Gallery - Ironskin

Mail Skirt with triangular fringes Have you come

Mail Skirt with triangular fringes

Have you come across many mail skirts? They seem to be rare - at least rarer than the brayettes from two posts ago.

This skirt is meant to be worn in combination with 15th- to 16th-century plate armor. I made it with inspiration from a German effigy. The fringes here have an edge of brass rings as some mail collars do.

Thank you add @etrenz_113 for developing this project with me!

Pictures: Top right: Effigy of Eberhard IV. the younger inside Stiftskirche Stuttgart, Germany. He died 1419. The effigy as you see it was (re-)made 1576. Photo by Andreas Praefcke on commons_wikimedia. Bottom Right: Detail of a mail collar from the British Museum. Dated 1350. Museum number: 1856,0701.2244. Other pictures: Ironskin.

Stars and Rings - an Ottoman Armor Is it Christma

Stars and Rings - an Ottoman Armor

Is it Christmas yet? No, this is Ottoman Armor - beautifully crafted with silver, gilded decorations and red coral pearls.

The collar is made of extra tiny rings and clad with red velvet. Also, the gauntlets have a leather and silk lining.

Barely noticeable, the chest is tapering with seams from the armpits down. It is 10 inches/25cm wider than the waist. With that, the wearer was able to perform wide arm motions, even horseback archery. Under the mail, a fighter would typically wear a padded cotton garment and talisman-shirt decorated with verses from the Quoran.

The armor is likely from the 17th century Ottoman Empire. The mail-shirt weighs 21 pound/9.5kg and the gauntlets 1.50pound/0.7kg each.

These are objects KP B XVII.373/1 and KP B XVII.373/3 from the Museum Hessen Kassel, online on datenbank.museum-kassel.de and here @museum_kassel. Pictures by the museum. Thank you for allowing us to use them here.

Handmade Pin Riveted Mail Can you tell the differ

Handmade Pin Riveted Mail

Can you tell the difference? The left image has half-dome rivet heads protruding. The rivet areas in the right image look flat. This is because the rivets are cone-shaped pins made from a piece of wire cut at an angle.

Similar to wedge riveted mail, the flat side would be worn facing the undergarment. It is more smooth and less likely to rip threads off the fabric.

Work and pictures by Ironskin.

Mail sleeves sewn onto linen, likely 16th century

Mail sleeves sewn onto linen, likely 16th century

Mail sleeves are there to cover the gaps in plate armor. Hence the linen chest part. This is not the only option to keep the mail parts in place, yet it is a very convenient one.

Remarkable is that there is a 90°-direction change in the mail closest to the neck: Perhaps an indication that the sleeved were once cut out of a full mail shirt. Thus the rings could easily be way older. I'm no longer wondering why mail garments of earlier periods are so few.

This item was exhibited in the Castle Museum Linz, Austria. Picture by Robert R. MacPherson originally posted on armourarchive_org.

Mail-Armor of Leopold III, Duke of Austria This a

Mail-Armor of Leopold III, Duke of Austria

This armor was supposedly worn by the duke of Austria while he was trying to secure his influence in Switzerland. He died 1386 in the battle of Sempach, fighting against the old Swiss confederacy.

About the seals: First thing that meets the eye is the big brass plate with an Austrian Coat of Arms in red and silver. To the right of it, there is a small brass seal that reveals the origin of the armor. It has the Coat of Arms of the city of Nuremberg with an inscription: "STAT NVRMBERG" (City of Nuremberg).

About the construction:
The mail armor has a slit that reaches from the left armpit all the way down. It facilitates putting on the armor and can be closed with four buckles. Around the neck, there is a 4cm high collar that is manufactured twice as strong. The weight of the mail armor is 9kg. It is 77cm to 82cm high and 158cm wide.

About the rings: The rings are generally riveted & solid iron rings. Yet there but is a patch of riveted only weave in the back. The riveted rings are 4.7mm in inner diameter and 0.5mm strong. The solid rings are 3.8mm in diameter and 1.0 mm strong. Around the wrists, there are cuffs with 30 rows of brass rings. Similar rings are at the bottom hem. These brass rings were once gilded. On the left side, you can see all 30 rows. In the middle of the front, some brass rings are missing.

