Black Chain Mail Coif - Riveted & Alternate Solid Rings

This chain mail coif is made from thousands of steel rings. Half the rings are all riveted closed and the other half are solid rings. Cheaper unriveted chain mail coifs (around one quarter of the price) are called "butted"; there are three major drawbacks with butted mail: firstly, it is historically inaccurate. In Europe, chain mail was always riveted. Butted mail existed only in a few parts of Asia. Secondly, butted mail falls apart: the rings can be bent and come uncoupled if you don't take care with the garment. Thirdly, unriveted links can be penetrated when the point of a blade is thrust into them - so if you are engaged in any theatrical swashbuckling, re-enactment or other shenanigans, riveted mail is safer.

For authenticity and durability - buy riveted!

9mm 18g / 2.675 kg.

This type of armour is often associated with the early Middle Ages, but in fact it had been in use in Europe for a thousand years prior to that era, and indeed its military use even outlived the medieval period and to a limited extent continued into the Renaissance.  For example, the brass memorial of Sir W. Molineux from 1548, shows him wearing chain mail, or the sleeved hauberk in the Dresden Museum which was worn without plate defences for the arms by Herzog August at the Battle of Miihlberg in 1546.

The general transition from chain mail to plate,  we can trace as a gradual process. In the history of armour, chain mail never became entirely replaced with plate until about 1600. Initially, small bits of steel were added here and there to chain mail; firstly on the chest, then on the knees and gradually the famous “suit of armour” evolved.  But  in truth, the convenience of wearing chain mail was too apparent, and it seems to have held its own against further innovations.

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