Originally published at: Watch YouTuber J. Draper show how effective chainmail is at defending against stabbing | Boing Boing
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbPY6Nj_ock
Jenny does fantastic videos on a variety of history subjects, not just weaponry. If you liked her style here be sure to check out her Youtube and Instagram pages for more London history.
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I am fond of Ms. Draper’s videos.
That said, wearing the chainmail would cook me alive and do me in faster than [the probability of] getting stabbed. Yea verily, even with a gambeson. Worse, really.It’s over 100°F all week in Austin and we only just started summer.
If one were to make the argument that wearing chainmail in the UK is a better idea, I’d check the weather before stepping out the door:
Context, context, context.
Sincerely,
your correspondent from our greenhouse future [which is now here]
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A minuscule by-the-way would depend on the relative forces applied and the quality of the chainmail: if the chainmail were of the cheaper non-riveted sort, (essentially loops of wire bent into somewhat closed circles), then a gentle stab (as depicted) might be turned, whereas a proper full-on battle run-em-through stab would be almost the same as no chainmail at all. A group of chainmail loops being re-opened under such force. (i get this from a avid blacksmith friend of mine) And yes, the notion of (tiny!) riveting every @#$! chainmail loop is beyond insanity - but they did it.
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Hmmmmm. A kitchen knife is not the same as someone stabbing you with 2 kilos of fast-moving broadsword with all their weight behind it (plus, the weight of their armour).
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100°F seems to be around 37°C.
That wouldn’t be unheard of in the Middle East during the crusades
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I do HEMA fencing. Just a gambeson is bad enough, especially in the summer. Medieval folks were tough.
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By the time broadswords were in use, chain mail was effectively entirely gone from European battlefields.
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I mean it was effective. That’s why people who could afford it, used it. And as others pointed out, the real stuff was painstakingly riveted together, which made it even more resistant to piercing. Still, you get stabbed hard enough by a pike or a spear and it will only do so much.
A gambeson was the most common armor, and it was a padded coat. It was surprisingly resistant, though obviously not as much as chain or plate armor.
And I echo the above comments of “fuck all that in the heat”. The world WAS cooler back then. I can’t imagine fighting in like 80 or 90 degree heat though. I wonder if some knight in full armor was saved from passing out from the heat and managed to avoid trampling due to the armor and woke up after the battle, alive.
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The first half of the Middle Ages, which happens to more or less coincide with the most active period of chainmail use, was actually pretty warm. I don’t know how it stacks up to our current human-induced warm period, but it was warmer than average.
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Aye, true. She was showing off that one in the video tho (can’t remember who makes that fancy pants model. Sigi, maybe?)
I wouldn’t want to be stabbed with a period correct sword of any length with just chainmail either, to be fair.
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He’d have been either murdered afterwards and stripped of his valuables or, if he was lucky, and someone with enough social clout to ransom him got there first, stripped of his valuables, then ransomed.
(ETA: Unless his mates won in his absence, but even then, option one has a chance)
Not if he was on the winning side. Woke up towards the end before they start to clear the field, covered in mud and blood. “Hurrah! Lord Lucky Duck returns victorious!”
I am not saying it is likely, anything less than full plate would probably get you trampled to death. Just wondered if it was ever documented as happening.
I mean, if I was a peasant levy doin some looting and slicing after the main event, I don’t think I’d be that bothered he had the winners colours on his surplice. Rub some mud on it, quick stab in the neck, and onto the cart with the valuables.
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Not all that strong, really. A suit of full plate weighs less than the full gear of a modern-day US infantry soldier.
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And the weight is much better distributed
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Now, if someone was expecting chainmail…
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This is why the poignard was developed…
When poignards are outlawed only outlaws will have poignards!
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I see this claimed a lot, but it’s not really true - armors aren’t nearly as heavy as you’d think they would be, and you can move around in them fairly easily. (Witness youtube videos of people doing martial arts rolls in full armor.) The heaviest and most cumbersome plate armors were just for jousting, not combat, and modern soldiers actually carry around more weight as part of their standard kits (and the weight is mostly on their backs, making it more awkward).
People also tend to think of swords as heavy, but most weighed about as much as a modern pistol. The biggest, heaviest two-handed swords (which saw limited use) weigh as much as a rifle. Anyone who can meet the most basic physical requirements for the modern military would have done fine in a full set of plate armor swinging around a zweihänder.
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especially with a gambeson; thick, dense wool under a 30-40 pound maile shirt and headress? And then doing heavy physical activity on top of it? In the middle of summer?
No thank you.
(modern infantry armor ain’t much lighter, as multiple people have also pointed out, but the modern stuff will only give you a bruise and maybe cracked ribs instead of a hole in your body from a rifle round or shrapnel…)
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