myArmoury.com - Mail Sample

Posts: 555 Location: Germany

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 4:51 am

Jeff A. Arbogast wrote:

Craig Peters wrote:

Jeff,

You might want to consider looking here: http://www.medievalrepro.com/Mail.htm. I can't say for certain, but the mail looks like it might be better quality, specifically with its inner to outer diameter ratio for rings, than the sample you've posted, and the price is similar.

Hi Craig-
You win the prize! The sample of mail I posted is indeed from Peter Fuller of Medieval Reproductions.

Ha ha, how funny. I would think it is the same type of maile GDFB offers (is it the 8mm ID?). Can take a picture of my aventil maile if interested. You wouldn´t need to buy from transatlantic to get that same type of maile. And whereever you buy it, get you a lot of spare rings and rivets. You WILL HAVE to customise it to get a good fit. Mine is just a poncho with arms and closed on the sides. I had to put in gores under the arms, will have to fill slits below hip level to widen the mesh there. Will tighten it around the waste and maybe widen it at the back of the shoulders. And will attach a standing collar in smaller rings. But then you will have something to last. Indeed it is not the strongest. The better made riveting won´t open, but I am sure you will bend some of the rings because of the flat cross section. 6mm maile is coming too in two varieties as flat and round rings. So maybe you may wont to consider it.

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Jeff A. Arbogast

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Posts: 180

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 7:29 am

Felix R. wrote:

Jeff A. Arbogast wrote:

Craig Peters wrote:

Jeff,

You might want to consider looking here: http://www.medievalrepro.com/Mail.htm. I can't say for certain, but the mail looks like it might be better quality, specifically with its inner to outer diameter ratio for rings, than the sample you've posted, and the price is similar.

Hi Craig-
You win the prize! The sample of mail I posted is indeed from Peter Fuller of Medieval Reproductions.

Ha ha, how funny. I would think it is the same type of maile GDFB offers (is it the 8mm ID?). Can take a picture of my aventil maile if interested. You wouldn´t need to buy from transatlantic to get that same type of maile. And whereever you buy it, get you a lot of spare rings and rivets. You WILL HAVE to customise it to get a good fit. Mine is just a poncho with arms and closed on the sides. I had to put in gores under the arms, will have to fill slits below hip level to widen the mesh there. Will tighten it around the waste and maybe widen it at the back of the shoulders. And will attach a standing collar in smaller rings. But then you will have something to last. Indeed it is not the strongest. The better made riveting won´t open, but I am sure you will bend some of the rings because of the flat cross section. 6mm maile is coming too in two varieties as flat and round rings. So maybe you may wont to consider it.

Hi Felix,
If you go to the Medieval Reproductions website, you will see that the mail that Peter sells is offered in three different chest sizes, with a price adjustment for each. I know it can't be a perfect fit being a pullover, but I will assume that it's probably about as close as you are going to get off the shelf. I won't insist that it fit me like an Italian suit, as long as it is presentable. I will fix it where I must if it comes to that. Besides, if you happen to have a big beer gut, no amount of tailoring is going to make you look any better. In my particular case, I have a 44" chest size, and Peter told me that the 50" size should fit me fine as far as that goes. He has a 46" chest size and says it fits him just fine. Since I don't have real long arms, he said that I may have to shorten the sleeves a bit and perhaps the length, but that would probably be about it. He said that the sleeves ARE tapered, so bagginess should not be a problem. As for length, I may have to open the crotch split a bit (MAYBE), but I would actually prefer a longer length hauberk over adding mail leggings (kind of like the Frank Frazetta "Death Dealer"). My kit is mainly centered around the late 11th/early13th century anyway, and I have a fairly large heater shield from The Mercenary's Tailor, so using a longer Norman-style Hauberk with a larger shield wouldn't, at least to me, look out of place. Peter said that it is the same mail that is made for GDFB, as I said earlier. It's what he personally wears to events and such.
So I guess people can make of it whatever they want, and Peter is always ready to answer any questions that anyone may have.
By the way, I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I only wanted some unbiased opinions on this sample. So I hope no one takes offense, because that was not my intention.

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Felix R.

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Posts: 555 Location: Germany

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 7:58 am

Hi, well the three to four sizes are standard nowadays. Maybe the long sleeves are tapered in my haubergeon in no tapering, but that is easy to achieve. For what I think about the tailoring you might want to have a look at the butted maile makers guied you can easily find by using google. This brings it down to the modifications required. To my knowledge even with the chest circumference in correct dimensions you can have problems with the tailoring. But that might be a personal thing. People are always very different in what they feel is a good fit.

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David Clark

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Posts: 132

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 10:00 am

David Clark wrote:

Craig Peters wrote:

David Clark wrote:

I have heard of and seen, in person, great maille from Icefalcon Armoury. If you go to the armourarchive.org he is having a stimulus sale through christmas.

For one thing, the fact that the mail shirt fits the guy in the Icefalcon photos like a tent leads me to doubt just how accurate this assertion is. Notice how much more form fitting an actual, historic suit of mail is: http://www.myArmoury.com/view.html?features/pic_mail17.jpg

Well, doubt all you want, but I fight against a fellow wearing one of his Lorica Hamatas and another fellow who wears one of his byrnies nearly every week (SCA). They fit them just fine (no rumpling from too much girth etc...) and they look great and have taken an awful lot of damage and held up wonderfully.
And as Felix said, you can't get that body hugging look with a maille shirt you pull over your head, such as those worn by the Saxons, Norse, etc...

P.S.
I am sorry if I came off as overly aggressive or rude. :(

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Craig Peters

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Posts: 2,167

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 11:07 am

David Clark wrote:

P.S.
I am sorry if I came off as overly aggressive or rude. :(

No problem Dave. The first thing that came to mind, when I read your earlier post, wasn't that it was aggressive or rude, but rather that it didn't seem to be directly relevant to my concern about Icefalcon's mail.

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Dan Howard

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Posts: 3,636 Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 12:47 pm

Felix R. wrote:

Ha ha, how funny. I would think it is the same type of maile GDFB offers (is it the 8mm ID?). Can take a picture of my aventil maile if interested. You wouldn´t need to buy from transatlantic to get that same type of maile..

Pretty much all of these suppliers get their mail from the same makers in India/Pakistan. May as well go with the cheapest supplier since spending more money will not result in better mail.

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Felix R.

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Posts: 555 Location: Germany

Wed 18 Nov, 2009 1:13 pm

What I said. And even so Blaz Berlec. You can get the same here in Europe, without extraordinary shipping costs and without taxes.

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