Interesting idea Jeff.

Do you just lay the maille on the grill or do you put in it some kind of container?

Patrick,
I just noticed the updates to the home page. Three swords and a crossbow all at once? Somebody is certainly having a good month. :D I'm sure they'll go well with your new maile. Congratulations!

This looks like Celtic/Roman style mail isn't it?
flat (punched) rings in combination with round riveted ones... (As I' have bin told ;) )

http://www.ancient-weapons.com/products/chainmails.html
Any body familiar with these guys??

I have send them an "enquiry" already let's see with what kind of price they come up with...

From what I have read Celtic mail was different than Roman. Celtic had both round riveted rings and round solid rings. The Roman mail had partially flat rings of both kinds. They both had round rivets.

I'm tempted to get one of these hauberks and paint it. :idea:

Following Patrick's experiences with his mail shirt I thought that I would have a go at modifying my new riveted shirt, which I believe, comes from Russia. I got it at a re-enactment fair yesterday -- although I ordered it some months ago. It is plain steel and shiny but covered in oil. I tried it on at the fair and my hair and clothing that wasn't protected by a borrowed gambeson became covered in oil. I wanted to remove the oil and to darken the mail. I had read references to mail being rolled in charcoal. I though that I might be able to remove the oild and colour the mail at the same time, so, today, I started up the old barbecue. It is 1 degree here today so barbecues are not usual at this time of year. It was difficult to get the charcoal alight because of the outside temperature but after much puffing and blowing I managed it. Once the mail was on the charcoal it did smell very badly but that was about it. After half an hour a few patches of mail had gone a slight brown colour but most of it was as shiny as ever!

I laid the thing on some hard standing and used a hard brush and some saw dust which was quite successful in removing the oil. But I have to say that my experiment with the charcoal was not a success.

Cheers,

Paul

Of course a price of $300 for a full rivetted hauberk looks very tempting. Still I would think long and hard before buying one.
Mind the following: maille that cheap is from India or another low-cost country, that's not a secret. What many seem to be unaware of, is that they are most likely to be produced by child labour. I have talked to various Indian manufacturers (Deepeeka, Hind, Indian Handicrafts), and if you harrass them long enough, they admit that "some work is too fine to be done by the hands of adults", or something along those lines.

I know for sure that 99% of all Indian butted chainmail are child labour for a few nickles a day, and I would rather be surprised if the same did not apply for rivetted chainmail. I think I don't have to elaborate why I would not want such a set of maille.
Thank you for your attention.

A contrasting point of view is very well possible. IMO that discussion does not belong here, so I'll shut up.

(I did feel like mentioning it, sorry.)

Very very necropost on this, but I wanted to post a bit of a warning to anybody else reading this (it's one of the first google hits I got even though it's 7 years old):

Muriatic acid is nasty, nasty stuff (which Patrick Kelly covered - but it bears repeating).

I tried it on one of my IceFalcon stainless steel voiders. I knew I should have tried a test patch, and fought my instinct on doing that. Bad idea.

It *ruined* my voiders. Some of it came bright and clean (which is great), some is still dark, and some is in-between. Oh, and it ate about 75% of the rivets. Literally. When I picked it up out of the acid and rinsed it off, rivets fell all over. They're almost all gone.

I'll end up spending probably a solid 8 to 10 hours replacing all the rivets that fell out. And I'll still be left with an uneven tone.

Andre @ IceFalcon recommended that I get a small concrete mixer, and put the mail in there with some sand. I think this is definitely the better alternative. This is the biggest armor disaster I've had.

Lesson learned, absolutely, and I wanted to post this to let others know - test a small patch first! And respect the acid. It is every bit the nasty stuff that Patrick described. IMO, it's easily worth the extra cost to get a small mixer - no worries of acid fumes, disposing of the acid after, and you won't have to wear goggles, gloves, a mask, and other protective gear.

edit: some photos

Before cleaning:


Comparing the acid-soaked one with the one I didn't mess with:


Rough close-ups of the final outcome: