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  • Higgins Armory Museum - Virtual Tour: Arms & Armor Around The World

    • Each of the tens of thousands of rings has this decoration, and was hand-riveted to
      its neighbor, time-consuming labor that made this mail shirt a high-status possession.

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    • Great endurance is obviously required to fight

      for long periods in armor, and men-at-arms trained in armor from childhood

      to be able to do so.
    • Mail, brigandine, mail with selected large plates,

      and, in some places, even thick leather were all used, depending on the

      finances of the fighter and the role that he played on the battlefield.

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Works of Art: Arms and Armor

    • Often embellished with precious metals and jewels, the finest examples proclaimed the wearer's or bearer's social status, wealth, and taste.

  • M.A.I.L. :: View topic - time to make hauberk?

    • A 30 lb hauberk, I'm guessing you're using 14g since 16 is a bit lighter, around 20-25 lbs. Still, it's about 100-125 hours for that, and at that rate,

  • M.A.I.L. :: View topic - Average amount of rings


    • You would be making a knee length hauberk. (If you have sleeves)


      Or, a long byrnie, if you have no sleeves.





      ryanakca wrote:



      Also, does 100 seem reasonable to make a shirt?






      You had better not be talking about rings for a shirt... with 1/4" 16GA rings, the biggest thing you could make with 100 rings would be a 1/2" wide bracelet..... if you're lucky.





      I'm thinking you'll need about 5000 rings for one long sleeve, and maybe 2000 for one short sleeve... and maybe 30,000-50,000 rings for the main shirt....





      You may also want to try larger rings.... maybe 3/8" 14GA.... It'll only take about 10,000 for the shirt... Which is good, especially if this is your first big project... If you use those smaller rings for your first project, you'll hate yourself. Smile

  • Alfred the Great and Anglo-Saxon England

    • By 870 the Danes had overthrown the
      kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, and were preparing
      to do the same to Wessex. Standing in their way was a young king of
      Wessex, Alfred by name

  • Regia Anglorum - Welsh Warfare

    • The spear was the principle weapon, but nobles are recorded as owning
      a sword and wearing a mail shirt - presumably kings did so too if they wished
      to be kings for any length of time
    • There are no descriptions of armed peasants in the literature. However,
      as they could certainly be called upon for military service we may assume they
      would have armed themselves with the crudest of weapons: spear and shield, knife,
      wood axe, bow or some agricultural implement. Peasants would probably have travelled
      and fought on foot if they ever found themselves in such a position.

  • Regia Anglorum - Viking Military Organisation

    • The
      crew would have varied from 40 - 60, and in addition to a spear, iron cap (helmet)
      and shield for each member, one mail shirt per ship, and one bow and arrows
      per 6 benches were required.
    • hese figures varied slightly in different countries
      and times but provide a good average guide, although if each crew had say three
      times the number of bows and arrows to mail shirts, then carnage was almost
      always guaranteed. So either there was an expectation that more mail was owned
      by the lithsmen on board or this figure of one shirt is erroneous

  • Regia Anglorum - Ulfbert the Blacksmith



    • Iron was one of the most important commodities in the Viking Age. However, it was in modern terms nearly as expensive as silver is today.

    • Not that this prevented all families however poor, from owning a few items made from iron. These would have been knives for everyday uses, some tools, and another key piece, an axe. Without these, an early medieval family could not have operated. These things would not necessarily have been new or recent either. Many items would have been resurrected by reforging, or converting old and truly past their best hand-me-downs.
    • 5 more annotations...

  • Regia Anglorum - Anglo-Saxon and Viking Crafts - Non-ferrous Metalworking

    • Gold was virtually only ever used for jewellery
    • Straight Tin was sometimes used to coat iron objects (such as helmets)

  • Regia Anglorum - Anglo-Saxon and Viking Crafts - Iron Working

    • In order to make anything the smith first had to obtain his iron. Again, he
      was unlikely to have smelted it out for himself. This above all was a messy
      and time consuming task that would have been done nearer the source of iron
      and away from the town. First he had to obtain the iron ore. This was generally
      obtained from deposits near the surface of bogs, and is called not surprisingly
      bog ore. This source of ore is quite iron poor, unlike the ores that were
      later to be quarried out from cliff faces. The ore is heated or roasted in a
      pit. This helps to break it down, clean it and dry it out. It's then placed
      on a larger stone and broken up into small nuggets. The iron ore was then heated
      in a chimney shaped clay furnace about four feet high and 16 inches across (a
      process called smelting) at very high temperatures to remove the impurities,
      known as slag. The smelter is made from clay with lots of 'grog' or straw mixed
      in to help it withstand the extreme temperatures.
    • The iron then melted out of the ore and the slag collected in the shallow pit
      at the base of the furnace. The bottom corner of the smelter was broken open,
      the slag tapped off, leaving the smith with a fairly pure lump of iron called
      a bloom. Once the iron had cooled and set, a file was drawn over the surface
      to gauge the hardness of the iron bloom to see if it had any steel in it - the
      file being of a known quality itself. The bloom then had to be reheated and
      beaten over several workings to remove any other remaining impurities. The more
      diligently done the better, which resulted in nearly pure iron ready to be worked
      into many different objects. This type of iron is called wrought iron, but the
      Saxons were also able to add carbon (from charcoal) to convert it to steel.
      This was necessary where extra hardness and strength were needed, such as on
      knife edges, hammer heads or chisels
    • 1 more annotations...

  • Regia Anglorum - Arms and Armour - Part 6 - Armour


    • *Section of rivetted mail
    • Mail of the period was made by cutting thin
      strips of iron from a piece of sheet, or drawing iron wire through a draw-plate,
      and winding this around a cylindrical former. It was then cut off with a chisel
      to form the links. The links would then be compressed so that the ends overlapped.
    • 8 more annotations...

  • Regia Anglorum - The Fyrd (Army) in Anglo-Saxon England - Part 2

    • The Alfredian fyrd was designed to act in tandem with the burwaran,
      the permanent garrisons that the king settled in the newly built burhs.
      The size of the garrison in each burh varied according to the length
      of its walls (4 men for every 51/2 yards), but an average one would have required
      a garrison of about 900 men.
    • The scale of service demanded by Alfred and his descendants was unprecedented,
      the garrisons of the burhs alone represented a standing army of almost
      30,000 without the fyrd. These figures suprisingly do
      not include the military strength of the navy that Alfred raised to counter
      the Danish threat either.
    • 4 more annotations...

  • Regia Anglorum - Warfare

    • Despite all the heroic deeds in tales and sagas, a grown man would have seen
      a major conflict about once every twenty years. And even then he would had to
      have been in the wrong place at the wrong time to become involved.
    • Warfare was not a part of everyday life for many Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
    • 5 more annotations...

  • Regia Anglorum - Anglo-Saxon Military Organisation

    • A fyrdsman served because his land grant said he had to, and failure
      to serve led to a fine. The money paid would have gone to the king or eorl to
      provide food for mercenaries, not wages. The king's obligation to provide food
      only began after the men had served their full term
    • three to four pence per day. This is
      roughly comparable to the wages of a knight post-Conquest, demonstrating that
      the Fyrd was indeed a select body of men and not a rag-bag collection
      of farmers with agricultural implements for weapons.
    • 2 more annotations...
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