Armor: How effective was Chainmail

[Dan Howard]

integrated padded:
When I use my mail, and do (medieval) mock fighting, my padding often ends up "wet" with sweat... and after a weekend of this the mail is red with surface rust on the inside.
(easy to remove with oil and a towel)
If I wear it during the (danish) summer it will happen, even if Iam not doing anything high intensity activity.
And it is only in contact with the padding when Iam actually wearing it.
But if the padding is attached to the mail all the time, will rust not become a serious problem?

Or did they just remove the padding once a month and removed the rust? or?
(please note Iam not saying the theory is wrong, but just asking some practical question based on my experience with unhistorical indian made mail. And that problem might not be present with proper mail that is worn ever day))

Any anyone tested the idea about integrated padded IRL?

I've worn different types of mail with integrated liners. It is more comfortable and easier to don and remove than a separate arming garment. The liner gets dirty and wears out, but so does the cloth on all of the other types of armour that mix metal and cloth such as coats of plates, brigandines, jazerants, gestrons, kazaghands, jack of plates, brigandines, corrazinas, etc. Here is a passage written by Usamah about when he showed Saladin the construction of his kazaghand:

"I pulled out my knife and ripped it at the breast and disclosed the side of the two coats of mail. The kazaghand enclosed a Frankish coat of mail extending to the bottom of it, with another coat of mail on top of it reaching as far as the middle. Both were equipped with the proper linings, felt pads, silk stuffing (al-lasin) and rabbits' hair."

A kazaghand consists of mail that is sandwiched between layers of padding on the inside AND outside. He wouldn't have thought twice about ripping open the cloth. When he finished showing it off to Saladin he would have tossed it to a slave/servant and expected it to be mended by the next day.