The Armour Archive

I just purchased the last mail shirt that Historic Enterprises had in stock at a discount, having mis-read the listing and thought it was a size small: 44" actual chest measurement for a 40" chest. However, it turned out to be a medium, 50" to fit a 44" chest. The actual stats as cut-and-pasted from the web page are:

One Haubergeon available, as of 12/18/2012
44" chest circumference, 33" long" 10" sleeve, 19 lbs.
No hem slit.
Oiled steel finish (not burnished).

If anyone has a shirt that is closer to the first set of measurements than the second and wants to move up a size, I would be interested in a trade, possibly with a small payment changing hands as well if the difference in retail value is significant. I paid about $560 for mine with tax and shipping. I am ONLY interesting in trading for one of identical or near-identical construction: flat wedge-riveted 9mm mild rings. No pin-rivets, no welded, no stainless, please.

If there are no takers by the weekend, I will degrease the thing and start tailoring it down to size.

Klaus

Bump.

I'll trade you a weightless, invisible hauberk for your haubergeon. Think of it as the Emperor's new armor.

Heh. Loads of documentable instances of that, I bet.

I expect that if you wanted to end up with a really properly fitted shirt and you don't like assembling mail, you have about the right starting point now. Carve away the bits that you don't need from the right places, not just whacked out arbitrarily and it could do very nicely.

Now back to invisible trades....

Wade

I've been patching and piecing another shirt for some time- I'm not very happy with it, but I've learned a thing or two. One approach I tried with the old one that I plan to repeat with the new is to remove a strip down the front to reduce the circumference asymmetrically, and turn it into a front-opening shirt with buckles. Semi-fitted coats such as those found at Herjolfsnes have wider backs than fronts and armholes that are cheated slightly forward- if it works in wool, why not mail?

Klaus the Red wrote:I've been patching and piecing another shirt for some time- I'm not very happy with it, but I've learned a thing or two. One approach I tried with the old one that I plan to repeat with the new is to remove a strip down the front to reduce the circumference asymmetrically, and turn it into a front-opening shirt with buckles. Semi-fitted coats such as those found at Herjolfsnes have wider backs than fronts and armholes that are cheated slightly forward- if it works in wool, why not mail?

I would probably start there with that, but then do some fitting in the back too so that it actually fits. This shows the expansion/contractions in my short shirt:

http://www.allenantiques.com/M-14.html

The result is a lot more room over the shoulder blades and the front would be narrower than the back. If it had a real skirt, I expect there would be some flair back out there.

I did that kind of fitting to both of the shirts I built for the kid.

Wade

Tasty food for thought, thanks. I'll see how the shirt moves with me after I do the basic alteration before deciding where to go next- I will probably want to field it first and then start doing expansions/contractions/gussets at some future point, lest it stay in the shop forever.