Chain Mail vs. Ring Mail – Are They the Same? – Tactile Hobby

Do you remember playing the telephone game as a child in which a message is passed from person to person until the last person in line repeats what they heard to the whole group?

if you do, then you’ll remember that the final repeated message is often very different from the original.

Unfortunately, this is exactly how confusion around certain terms often develops and misnomers take root in our everyday language.

As you learn about the art of making your own chain mail, at some point you’ll probably come across the term chain mail and wonder if it refers to your chosen hobby or is something else entirely.

what is the difference between chain mail and ring mail? Chain mail is the term used to describe traditional body armor made of interlocking metal rings and, more recently, the art of using jump rings to create jewelry and other items. chainmail refers to a garment with rings attached but not attached, but its past existence is much debated.

It can be embarrassing to be caught using the wrong terminology.

As you read the following, you will clearly understand the difference between chain mail and ring mail and why the two terms are sometimes confused.

chain mail vs chain mail

The terms chain mail and ring mail are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.

If you’re thinking of learning how to create clothing, jewelry, or other items by interlocking pieces of metal, you need to know the correct terminology associated with your new hobby.

chain mail

Technically, chainmail refers to the heavy, flexible armor made of interlocking metal rings that was popular among soldiers and knights during the medieval period in Europe.

Although brass and iron were occasionally used to make mail, steel was by far the most popular material due to its strength.

mail reigned supreme until the rise of more protective plate armor in the 14th century.

However, plate armor was too expensive for most people at the time, so the use of the mail persisted until the widespread use of weapons proved the cover to be obsolete and ineffective.

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Prior to the 18th century, this type of protective covering was simply called mail, meaning mesh or mesh netting.

It is interesting to note that the word itself only referred to the material of the armor, not a specific garment.

for example, a knee-length chain mail is called chain mail, a hood to cover the head is a coif, and leg coverings are called they call it chausses.

The word chain refers to a series of interlocking metal rings.

It is believed that when the term strap began to be used to incorrectly describe any protective armor, a need arose for a way to distinguish between true mail and other armor.

therefore the word string was added to remove any possible confusion, although it is quite redundant to use both words when talking about true mail.

chain mail in modern times

Because not many people walk around in full mail these days, the term chainmail has evolved to include a variety of crafts made with interlocking metal rings known as jump rings, though true historians would certainly disagree. with this current use of the term.

Today, chainmail artisans enjoy making all kinds of items, including:

  • garments, such as t-shirts and bikinis.
  • gloves to protect hands when using knives or saws.
  • historical replicas for plays, events, etc.
  • scouring pads for scrubbing dirty pans.
  • jewelry items, such as bracelets, rings, and necklaces.
  • decorative items, such as interesting wall hangings and chandeliers.

Although many people like to make their own jump rings using various wire gauges and materials, many others simply buy jump rings in bulk for whatever project they are working on.

Jump rings can be found in bright aluminum, copper, sterling silver, niobium, silver or gold, brass, plated metals, metal alloys, and metals with various finishes.

Although the rings used for chain mail work are usually round, they also come in other shapes, such as oval and triangular.

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You can find jump rings in a variety of colors, various gauge sizes (the thickness of the metal), and different diameters to fit any project, from a full chain mail costume to a simple bracelet ankle.

Know that projects made with larger jump rings will lack the rigidity of those built with smaller jump rings, but the larger rings are much easier to manipulate.

call the mail

The term mail mail is used to refer to a piece of cloth or leather that has metal rings sewn into it. the rings, however, are not interconnected in any way.

This type of “armor” is significantly inferior to traditional mail in that it is unable to prevent damage from the thrust of a sword or other sharp, penetrating objects.

In fact, no archaeological evidence has been found to show that chain mail was ever used in European battles of any kind, although some evidence seems to indicate that it may have been used in other parts of the world, albeit only in a few occasions. .

Some think forms of chainmail may have been worn underneath the chainmail (and associated padding worn in conjunction) to provide ventilation and an additional protective layer, such as the mention of buttonhole doublets (intended as a variant of chainmail) in historical documents seems to suggest.

However, many believe that postal mail never existed. “ring mail” would more accurately be called ring armor, since mail, if you remember, is made up of a mesh of links connected together on purpose.

with “ring mail”, the links can be adjacent to each other, but they are not connected to each other or to anything other than the structure.

While the existence of ring mail in history may be a moot point as far as you’re concerned, you should know that if you’re working on a project that involves joining metal rings together to form a durable and flexible mesh material , you should not be doing email.

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The correct term in modern times would be chain mail or simply mail.

why the confusion?

18th and 19th century scholars are blamed for much of today’s confusion about mail terminology, according to arador.com.

Two historians in particular seem to be at fault.

In the latter half of the 1700s, Francis Grose, a Victorian writer, was one of the first to use the term mail to describe any form of body armor made of metal.

Her use of the word in this broad and general way would include plate and scale armor, neither of which is true mail.

Samuel Rush Meyrick, an early 19th-century writer, is also credited with contributing to the confusion.

While studying and attempting to interpret the mail that appeared in various illustrations and tapestries by his contemporaries, he invented various terms to describe what he thought he was seeing.

These terms included banded mail, fenced mail, masked mail and, you guessed it, ring mail.

Scholars have since determined that most of the renderings Meyrick was studying were likely simply the artists’ attempts to reproduce basic European 4-in-1 weaving, and thus Meyrick’s assumption that the represented patterns actually existed has been largely discredited.

additional confusion in modern times

popular books, such as Three Hearts and Three Lions; book series, such as A Song of Fire and Ice (and its award-winning spin-off TV series game of thrones); and games, such as dungeons and dragons have probably also contributed to the confusion between the two terms.

related question:

what is the best way to start learning chainmail weaving?

Ideally, beginners should spend a good amount of time looking at some basic fabrics knitted by someone with experience.

This is usually done through videos, but a face-to-face lesson is often more helpful, as you can ask questions and hear feedback while you try a couple of weaves.

Illustrated books and online tutorials are also helpful, as you can work through each step at your own pace.

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