Wulf Corbett wrote:
>
>
> Remind them that a typical mail shirt involves making enough wire to
> wrap round a rod, to snip into 20,000-30,000 wire rings, interlacing
> each one with four others, rivetting the ends of each ring together,
> and doing it all to a pattern like a shirt. It's a hellish job,
> boring, repetitious and murder on the fingertips.
>
> Wulf
>
Which is, of course, why any smith has apprentices! But from what I recall from an earlier disucssion here, the main problem was either drawing the wire (or punching the ringlets... I'm still not sure about that).
Wire Drawing is something *quite* technological that can be done by dwarfs, the folks down in Holy country and, of course, the ever-so-very-nifty Lunar Empire. The tech for this existed by 2nd century AD but until the medieval period, it was much more efficient to make scale or plate armour.
Wire. Sold by traders to clansmen. Can you say 'controlled export'?
"Sorry, Glepnir. I'd like to get the rings you offer but I have no wire. Should you get me a spool of wire about yea big (gestures with hands), I'd make you a strong shirt in about a fortnight."
That's an adventure hook, I think.
Jeff
Jeff
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