Gallery - Ironskin

Mail and Plate - two examples: Those two metal le

Mail and Plate - two examples:

Those two metal leg defences are as different as it can get. While the plate from 1511 weighs 3.15kg (7 pound) the mail hosen from 19th-century puts 6.44kg (14 pound) on the scale! Why are they from 19th-century? They were built to recreate 12th- or 13th-century mail chausses. As a material the people at the time had likely used fragments of 15th- and 16th-century riveted mail and connected it with butted rings.

Besides the properties of the armour itself, production lines are an underrated factor determining what armor fighters were wearing in history. Which is your favorite leg defence?

These are inventary numbers A285 and A286 (plate) and A17 (mail) from the legendary @wallacemuseum. You find the pictures within their online collection. Thank you @steeve_martial for your help with fixing the information!

#sabaton #legarmor #historism #ironlegs #greave #greaves #armourmuseum #armsandarmour #armsandarmor #plattenrüstung #medievalwarrior #medievalcombat #chausses #metallegs #legdefece #legarmour

Isn't there beauty in imperfection? These are the

Isn't there beauty in imperfection?

These are the riveted and solid rings of an Indian mail and plate jacket from the 17th century. Both types of rings vary widely in all dimensions. The riveted rings have nice flat rivet heads. The solid rings look drifted, not punched. I think they have been cut by a chisel and were sanded afterwards.

This reminds me of a discussion in a German Medieval FB group. I had shared some pictures of hand made rings. Somebody noted that they look too irregular for his taste. That in return sparked a heavy discussion about the level of precision of medieval craftsmen. As with many things it's difficult to generalize here. Yet what do you consider beautiful? Do you like these rustic rings? Or do you prefer rings that look geometrically perfect?

This is object XXVIA.296 in the Royal Armouries Leeds, UK. Pictures are from their online collection.

#orkstyle #orcstyle #irregularwork #imperfectart #missshaped #zirih #indianmade #driftedmetal #sandedsurface #apope #maliënkolder #ringbrynja #kolczuga #orcarmor #orcarmour

Mail jacket original vs. rebuilt I wasn't thinkin

Mail jacket original vs. rebuilt

I wasn't thinking of the Livrustkammaren mail jacket when I was doing this commission work. Yet in hintsight I can't neglect some similarities. One particularity is that there is a step in the vertical opening on the front. In my case (the lower picture) this just happened because I was running out of rings for the collar and had to take off material from somewhere. When it is worn there is plate armor covering the front of the chest.

My greetings go to @tobiascapwell who is currently working on a similar project! 🙂

The original is referred to as inventory number 22514 in the Livrustkammaren collection.

Persian Mail Armor Original vs. Replica Something

Persian Mail Armor Original vs. Replica

Something I have only dared to dream of is another man's reality. Andrey Davydov is a Rusian chainmail enthusiast, who has (amongst many other great things) created an Islamic Mail Armor much like item 2014.198 from the Met-Museum. Like the 16h century original from Persia he has stamped the rings with an inscription. For that he used a drop-forging shape that he could push into the rings. This inscription is in a religious context, mentioning Allah, Muhammad, ʿAli, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn.

A huge THANK YOU goes to @fr_aleksver who connected me with Andrey! Pictures are in part courtesy of Andrey Davydov and in part from the online collection of the Metropolitan Museum New York. @metmuseum Особое приветствие всем моим русскоговорящим друзьям!

This is a battle about the best #chainmail image.

This is a battle about the best #chainmail image. To participate you only need to post a picture with chainmail between now and Friday 24th of July 2020. You mark your image with #chainmail2020 in the description. After the qualification there will be a tournament where two or four images fight each other at a time in a public vote. That vote will take place here in the form of Insta-Stories. Then ultimately the winner will get a little surprise from me.

Please do only post pictures that you have the rights of. Apart from that you are very free to show home made rings, living history, chainmail jewelry and suchlike. Let the games begin! 🙂

PS: If one person marks more than one of their images, I can only take in the one with most likes. Please don't mark your old pictures. Theoretically there's nothing wrong with it, but at the end of the challenge I need to see who posted in time.

Mail hidden inside the plates... Imagine you go t

Mail hidden inside the plates...

Imagine you go to an auction and buy what is said to be a 19th-Century Gothic Armor Set. Then you buy it and discover the treasure hanging hidden inside the plates: a mail vest that appears to be much older. This is exactly what has happened to @monster_fish_taxidermy from the Netherlands.

The mail consits of riveted ring mixed with solid rings. It's strange how the vest is shaped - with rows running down the torso. I imagine it was cut out of an earlier mail-shirt and reconnected as shown in the drawing. The mail material could be much older. What do you think?

