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Helmet with suspended mail face cover Here is an Helmet with suspended mail face cover Here is an example of a very particular head protection popular around Germany and Italy from 1340 to the 1370s. The helmet comes with an attached mail armour of comparably heavy manner, the so-called aventail. Part of that mail armour covers the chin and nose. This part is sometimes referred to as bretache. It hooks up to the cross on the helmet. Such helmets could be worn under a great helmet for fighting on horseback with a lance. The great helmet would be taken off for close-combat for more vision and better breathing - leaving the fighter protected only by this helmet under it. First Photo: Museo Stibbert, photo by Ironskin. Second photo, left side: Relief from the Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy. Dated 1350-1370. Top right: Effigy of Berthold V von Zahringen from the city-museum of Freiburg, Germany. Dated 1354. Bottom right: Painting from Klosterneuburg, Austria. Dated 1335-1340.
In the heart of the German region Franconia lies t In the heart of the German region Franconia lies the iconic castle of Abenberg. Already in the year 1200 poet Wolfram von Eschenbach writes about the tournaments of Abendberg in his Parzival epos. 800 years later that tournament place is still there. Today the beautiful castle is home to a brand new museum. Part of the permanent exhibition is the figure of a knight in the year 1200. We clad a mannequin in mail armour of fine riveted rings for the display. There is a square ventail, laced mail chausses for the legs, and finger-free hand protection as we found in period manuscript depictions. Abendberg is well worth a visit for castle lovers. Not just the castle but also the historic town. And don't get me started on the surrounding historic places nearby. Some of you may know the place from the medieval music festival Feuertanz. We are super proud that our work is featured in the museum. Thumbs up for all museums that go unconventional ways!
Mail mittens We don't know all too much about the Mail mittens We don't know all too much about the hand protection of high- and early medieval armour. In sculptures we see that mail covers the outside of the hand - yet rarely the inside. In this interpretation we gave the mail a leather inside. It works great. Yet in late medieval originals the inside is often linen textile. Is it a reenactorims (= modern people copy what other modern people did before)? What do you think?
Remains from the battle of Visby These are the re Remains from the battle of Visby These are the remains of mail armour that covered a limp which looks like an arm to me. Do we have some bone experts here to confirm? The battle of Visby took place in 1361, when the Danish invaders attacked the Swedish island of Gotland. Instead of being looted, fallen fighters were left in their valuable armour. And their remains are preserved in the ground. There is also a mail hood, pushed over its wearers skull. The mail parts have corroded into a fragile lump which makes it difficult to study them. It's not clear to me whether the arm was chopped off in or after battle or broke when it was dug out. Nevertheless it's remarkable that these survived into our time. Museum of Gotland, photos by Ironskin #gotland #skull #battleofwisby #battleofvisby #visby #wisby
1564: When mail armour was out of fashion, a fashi 1564: When mail armour was out of fashion, a fashion it did have! This is from St. Gallus church in Bregenz, Austria. We see a standing man in plate armour. He is wearing a collar of mail with nice half-circle rounded fringes. The crouching man in front of him is wearing a mail shirt. For the regular followers of this channel it must be more than obvious that the rows in the mail shirt are artistic freedom. Or can anyone imagine a real mail shirt like that? Photos by @sketch.wolf
Andy and his team from How To Make Everything @htm Andy and his team from How To Make Everything @htmeverything are on a quest to explore the technology needed to build civilization. After covering the Stone Age and metal smelting, they finally made their first iron wire. They even build some chainmail rings. We are super happy that the underrated craft of wire-making got the attention of this established channel. As you can see on their longer video, a lot of skill goes into that. A bar of iron needs to be hammered to a thin cross-section. Then it gets pulled through consecutively smaller holes in a draw plate. The holes need to have the right spacings. There is lubricant needed. The wire needs to be repeatedly softened by heat. And it all takes tremendous force. The ancient wire-making from ore to finish is not even understood to the last detail by modern experts. Moreso Ironskin is proud that we could be of help with experience from our experiments. Wire-making looks easier than it is!
