material for lorica hamata

[Lucius Rabirius]

I want to create my own lorica hamata. So now I want to know, where can I buy the best and cheapest material.

Has someone experience with this and can advise me a good market or store. Internet- stores would be best but also normal markets. I´m from Bonn, Germany - so it should not be too far away like USA or something like that.

Thank you very much for helping me. Kindest regards,
Robinson

[caiusbeerquitius]

A riveted one or a butted one?

[jvrjenivs]

And want you make the rings yourself or not? Other information to take into your mind is the diameter of the rings you want to use.

[Lucius Rabirius]

Sorry, i forgot to say. Mea culpa! :oops:

So, i don´t want to make the rings by myself and I want to use 8- 10 mm rings. I´m not very sure, maybe 10 mm would be best. But I don´t know exactly, it´s my first try. Maybe you can help and tell me, whats best?

[Marcus Mummius]

The most important question is: do you want authentic Roman mail or is authenticity not important?

[Lucius Rabirius]

Authentic is of course better, but also not so authentic mail could do it.

I had one thought, maybe you can tell your opinion: If I use mails just made of iron for a caesarian hamata, its more authentic then tinned as I know. But the iron- hamata will rust very soon. This happens not so early with tinned mails, which are not so authentic but nobody will see it later because the tin will get attrited.
Maybe its better to use mails with tin because I cant wear a hamata every day as a roman soldier, even if I wanted to . Roman legionairs weared the hamata like every day so the rust will be attrited automatically (Junckelmann also describes it, I think) but I think its not that bad to use tin for reenactment, sooner or later the difference will not be seen, as I think.

What are your opinions? How did you do it?

[jvrjenivs]

A long time ago I started to make one from scratch. So I started with 1 mm brass threath and formed 5mm ID rings from it, which I then put together, in a butted European 4 to 1 pattern.

I think that 4 to 6 mm rings are the best to use, but I'm no hamata expert at all. Even if it's butted I shall go for smaller rings. But yeah, it's a lot more work then.

For 8mm ID I would go for this one:
[url:1xssys6t]http://www.battlemerchant.com/Chain-maille/Loose-Rings-Accessories/1kg-Paket-lose-Kettenringe-unvernietet-ID8mm-Federstahl::2313.html[/url]
if you don't want to make the rings yourself.

They also have other sets (including for making butted mail) but all bigger ID's
[url:1xssys6t]http://www.battlemerchant.com/Chain-maille/Loose-Rings-Accessories:::5_46.html[/url]

[M. Demetrius]

If you buy rings ready made, you should buy at least 10 kilos, and be reasonably sure that the same size wire and diameter will be available in the future in case you run out.

A good test perhaps might be to buy a small package of rings, and link them together. You'll get a better idea that way in case you decide it's too much work (it's a substantial project!) or that it makes your wrists and hands too sore to be reasonable. If you do that, work at least a couple of hours as a test. Safe to estimate that you'll spend a hundred hours at least linking up a whole shirt of hamata. Much longer if you use the riveted links.

[Marcus Mummius]

I would advice using the authentic method and make the shirt with alternating rows of rivetted and full links.

It would be a shame to invest so much time in making a butted shirt that is not authentic... You can buy a butted

Making a correctly patterned shirt is a lot of work though. For the amount of money you can get a decent roman mailshirt these days I would think you can do better things with the hundreds of hours you would need to make one yourself, but that's of course a personal opinion....

Vale,

[Rutilia]

I'd make my own using the alternating rings but I have no way to make punched rings and so far haven't seen a source for them either. Ringlord occasionally, very very occasionally.

As a result I have a fully riveted hamata under way; perhaps not precisely authentic but it is what I can do and I can't afford to purchase one ready made. The wire is not terribly expensive, the time to make it not terribly imposing since I currently have a lot of it and I am fast at knitting maile.

Do what you can; I have found this to be a slow if steady process, getting the kit assembled completely.

Rutilia

[Marcus Mummius]

Perhaps you can ask one of the dealers who stock stuff from DSC for good links to make your own hamata. I'm sure they can get them.

Vale,

[Lucius Rabirius]

So right now (yesterday night :lol: ) I started to work on my hamata. Wish me luck, I feel, I will need it. I post a foto of what I can do on one day. If I can finish successfully, I will post one foto of the ready lorica hamata.

[Matt Lukes]

Very nice- it's certainly an ambitious project. One summer, many years ago, I decided to make a medieval mail coif and I nearly went crazy LOL It was a good experience, but not my cup of tea- it really left me with a respect for mail-makers though.

One other good reason to use alternating solid and rivetted/ butted links is it significantly reduces the amount of work...

[Sutoris]

One summer, many years ago, I decided to make a medieval mail coif and I nearly went crazy LOL

Years ago I had a try to but the fiddling with the small rivets drove me crazy.
So a friend made the coif and I made him a spear head, everybody happy