Almain rivet

An Almain rivet is a type of flexible plate armour created in Germany in about 1500.

It was designed to be manufactured easily whilst still affording considerable protection to the wearer.

[1] Almain rivets were generally of fairly low quality, but they were cheap: a royal proclamation issued by Henry VIII in 1542 designated them at 7s 6d, which equated to one sixth of the cost of a suit of demi-lance armor.

[2] Almain rivets were frequently purchased en masse as munitions-grade armour to equip royal armies or personal retinues.

Based on the term almain-rivet, the word rivet itself acquired a meaning of "armour", attested (rarely) during the mid-16th century.

Almain rivet half-armour, typically worn by Swiss or landsknechts in the 16th century. The tassets consist of five plates each, connected by sliding rivets.
Almain rivet gauntlets of Emperor Maximilian I , c.1514. Museum of Fine Arts ( Kunsthistorisches Museum ), Vienna