This is a peculiar question... However at about 5'7 avereage build roughly how heavy do people thing a chainmail Hauberk would be? My guess is about 10kg but i'm not sure! (I'm looking into a reinactment society)
I helped make one for someone about 5'7 and it weighed under 6kg, and that was riveted chainmail. Depends how broad you are as well.
I do have a slightly taper... Just that a guy at the society I am gonna try and join (he is admittedly quite big) has chest mail weighing in at 18kg!
A word of warning. There is no such thing as chainmail. Maille is another word for chain so you're asking about chainchain. No different than saying 'Panzer Tank'. You'll need a maille hauberk then...
Everyone else understood what he was meaning therefore the word "chainmail" is perfectly acceptable. Language adapts with time, live with it.
Don't tell me you invented a time machine in the victorian era and travel through time correcting everyone.
If you aren't going to say anything relevant or productive with regards to the topic do me a favour: shutup and get outta my thread. When my leg stops acheing (a brick landed on my thigh LOL) do you guys recon that runing with a heavy pack on would help with endurance. Moving about with even 6kg of mail could prove tricky. I haven't fought with weapons but I tend to dodge more than block.
Possibly, when i was in the Army my belt order weighed 16lb and my rifle weighed 14lb and I used to run 8 miles in 2 hours in it. It did make it easier to cope with my armour which weighed 18lb when I had it on.
Despite the fact I already don't like you, I'll comply with your request. Check this out for fake maille - easier than bitching on the forums about being weak... http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Armor/Maille/ChainCheats.htm Good luck.
I wouldn't want to use fake mail, because its just that, fake. Its a reinactment society.. not a theatre group.
WRONG! I have a maille hauberk which is made of spring steel, and is the real thing [not a lightweight plastic fantastic] & has been used for re-enactment battles & jousting etc. I'm 5ft 9" and of average build for a woman. My hauberk weighs about 25kg. By the time the rest of my 14thC armour is finished it will be about 45kg all up and nearly as heavy as I am!
Seems a lot heavier than real 13th and 14th century armour I have handled and anything I have helped make and that is riveted mail, and they did not have "spring steel" mail in the middle ages.
This is what I've heard about chainmail: They were (not all, but most) made 50% out of stanced-out rings, and the remaining rings were smith'ed(riveted? -what's the proper english term?) so that they were complete rings as well. As a consiquense the rings (specially the "viking"/ pre-"viking" ones -not many of them anyway) -are not similar; they differ a bit in size. In addition special stanced out rings that are bigger and of other metals (sliver/bronze) are allso applied; either as a mark from the craftsman, as a ward, as repair, or as decoration. I've heard people say that "butted" ringed-mails allso were in use, but that theese are found closer to the orient, and not in (north)weastern europe.
Stolenbjorn, smithed means hit or shaped by hitting (like smite) riveted is pins through whatever you are joing smithed to make the ends expand holding the bits firmly together. hope that helps a bit.
I wondered, because I've heard (norwegians) calling the rings that weren't stanced out "riveted" rings, somthing I found a little strange, driving little rivets throuhg 10.000 rings; i'd thought that they were smith'ed.
Altho' it is true that any living language adapts with time, when it comes to historical references (or references to historical artifacts) it is usually best to be accurate - either that or be thick-skinned enough to resist any flamming and/or laughter that ensues from a display of ignorance . Historical societies tend to be even more precise about terminology than most people (even academics), so I don't think ScottUK's advice about useage was something to be particularly offended by. If I read his tone rightly, he was simply saving someone new to the 'scene' from potentially embarassing themselves on Day One, so to speak.