It even turned out that the gauntlets could be older as well. Are they 15/16th century? What are your general guess on age and provenance?

Thank you @monster_fish_taxidermy for sending me pictures and discussing this. Cool acccount by the way!

Update: Thanks to @nicholaschecksfield we are now convinced that this was a pair of mail chausses - not sleeves. In Indian culture there were chausses like that.

13th-century hauberk - the female version The bos

My humble nose in a little too wide hauberk Let's

My humble nose in a little too wide hauberk

Let's use this little preview of my current project to talk about coifs: Everyone in the reenactment scene has likely seen this type of coif in period artwork. Now can we come up with a practical name to call this? How do we tell them apart from say coifs with ventail?

Some more explanation: There is a lace running all around the face opening (I stuffed it under the mail next to my eye). Another lace fixes the mail around the neck. When both are open, it's possible to get the head through the face opening and pull the coif back like a hoodie.

How would you name this?

Massive Chainmail Necklace Look at this massive l

Massive Chainmail Necklace

Look at this massive luxurious artwork! This is what you can buy at the Gold Market in Dubai. I spotted this in a video by @khalidalameri on YouTube. Its price must be between 55.000 and 820.000 US$ because this is the dollar-equivalent of the lowest and the highest priced jewellery in the shop.

Yet is it really chainmail though? At least it falls and moves like chainmail with ultra fine rings. Tag a friend who could wear this. ;)

The Earl of Pembrok Coif This one of the less kno

The Earl of Pembrok Coif

This one of the less known types of mail coifs. It is made with loose rows running around the face. In fact the rows are tailored wide enough that they allow to put the head through the face hole. The mail can be pulled tigh by a lace around the face opening. This version here is constructed as a bend bandana-like tube. It's also possible to do this with a half-dome shape that has it's center on the backside of the head. Both ways make use of merging rows in the pattern and are best performed with a sculpture. Do you see the difference to other constructions? How should we name the type of coif?

This a work of Philippe Cornetet from Cité d' Antan as shared on citedantan_jimdofree_com. The statue is showing William Marshal 1st Earl of Pembroke, who died 1219, as shown on themcs_org.

Chinese lamellar and scale armor made out of iron

Chinese lamellar and scale armor made out of iron scales, Han Dynasty 206 BC to 220 AD.

Pictures by peashooter85 on Tumbler.

Just sharing with you a work in progress and the j

Just sharing with you a work in progress and the joy of first snow in Germany! ❄️

These are finger-free gloves as interpreted from 12th-century depictions. Why is the inside of the wrist uncovered by mail? There will be laces that pull the mail together.

Did you get snow yet?

Bascinet with Aventail vs. Great Helm Iconic Cyli

Bascinet with Aventail vs. Great Helm

Iconic Cylinder or Streamlined Visor? With which helmet would you ride into battle?
Both helmets are rare, both are from late 14th-century and both are exhibited in the Royal armouries in Leeds. The bascinet or houndskull (to the left) is likely from a Milanese Armory. It is from Churburg Castle in northern Italy and dates to ~1390. The Great Helm from the 1370s (to the right) has a typical Hundred Years' War shape. Yet we only know of three surviving English examples. With a construction of barely shaped riveted plates the great helmet seems easier to manufacture. The bascinet howver is made from one drifted piece plus visor.

These are Inventary numbers 470 and 600 of the Royal Armouries Collection Leeds, UK. Pictures by Ironskin.

We're proudly presenting Ironskins Chainmail Searc

We're proudly presenting Ironskins Chainmail Search

You have been looking for specific riveted rings and didn't know where to buy them?
The struggle has an end: With this Chainmail Search form you can enter your desired ring type to get a list of shops that offer them. Featuring @zeughaus.info @battlemerchant @allbeststuff @makeyourownmedieval @getdressedforbattle and @armorvenue

Go to ironskin.com and test it! I'm thrilled to know your feedback.

The frontent webdesign is not the best yet. Is there anyone wants to help?

Timeline of Knights Part(2/2) 1190: Pavel Aleksey

Timeline of Knights Part(2/2)

1190: Pavel Alekseychik
1200: Matteo Culasso
1235: Arthur alias Thibault IV De Champagne

These are the earlier knights. The selection is mainly based on the period and wheter I had already asked for their permission. That said, there are so many more passionate reenactors that I can highly recommend to have a look at. In no particular order: @yannick.koch @comunes_dimicatores @theholy_knight @bernard_de_moreuil @tobiasbleckert @krak_crusade_reenactment @strahovnjik_ @alteri.leandro @recrevlad @petrus_apiarius @knyghterrant @teutonic77 @innokentiyordin

Im afraid that I have forgotten some people. Please help me out and tag them in the comments. You are also welcome to raise a hand and tag yourself if you do knights reenactment and want to be seen.

