Chain Mail Care & Maintainence

Chain Mail rusts easily and can be a pain to care for, so I set about doing some research on how to clean and maintain a mail shirt. The $114 mail hauberk I received was covered in oil and grim, apparently a result of a graphite spray applied by the manufacturer, and I really wanted to clean it before wearing it. But how?

Historically, mail was cleaned by putting it in a barrel with sand and rolling the barrel down a hill, but this seemed a bit dramatic to me so I reviewed my options. Some people recommended a barrel of sand on a treadmill, others recommended kitty litter. One person suggested using a bath tub filled with soapy water, rinsing well in a shower and placing the mail shirt in a 200F oven for 10 minutes to ensure prompt drying. Through all the chaos, one person's voice of reason rang clear: degreasing was a no-brainer: put the mail shirt in a 5 gallon bucket with 1 gallon of mineral spirits, let the shirt dry and then soak the shirt in acrylic floor polish (such as Future) to prevent corrosion. Ok, I thought: done and done.

But I was not completely satisfied with the nice shiny appearance of my mail shirt. I wanted something that looked old, and lived-in. Fresh off the success of my shield boss experiment, I figured heat-bluing a chain shirt would be a great way to add some depth to an otherwise uninteresting piece, and also protect it against the elements...

Photos: mail cleaning process with bucket, mineral spirits, and towels. Note the amount of grime removed during degreasing, and my failed attempt to filter and reuse the mineral spirits.

Embellished Mail Shirt

This mail shirt is an incredibly cool "canvas" for my next project. Mail was used from the time of the Romans through the Renaissance. The mail pictured here is not quite historically accurate because the rings are round instead of flat, and the rings are butted together instead of riveted (or welded) for added strength. The rings are 16 gauge, round wire, zinc plated, with 8mm inner diameter.
I had planned on lining the edges with leather or suede, and doing some Celtic, Saxon or Viking knot work using real leather cord. The leather could be folded over the edges and stitched through the rings. The mail is zinc coated to prevent rust but it should still be kept oiled, so I'm not sure how leather will work out with that. Maybe black or very dark brown leather, with a slightly lighter cord for the knot work?
I'm not quite sure what to do with this piece so I'm looking for comments, thoughts and suggestions.