Lorica Hamata

[Czear12]

Hey guys I am working in my own lorica hamata and I wanted some input on how I should close the back of it. All suggestions are welcome


And this is just a quick picture of it so far

[arklore70]

Budd,
If I understand your question correctly, you are wanting to know how the back of the hamata closes.

To the best of my knowledge, the hamata wears like a modern t-shirt or tank top and is placed over the head and put on in a similar, although less dignified manner. If you are referring to the doubler, it is a separate piece that can be either attached by additional rings or by 3-4 straps.

This is what I have seen and on my hamata, the doubler is secured by a set of four leather thongs/ties in the back and hamata hooks in the front.

A word of caution, while their have been pieces of roman mail recovered, there has never been a complete shirt recovered that could be properly examined, so we have had to default to sculpture and other depictions of the era.

The mail that you have made looks great and you have way more patience that I have.

[Czear12]

Thanks for the information and thank you for words I started in August but I have been doing it of and on

[Czear12]

I would like to know what you mean by a doubler though I don't have much expertise in Roman equipment

[Sextus Saturninus]

Budd, the doubler is a second layer of chainmail that goes over the shoulders that is shaped like the yoke on a tube and yoke cuirass ( called a spolas by some; linothorax by others ).

[Dan Howard]

Pretty much all armour at the time seems to have been made in the tube and yoke style. Linen (linothorax), leather (spolas), mail, scale, even plate.

[Czear12]

But I'm wondering if I should put leather straps for it or connect it

[Dan Howard]

We don't know how the Romans did it. There are arguments in favour of both methods.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

A word of caution, while their have been pieces of roman mail recovered, there has never been a complete shirt recovered that could be properly examined, so we have had to default to sculpture and other depictions of the era.

That's not entirely true, the only one I know of off the top of my head is the Arbeia shirt, dated to roughly 300 AD. The Roman Hauberk from Leiden is also very complete IIRC, and the Thorsberg ones are too but those shirts are of Germanic origin.

You would be correct in saying that no complete hauberks have been found dating to the Principate, but even then several large chunks of maile, more than enough to know what it looked like and how they did it, have been found.

[Frank Anthony]

Before you make much more progress on this I wanted to add one thing from my observation. Making a mail shirt is a large task and it looks like your wire is a very light gauge, fairly large aspect ratio and butted. It could just be the photos but If I were in your shoes I would probably invest in making it with riveted/solid ring construction. From the looks of your photo, you will have quite a bit of problems once it's finished loosing rings and getting "moth holes".

As someone who has made a butted mail shirt in the past, I can tell you it's not a small project(although one with a great sense of pride when finished). Riveted mail can be bough online for much cheaper then you can make yourself. It holds up well and looks reasonably well although not perfect. If you want something much closer you have to make it yourself and making riveted mail does not take much longer than butted.

What ever you do. Good luck. A finished mail project is a great accomplishment.

[PhilusEstilius]

If I might add to this topic on chain mail there is a faster way to make this stuff by making the mail in strips of three wide then fitting them all together with loose rings after all the strips have been made to their lengths, for what we find is that to work only from one point on a complete sheet of this stuff is to be only putting on two rings at a time where doing strips of three rings is putting three rings on each time with two solid and one loose ring each time then later linking it all up with just loose rings speeds up the job.
I speak from the experience of having made three butted chain mail shirts in three weeks in the past.

[A_Volpe]

http://larp.com/legioxx/hamata.html

[Czear12]

I have finally gotten to the part of my project where I have to now attach the doublings to the main piece, what I'm wondering is how the Hamata hooks and buttons are set into the maile.

Budd

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Its simple: there are riveted. You pass the shaft of the rivet on a ring of the maille, put a washer and "mushroom" it.

[Czear12]

I found some cheap ones would these work or I also found some made by DSC armory



http://gdfb.co.uk/brass-hooks-and-button...1704-p.asp
http://www.armamentaria.com/store/index....cts_id=167