Anita,
As the former curator of a Spanish arms and armor collection, let me pass
along several hints on chain mail. First, the stuff was a bear to maintain
on the frontier and 16th century Spanish chronicles are full of disparaging
remarks about it rusting and breaking on the borderlands. From Florida to
California archaeologists find broken links of mail or discarded segments.
Its use against Native Americans was limited - De Soto complained that
natives would fire reed arrows at them, without projectile points, and that
the reeds would split on impact with the mail and continue through the
spaces as razor sharp slivers. A truism about mail is that it protected
against cuts and wide-bladed knife stabs, however it was little use against
clubs (which would bruise or break bones) or stilettos such as Italian
designs that were thin enough to pierce the holes in the links.
Most arms and armor conservators I have interacted with recommend doing as
little as possible and NOT attempting to restore the real thing. I talked
with the late Helmut Nickel at the Metropolitan in New York, and he related
a story about how some institutions cleaned theirs by rotating it in a drum
of sawdust. Given the wight of the mail, and the abraisiveness of the
process, it would be a toss up as to whether the constant friction and
folding or the oxidation of the rust would be the lesser of two evils.
Another conservator suggested that the new micro-abrasive sand blasting
equipment, which has been used to remove varnish from paintings, would work
if the operator was an expert who could select the correct abraisive --
strong enough to abrade the rust but soft enough not to remove the metal.
The range of abrasives is interesting, ranging from sizes and grades of
silica to ground walnut shells and other exotics. If there is a lab with
this equipment in the area it might be good to talk about the process,
especially since you are dealing with a replica.
Several arms and armor collectors I know use the old standy of WD-40 and
OOOO steel wool. This is extremely time consuming, dirty work that one
would not want to repeat often. Many of them then coat the mail in lacquer
so the process will not have to be repeated soon. Not being a conservator I
cannot speak to the problems associated with this for originals, but it
might be a reasonable process with reproductions.
The old saw with originals is, of course, never handle it without gloves,
keep it in under 60% rh and support it on a frame of some sort. With a
replica you might want to let it rust and show visitors and students what
it would have been like in the field. It gives you a new respect for what
servants and slaves went through to maintain their masters' armor.
I would recommend calling the arms and armor department of the Met in New
York. They have (or had) a shop that turned out replicas and would probably
be the best to recommend maintenance.
Best Regards,
Byron A. Johnson, Exec. Dir.
The Tampa Bay History Center
P.O. Box 948
Tampa FL 33601
Phone: (813) 228-0097
FAX: (813) 223-7021
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