About the provenance: Inventory lists confirm the history of the armor back until 1629 and with less certainty to 1490. Chronicles say that Leopold III also had left behind a coat of arms. The textile found its way into a Dominican monastery where it was used as a chasuble - a religious clothing - until the monastery burned down in 1575.

The armor is housed at the Historic Museum Luzern, Switzerland. Picture and info from Verein Freunde des Historischen Museums Luzern respectively Josef Brülisauer.

Bascinets with suspended nasal parts: Likely you

Bascinets with suspended nasal parts:

Likely you see the chin and you intuitively think: Does this part connect to the top? Yes, it does. This part is called bretache. And this style was widespread around Germany and Italy from 1340 to the 1370s. There were mail and plate versions of the bretache.

The helmet usually is a bascinet type. The nasal part was folded up from the aventail at the chin and hooked to 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 before close-combat for more vision and better breathing - leaving the fighter protected by the bascinet with attached mail-part (aventail).

What do you think about the cross-shaped-clasp? Does it work like a hook or does it fit perfectly and rely on friction?

Sources: To the left: Relief from the Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy. Dated 1350-1370. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto via commons_wikimedia. Top right: Effigy of Berthold V von Zahringen from the city museum of Freiburg, Germany. Dated 1354. Picture by themcs_org. Bottom right: Painting from Klosterneuburg, Austria. Dated 1335-1340. Picture by Institut für Realienkunde. imareal_sbg_ac_at

Buckles, straps and hooks Means of closing mail i

Buckles, straps and hooks

Means of closing mail is a topic that I tended to neglect for long. In addition to my experiments in the picture, there are also fibulas and brooches that can be closed with a pin. Hooks and laces can be connected to the mail itself or to bigger extra rings or chains.

It's hard to point out which means are appropriate for which time period. Many of these helpers are riveted onto mail as if it was plate or leather. Sometimes these rivets are the only trace left.

Work and picture by Ironskin. It's a test piece. It won't stay like that. Hence the missing rivets in the mail.

Fine mailshirt, possibly German 1500 This mail sh

Fine mailshirt, possibly German 1500

This mail shirt was sold for 10.000 Euro at a German auction back in 2010. It is 85cm long and weighs 10.1kg. The wire of the rings is more oval than round with 0.9mm respectivel 1.2mm wire crossections. Calculating with the weight of single rings there must be about 47.000 rings in the shirt.

There is a point that small rings like these serve better for celebration and representary purpose than fighting. That is because thinner wire can get deformed more easily on the field. Bigger rings with stronger wire are more sturdy regarding the daily wear and tear.

Pictures and info by Swordfish on vikingsword_com forum. This apparently German user used to be the owner of the shirt and has an imense knowledge of arms and armor. I'd be super happy to reach out if somebody can help me establish contact.

Find vs. Modern Chainmail I didn't even have the

Find vs. Modern Chainmail

I didn't even have the intention to reconstruct this specific piece. Yet recently I had the occasion to photograph one of my handmade meshes next to an original belonging to @antikhd. Both rings are of approximately 4.5 mm inner diameter.

There is no context or other facts known about the original. It can be noted however, that meshes of very small rings were especially common during the Roman period and again in late medieval times. During the latter, they served as extra dense meshes for more vulnerable body parts like the throat and neck.

Thank you, Heiko from @antikhd for dropping by and having a long chainmail nerdtalk with me. Picture by Ironskin.

A 15th-century mail collar from Germany... ... an

A 15th-century mail collar from Germany...

... and a perfect opportunity for a shootout to @philparkesmaille. He is reconstructing comparable mail pieces very accurately and passionately and he is just about to start a new project.

The upstanding collar is remarkably dense. It looks like a 6in1 weave to me. There is also a top row of tiny brass rings. It is a common trick to have smaller rings at the edges. they help to keep the mail tight. Without them, the brim tends to be more loose than intended.

