Maille as Armour.

Yeah, now we're talkin'

First off though, I want to apologize for not being able to either assemble, or locate a tutorial on earwires like I had planned. This weekend got stupid, and now it's late, which means I'm stuck with taking photographs indoors... and you'd probably prefer I just went outside and took them in the dark. It would be less painful for the eyes.

Wha... oh right, armour. Maille armour is the oldest known form of metal armouring in the world. Carbon dating places early celtic examples at 2000 years old. Samples of surviving Etruscan maille may be 3000 years old. Staggering to think that you're engaging in a practice virtually unchanged since 1000 B.C.E isn't it? In most of the world, that's late Bronze age or early Iron age. It survived as a form of protection on the battlefield until the 17th century in europe, and in Japan continued battlefield use until the end of the 19th century.

Here, a distinction should be drawn between the uses of European and Japanese forms of maille.

In Europe it was common to encounter armour elements such as a hauberk, chausses, or coif composed solely of chain. They would be worn over thick quilted clothing such as a gambeson which helped absorb some of the impact from a blow. While you find that it's incredibly difficult to cut through maille, it isn't rigid. Youtube, the wasteland of stupidity on video that it can be, can produce quite a few videos of people "testing" their new maille shirt, by smacking their dumb as dirt friends with a piece of bar stock. It isn't youtube if someone doesn't get hurt... right? Commonly the ends of each ring were cut to overlap, hammered flat, then punched and riveted. Some maille armorers will still craft riveted maille; the form most of us use today without rivets is called butted, or butt-joined. I just like saying butt-joined...

Japanese maille was used primarily as a way to add a flexible joint or connection between two pieces of lacquered scale; rather than as an entire garment. It was a compromise in having some protection and durability under use while still allowing range of motion.

Another aspect to be very, very aware of with maille, is that it isn't very resistant to piercing. An arrow or a weapon thrust is likely to force rings open. Yes, this means the heartbreaking news is coming, so never ask me... Maille is not bullet proof. No "what if you wrap it in kevlar?" "how many layers..." "if you use titanium/awesomanium/mithril/adamantium" questions. You'll get one of two questions in response. "Are you willing to wear about 150lbs of steel?" or, "How stupid are you, exactly?" depending on my mood. Seriously, think about it, if it could stop a bullet, why aren't we putting it to that use today?

Don't let that stop you from buying 40lbs of stainless or galvanized steel wire, weaving up a shirt, and displaying a skill that's survived for millenia. Look up the SCA if you're not already a member and I'll put money on you finding somone who's willing to trade sword swings with you against your new toy. If you really, really have to use it the way it was intended, there's no better or safer group for such a thing.

For what my opinion's worth, make one out of 5356 alloy aluminium just to wear while you're sitting at a coffee house at 3:30AM hoping the wi-fi doesn't crap out just so you can read over a few more blogs before dawn.

Have fun
--Charon

Maille Arts: Terminology and Abbreviations.

I thought I'd take today and make it easy. Since it's monday, and noone wants to work too hard on Monday, I'll talk about some basic terms, abbreviations, and things of that sort.

Terms:

Aspect Ratio: The proportion of Wire Size to ring Inner Diameter. Abbreviated as AR.

Wire Size: Refers to the diameter of the wire from which your rings are made. There are multiple ways to express this. Examples using Gagues are usually shortened to G or GA. 20ga would be read as Twenty Gague. There are also multiple standards for wire gauge systems. Far more than the scope of this post could explain. It's easiest to figure that a wire gague number of 20 or greater refers to the American Wire Gague system, and all numbers less than 20 are in Standard Wire Gauge. Wire sizes may also be expressed in fractional inches as 1/16, decimal inches as .062, or metric as 1.6mm. For the math-minded you've already calculated that these three examples refer refer to the same size wire. Personally, I still find metric to be the easiest and most commonly understood amoung maillers. Wire Size composes the first half of Ring Stats.

Inner Diameter: The measure of the inside of a ring. Usually expressed for simplicity as the size mandrel the around which it was coiled. Again they can appear in fractional or decimal inches, or metric. Abbreviated as ID and composes the second half of Ring Stats. For perfect accuracy, ID may be measured after a ring is cut and closed because several factors may have a small inpact on the final result. Generally though, it isn't super important and listing your mandrel size as ID is just as acceptable.

Ring Stats: Or just Stats. The shorthand listing of your rings' wire size and Inner Diameter. 16ga 1/4ID or, 1.6mm 6.4mmID are both valid examples.

Closure: Closures are the point where the wire ends of individual rings meet. Usually pointed out by other maillers looking at your work. "Fix that closure halfway along the second row." ;> Good closures won't scratch the wearer and look like you take your time and pay attention to your work.

Eye: The space where two rings overlap, shaped like the outline of an eyelid. Rings that create eyes may or may not be connected to one another, most weaves are defined by the connections and their involvment with eyes. A ring may be connected through eye or TE, and around eye or AE. While some debate still exists on particular weaves it's generally accepted that the European and Persian families are defined by how they use eyes. A European weave has only TE connections, a Persian weave uses both TE and AE.

European: In maille, this refers to a family of weaves that originated in Europe, and is distinguished by it's decending rows of rings lying in alternating directions. Shorthand for European weaves look like "E 4-1, E 6-1, E 8-2". They're read as European four-in-one, six-in-one, eight-in-two. Meaning that each ring will be connected to Four or Six others. In the case of X-2 it means that a pair of rings performing the same function in the exact same location, are connected to eight others, these eight are also pairs.

(((((((
)))))) A common ascii to demonstrate the rows
((((((( in European maille. Each row should hang horizontally across the body.

Japanese: Also called Oriental. A family of weaves from Asia where large rings are connected to one another by smaller rings in simple chains in rows, then connected to one another by small rings to form colums. The large rings will lie flat against the body, while the small rings stand vertically. Shorthand for Japanese weaves appears as "J 3-1, J 4-1, J 6-1, J 12-2" and reads the same as the European shorthand.

0-0-0-0
|   |   |   |  
0-0-0-0
Common ascii depicting J 4-1. The 0s are the large rings, where the
horizontal and vertical lines are meant to depict the edges of small rings.
These ascii art will appear frequently in maille related message boards.

Kinged: Fancy way of stating a weave is constructed using pairs of rings. E 8-2 is also called Kingsmaille, and lends the term kinged to other weaves.

Roundmaille: A segment of maille who's edges have been connected back to one another to form a round chain. My description of this really isn't suitable in my opinion, you can see an example of Roundmaille, here.

Persian: A family of weaves that use both through eye and around eye connections to create a length of chain where the rows of rings are generally described as stacked. It's difficult to visualise. There are both Full Persan and Half-Persian forms. Abbreviations are similar to the other families. FP 6-1 for Full Persian six-in-one. HP 3-1 would be read as Half Persian three-in-one.


This, has run on far longer than I figured it would. So I think I'll take a break for a while, and let you do the same. I know this might not have been the most fun post you've ever read, but learning is good. ;>

Have fun--
Charon