REVIEW: GDFB Riveted Maille types compared (and Mithril!)
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:50 pm
While I can't say I've been exactly planning on adding a byrnie to my toybox, I can't deny the fascination of the stuff. Fabric that's metal - how cool is that?!
Thinking I might one day purchase some, I idly started googling around, and quickly ran into tons of options. My childhood mental picture of maille was formed by seeing backwoods SCAdians in butted chain shirts made from fencing wire: my brain is still having trouble trying to accept the look of the real thing! : )
Anyhow, since the descriptions on the websites aren't the best, I thought I'd order a swatch of each of the most historically plausible pieces I could find at a reasonable price to see what was out there.
Although they aren’t a perfect match for historical maille, here's what I ordered:
Riveted maille from Get Dressed for Battle
1. Round Ring, Dome Riveted
2. Flat Ring, Dome Riveted
3. Flat Ring, Wedge Riveted
4. "Roman" 6mm Internal Diameter
In addition, for a stab at Elven "mithril" I ordered a quarter-foot each of small-diameter welded maille in stainless and titanium from The Ring Lord
Now let's go over each in turn.
I've extrapolated the weight of each "swatch" to 15 square feet, figuring that was approximately the size of a men's shirt: a front and back panel each around 2’ x 3’, and sleeves about 1’ x 1.5’
I’m sure those dimensions aren’t perfectly accurate, and the swatches themselves are tricky to measure dimensions on: but at least the relative values should still give an approximate comparison between each type of maille.
I'd love to be able to give “effectiveness†test data on these, but the truth of the matter is I don't think I can give really meaningful results from these tiny samples. YouTube is full of folks "proving" this weapon or that armor by varying the test conditions, and I don't think I could do any better with what I have on hand.
So while I could wrap a ham hock here in some linen and armor, and give 'em each a smack with a beater machete or stick ‘em with a target arrow: I don't know as I'd be able to prove much that isn’t done better elsewhere.
So I’ll start just with impressions for now, but please let me know if you’d get a lot of value out of my doing something to them.
Thinking I might one day purchase some, I idly started googling around, and quickly ran into tons of options. My childhood mental picture of maille was formed by seeing backwoods SCAdians in butted chain shirts made from fencing wire: my brain is still having trouble trying to accept the look of the real thing! : )
Anyhow, since the descriptions on the websites aren't the best, I thought I'd order a swatch of each of the most historically plausible pieces I could find at a reasonable price to see what was out there.
Although they aren’t a perfect match for historical maille, here's what I ordered:
Riveted maille from Get Dressed for Battle
1. Round Ring, Dome Riveted
2. Flat Ring, Dome Riveted
3. Flat Ring, Wedge Riveted
4. "Roman" 6mm Internal Diameter
In addition, for a stab at Elven "mithril" I ordered a quarter-foot each of small-diameter welded maille in stainless and titanium from The Ring Lord
Now let's go over each in turn.
I've extrapolated the weight of each "swatch" to 15 square feet, figuring that was approximately the size of a men's shirt: a front and back panel each around 2’ x 3’, and sleeves about 1’ x 1.5’
I’m sure those dimensions aren’t perfectly accurate, and the swatches themselves are tricky to measure dimensions on: but at least the relative values should still give an approximate comparison between each type of maille.
I'd love to be able to give “effectiveness†test data on these, but the truth of the matter is I don't think I can give really meaningful results from these tiny samples. YouTube is full of folks "proving" this weapon or that armor by varying the test conditions, and I don't think I could do any better with what I have on hand.
So while I could wrap a ham hock here in some linen and armor, and give 'em each a smack with a beater machete or stick ‘em with a target arrow: I don't know as I'd be able to prove much that isn’t done better elsewhere.
So I’ll start just with impressions for now, but please let me know if you’d get a lot of value out of my doing something to them.