Picture as posted by @arm_the_armour on tumblr_com. (Also well worth following them.) Originally from konradsherlock_com.

Mail Cape - Museum Piece and Period Print Here is

Mail Cape - Museum Piece and Period Print

Here is the mail cape from the Art Institute of Chicago. It must likely have been made in Germany between the years 1520 and 1570. The horseman is from 1578. He was carved into wood and then printed onto paper.

The cape is expanding downwards with built-in wedge shapes. They start at shoulder height at the side, and at mid-chest in the front. The neck has a more dense weave. Yet these rings are still linked in 4in1-pattern as the rest of the piece. They are just smaller and relatively speaking stronger in their crosssection. All rings are riveted - as far as we can judge by the picture.

There is a thin hem of brass rings at the top and a broad one at the bottom. It seems as if two lines of this hem have been cut out. It could also be there was a wedge of mail inserted to the front that had fewer lines of brass rings, to begin with.

Pictures: Top right: From the book "Kunst- und Lehrbüchlein" by J. Amman, 1578, now held by the library "Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel", Museum Nr. 23.2.1 Geom. (140). All other pictures: Art Institute of Chicago: Reference Nr 1982.3029.

Mail skirt with brass fringes Hi Ryan, this is yo

Mail skirt with brass fringes

Hi Ryan, this is yours: Inspired by an effigy from Swine, England, this skirt has a hem with small decorative fringes. We interpreted them as 8mm brass rings. The effigy dates from 1400 to 1410.

I made the interpreted skirt expand downwards with five gores. It is closed on the back, where the sides are overlapping. The top row of the rings is held by a leather band that can be tied around the hips.

A coat of arms is covering most of the mail-skirt on this and other effigies. The original mail skirts seem to be quite short. There are a few extant pieces and some of them even indicate a connection between the legs. There seems to be a smooth transition to brayettes. Brayettes can be imagined as mail-diapers if you want.

Silver-coated mail shirt - 10th to 11th century T

Silver-coated mail shirt - 10th to 11th century

These are brass rings that are covered in silver. How was that possible? Silver can be solved in a paste/solution of mercury amalgam. This mixture is then applied to the surface of the rings and later heated to form a permanent solid layer.

How do we know that? Researchers of NAIM in Sofia did an EDX chemical composition analysis. They found Copper and Zinc from the brass wire and silver from the coating. Furthermore there were traces of Mercury from the coating process.

The garment weighs 4,2 kg in total. The rings are of varying strength ranging from 4mm to 5mm inner diameter with wire crosssections from 0.5mm to 1mm. The rings on the torso front are stronger than the back and the sleeves.

The mail was presumably of Byzantine origin worn by Byzantine or Bulgarian fighter. It was found in the early 20th century in an area with traces from a 10th – 12th century settlement. There were also Rus military groups in the Balkans from 968 to 971 that could have been connected with the shirt.

Picture and info from the paper "Tsar Samuil in battle for Bulgaria" by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Archeology. Thank you @epochentrotter for making me aware of this.

Make your own Mail Coif: Many of you were asking

Make your own Mail Coif:

Many of you were asking for a way to construct the iconic coifs known from medieval manuscripts. So I thought of an easy way for you to build this design yourself: It is a kit of preshaped mail parts, loose rings, and leather laces.

The mail parts are marked with colorful marker rings. So you always know your position. A detailed manual guides you through every step with more than 80 pictures. You learn to do cuts and seams and expansions - all valuable techniques for other mail projects.

Get the kit on --> ironskin.com

Thank you to everyone who showed interest in advance. You guys really brought this alive! Special thanks to @walofdeath for pretesting and to @roelipilami for helping with images of originals.

Scales/Lames in times of plate? A cuirass is usua

Scales/Lames in times of plate?

A cuirass is usually an armor part that covers the torso with a solid front and backplate. This piece however is made by a lamellar construction. That is perhaps to make it look more archaic or impressive.

