How effective was a chaimail coif?

Answer 1

Although there is no better or worse in terms of whether an iron helmet or iron chainmail coif was more effective, and how effective coifs were in general. There are clear factors to look at however:

- A helmet is more solid than a coif, so injuries from direct hits are better protected by a helmet, but at the same time, a coif can merge quite seamlessly with a chainmail shirt, and with no gaps except the front of the face. This means for a change in dynamics in close combat, as there are different exposed areas for each.

- A maille coif is much more easily repaired than a helmet, if some rings are hacked out of a coif, then the user need only fix the hole with some new rings and rivet them back together again, whereas damage to a helmet could mean the need to fix the dent with a smith or even needing to remake it from scratch with severe enough damage.

- Maille coifs were more expensive than dark-age helmets, but were cheaper than advanced Medieval helmets, with more expensive armour used as a utilitarian fashion statement by noblemen.

- Sometimes, both are combined, with solid helmets having chainmail hanging off it, providing solid skull protection, but also flexible neck protection.

- Maille in general protects superbly against sword cuts, and axe chops (apart from the blunt force trauma behind them). Stabs and shots unfortunately would separate the rings and pierce through. Later Medieval arming swords had finer thrusting points, specifically to thrust through gaps in plate armour, and pierce easily through chainmail underneath it or chainmail on the body instead of it.

Sources: Experience in Historical European Martial Arts and general knowledge in Medieval warfare.

Answer 2

A chainmail coif is a head-covering piece of armour. A chainmail coif was a hood made of flexible chain mail that covered the throat, neck, and top. The coif was a sort of chainmail armour that was worn in mediaeval battles. It was a reference to the chainmail that a knight wore on his head. Against perf/sev attacks, Chainmail proved extremely effective. When it came to defending against blunt force injuries, it fell short. Because mail does not absorb impact well, a mace blow would do almost as much damage as an unarmored opponent.