Wikipedia lorica segmentata article

[Tarbicus]

So are we talking about the time it takes to make mail or segmentata once you have your materials ready or are we talking about the time it takes to go from cold billets of iron to a finished hamata or segmentata?

From cold billets of iron, because that's what the armourers/ slaves/whichevers would have been given to start with to make the actual item, from what I can tell.

Unless, they bought both billets/blooms of iron AND pre-prepared wire. Who knows?!

I'm just drumming my fingers on the keyboard now....