Ring Lord

Heather · Post by **Heather** » Fri May 01, 2009 7:51 pm

Even brand new, Ring Lord's welded stainless chain shirts are less expensive:

http://theringlord.com/cart/shopdisplay ... 6515425527

(go to the bottom of the page)

And if you want less shiny, it comes in black...

(just below the pic of the stainless chain shirt)

Heather · Post by **Heather** » Sat May 02, 2009 5:56 pm

*sigh* This was in reply to the "Mithril" discussion.... it wasn't supposed to be separate. Sorry about that.

david lewis smith · Post by **david lewis smith** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:02 am

i have some of these shirts,

they are ok for larping, but if you do any full contact recreation i would advise against them

they are pretty though

Jim E · Post by **Jim E** » Sun May 03, 2009 1:52 pm

Why is that? They're definitely not historically accurate for any period but I'd guess they are better protection than their historical counterparts due to the smaller, welded rings.
I've never handled one of these however so I couldn't know

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Sun May 03, 2009 2:54 pm

Pwyll · Post by **Pwyll** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:49 am

I would say not for full contact because maille is great for protection against edges, but not so great for protection against a club. And when you're doing full contact, you're basically using a club. Generally, you want something a bit less flexible, with padding underneath.

Note, this coming from the guy who liked to got into battle at Pennsic wearing a thin layer of plastic with no padding...

But, dang, those things do look pretty, and the price is great.

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Mon May 04, 2009 3:21 pm

Heather · Post by **Heather** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:30 pm

I hadn't looked at Ringmesh yet, I'll have to do that. I'd only looked at Icefalcon when I posted. I'd probably go for the Ringlord L if I were to get some. It does seem light and I'm no expert on maille.

I do know that wearing a padded layer under any maille is advisable, and that you should get it sized so that it will have freedom of movement -- part of the ability of the maille to absorb blows is in how much it can move.

Hm. Not sure I described that quite right, but hope it makes sense. The fit should be loose, unlike rigid armor, which is better to have fitted in a more tailored way.

Heather · Post by **Heather** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:35 pm

david lewis smith wrote:i have some of these shirts,

they are ok for larping, but if you do any full contact recreation i would advise against them

they are pretty though

Thx. I don't think I'd wear one of these unless it was along with some rigid armor, as far as full contact recreation, but I was kind of considering it at some point for rangering -- although it doesn't seem that rangers wore much in the way of armor, so I haven't gone forward with it. OTOH, it might not be bad to wear for conditioning... But I suppose I could just add some more weight to the backpack for that! A lot cheaper (but not as pretty)

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:46 pm

Not that I have worn any mail in the woods, but wouldn't it be a little noisy? I would think that ring mail in leather or similar would be a more practical choice.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but this mail seems to be very thin and a little flimsy. My guess is that it wouldn't hold up as well to a determined sword or arrow as well as the thicker stuff. Maybe the material is harder though, I don't know. Either way you would break some bones^^.

Heather · Post by **Heather** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:32 pm

Sam wrote:Not that I have worn any mail in the woods, but wouldn't it be a little noisy? I would think that ring mail in leather or similar would be a more practical choice.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but this mail seems to be very thin and a little flimsy. My guess is that it wouldn't hold up as well to a determined sword or arrow as well as the thicker stuff. Maybe the material is harder though, I don't know. Either way you would break some bones^^.

If you want it to be silent, then threading some thin cord would be the thing to do. Which, given the small diameter of this particular maille, would be pretty challenging. Hm, I suppose another way to quiet maille would be to attach it to fabric maybe... The threading bit I read about some years ago, although I believe it's an Asian technique, not European...

I think the point of this particular maille would be for it to have the appearance of mithril, which wouldn't be very heavy. In real world terms, heavier would be better. This stuff does have the advantage of being welded, which prevents opening and spreading of the rings. Real world, welded is probably the most solid, with riveted being next. In medieval times, optimal maille would have been some of the rings being solid and the rings that joined them to other rings being riveted, a time intensive process.

In general, I suspect not a lot of rangers would have had maille, as it's rather expensive. But since someone else had brought it up (and since I've toyed with the idea myself), it seemed worth discussing.

Proper maille (heavier), properly fitted (loose) with proper padded garment underneath, was very good at protection. The looseness of the fit is not just for freedom of movement, but also so that some of the force of the blow is dissipated as the maille moves. And the padding would be more than your average modern commercial quilting.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ring mail in leather". Do you mean maille attached to leather? Or do you mean separate, large metal rings attached to leather?

Gareth · Post by **Gareth** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:50 pm

Post by **Eledhwen** » Wed May 06, 2009 8:26 pm

Maile rustles. It only clinks, clanks, or rattles when bumping against something else like chapes, rocks, and plate armor.

I've worn maile a lot over the past 30 odd years...it's pretty quiet stuff on the whole.

Siani

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:01 am

Ring mail, otherwise known as ring armour, consists of metal rings attached to a foundation of leather or fabric. I reckon this would be a good compromise in terms of weight, noise, ease of movement and protection. Has anyone worn any before? I think we were talking about it somewhere before, perhaps because Tolkien mentioned it.

PS: sorry for the late reply, at first I couldn't figure out how to log on for a while, and for the last three weeks I have been in Japan.

Post by **Eledhwen** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:31 am

I've used ringmail. It's stiffer than maile, quieter only because it doesn't rustle like maile does...it also doesn't tend to rattle or ring when it strikes something. Better than studded leather, not as good as a brigandine sort of armor. Certainly useful to and usable by Rangers. It is warm since it is a leather foundation; maile can be warm due to the padding underneath but made right it breaths.

Probably the biggest difference is weight. Ringmaile is lighter than maile..and it doesn't drag on the shoulders either, doesn't need to be 'bloused' over a belt to relieve some of that strain. Still, it isn't as good a defense as maile on the whole.

That's my experience.

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