Glossary: S
SURCOAT
A flowing garment worn over armour from the 12th Century. Some were sleeveless, some were sleeved, it usually reached to mid-calf.
SPACER RING
An extra ring inserted into a weave in one row which is then treated as a regular ring when putting in the next row to cause the piece to be wider at the bottom than at the top.
SLIPANDJAB
The medical condition occurring when your new needlenose pliers slip off the 12ga galvy rings you are working with and jab into your flesh.
SPRINGBACK
The tendency of a tightly wound coil to expand after the coiling tension is released. This causes the coil to expand slightly, making the completed rings larger than the mandrel they were originally wound on. This can be a serious problem with very small rings not being a standard size.
SCALE
Armor constructed of rows of small metal, leather, or horn plates attatched to a flexible backing material such as leather or canvas.
SPEEDWEAVE
A weaving technique whose stated purpose is to decrease overall time to make a particlar weave, usually involving adding one or more preclosed rings or units of weave into the larger workpiece rather than individual open rings.
SABATON
lamellar foot armor which comes to a point at the toe
SWG
Imperial Standard Wire Guage - An old English wire measurement. Still used in US for many ferrous (iron and steel) metals and some non-ferrous metals not intended for electrical use. Based on the number of times wire was drawn through an Imperial standard draw plate to reach a given diameter.
SCALE MAIL
A misnomer born of mistaken victorian historians and popularized by fantasy role-playing games. Mail is defined as an armor made from metal rings. Scale mail, then, is self-contradictory. The correct historical term is scale armor.
SCALING
Oxidation of metal due to heat, resulting in heavy oxide layers. Also, the removal of scale bears the same name.
SOLDER
An alloy with a relatively low melting point, used in soldering. Soft solders typically are a lead or tin based alloy, while hard solders are usually silver, cooper, or nickel based.
SOLDERING
A method of joining by fusion of alloys by melting solder, then allowing it to cool and bond the joined pieces together.
SPRING HARD TEMPER
Hardest temper attainable by cold working. Not normally used for maille, as it exhibits a great deal of springback and can be very brittle and difficult to form by hand.
SPLIT RING
A ring cut from twice as much wire as a butted ring, for example a keyring. These rings must either be purchased or cut with modified tools.
