Maille question

Bernhart von Bruck · Post by **Bernhart von Bruck** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 12:55 pm

Greetings!

Ok, I'm planning on adding maille (finally!) to be 14th C. kit. I happen to have a blackened riveted brynie I bought a few years back.

Sorry about the darkness. If you look closely, you can see the bottom, just an inch or so above my knee. (And yes, the Helm is crooked and the BP is sitting low b/c my daughters, God bless them, can't buckle my straps!)

Anyway, two questions: First, think it would be ok to have blackened on the body and legs since I have that beautiful Master Knut aventail in welded stainless?

Second, do I need length off of the bottom or the arms?

Thanks for looking,

Tony

DukeAvery · Post by **DukeAvery** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:49 pm

Greetings,

I'll take a stab at this, although I am not an armoring laurel or otherwise an authenticity specialist.

The two tones of maille clash for me aesthetically. What you do with your sleeves will depend on kind of arm harness you want to go with. I think it will be easier to be a more effective fighter with the maille ending above the elbow and using plate elbows and forearms( which matches the information I have on hand on 14th century armor practices). To be competitive you'll want to watch your overall arm harness weight or fast guys in less armor will be vastly quicker. You should think about what kind of gambeson you'll be using and how that affects the fit of everything.

I'd wager in period they would have used maille underneath the plate used on the arms however. I'm interested to hear what others have to say.

Regards,

Avery

Bernhart von Bruck · Post by **Bernhart von Bruck** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:18 pm

Greetings!

Thank you, your grace. I aprreciate the comments. I do have plate arms as a matte of fact. I am definite going with a lighter gambeson:

I'm worried about the aesthetics of the color clash as well. I just don't want to fork over $1000 for a welded haubergon+chausses. OK, so , I'm cheap.

DukeAvery · Post by **DukeAvery** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:37 pm

You are welcome. Your kit looks good!

You could get a matching aventail, I think all black mail plus stainless plate could look good.

Other minor suggestions for you - see if you can change the finish of your rattan weapon (perhaps with some scoring and staining) to break up the rings. I'm sure there are some experts on that here on the AA somewhere. Consider a torse to break up your grill lines, until the day you upgrade to switchable visors.

Don't make it too thick though (the torse) or it could mess up your calibration.

Keep up the inspiring effort. My kit is old but I've new on order.

I'll post pictures when I am presentable, which will be some months away I'm afraid.

One last thought - I'd worry my plate over maille might chew up the maille too quickly if the edges of the plate in tight spots was not rolled.

Regards,

Avery

DeCalmont · Post by **DeCalmont** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:44 pm

I'm with his Grace as the two tones visually throw it off for me. Obviously you already have it so try it for a bit and see how it works for you. I recall some discussion on darkening stainless on here, you might want to do a search for it. Kit is rocking btw. Keep raising the bar!

Vladimir · Post by **Vladimir** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 4:15 pm

No, you want to be really shiny all over.

Just send that nasty old blackened thing to me and I'll get rid of it for you

Bernhart von Bruck · Post by **Bernhart von Bruck** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 4:25 pm

Chello!

lol, thanks, Vlad. Aradon says "Hi!" (If you're the Vlad I'm thinking of.)

Actually, I hate to keep flooding you with pics. Got the Klappvisor upgrade already from Sir Luther. Is gorgeous. And the bec is stained now. It's leaning in the corner behind me in the first pic.

I'll probably just bite the bullet and buy the welded from Duke (or is it King at the moment?) from Andreas.

zachos · Post by **zachos** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:02 pm

Another thing you could do is just put some lines of stainless maille around the edges of the blackened hauberk, and see how that changes the look. It may tie the two together better without actually having to replace either.

Also, I'd say the arms should come to the elbow so that when the elbow is at a right angle the lower arm is not quite touching the maille. This means that only your shoulders have to lift the maille, and is also typical of late 14th century harnesses. Length wise it should come to about mid thigh. Be aware that the length of arms and torso will get shorter once padding is underneath.

Sigurd of Jorvik · Post by **Sigurd of Jorvik** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:04 pm

Why not sell the welded aventail or put it on another helm and swap it out for some blackened maille aventail? Seems vastly more affordable.

Donald St. Colin · Post by **Donald St. Colin** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:41 pm

Use this on the aventail.

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/black.htm#stainless

Bernhart von Bruck · Post by **Bernhart von Bruck** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:28 pm

Chello!

Thank you, Domnall, I shall check that out.

Vladimir · Post by **Vladimir** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:08 pm

Bernhart von Bruck wrote:
lol, thanks, Vlad. Aradon says "Hi!" (If you're the Vlad I'm thinking of.)
.

Hmm, I don't think so. I don't recall ever meeting you or knowing anyone named Aradon.