Quote Originally Posted by Panache
I think that your belt is going to abraid the fabric of your kilt.
No joke. I've seen what butted-link mail can do to Sunforger and heavier canvas. I don't even want to imagine what it would do to worsted wool.

Quote Originally Posted by Panache
From what my friend told me one can brighten the links again by puting the piece in a can with sand and shaking it to remove the oxidation.
It's much easier to put the mail in a five-gallon paint bucket with a few handfuls of fine sand and a cup or two of vineger, then carefully roll it down a good hill. A "period" alternative is to put the mail into a heavy canvas bag with some sand and some straw, and hand it to your squires to use as a "medicine ball" for some exercise for an hour or two.

I've made quite a lot of mail over the years, and I have to say this - galvanized steel wire is absolutely the worst stuff you can make it out of. The zinc oxide that forms is abrasive by itself, you can't simply heat the stuff up and let it off-gas without risking metal vapor poisoning, and the gray is nearly impossible to get out of cloth.

Add that to the varying methods of cutting the links (I prefer to square-cut the ends with a Dremel slitting wheel) and you've got a recipe to absolutely destroy a nice wool kilt.