Description
8mm chainmail sheet wedge riveted solid: A rectangular fabric of iron rings: Half of them are riveted with wedges. Half of them are punched solid rings. Perfect to build your own historical mail shirt.
How big is the sheet? You are getting a sheet of chainmail that is 41 x 137 cm respectively 16 x 54 inches. There are about 9800 rings in the sheet. Half of them are riveted, half solid. It puts 3700g, respectively 8 pounds to the scale. It weighs 10% less than its dome-riveted cousin.
Why wedge riveted rings? pros and cons: On the pro side: It weighs less. The shape is more historically accurate. It’s more pleasant to wear: The inside is smooth and the rings rarely get stuck on each other. On the con side: It makes a difference from which side you insert a ring. And it takes longer to set rivets. But hey, the good thing is that this is already assembled for you!
Is it historically accurate? Most historic chainmail – be it from the Crusades or the 100 Years’ War – shows similar rivets. There is a difference between the back- and front sides of the rings. One side is smooth, the other shows a prominent rivet head. Even the combination of riveted and solid rings exists and dominates early on. For Roman mail and everything before the Dark Ages, however, you are better served with something like this.
What can you use it for? Use this to tailor your own mail garments. Wrap it around your hips and you have a skirt. Combine two of them and you have a tank top. One more sheet and you are covered with long sleeves. This approach is easier to learn than cutting apart a shirt of mail. And it’s faster than assembling mail ring by ring.
How is the quality? Overall the quality is exciting, but we will be open with you here: There are occasional riveted rings with their rivets coming apart. Yet by the nature of the wedge riveted rings, they often still stay together. The solid rings are great. There are only a few that got punched near the edge. These strange rings can be fixed in a short time. The important thing is that the sheet is vastly free of pattern irregularities. So you are saved from confusion. Build your mail projects smoothly!
You may also need a tong for wedge rivets and loose rings.
