Sword strikes on (modern) riveted mail
May 31, 2020 21:55:03 GMT
Post by markus313 on May 31, 2020 21:55:03 GMT
Inspired by the discussions in another thread, I made the effort and bought a piece of fairly made (modern) riveted mail. I then proceeded to make a hand-held target (wooden dowel, wrapped with insulation tube and up to eight layers of tough denim). I placed the piece of mail over the target (fastened with duct tape) and cut at it using my sharpened Deepeka William Marshall sword (edge was rather robust, but paper-cutting sharp).
I simply held the pole with my left hand and struck at with the sword in my right hand.
Here’s what I found out:
-Good blows routinely split at least one link, but failed to cut through the denim underneath in all cases
-The impact through the mail, denim and foam left marks on the wood, comparable to those made by a stout hickory stick (and when hitting the pole covered by just the foam tube, without mail and denim)
-Impacts on the wood where much more severe when no denim was placed underneath the mail, pressing the rings into the wood and leaving rather deep marks
-Thrust vs. mail and denim fastened over a block of Styrofoam: Thrust failed to penetrate the mail except for the outmost heavy thrusts and the target placed in such a way that it had no give (not a realistic set-up)
-Edge damage on the Deepeka was surprisingly minimal
-The sword had no problems to cut through up to twelve layers of denim after having been used to strike at the mail for over at least a dozen times
Further thoughts:
-I think I would have been able to strike much harder if I had proper distance towards the target
-Due to its thickness (I have ground down the foible somewhat, but still) the Deepeka is rather stiff, so it thrusts harder than an authentic type X or XI, but it also doesn’t cut quite as well, too
-I guess real period mail would have been softer, probably at least as easy to cut, but would have deformed more and thus have softened the strike some more
-Real mail would have been an excellent defense against thrusts and weak cuts (and quite comfortable to wear), not so much a good defense against strong cuts though, especially when aimed at the harder, bony parts of the body – blunt force trauma would have been a thing even with arming swords