A vision of a dream - mail sleeve alterations

[Konstantin the Red]

Keeg, your arms will ease if you throw more columnar expansions into each elbow -- I can see the mail at your elbow is stretched to the max at present. You can get a naked-arm mobility by putting in the expansions. The expansion should begin right about at the distal and medial sides of your elbow joints. Maybe a little tighter in, but we're only talking maybe two linkrows' difference there. Those expansions and the linkrows they start will deliver enough slack to the mail sleeve that it will not bind. What you have inserted into one elbow, immediately cross over and do the same on the other one, so you don't end up lopsided.

Slack and empty, your voider/mail sleeves will look like socks with heels to them if held up so they're hanging down. There will be a distinct bump at elbow level.

TL;DR: puff those sleeve elbows up real good, until you get naked-arm mobility.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Thanks for the advice, Konstantin! My initial impulse was to add a diamond of expansion just above the point of the elbow, along the back of the upper arm; I hadn't considered placing them along the sides as you describe. I'll probably need a combination of both in order to achieve naked-arm mobility. I've gone ahead and marked the planned areas of attack with twist-ties, and hope to work on it this coming week; work had a sudden uptick in project load, and I haven't had the opportunity to pick up pliers, despite it sitting directly next to my desk.

Glad to have you back, by the way. Hope you're feeling better.

[wcallen]

For reference, take a look at a sleeve Mac marked up:
http://www.allenantiques.com/M-16.html
It was one of the two that he patched so that he could map them before he did the work on the sleeves for the Cobwebs thread.
There is a lot of random discussion of the pattern to make them this way.
When I did a bent elbow (a long time ago, long before I had the sleeves) I did put a lot of expansion in. Mine was more symmetric than Mac's mapping.
The close up of the elbow should give you a good idea of how much ends up in there.

Wade

[Keegan Ingrassia]

I still don't like making buckles...but I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.




Probably too flimsy for armor, though...what with that brass tongue. Might have to save these for some other projects, and invest in some steel buckles from Clang...

[Croquart]

really beautiful!

[Otto von Teich]

Fantastic detail! Great Lines!

[Johann ColdIron]

Very sharp work. Wish I could get the hang of wiggle work like that

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Appreciate the compliments, guys.

After a typical amount of stalling on my part, I carved out an hour and added in some additional hole-row/column expansions to the elbows of my mail sleeves...about an extra inch in circumference, in the deepest part. I'll throw them and my aketon on for another test fitting later this week and see if that's enough, or if I need to start adding additional expansions on the distal and medial sides as per earlier advice.



Apologies for the less-than-clear photo; I should have slipped a board behind the sleeve for clarity.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Taking advantage of the extra mail sheet I had lying around from my old haubergeon, I recycled a chunk of it into a mail standard. I still need to add some triangular expansions to the mantle, line/pad the collar, and add the hook and buckles, but this was the first point where I could wrap it around my neck for a picture...without it looking like a boar-hunting dog collar.

The collar and hollow of the throat are 6-1, while the mantle is typical 4-1.





I plan to sew on a leather trim to the top of the neck, as well, or at the very least coil up some smaller AR rings to trap the top edge.

First new armor project I've done in a long time. Felt good.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Quick and dirty analysis of the seams on one of the Met's mail standards.




The buckle and strap are backwards from what I had assumed, so I'm glad I took another look.