[Malcolm A]

Hi sports fans!
I have a question on the care of maille in medieval times.
I read that squires / trainee knights would put the maille hauberks etc into a barrel along with vinegar and sawdust, and then kick the barrel around to get the maille clean.
The book didn't mention anything else after the vinegar and sawdust treatment.
Has anyone heard what was done?
Was oil used as a protective covering?

An aside; in the Kingdom of Heaven film, just prior to the first big fight scene, one of Ballian's father's men appeared to rubbing something onto some maille; it looked like a liquid.

Many thanks

[Don Stanko]

Ffolkes wrote in one of his books that they used to clean the armour by placing it in a barrel full of vinegar. I dont know how accurate that is since Sean has shown us the damaging effects vinegar and salt has on a sword blade. I dont know how much of that corrosion is from the salt and how much is from the vinegar.

[W. R. Reynolds]

Malcolm,

We meet again.

From personal experience, I have used a cement mixer with wood baffles and sawdust to remove oil from mail, so that works. I would imagine that if you wanted it to be shiny you would have to use some sort of abrasive medium like fine sand. IMHO it would not be out of sorts for our ancestors to have used some type of non acidic oil to help preserve mail, especially in some of the wetter climates.

So to get shiny mail it would probably have been a two step process. Sawdust and squire powered barrel to remove any oils and then the barrel with sand for the shine. Same motive power.

[Joe Yurgil]

That seems like a lot of trouble to go through. Wouldn't it be better to brown, or blacken it?

[Patrick Kelly]

Browning or blackening mail wouldn't make it totally impervious to corrosion. It would still need to be maintained.

Over the last year I've had a bit of experience cleaning mail with sand, oil, and vinegar in various mixes. I haven't tried sawdust but I don't see why it wouldn't work as a decent medium. Tumbling the mail in a bucket or bag of sand isn't really that much trouble if done on a relatively frequent basis, as needed.

Modern re-enactors, living historians, martial artists, collectors, etc. seem to have a really hard time grasping the concept of routine maintenance. The only ones who don't make it a major issue seem to be the ones who've worked in a real-life field where the maintaining of equipment is an acknowledged neccessity. Everyone else seems to want some kind of super oil or wonder goo to smear on their gear that will result in a one-time application.

If something like mail armour is routinely tumbled in a bucket of sand it shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes to take care of it at the most. If you spend the day wearing your mail spend a few minutes at the end giving it a tumble and the effort expended should be minimal. On the other hand, if you let it lay for days or weeks and let it get good and rusty it's going to be a lot harder to get clean. If you spend the day in the saddle do you stable you horse without taking care of it first? Do you shot your blackpowder rifle and put it away without cleaning it? In a modern context: how often do you check you car's oil, or brush your teeth? If any of these things are done on a routine basis the fatigue and wear on the equipment is minimal, as is the effort expended. If the maintenance is neglected the effort and repair needed is magnified ten-fold.

[Johan S. Moen]

Good point Patrick, routine maintenance is really the key. I'm an addict when it comes to that; I polish my helmet and weapons after use or about every second/third week if it has not been in use, and always try to oil/grease all my leather items after use, or at least once a month.

For mail, it is probably easier to tumble it in a bucket of sand every once and a while, instead of having to do a major cleanup project once a year.

Johan Schubert Moen

[Malcolm A]

Many thanks to all of you for your inputs; the information given is greatly appreciated.

Small aside #1; I understand that England's BLACK PRINCE was so called as he had his maille treated [or whatever] in such a way that it looked dark / black.
Small aside #2; considering the cost of maille in ye olde dayes, and the lack of "Maille-clean-omatics", I bet our ancestors made sure that they maintained their hauberks etc on a regular basis.

[Johan S. Moen]

[Peter Morwood]

[Chad Arnow]

[Sean Flynt]

The cleaning effect of sawdust and vinegar might depend on some kind of reaction between the vinegar and whatever acids may be present in the sawdust. Oak produces tannic acid, IIRC. You might get different results depending on the wood type. Oak would probably be a good start, though.

By the way, those of you handy in the kitchen as well as the smithy will know that putting baking soda in a stainless-steel sink and then pouring vinegar over the soda is an easy way to clean the steel. I would expect that to work with maille as well. It makes quite an impressive show, by the way. Some of you maille-men should try this and tell us how it works.

[Aaron Schnatterly]

[Peter Morwood]

Chad -

Finally got a chance to check my source; not Oakeshott but A Dictionary of Chivalry - Grant Uden 1968 (aimed at "younger readers" - which makes it slightly suspect... A useful basis, though, and superb Pauline Bayne "period-style" illoes.) Written 37 years ago, so probably now contradicted by new evidence, this is what I was remembering:

[Rod Walker]

Greetings. I routinely clean my full 13thC mail. This is done by rotating in a steel drum with some old rags thrown in. A bit of shaved candle wax thrown in will put a protective coating on the mail. Makes it smell nice too