"...the best of mail coats, that covers my heart,
heirloom of Hrethel, and Waylands work, finest of byrnies".
-"Beowulf"
Since I admittedly know absolutely nothing about mail, I could not resist visiting Oakeshott ("The Archaeology of Weapons") from which this quote was taken, and Robinson ("Oriental Armour"). While not adding anything to the identification here, a note in Oakeshott is interesting on the term 'chain mail'; "...there is no such thing as chain mail or chain armor, any more than there can be such a thing as plate mail", (p.90).
Apparantly the chain mail term is yet another term poetically applied in literature of the 18th century in describing arms and armour, and in actuality is best described as a shirt of interlocked rings, or mail (Lat. macula, Fr. mailles=mesh or net).
As noted in Oakeshott, since this term has been widely used colloquially in description, it is much easier to continue its use, I just thought it was interesting.
From most of what I understand, most Eastern mail, that is Persian, Turkish and Indian, of earlier than the beginning of 19th century was rivetted. The mail produced after that was typically for parade armour, as obviously the rivets would add considerable strength to the mail as a unit. This parade mail was of the 'butted' form.
It seems apparant that many mail type armours remained in use for some time, especially in ethnographic regions such as the Sudan. Robinson (p.63) describes these as becoming severely worn out due to means of replacement or competant repairs in the remote regions of the Caucusus and others including the Sudan. This seems puzzling regarding the Sudan as on p.86 he discusses the continued manufacture of mail in the Sudan and Arkell ("The Making of Mail at Omdurman", A.J.Arkell, Kush, Vol.IV, p.83-85, 1956) notes a discussion with a Sudanese ironworker. The old ironworker was able to produce with no difficulty whatsoever a sample shirt and of the 'old cut', but different rings were used that were butted and not rivetted. This would suggest that the old shirts were most likely Ottoman?
In another interesting reference in Robinson (p.85) it was noted that during the Mahdist conflicts, there were mail shirts produced in Birmingham for the Khedive's 'Iron Men' in Egypts forces sent against the Mahdi's Ansar. These were apparantly of split rings which were so brittle that when they were struck by Sudanese bullets, they shattered and resulted in atrocious wounds. When the warriors gathered items from the fallen, they took the helmets, but left the shirts.
As I gathered information to better understand the nature of mail, how it was constructed and how it might have been maintained as servicable, I could find little on what certainly must have been the dread of every knight and warrior, rust. I found that there was at least some evidence of the use of galvanization in India ("Galvanized Indian Mail", Royal Armouries #5, Bottomley and Stallybraces) but apparantly not in Europe, where zinc was not known as an element until the 17th century. I have not yet read this article, but found the title intriguing. I am puzzled by the note on zinc in Europe also as it is I believe used in production of brass from Roman times.
My question is how was rust inhibited on these coats of mail in early times, and how were they kept servicable if they became rusted?
All best regards,
Jim
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