Wedge riveted mail prices -- myArmoury.com

Luka Borscak · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 8:08 am Post subject: Wedge riveted mail prices

Cheers ladies and gentlemen! I was thinking about ordering a wedge riveted mail shirt and stumbled onto some very different prices for Products with no real visible differences... Since I doubt any of this mail is made in Europe, I think there is no real functional differences between these shirts.

First, there is cap a pie (I already own round riveted mail from them, so they were the first place I went to look), long sleeves, half solid, half wedge riveted, size L. Price is 470 punds, so about 600 euros.

http://www.capapie.co.uk/index.php?route=prod...duct_id=72

Next is Zeughas shirt. Half sleeves, again mix of solids and wedge riveted rings. Size L/XL. Price, 450 euros.

https://www.zeughaus.info/Half-sleeve-mail-shirt-9mm-ID-WEDGE-RIVETED-FLAT-RINGS-oil-finish

Next is Ulfberht shirt sold by battlemerchant, half sleeves, all rings are wedge riveted, price is 395 euros for size L and 350 euros for size M.

https://www.battlemerchant.com/Chain-Mail/Flatring-Wedge-Rivets/FRW-Haubergeon-flatring-wedge-rivets-ID-8-mm-natural-size-L::2683.html

Last is GDFB with several options I could go with. Long sleeves, half solid half wedge riveted, size M, 290 euros, short sleeves, half solid, XL, 290 euros, long sleeves, half solid, size XL, 327 euros.

http://www.gdfb.com/kettenhemd-knielang-langa...-p-39.html

Does anyone know of any reason why any of these shirts might be better or worse than others? Or should I just pick size and other properties I want for the best price and that's it?

Mario M. · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 8:25 am Post subject:

It always fascinated me how armour stores never seem to bother taking a few more pictures and putting some high resolution ones on the site so the customer can actually see what he is buying.

On the other hand, most weapon products provide very high-res imagery.

Apart from that commentary, I can only advise to search through all the Czech and Eastern European sellers, which is kinda difficult since they are difficult to find online and half of them do not even have English translations for their sites.

A friend of mine also had a problem with another kind of product, so he contacted the guys at;

https://www.wulflund.com/

Even though they did not have the product, they keep a swarm of contacts with other Czech and Eastern European craftsmen and one of them provided him with what he desired.

Bram Verbeek · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 9:45 am Post subject:

The third one is 8mm ID, that may be a measurement error, it could also be a different supplier. I'd take note of the relative weight, my own flat rivetted is quite thin, maybe thinner than I'd like.

Luka Borscak · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 12:22 pm Post subject:

Well, the 8mm is Ulfberht mail, it looks different to me, it's 8mm and it's all riveted, not half riveted, half solid like others are. But I still don't know if rivets and riveted rings of Ulfberht mail are any better than in others. It's still Indian mail or it would be far more expensive. It is more historical for wedge riveted mail that it's all riveted and that's a plus for Ulfberht. Smaller rings also look better. But if rivets are crappy, I'll have much more rivets fall out of all riveted shirt than half solid/half riveted.

Dan Howard · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 2:52 pm Post subject:

Keep in mind that museums and archaeological reports measure the outside diameter of mail, not the inside. The 8mm mail mentioned above is really closer to 12 mm and is larger than a lot of extant examples.

Paul Ballantyne · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 3:27 pm Post subject: Cap-a-pie Maille

I have bought a number of items (Maille coif, full Hauberk and other items) from Mark at Cap-a-pie and have been very happy with his products, his service and after sales is second to none. He will go out of his way to assist you.

Mark also appears to have a number of friends and contacts and I would fully trust him and his advice.

I have not had any dealings with you other sellers however so I cant comment upon them.

Richard Miller · Posted: Wed 01 Jun, 2016 10:41 pm Post subject:

As far as I can tell, just about all of the maille available is made in India or Pakistan. There are some sellers/manufacturers who ship world wide directly from India,and the prices are very competitive. Usually about 20-30% lower than the prices retailers are asking. If you have access to EBay, or just a decent search engine, I'd try looking up "chain mail India" and see what happens!
Best of luck.

Luka Borscak · Posted: Thu 02 Jun, 2016 2:24 am Post subject:

Certain Asim Khan (one of the Indian or Pakistan makers) is offering me wedge riveted (all rings riveted) shirt for $364 including shipping. Very good price, but I don't know how secure buying from him would be compared with buying from a European retailer.

Mario M. · Posted: Thu 02 Jun, 2016 12:28 pm Post subject:

Luka Borscak · Posted: Mon 06 Jun, 2016 2:44 am Post subject:

Dan Howard · Posted: Mon 06 Jun, 2016 7:40 am Post subject:

I'm not sure that it is the riveting that destroys the underpadding. It is more likely to be the overly-flattened links and the sharp edges this causes on the lapped section. Wedge riveting on these kinds of links will be just as uncomfortable and hazardous to your underpadding.

Luka Borscak · Posted: Tue 07 Jun, 2016 3:38 am Post subject:

Dan Howard · Posted: Tue 07 Jun, 2016 4:17 am Post subject:

Luka Borscak · Posted: Tue 07 Jun, 2016 6:36 am Post subject:

Do you think that for reenactment purposes it's then actually better to just go with butted mail and tell people who ask questions what the real mail should be like? Sounds like Indian mail has too much problems to be worth it...

Mario M. · Posted: Tue 07 Jun, 2016 7:33 am Post subject:

So we are basically limited to over-our-budget priced products or crafting it ourselves if we desire accuracy? ( ._.)

I actually had a plan once of buying a good butted set and riveting it myself but abandoned the idea.

Dan Howard · Posted: Tue 07 Jun, 2016 3:23 pm Post subject:

Indian riveted mail is fine for SCA and rebated steel combat. It holds up better than butted mail and is lighter, but Indian mail looks like it was made from soda can ring tabs. If you want something that looks like historical mail then alternating rows of butted and solid links is a cost effective option. Its appearance is closer to museum examples than the Indian stuff and you have to look closely to tell that there aren't any rivets. I have to go out to the shed to play with riveted mail but I can do butted mail on the sofa in front of the TV.

Here is a patch I made

The solid links came from Seastrom
https://www.seastrom-mfg.com/

FWIW these links were initially bright orange with rust. By the time I had completed one row, the links had been abraded so that they were nice and shiny and my lap was covered in rust. It shows that mail doesn't need any maintenance while it is being worn - it is self-cleaning.

Mario M. · Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 10:51 am Post subject:

Dan, you completely crushed my dreams of encasing myself with cheap Indian mail Cry

I thought they would be good at it by now.

Luka Borscak · Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 12:41 pm Post subject:

It says the maker is Deepeeka. So, Indian rings like all the others. But I guess you could rivet it better and with more care.

Mario M. · Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 12:52 pm Post subject:

Mario M. · Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 1:04 pm Post subject:

Anyone had any experience with the ringlord?

I am looking at the carbon steel ring prices and they aren't that bad;

http://theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplayproduc...Jump+Rings