Mine is long enough to get caught and pinched or pulled now and then and maile tends to do that rather quickly! It smarts but we being the rough tough hard to buff Dwarven nasty fellows we only tear, just one mind you, from the left eye, but also being rather secure with such gushing emotion we never wipe it away but let it role down and get lost in the tangled birds nest that started the whole problen our lovely beard!!!
(Why you rarely see chanmaile used that is not backed unless you are watching a movie.)
And yes the shark stuff is rings (I suppose, though they are extremely tiny) I suppose that is to show the extreme skill of the makers and superior protection...Yada Yada. In reality making that out of Mithral (a very strong metal that would have been difficult to bend I would think) that stuff would have taken a very strong but dextrous person many, many hours/days/weeks to make. so I guess Gandalf was right, it's value would have been greater than the whole shire!
Of course he could have just picked it up at the Umbar Dive Shop knocked off by those infernal machines on the cheap!
I have looked into that and have been tempted as with the right embelishment in the right metal it could be rather interesting, but divers don't call it maile they call it mesh which is why I reverted to the term.
I am Ringulf the Dwarven Woodsman, I craft leather, wood, metal, and clay,
I throw axes, seaxes, and pointy sticks, And I fire my bow through the day.
Come be my ally, lift up your mead! We'll search out our foes and the Eagles we'll feed!
