Cleaning mail.

[Stuart Ivinson]

Hi Folks,

I have just bought a 2nd hand riveted mail shirt, it's in fine condition and has a bit of oil on it to keep it from rusting.

I used to wear an oiled shirt many years ago and all my soft kit ended up stinking of the stuff and filthy. As I am now much older and vainer, I do not want my nice new off-white Roman tunic (just made it) to end up black with oil.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to completely de-oil the shirt before I begin wearing it?

Thanks for your suggestions,

Stu.

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!

Well, you'll definitely want a subarmalis of some sort in any case, if only to keep the grime off your tunic. But even so, yeah, putting on a dirty mailshirt will be a dirty process! There are regular degreaser products out there that will probably work, basically just hose it down with that, rinse, and spend a while with some towels rubbing it dry.

Some folks use the old sand-in-a-barrel trick, and I've done that to remove some rust patches, but I ended up with a rather filthy shirt of mail that did indeed leave my clothes gray for a few years. (Now it's all shiny again!)

Unless you get really harsh with it, you'll probably still have a little oil residue on it, which will help keep rust away. But that will also still leave marks, so definitely make a subarmalis! It can be as simple as an old tunic narrowed down a little and trimmed to length, but you'll want at least some shoulder padding, too. Your new tunic will thank you!

Matthew