practice, where the expansion is in the sleeve (or the sleeve contracts towards the elbow). This is joined with a 90 degree join. I have seen Method 3 in Indo-Persian mail.

Failure to expand over the shoulders and shoulder-blades also causes tension in the arm. The back should be wider than the front of the body so that the sleeves cant forward.

These links provide plenty of useful images.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/trevor.barker/fa...tm#sect4-2
http://www.themailresearchsociety.erikds.com/pdf/tmrs_pdf_3.pdf
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...ail+sleeve

[Kuo Xie]