Habibi Armory Chainmaille Review

 Review time! Let's talk chainmaille.

As anyone who has bought maille knows, the market is absolutely saturated these days. Inexpensive maille and their often-shady makers are a dime a dozen, usually complete with very high shipping prices, long wait times, and the ever-present danger of just being totally scammed. And even when the product gets to you, most of the time the maille is of the lowest possible quality and functionally worthless anyway! It can very a frustrated experience, and sometimes it just seems safer to spend the extra money and get something more locally secondhand or from a big company.

But there IS a way to take advantage of this market with less risk and still come out in top.

Our group has used an online India-based company for our maille for quite some time. The results have been middling, not great but not disastrous. The price is very nice and the order process is simple; the maille is generally "good enough" and it holds up alright. But when I met Habibi Armoury, and I heard of his reputation from other reenactors, I thought it was worth a shot at getting something of better quality-- and I'm glad I did.

My big problem with the old dealer was the rivets. They were always left WAY to long, would constantly snag on stuff and pop out or twist rings. Also, the proportions of the neckline on my old maille is way off-- it looks like an off-the-shoulder bodice. With Habibi's maille, the rivets are kept short and snagging has not been an issue, and the fit is perfectly made to measure. I had a chance to armor up and do a little combat with the new maille, and the freedom of movement without snags is a big upgrade, and for a very competitive price. This maille will last a long time.

I now own a 6mm riveted/punched flat ring lorica hamata, a 9mm riveted/punched flat ring long sleeve hauberk, both from Habibi and have more on the way.

So, if you need maille and don't know who to trust, save yourself a headache and support a good craftsman!