Soldered Mail These fine rings of 5mm inner diame Soldered Mail These fine rings of 5mm inner diameter are not riveted. They were just flattened at their overlapping ends. And then that area got soldered. The solder looks like tin/lead to me. Perhaps there are traces of copper in it. The technique is called “brazing” or “hard soldering”. Mail shirts with comparable rings point towards it being made or associated with Indonesia. The island of Sulawesi had strong trading connections to the Middle East. Some similar-shaped shirts are assigned to 16th-century Persia. Yet they would be riveted. Are we looking at a local Indonesian version? Or is it a product of more than one culture? What do you think? Photos by @monster_fish_taxiderm
Oil painting by Giovanni Battista Moroni from abou Oil painting by Giovanni Battista Moroni from about 1556. It's showing a noble person with their armor. This is one of the rare occasions to see the mail that is underneath the plate armor. We had our try at recreating this. The painting is so detailed that one can even see the black fabric laces with metal tips. They are used to tie the mail parts onto the fabric undergarment.
Ironskin is dead! Long live Copperskin! For a col Ironskin is dead! Long live Copperskin! For a collaboration project, we made chainmail from an electricity cable. Now our part ends and the work of @archaeometallurge begins. Follow him if you are curious. Why did we make it out of copper? Because it is fun to get familiar with other material properties. In fact, copper is more forgiving. If you are starting out making mail armour it is an easy material. You can find tools and instructions on our website.
A brass mark on mail - Can you decipher it? Some A brass mark on mail - Can you decipher it? Some mail shirts were marked with copper alloy rings or plates. These marks tell about the workshop or city of origin or the arsenal in which it was kept or the owner. Since brass is softer than iron, the marks get a lot of abrasion. I wonder what this inscription once meant. Who's good at reading such letters? Photo digitally altered to make it more clear.
Swimming in mail armour... We wanted to know: Can Swimming in mail armour... We wanted to know: Can Dr. Fabian Brenker swim while wearing a mail hauberk of 13kg / 29 pounds? Even though it looks like it, the answer is not a clear yes. Certainly a good swimmer doesn't instantly sink. But for sure it is super exhausting. Likely one wouldn't get very far. That said we don't know for sure whether medieval knights would be experienced swimmers. Underneath the hauberk Fabian is wearing a linen shirt. This could be worn with more clothing. And that would certainly restrain his movements and exhaust him even faster. Don't do this at home kids. This was done by a PhD historian. No rings were harmed for this video. #divingsuit #swimmingexperiment #willitfloat #chainmail #historytest #chainmail #swimming #medievalarmour #historynerds
Not much surviving mail has dagged hems. In fact, Not much surviving mail has dagged hems. In fact, I have not seen more than a handful of legitimate examples. That means pieces that have not been altered to that appearance long after manufacturing. This one however could be original. The single brass rings sit there almost like jewels. This is object W34, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich Germany. Photos by Ironskin.
