The Armour Archive

Hi all,
I purchased a Von Sussen bascinet a few months ago. It wasn't supposed to come with an aventail according to the Ebay ad, but it did have vervelles and I had intended to attach a decorative one made out of lightly quilted fabric. Well, it came with a butted maille aventail anyway, so I of coúrse left it on and now enjoy the decorative properties an cool factor of the aventail. The problem is the aventail is attached to the helm directly through little holes in the helm itself instead of using the leather strap on the vervelles(it's purely decorative) and a combo of weight and stick shots are opening the links and making them separate from the helm. I know this is a common problem with butted maille and maybe someday when the money fairy visits, I'll buy a riveted avenntail. Until then I need to figure out how to attach my butted aventail so it doesn't disentergrate. I was thinking of making a leather strap wide enough to keep the links from getting whacked against the helm, thus forcing them open, and then using the vervelles to attach the aventail to the helm.
Is there a tutorial online showing how to attach an aventail using vervelles?
Thanks,

Butted mail drapes always disintegrate, I fear.

I think the only solution is regular maintenance and replacement.

http://gildedboar.com/klappvisier/

Click on "Camail" and "Camail Strap" in the header.

He used a riveted camail, which won't pose one problem your butted one will -- you must get a couple of stitches into each link so the links' joins can't slide over the thread and unlink. You've got a fixed grille, too, right? The present attachment method is maybe as good as it can get, as trying some construction of temple triangles and camail at the chin within the bargrill is going to be a pretty dubious and desperate endeavor and a PITA besides.

Once the holes the butted mail used to go into are freed up, you've got a good setup for a quilted lining, and from what I hear of Von Sussen's quality, that would be a good thing to include. Does extending the helmet lining into a camail lining as well do anything to help the butted camail's durability?