Nightweave Hand Made Blackened Mild Steel Chainmail Hauberk | 48 Inch Chest Knee Length | 9 mm Butted Rings in a 4 in 1 Weave | Viking Reenactment Gift | RK-1492

The Nightweave is a full length chainmail hauberk, woven ring by ring in the European four in one pattern, cut long enough to cover the thigh and given three quarter sleeves so the arms stay free. The rings are mild steel, blackened and oiled, which is why it reads almost charcoal in daylight and picks up a cold shine at the edges. The neck is a keyhole opening, a straight slit at the throat with a rounded collar, which is the simple period solution to getting a head through a garment that has no give in it.

A detail worth knowing. Mail was the most expensive thing a Viking age or early medieval fighter owned, and the reason is arithmetic rather than metallurgy. A knee length hauberk takes somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand individual rings, each one wound, cut and closed by hand. A sword was a week of skilled work. A mail shirt was months. That is why sagas name mail shirts and why they were inherited rather than bought. Every Nightweave is woven, closed, cut to shape and finished in our Memphis, Tennessee shop.

Specifications

Butted mail and riveted mail, and why the difference matters

Every ring in a mail garment has to be closed somehow. In butted mail the two ends of the wire are brought together and left touching. In riveted mail the ends are overlapped, flattened, punched and pinned with a tiny rivet so the ring is mechanically locked. Historical mail from the Viking age onward is riveted, usually with alternate rows of solid punched rings, and the difference in performance is not small. A riveted ring resists a thrust because the joint cannot spring open. A butted ring will open under a hard point, and once one ring opens the weave unzips locally.

This hauberk is butted. We say that plainly on the specification table and we will say it again here, because it decides what you should do with it. Butted mail is right for display, for costume, for photography, for film and stage work, for living history where you are not being hit, and for light drill. It is not safe for full contact reenactment, for steel weapon sparring, or for anything where a spear point or a sword tip can be driven into it. Groups that fight in steel require riveted mail for exactly this reason, and any supplier who tells you butted rings will do the job is selling you a hospital visit.

What butted mail does give you is the look, the sound and the weight, at a fraction of the cost. The drape is right. The way it pours off the shoulders and swings at the hem is right. It photographs identically. If you are standing in a shield wall for a crowd, walking a festival, or hanging it on a wall next to a helm, this is the sensible choice.

The steel, the blackening and the weight

The rings are drawn mild steel rather than stainless or aluminium. Mild steel is what gives the garment its honest weight and its dull, dense clash when it moves. Aluminium mail is a quarter of the weight and sounds like a wind chime. Stainless holds a bright finish but never develops the depth of colour that oiled steel does.

The blackened finish is a controlled oxide with an oil over it. It does two useful things. It cuts the glare so the garment reads as a dark mass rather than a mirror under stage lights, and the oil film slows rust in the thousands of tiny contact points where rings rub. It will not stop rust forever. Mild steel mail is a living thing and it needs to be kept dry and oiled, which is covered below.

Twenty four to twenty eight pounds sounds heavy on paper. Worn correctly, over a padded garment and belted at the waist, most of that load sits on the hips rather than hanging from the shoulders and it becomes surprisingly manageable. Belt it. A hauberk worn unbelted drags on the shoulders and will make an hour feel like four.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the leather. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. Mail itself cannot be engraved ring by ring, so for the Nightweave we supply an engraved steel plaque or a stamped leather tag fitted at the collar or at the hem, carrying your rune line. Full detail is on the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

This hauberk is made to a stated size rather than tailored to a body scan, so read this before you order. The figure that matters is your chest measurement taken over whatever you intend to wear underneath, not your bare chest. Mail has no stretch at all, so the padded garment beneath it is part of the measurement. Two inches of gambeson round the chest is four inches on the tape.

Height matters as much as chest. A forty inch body length reaches mid thigh on someone over six feet and closer to the knee on someone under five foot eight. Neither is wrong, but it changes how it looks and how it walks. If you are between sizes, go up. Mail that is slightly large hangs and moves correctly. Mail that is tight across the shoulders binds the arms and will not let you raise a shield.

Shoulders take the initial load as you put it on. The usual method is to hold it upside down by the hem, put both arms into the sleeves, and roll it over your head in one movement, which is easier with a second person the first few times.

Care

Rust is the only real enemy. Keep the hauberk dry, and if it gets wet, get it dry the same day. Hang it over a broad shouldered form or a length of dowel rather than folding it into a box, because folded mail traps moisture in the creases and marks the finish. If light rust appears, the traditional cure still works. Put the mail in a barrel or a stout bag with clean sand and roll it about, then shake it clean and re oil. For light maintenance, wipe a rag with a thin oil over the surface and work it through with your hands two or three times a year. Our general notes on protecting bare steel are on the steel care page.

Forged in Memphis

This hauberk is made in Memphis, Tennessee. The rings are wound, cut and closed here, the garment is woven and shaped on our benches, and it is blackened, oiled and inspected before it is boxed. It is not drop shipped from an importer catalogue with our label on the outside. The lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings is ours to honour directly, with no end date and no receipt needed.

A note on handmade variation

This hauberk is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The depth of the blackening, the exact drape of the hem, the shading across the sleeves and the small irregularities of a hand closed weave vary from one garment to the next, because each one is worked by hand from natural materials. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is the mail riveted or butted

Butted. Each ring is closed end to end by hand and is not riveted. That makes it right for display, costume and light living history, and wrong for full contact fighting.

Can I wear it for full contact reenactment

No. A thrust can spring a butted ring open. If your society fights in steel you need riveted mail with alternating solid rows, and you should not take this into the line.

What do I wear under it

A padded gambeson or a thick quilted tunic. Mail on its own transmits every impact and will chafe through a shirt in an afternoon. The padding is not optional if you intend to wear it for hours.

Will it rust

It can. It is mild steel, not stainless. Kept dry, oiled two or three times a year and hung rather than folded, it will stay sound for decades. Left damp in a bag it will show orange within a week.

How do I size it

Measure your chest over the padded garment you intend to wear under the mail, and compare that number to the 48 inch chest figure. If you fall between sizes, take the larger. Mail does not stretch.

How long does it take to make

Processing is one to two weeks, because a hauberk is woven and shaped to order rather than pulled off a shelf. Shipping is free within the United States and the parcel is heavy, so someone should be there to take it in.

What is in the box

• One Nightweave chainmail hauberk in blackened mild steel, four in one butted weave
• Care card covering oiling, drying and sand barrel cleaning
• Storage note on hanging rather than folding
• Lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See more in chainmail armor, Viking armor and brigandine and gambeson, or read the guides before you choose a weave.