The Armour Archive

I was curious of the differences between a round ring hauberk, (either welded or riveted) vs a flat ring hauberk.

I gather the flat ring is more historic, but would it protect better? Differences in weight would be dependant on the gauge of the round ring(and of course the metal used). I would also think the round ring would also be more flexible.

Flat ring may have a smaller diameter, leaving the maille less likely to be pierced by a sword point or arrow head.

Any thoughts? Keeping historical accuracy secondary for the moment, is there much difference between the two? Is either method superior?

I think that with the same cross section, flat rings are less prone to be opened like this O ---> C so I would dare to say that they perform a little better against piercing.
Wire material
wire diameter
ring diameter
heat treatment
I think those are much more important in determining the performance of a maille.

My ballistic tests showed no appreciable performance difference between the two against incoming arrows.

Charles Alexander wrote:I gather the flat ring is more historic

Round rings are used from the Roman era until the end of the use of maille. Flat rings come about in the 13th century.

Each modern reproduction shirt has it plus and minuses. I have a shirt of each; one for Roman reenacting (works for Viking too) and one I use for 14th and 15th century stuff. One is 8mm and the other is 6mm; the biggest thing for me is the ring size when I look at buying maille.

Thank you. This is helpful...

Charles

This may have been before the unnamed...I, I mean the crash..."SHHH" dont repeat that aloud...

but I posted a similar thread about the frequency of round vs flat and in what context....aventail/camail.....bishops mantel....hauberk....regional and century.

As I recall, there were a lot more round rings than we realize. I suspect the sexy trend has been to go with flat rings as a refreshing change (vs round which was the "standard" for butted all these many years) but riveted round was indeed quite common and remains so in the extant context.

I suggest the Armoury of Churburg Castle

You can get a copy at your library...
http://www.amazon.com/armoury-castle-Ch ... B00088DHDQ