Lorica Hamata being pierced by arrows

[Dan Howard]

Precisely. We could perform an experiment. A brave soul like Dan, wearing standard hamata, could stand 25 meters away from an archer with a 100 pound bow (not an uncommon draw-weight in warfare) while he shoots an arrow tipped with a standard bodkin. That's 98 pounds of pressure concentrated in a speeding projectile no larger than 9 mm. But I think the targeted person should say his prayers first.

You haven't seen any modern reconstruction that even remotely resembles Roman mail. If you pay Erik to make a decent replica of something like the Arbeia hamata then I'll gladly stand in front of an arrow.