#highmedieval #medievallivinghistory #livinghistory #kreuzritter #storiaviva #medievaltimes #rittersleut #medievalarmor #chainmailcoif #12thcentury #crusader #withouthorses #kiteshield #рыцарь #caballarius #ritterspiele #hochmittelalter #knightly #ritterlich

Mail tailoring - What's going on here? Seams in m

Mail tailoring - What's going on here?

Seams in mail are hard to spot - especially if they are done smoothly. So for this hauberk the blue rings show the seams to give you an idea about the parts. There are gussets in the front and back, at the hip, the shoulders and at the elbows. The upper and lower arms are tapering. In the beginning I added this grid of shiny aluminum markers to seek and destroy all irregularities in the 9mm weave. This helped to make everything symmetrical. The only exception is the right lower arm. It needed to be wider than its left counterpart because of muscles. Please leave a thumb up for my friend Christian who modeled this (his) mail armor in the summer heat! He doesn't have Insta, but I'll show him.

Pictures and work by me.

Lance vs. armour tests by Arne Koets: With great

Lance vs. armour tests by Arne Koets:

With great interest I noticed the recent tests by Arne Koets and his team. They were hitting a bascinet and mail aventail by a lance. The mail was made by Isak Krogh from 2mm annealed mild steel wire. It is substantially thicker than your average reenactment mail. The 14thcentury helmet was forget by @magisterarmorum with a 2mm strong visor. Both the plate visor and the mail successfully stopped the lance heads from penetrating. In the video Arne discusses the physical details of vibrating lances in wet and dry wood. He explains that this is only the beginning of more testing. Have a look at his youtube channel "Airnt". They really put in the effort to recreate historic details! 👍

Did the result surprise you?

Standing mail collar at the neck I'm currently wo

Standing mail collar at the neck

I'm currently working on a jacket of mail. It is suposed to have a collar that is standing up by itself. Usually this would be achieved by rings with very thick wire diameter. The weave would be made so dense that it can only bend to some degree. In my case the collar rings are the same rings as all other rings. You can also sew it onto leather or pull leather straps through all chainmail rows. Both will help to make the collar stand up naturally.

Hip-long mail shirt, 15th-century Germany Basic f

Hip-long mail shirt, 15th-century Germany

Basic features: This shirt is made of riveted and solid rings with varying diameter. The diameter tends to be smaller to the sides than the front. The lower hem and sleeve edges are decorated with rows of laten rings. The length is 78.5cm (31").

Worth to notice: The neck section is overlapping and there are braided bands to stiffen it and make it stand up. Sometimes this stiffening is done with more dense mail or (very rarely) with 6in1-pattern. The arms are somewhat semi-long with an interesting edge. On the backside neck area there is some weird tailoring going on that I haven't seen before.

Pictures and basic info by Worldantiques Antiques on Pinterest. Red lines and tailoring comments by me.

6in1 Mail Collar with butted rings!!! ca. 1350 Wh

6in1 Mail Collar with butted rings!!! ca. 1350

When people are asking "Were they using butted rings in medieval times?". There are usually some very uninformed people who say "Yes of course!" while they are thinking of modern butted stainless steel rings. And then there are more informed people who argue that butted rings did not exist at all. So where is the truth?

This is yet another example that gives a hint for the usage of butted mail in medieval times (if it wasn't added later). There are two similar examples from the island of Jersey and from Nuremberg in my older posts. All of them share the fact that the butted rings were soley used for these decorative triangle fringes while the main sheet consists of riveted rings respectively a combination of riveted and solid rings.

Another fascinating and very rare aspect is that the top of the collar is made with 6 rings linking to 1. This section is supposed to be more dense and stiff. Sometime it is even to the extend that the mail is standing up. Usually this is achieved with more dense rings. Here the it is done with rings of comparable size yet in 6in1 pattern.

The top of that section is crowned by small riveted latten rings. It appeals to the eye and furthermore the smaller sized rings make the edge look more trimmed and less saggy. There are also the remains of an iron clasp that was used to close the top of the collar.

While the upper section is made with riveted rings only, the lower section is made of riveted and solid rings. According to the museum decription, these solid rings are said to be welded. The mail was found at London Wall near Moorgate Street.

This is part of the British Museum. It is known as Museum Number 1856,0701.2244 respectively
Asset number 140789001 in the online collection. If you have read until here, you are a real chainmail nerd. 🙂 You should follow @philparkesmaille who is currently building a comparable mail garment.

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