Even though it does look like scales, I think these are better referred to as lames, because they are directly riveted together and don't rely on a cloth or leather backing to connect everything.

Picture and info by Peashooter85 on Tumblr. The origin and provenience of this armor is unclear. I read that it would be 15th-century, yet commenters also pointed towards 17th and 19th century. Thank you guys for the valuable discussion! 👍

Brayettes - mail armor for between the legs: What

Brayettes - mail armor for between the legs:

What looks weird in our modern eyes was once much en vogue. Following civilian fashion, renaissance armor did include a so-called codpiece or brayette to cover the groin. It could be either plate or mail. This was an intentional fashion statement for male potency. Some of the civilian textile versions even had the genital part highlighted in color.

The upper half of the first picture is showing a grave plate from about 1500. Some of these brayettes on grave plates have been chiseled off later in history.

The lower half shows an actual 16th-century brayette. The riveted and solid rings have varying dimensions with inner diameters from 6.5 to 7.9mm. The entire piece weighs 3.2kg.

Who of your friends would be looking good in one of these? Tag them! 😀

Upper picture by Dr. Volkmar Rudolf/Tilman from Römhild church, Germany. Shared via commons_wikimedia. Other pictures: Met-Museum: Accession Nr. 27.183.14.

For some of you, this is just a fun side project.

For some of you, this is just a fun side project. For others it is an opportunity to learn about mail tailoring:

This egg has a vertical seam right in the center of the image. It is not just an ordinary expansion of the mail pattern - no, all rings hold 4 other rings. You find this at historic mail-collars and bishop-mantles. Do you have suggestions on how we can name this seam? Please let me know in the comments. We can vote for the best name by liking the comment.

Actually, I have a (temporary) name for this, but I'm not telling it in order to not spoil your creativity. You find more about this and other seams in the "Connecting-Seams"-chapter on my website ironskin_com.

Thank you guys for being around all year and contributing with your many thoughts and suggestions! This would be empty without you. Happy Holidays!

Special credits to @puddlejumper_22 who already had the idea of covering eggs in chainmail last year. Picture: Ironskin.

Full hauberk with side ventail ... wait a minute..

Full hauberk with side ventail ... wait a minute...

This is one of the models for a new mod of the popular medieval/fantasy- game Mount and Blade Bannerlord. That mod is called "In the Name of Jerusalem II" and it's created by a bunch of game designers by the name "Team Century". They undertake the noble effort to bring more historical accuracy into the game, supported by the reenactment community.

Now I'm pretty hyped about this and I love the textures and models. There are a few things I would do differently, but I don't want to spoil the great job lamenting about the details. This is the time to check what you have learned about mail: Do you see what I might want to improve?

Picture by Ellis Chou, originally shared in the Facebook Group "XI & XII Century European Armor". Link to the mod:
www_moddb_com/mods/in-the-name-of-jerusalem-ii

6mm mail shirt with tight sleeves Sleeves bring o

6mm mail shirt with tight sleeves

Sleeves bring one major challenge: A person's wrist is bigger than the lower arm - yet the sleeve has to fit both. So in order to achieve a super tight fit, I opted for a cut closed by a leather lace.

This is my recent commission work. It has a standing collar as well as some adjustments to the shoulders, arms, and waist. With 10,5kg weight, it is rather heavy for a mail shirt. But the 6mm flat rings make it feel very smooth and dense. I wish I could keep it. :)

Throwback to 2018 with a ring from that time When

Throwback to 2018 with a ring from that time

When I made my first post here, almost three years ago, I had no idea whether anyone would be interested in making chainmail on this platform. My friend @haffner.christian (holding the hammer in the picture) was pretty much the only one to share this passion with. Soon I connected with @ash243m70s, @gandalfwoodyend, @tarvels_trinkets, @fr_aleksver, @immortaldesignsnz, and many more.

For the future, I also aim to put a focus on other mail makers and enthusiasts. So we can grow into a more and more connected community. How was your journey here on Instagram and do you remember when you encountered me?

PS: This is the step of flattening. In my bios/story highlights you find more about making rings.

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