Chain Mail Experiment Done on a Real Person

Warning : this video depicts an experiment that should not be imitated. Greeting to all history lovers! This video is a result of cooperation Czech and Russian reenactors. In the beginning, Marobud member Tomáš Vlasatý, sick of cheap Indian imitations of armour, ordered a custom chain mail from Sergey Simunin (, ), skilled maker from Russia who makes high quality mails. There were two conditions: the mail has to weigh less than 10 kilograms and it has to be effective against typical arrows from Viking Age Scandinavia. To fulfill the authenticy, a combination of solid and riveted rings was chosen. The inner diameter of rings was 6 mm. The thickness of the wire varied: the solid rings were made of 1 mm wire, the riveted rings were made of 1.4 mm wire. The mail was ready in a month. The complete armour weighs 9.7 kilograms, so the first condition was fulfilled, while the second had to be tested. Clasic shooting tests were done against mail on a wooden board and plastic figurine, but their results were not clear, as wood and plastic behaves differently than a human body. To persuade the future owner, Sergey chose to a new level of testing; the archer was shooting at him. Because of the safety reasons, he wore a plastic protection on the chest over the woolen tunic. Otherwise, he did not use any other modern equipment. The archer was using 18 kilograms (36 pounds) bow and fired two arrows from the distance of 6.5 meters. The first arrow hit the chest - it cut the solid ring and the tip went through, but arrow bounced away and the tunic would probably absorbed the impact. There would not be a serious injury. The second arrow hit the stomach and did not go through enough to cause an injury, leaving jush a scratch and bouncing away again. Therefore, the armour was effective. The interesting point was that the solid rings were three times more likely to be cut than the riveted rings that were thicker. Even through the ring was cut, the adjacent rings prevented the arrow from penetration and the arrow rebounded. We are aware of the fact that the historical bows were stronger than 18 kilograms. On the other hand, arrows were probably fired from a longer distance. By this video, we would like to show that: - historical protection was much more advanced and effective that we generally assume and it could protect against weapons to some extent, like the modern kevlars. - Indian armours are useless for experiments, because they do not reflect the quality of the original chain mails - there still is a place for testing and reaching new levels We Marobud would like to recommend the chain mails of Sergey Simunin because of these reasons: - the price is only three or four times higher than average riveted mails from India - the mail is made to order - the mail is made really fast - the mail is much closer to originals - the maker is highly devoted and willing to test his products - the maker is a good friend, a good reenactor and he uses what can be called historical tools and methods Thank you for watching and fo your time. In case of any question, please let us know.