Whether you’re interested in cosplay, historical reenactment, LARP, or anything else related to a fantasy or Medieval setting, it’s likely that you’ll eventually come across chainmail. If you’re brand new to chainmail, or “mail” armor, then you might have some questions about it.
One of the most common questions that people have is, what direction should the chainmail hang when you wear it? Most types of chainmail have a distinct “grain” to them, and the direction that you orient the chainmail on your body can make a big difference in its effectiveness as an armor.
So which way should chainmail hang on your body when you wear it? For European 4-in-1 chainmail, which is one of the most common types, the grain should run horizontally across your torso. On the arms, if your chainmail has sleeves, the grain usually runs vertically down the arms.
Now let’s go over the reasons and the details of why this is the case.
Different Weaves
First of all, we need to understand that not all chainmail, or mail armor, is of the same kind. There are many different weaves that were developed in different parts of the world. The most common weave that was used in Europe, as well as the Middle East and India, is the simple 4-in-1 pattern. It has a distinct grain, which looks like alternating rows of rings.
4-in-1 refers to the fact that each ring is connect to 4 other rings. If every ring is connected to 5 other rings, then it would be called a 5-in-1 pattern.
In places like Japan, different weaves of mail were developed. They very commonly used a square 4-in-1 pattern, 6-in-1, or 8-in-1 patterns, as well as the European 4-in-1. The square 4-in-1 weave was different from the European 4-in-1, because it had larger gaps between the rings, and no distinct grain direction.
If you’re confused about all of these different weaves, don’t worry, because I’m mainly going to focus on European 4-in-1 chainmail in this article. It’s the kind that shows up the most in movies, video games, and other forms of media nowadays, and therefore it’s also the most common for people who want to make costumes based on that media. With all that said, let’s take a closer look at European 4-in-1 chainmail and which direction it should hang.
The Grain
European 4-in-1 chainmail has a distinct grain line formed by the rows of rings that seem to “point” in alternating directions. One row will point one way, and the next row will point the other way, and it continues down the armor. In the picture above, I used a piece of 3D printed chainmail to demonstrate.
This way of weaving the rings together doesn’t just give the chainmail a unique look. It also has a different amount of “stretch” depending on which way it hangs. It’s not actually stretch, but the rings have a bit more room to travel in one direction versus the other. Basically, the chainmail can expand more in the direction that goes along the rows.
The problem with having the chainmail stretched out is that it creates larger gaps between the rings. This makes armor more vulnerable against piercing weapons, and probably to other weapons as well. With the armor stretched out, it leaves fewer rings in any given area, and that means less rings to absorb the impact or cut of any kind of weapon.
In the picture above you can see how the rings are much closer together on the left, and farther apart on the right. This characteristic of European 4-in-1 chainmail makes it important that it’s worn in the correct way on the body, so that the armor can be as protective as possible.
On The Body
If you wear the armor with the rows oriented vertically on the body, then gravity will naturally pull the rings as far apart as it can, leaving large gaps between the rings. Like I said in the previous section, this makes the armor more susceptible to piercing attacks, but that’s not the only problem. The picture below shows the same piece of 3D printed chainmail, but stretched out to expose larger gaps between the rings.
When the chainmail is fully expanded, or stretched out, it actually becomes less flexible. The rings are pulled tight by gravity into their fully extended positions, and that doesn’t leave much room for them to move any other way. The flexibility of mail armor lies in the ability of the rings to move and slide along each other.
This slight loss of flexibility might not seem super important, but it can make a pretty big difference in the comfort of the person wearing it. The armor needs to allow the wearer to move, bend, and for their chest to expand as they breathe. All of these things become even more important in a battle environment, where the wearer would be moving a lot and breathing heavily.
People realized this in the past, and we know this because in virtually all of the surviving historical mail armors, you can see that it’s meant to be worn with the rows going horizontally across the body. Having the armor oriented in this way allowed for more flexibility, because the rings have room to expand.
Too much expansion on the sides of the body could also be a problem though, so many times they wore a belt around the armor at the waist. This kept the armor relatively close fitted to the body, so that the rings could be as compact as possible, while still allowing flexibility and expansion of the torso. It also allowed the hips to carry some of the weight of the armor.
On The Arms
Despite all the reasons I explained above, the mail armor on the sleeves was often oriented with the grain going along the arm. This means that when the arms are hanging straight down at the sides of the body, the rows of the mail armor are oriented vertically. I’m not exactly sure why historical armorers designed it this way, but I can think of a few reasons.
Firstly, having the grain going along the arm makes for a tighter fitting sleeve of mail. If it was oriented the other way, then the armor would stretch out and hang looser every time the wearer raised their arms. This would create extra, unnecessary weight on the arms.
Second, it might have just been easier to construct the armor by continuing the weave out into the arms. If you lay a mail shirt or hauberk out flat, the you’ll see that the arms stick straight out from the torso section, or sometimes even slightly upwards. This is to make sure that the person wearing the armor will be able to raise their arms while fighting.
When you lay the armor out flat, you can see that the grain of the armor flows from the torso section straight out into the arms. The armorers might have done this just because it’s easier to assemble the armor that way, instead of making the torso and sleeves separately and then trying to connect them later. If the grain direction of the torso and sleeves didn’t match, it would be more complicated to attach together.
Conclusion And Further Reference
Basically, if you want to be historically accurate when you make or wear mail armor for costumes or reenactment, then just look at how it was worn historically. They wore it with the grain going horizontally across their torsos, and with the grain going along the arms. It protected their bodies better in that configuration, and was the most practical for their use in combat. It’s just something to keep in mind as we try to replicate it in modern times.
If you’d like to look at some real examples of historical mail armor, I suggest you browse the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and also the Wallace Collection. The picture above of the real chainmail was taken by me at the Met. Just search for mail armor in their galleries and you should find a lot of examples. They make for very good reference images.