Electro rust removal on mail armor.

[Battara]

W W!

That's crazy!

[Shakethetrees]

There almost certainly had to be some type of die involved. The links are too perfectly round when compared to the riveted links. The edges appear to be perfectly square with the surface.

The consistent heat control and applied pressure during the welding process imply there could be a "trick" that we're overlooking.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Shakethetrees

There almost certainly had to be some type of die involved. The links are too perfectly round when compared to the riveted links. The edges appear to be perfectly square with the surface.

The consistent heat control and applied pressure during the welding process imply there could be a "trick" that we're overlooking.

No doubt we are missing something in the production of this type of mail. To make thousands of uniform links I would imagine that some sort of form was used to hold the wire in place after it was heated enough to bend into shape, then it had to be welded in to one piece, amazing workmanship.

Here is a 17th century theta link mail and plate shirt, you can imaging how long it took to construct something like this from start to finish.

[estcrh]

I may as well include some images of standard Indo-Persian mail, which as I said before is usually constructed with alternating rows of solid links and round riveted links. Several types are easily recognized such as Indian mail and Ottoman mail. Below are some examples, the first is a 17th centur,y mail shirt detail, you can see the round riveted links and the very distinctive solid links which appear to be made from strips of welded metal and not wire, the red arrow shows delamination of the weld on a solid link.

Next is 16th century Ottoman cuirass, metal plates connected with a very distinctive mail, you can see the round riveted links and the solid links which instead of being round have the appearance of being faceted due to having flat areas on the outside of the links, I am not sure exactly how these Ottoman solid links were made but it is very recognizable.

The third example is Indian mail but if you look at the links they appear to have been swaged / shaped in some way and are beautifully formed, they were not made from round wire as with most Indian riveted links. This is another example of a very time consumming process. I would have to assume that this type of mail was thought to be stronger then round wire links, I would also guess that this would have been much more expensive than the standard mail.

[Helleri]

Ah okay thanks for that. Also...One thing I have notice in images is that most wedge riveted I see is used on flattened rings. Whereas most round riveted is used on substantially thicker and usually round rings. Is this just confirmation bias or is this normal? and if normal is there a reasoning we know of behind it?

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Helleri

Ah okay thanks for that. Also...One thing I have notice in images is that most wedge riveted I see is used on flattened rings. Whereas most round riveted is used on substantially thicker and usually round rings. Is this just confirmation bias or is this normal? and if normal is there a reasoning we know of behind it?

In Europe wedge riveted mail could be round links or flattened, I think it depended on the time period and region of origin etc. below is an example of European round link, wedge riveted mail, you can actually see a wedge shaped rivet in which the rivet head was not peened properly causing the link to fail.

As for round riveted mail some links are thick, some are actually quite slender. I think that the use of the armor had a lot to do with how thick the mail was. A mail shirt made for light calvery would have been made from lighter links than a mail shirt made for someone who would be in heavy hand to hand fighting, just my opinion. Some Indo-Persian round riveted mail is made from flattened links as well as round links, there is a lot of variation. I have two pinterest links here one for European mail and one for Indo-Persian mail, you can see a huge variety of mail types with some good detailed images.

https://www.pinterest.com/worldantiq...an-mail-armor/
https://www.pinterest.com/worldantiq...an-mail-armor/

[Helleri]

Thanks. This will be helpful for if I ever manage to get setup again.