@sim @nerthos Chainmail can be procured pretty cheaply these days actually, what'll kill you is the shipping charges though.  A full suit isn't light.  You can luck out at a ren faire or the like though.

I have a coif I made myself and I wouldn't even say it was hard or particularly time-consuming, I just can't do manual work with my hands that is physically demanding, for long periods of time, because of how my right arm is jacked up.