Research on a fine medieval German mail shirt.

Swordfish · 25th February 2012, 12:10 PM

Some time ago I visited a collecting colleague in Austria. He showed me a fragment of a mail shirt with probably the smallest riveted rings ever manufactured, with even more rings than the shirt in the aforementioned post, which is constructed of c. 140.000 rings. I was able to examine the shirt, and took a close up photo of some rings.
The diameter of the rings is c. 4-4.5 mm, the wire diameter is only 0.6 mm. The rivet is incredibly small. An area of 2*2 cm contains about 7*7=49 rings, compared with c.36 rings of the aforementioned shirt. Therefore a shirt with the same surface must be constructed of c.190.000 rings, all riveted! I have never seen a mail shirt with smaller rings.

25th February 2012, 12:10 PM	#13
Swordfish Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 129	Smallest riveted rings ever manufactured? Some time ago I visited a collecting colleague in Austria. He showed me a fragment of a mail shirt with probably the smallest riveted rings ever manufactured, with even more rings than the shirt in the aforementioned post, which is constructed of c. 140.000 rings. I was able to examine the shirt, and took a close up photo of some rings. The diameter of the rings is c. 4-4.5 mm, the wire diameter is only 0.6 mm. The rivet is incredibly small. An area of 22 cm contains about 77=49 rings, compared with c.36 rings of the aforementioned shirt. Therefore a shirt with the same surface must be constructed of c.190.000 rings, all riveted! I have never seen a mail shirt with smaller rings. Attached Images