The Armour Archive

Steve S.

I had some COP plates cut out by http://www.impulsemfg.com

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

"this may sound like a dumb question, but how do you make a hauberk of welded mail?" In period, solid rings were used in maille by winding a coil of wire, heating it to welding temperature, and, using flux and pressure, causing the coil to weld into a continuous ring of wrought iron. This is often ...

Steve S.

Looks good, and looks like a good deal. Might consider adding a bit more drape to it, and perhaps a picture of it being worn.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Our riveted shirts are 18GA, 3/8" ID and contain nearly 25,000 rings:

[img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/shirts/hauberk5.jpg[/img]

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Where can I get that cool Conan The Barbarian MP3 that plays on the site? And how can I make it play on mine?

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Water wings and an eye-patch!

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Most medieval maille was made of wrought iron. This is essentially pure iron with varying amounts of slag (silicates) in it. Some maille was made of steel (iron with carbon added), but most was just plain wrought iron. There is no real modern substitute that is the same as wrought iron, but low carb...

Steve S.

The tongs are sold. We carry unblemished ones, though...

http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/doityourself_supplies.htm

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

"A friend of mine has seen (I believe in Poland) fake riveted mail." Mr. Mart Shearer sent me such a "faux-riveted" ring once. I did an essay on it. You can see it (with pictures) here: http://www.forth-armoury.com/research/Faux_Riveted_Ring/Faux_Riveted_Ring.htm Steve ------------------ Forth Armo...

Steve S.

No armour is impervious to damage, and you have to remember that even if 99.9% of the rings of a 25,000 ring shirt survive, that means 25 rings won't. That said, my testing seems to indicate that riveted maille, at least with the techniques we are using, is quite strong. You can see one of my earlie...

Steve S.

Generally speaking, butted maille was not used in the construction of maille for so long as maille was truly a functional armour. Once it became relegated to "parade" armour, butted maille was used. It is possible, in fact I consider it likely, that butted maille was used at the very beginning disco...

Steve S.

I botched a set of rivet-setting tongs last night. They are fine, except I broke a drill bit off in the rivet-driving hole used by left-handed people. They are otherwise just fine. [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/closeout/tong1.jpg[/img] I'll let them go for $10 - normally they go ...

Steve S.

Wow, the execution of the basinet looks flawless to me. I love the brasswork, too! The visor looks technically great, but to my tastes I don't like it very much! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif I'm just not a big fan of that visor style, I guess. Though the more I look at it it kinda grow...

Steve S.

All orders from the last week have shipped. Check your emails for UPS tracking numbers.

Steve

Forth Armouy - We deliver it fast!
http://www.forth-armoury.com

Steve S.

"How is the mass of your maille? There have been discussions on this board about coif/aventail mass and its benefits regarding head movement and solid neck protection. Any idea how protective an aventail of your maille would be for SCA or live steel combat? IYO, would I still need rigid protection ...

Steve S.

While I do count the rings by weighing, it's not your ordinary bathroom scale I'm using - I'm using an extremely accurate and calibrated scientific counting scale, manufactured by A&D, to do the counting. I don't pretend to know all the gorey details about how it computes error (I mean, you can even...

Steve S.

Here are some ring counts:

aventail: 4945 +/- 33 rings
coif: 5675 +/- 38 rings

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Unless you have wire that is soft enough to work through the flattening and punching operations without normalizing the rings, you will have to normalize them, which means heating them to red heat or higher. This will burn off any coatings. Steve ------------------ Forth Armoury The Riveted Maille W...

Steve S.

One of the most knowledgeable people in the world on maille coatings is Erik Schmid: http://www.erikdschmid.com/

You might want to ask him.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

"In your article you said you used a 3/16 drill rod. Isn't that really wide? I can't seem to figure out how to drill through without coming out on one side. How did you do it?" Here's what I did. I drilled all the way through one jaw and part way into the other with a 3/16" bit. This gives you a th...

Steve S.

We are having a close-out sale on our pre-cut, pre-overlapped rings. Since we now carry read-to-rivet rings, we no longer need these. [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/closeout/bucket-o-rings.jpg[/img] See: http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/closeout/close-out.htm for full ...

Steve S.

Now also available - Starter Kits! Everything you need, tongs, rings, rivets, to get started maiking riveted maille today! [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/starter_kit/starter_kit.jpg[/img] http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/doityourself_supplies.htm Steve ----------------...

Steve S.

No doubt there are tons of washer makers out there, pick one who's close (eliminate shipping) and cheap. We now have rivet setting tongs for sale, too! You can even buy a "starter kit" - everything you need to get started making riveted maille. http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/doityourse...

Steve S.

Or better yet, buy rings that really look like riveted maille rings! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif Forth Armoury now offers ready-to-rivet rings, rivets, and tongs - everything you need to make very authentic looking European wedge riveted maille. Our rings sell for $.026 each, and our ...

Steve S.

Oh - ring count. I have to put them on the counting scales to find out for sure, but the coif I made out of identical rings here: http://www.forth-armoury.com/Commissions/coif1/coif1_16MAY2001.JPG has 4093 rings in it. So I'd guess this one: [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/coifs/co...

Steve S.

Lots 'o questions. Not easy to reply - I've got a bummed-up finger - was dog sitting last weekdend for my Dad and the damn thing bit my birdie finger - broke it, too! Not bad though. Anyway, lessee - 5/16 rings. I'm goint to explore this after we have fully ramped up production and inventory on the ...

Steve S.

"I only need half a skirt, it will hang off the back."

No problem. We can do sheet stuff easily. Our finished products run about $.025 a ring.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

Otter: We have skirts in-stock and ready to ship. Gussets or other sheets of maille can also be done. Sebastion: They are identical in size to the page you referenced. These are fully flattened, 18GA 3/8" ID rings riveted with wedge rivets. They end up being about 1/32" thick. At this time we only o...

Steve S.

Hi folks! Forth Armoury is pleased to announce a new selection of riveted maille products! Based on customer feedback, our new haubergeons have a smaller neck-hole, and it is biased forward on the shirt as it is on clothing, thus providing a much better fit. I'm not aware of any other commercially a...

Steve S.

Verminaard: "As soon as you offer a rivet setting tool, You will have my 2nd favorite site on the net! Are the rings you offer punched?" Yes, our ready-to-rivet rings are pierced and ready to recieve the wedge rivet. They are truly "ready-to-rivet"! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif Rivet s...

Steve S.

50,000 rivets (oh thank you thank you GOD! http://www.armourarchive.org/ubb/smile.gif ): [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/loose_rivets/lots-o-rivets.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.forth-armoury.com/Product_Catalog/loose_rivets/rivets.jpg[/img] Steve ------------------ Forth Armoury The R...

Steve S.

I am going to post this in "Classifieds", too, but I'm so stoked about this I'm posting it in "Armour" as well. I've received my latest shipment of riveted maille from my manufacturer. It is truly amazing! They really have the rivet-setting technique down pat. The quality is great! Also, I had them ...

Steve S.

Be aware, Vincent, at those prices and product you are competing with the Indian market and labor rates. If you live in an industrialized country, you can probably make better money for your time at Burger King.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

That's awesome stuff, Bascot! It would be a great photo-essay, some day, if you documented the entire process, from wood, to finish.

Looks great!

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Steve S.

I had a friend try out the Rennaissance Wax, and he wasn't impressed at all.

Steve

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Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

Close-out items from Forth Armoury

pre-overlapped, pre-cut rings for sale

New riveted maille offerings from Forth Armoury!

New riveted maille offerings!