After our recent bathing activity in mail armour, After our recent bathing activity in mail armour, you were asking: Did it rust? This hauberk is made from iron/mild steel. That means yes, it can rust. Once there was oil on it, but most had long been brushed off. We put it in the sun and moved it occasionally. It did get some rust. Yet it seemed as if it was rather rubbed off iron particles that were rusting - not so much the rings themselves. It all brushed off easily. While wearing mail armour, the natural rubbing of the rings is often enough to remove rust while it is building up. The bath was even helpful because it washes off salt from sweat. If the natural friction is not enough, the mail can be rubbed by hand or tumbled in a barrel. Tumbling together with coarse sand is not a good idea, because it cuts scratches into the metal and thus creates more surface for rust to start building up. Fine, round sand might be ok. Some spots around the rivets and in between the overlap get less rubbing. Hence is it helpful to have a minimal layer of oil on the rings. I had good experiences with sheared sheep wool to rub the rings with. Then the wool's oil enters the rings. In what conditions does mail armour rust? Mail rusts, when it is neglected: When there is salt on the rings - when it is put aside and never moved. It makes it worse when the air is humid and humidity levels change frequently. If it is rusting for a longer time, the rust eats into the metal as pits. And those are harder to come by. #rust #corrosion #armor #rustremoval #flugrost #flashrust
Mail mittens where one doesn't expect them... Suc Mail mittens where one doesn't expect them... Such leather mittens were said to be used by French soldiers operating Hotchkiss machine guns in WW1 and/or WW2. These machine guns were air-cooled. I'm thinking the mail armor on the inside of the palm was mostly to protect from the hot metal parts of the gun and the fired ammunition shells. While the leather itself would soon get brittle from the heat, the steel rings bring additional distance to the hot parts. What do you think? Did you at first glance think that this was medieval? 😀 Photos by Ratisbon's, www.ratisbon.com, LOT 37-0557
Face- and neck-protection This type of protection Face- and neck-protection This type of protection for the throat and surrounding areas exists alongside similar plate-armor pieces called bevor. Since that style lasted only for a short time, that helps as a reference for the age. It must be from around 1480. Likely it was manufactured in southern Germany. The mail must have been suspended from the top - attached to a helmet or by other means. On the right side of the wearer, there is a gap in the mail to open it. It is not surprising to find it on the right side, which is typically less exposed during fighting. Pictures by Ironskin inside @churburg_castelcoira
Hello earthlings, we come in peace! ✌️ These Hello earthlings, we come in peace! ✌️ These are bifurcated mittens that we build inspired by a painting from southern Germany, 1473. The design is older and not as strange to medieval people as you might expect. We mostly found it in French sources from the 13th century onwards. I already envision you commenting: Yet is it better to use hand protection with three boxes? Not all arguments can be made by practicability alone. Sometimes handmade objects just follow a tradition. What do you think? Most likely we can't make you a similar pair. This keeps us diligently hand-stitching and sewing for longer than most people would pay. Thank you to the dear person who commissioned this.
Ironskin is proud to have contributed a commission Ironskin is proud to have contributed a commissioned hauberk of mail to the exhibition inside Wartburg Castle. It will soon be displayed amongst other fine objects. Wartburg is one of the most known castles in Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage and a former safe haven for Martin Luther. In the year 1207, it was host to the Wartburg bard contest ("Sängerkrieg") featuring all the medieval high society people that are now depicted in the famous manuscript Codex Manesse- amongst them people like Wolfram von Eschenbach, Walther von der Vogelweide, and Ulrich von Liechtenstein. The mail armour we made is representing specifically that time of the early 13th century. #wartburg #personaldelivery #ironskin #CodexManesse #WolframvonEschenbach #ulrichvonliechtenstein #WalthervonderVogelweide #martinluther #wartburgeisenach #sängerkrieg
One of our shirts of mail - photographed in the ca One of our shirts of mail - photographed in the castle that houses its inspiration.
Tapering of mail sleeves Most sleeves of mail get Tapering of mail sleeves Most sleeves of mail get less and less wide from the shoulder towards the hand. That is tapering. So far so good. Yet did you know there are 6 concepts to do so? Some of these were rather applied on the upper arms and others were rather applied on the lower arms. Even on the level of individual rings, there are multiple ways to link them. History has seen more than one way applied. What was it that they did? - and when? - and how? You can find that out in a full 6-page article available in the shop section of the Ironskin website. Go to www.ironskin.com (link in bio) Which style do you like most optically?
Mail collar The collar is made from riveted iron Mail collar The collar is made from riveted iron and latten rings. There is a dense band in 6in1 pattern while the rest is linked in 4in1 patter. With that it could well be a brother of the collar in the British museum - very likely made in the same workshop. Yet note that both pieces are the exception. Such collars are almost always linked in 4in1 pattern - only with stronger links. The piece is associated with a castle in Schwarzenfeld near Nuremberg, Germany. Looking at similar pieces and period sources it is likely from the 14th to 15th century. The straps and buckles must have gone missing. This is object A11601 from the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt. Video by Ironskin.
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