[W. Schütz]

Ok dont call me an idiot now..;D But has anyone ever tried using maille to cover the most sensitive part of the body - the eyes? I tried this a while back and it was very effective, looked totally ridiculous, but worked! Like a medieval fencing mask..kindof.. I felt i could have my bevour and helmet more separated for added vision and breathing but without feeling that intense threat of my opponents short-sword tip in my eye.
Anyone have any thoughts on this odd topic please share, or just mock me..ill gladly take the punishment in the name of developing better sparring!

[Derek Estabrook]

Never tried it, but I've seen pictures of 10th century Byzantine heavy cavalry with the chainmail face mask that covered the face entirely including the eyes.

[Craig Peters]

I think there are good reasons why knights didn't wear maille as eye protection in the Middle Ages. First of all, in order for maille to work effectivley, it need some sort of cloth padding underneath it. Thick cloth like a gambeson work particularly well for this purporse. They also effectively eliminate your ability to see.

Secondly, maille links can warp and deform upon taking damage, and there's a good chance one of the links might stab you in the eye or otherwise cause injury- even being struck in the face when you've got maille covering your eyes mean that the maille links might impact your eyes and cause injury without warping and deforming.

As you said, it looks ridiculous, so there's another reason for not doing it. But, more importantly, since we don't have any indication that knights ever did this, it's a pretty good indication that it's not a good idea.

[Craig Peters]

Alright, I stand corrected about no one ever doing it. But does the Byzantine maille physically contact the face, or does it hang out in front of it?

[W. Schütz]

HHmm deformed maille-links in ones eyes was the most unpleasant thought i´ve had today...

[Derek Estabrook]

The idea of maille over the eyes makes me a little uneasy also. Maybe if it was hanging off the helm and secured in place, but not just by itself skin to skin over my face and eyes. Well, to have visibility it would either have to be a very thin, fine weave like with the fencing helm (making it pretty much useless to stop more than a modern switchblade) or large high mm links that would let you see through the openning. The Byzantine facemask that I saw looked like a modern ski mask except with chainmail. They showed it with eyes openning and without. While they never said whether it was backed or not, it seemed to fit pretty close to the face. I kind of doubt it was metal to skin though, probably a leather backing. I hate to imagine how much it would rub on the nose otherwise. There are plenty of helms that make it hard to hit to eyes. I would imagine its pretty hard to hit the mark on a lot of sallet's I've seen. Besides, eyes patches can make you look quite dashing. Its after the first eye goes that you have to worry. Either become a better fighter or retire. Its not a bad idea, but I don't see it being worthwhile. The fact that aside from the one instance, I've never seen it before probably means its not a good idea. Lets face it, the good weapons and ideas usually are duplicated more than once often by races and cultures hundreds or thousands of miles away. This is something I've only seen once.

[Hisham Gaballa]

The kulah khud is a type of Iranian helmet used from the 16th to 19th century that was apparantly delibarately designed to cover the eyes, many zirr kulahs were also designed to cover the eyes.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Nephtys...A_BW_1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Nephtys...mour_2.jpg
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/kulahzirah.jpg

This Turkish chichak in the Metropolitan also has mail covering the eyes:
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne...=04.3.456a

However what puzzles me is that on some of the later versions of these helmets the mail is so fine I'm sure there is no way anyone could see through them:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Nephtys...th_c_1.jpg

I assume that since these later helmets were only for parade and ceremonial use that they were either worn very high on the head (in a way that would be totally impractical in battle) or the mail eye cover was somehow hooked out of the way.

In addition many Turkish and Indo-Persian helmets have clear eyeholes above the mail:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Nephtys...ttoman.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/Nephtys...13th_C.jpg

References:
The first picture is from H. R. Robinson's "Oriental Armour", the second from Dorling Kindersley's "Visual Dictionary of Military Uniforms", the 3rd is off t'interne following a Google search, the 4th is from The Arts Of War. Arms and Armour of the 7th to 19th centuries (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, VOL XXI) by David Alexander, the 5th from an Osprey book, I forget which one, and the last one I photocopied from an ancient German journal from the 1930ies or 1940ies many, many years ago.