The Armour Archive

OK, making an aventail to go with an SCA helmet. I want to make a butted aventail for now, to be replaced by a riveted one I will be working on. I don't wanna' make the rings out of shear laziness. I've made my own rings for years, and am just tired of it.

That said, I never counted the rings I made, just made a bunch and used 'em then made more if I needed 'em. So I am thinking of buying some 14 ga. butted alum rings from TRL. I will be basically making a coif without a top dome (attached at the brow line from about ear around the back to the other ear via vervelles) and with a wide mantle. Not over the shoulders mantle, but over the collar bones.

So, using 14ga Etched Alum (AE1438 on TRL), 3/8" ID rings at 1520/lb, what's a good ROUGH estimate of how many rings I should need?

hi i have done some simple calculations assuming a link inner diameter of 6mm and i think you may need around 10 000 links

This was based on a temple to shoulder height of 260 mm, a circumference around the head at the chin of 500 mm, a measurement around the head level with the eyes from eye to eye of 444mm and a diameter of the mantle section which rests on your shoulders of 460 mm

I actually calculated 7532 links to be needed based on splitting the aventail into three basic shapes but its always better to have a safety margin depending on what the exact design will measure.

Hope this gives you a better idea, and good luck with the aventail.

Luke

Thanks! I allready bought 7000 rings @ 5/16" ID and if that's not enough I'll buy a few more!