Roman Body Armour by H & J Travis

[Nathan Beal]

There are known examples of these from medieval contexts & in the modern-day butcher’s protective gloves, so continuity of tradition may support the earlier use. It would therefore be remiss to not consider the possibility of its existence.

Can you provide a citation for the examples of medieval butted mail you are thinking of, i'm not aware of any (that have not later been shown to be welded or riveted once x-rayed).

The only exampes of Modern butchers mail i'm aware of is made of welded links, the 'links' are formed under such tension that if they are cut they tend to straighten instanty (they are not coil wound). Might you be able to indicate the manufacturer of the material you were using as a comparator.

The section on reconstruction describes the production of rivetted mail (p 81,82,85). The diagrams showing how the links are formed uses schematic ring shapes, without rivet holes and rivets which would make the diagram less clear.

Unless i missed it somewhere i'm not seeing any detail on the riveting process you employed, might you be able to expand further on that here? Genuinely interested in how others are reproducing mail form this period so was disappointed in not seeing that and the tools created for it in detail.

N.