I would like to weave chain mail, making rings for it from wire. Has anyone had experience with this? What metal and what diameter wire is best to use?
I have a piece around here somewhere about 4"x4" that I started out of tiny keyrings but ran out of rings and got bored
Yes.I regret all of the time I spent on it. Something like crochet is more useful/ viable for people without shops.Step one is to wind literally any wire around a mandrel. Once you accomplish that, get back to us.t. A bracelet I made for my then girlfriend, now wife.
>>2981491Get a mandrel with a hole in one end. Put wire (usually steel, aluminum if you only care about costuming) through a hole in the center at one end. 16GA is probably a good compromise between workability and strength, depends how strong you want your maille to be and how strong your hands are. Wrap back around to the end of the mandrel itself (so it forms a nice hold point like the end of a helicoil insert). Put the other end of the mandrel in a drill and run it slowly, guiding the wire in a tight coil onto the mandrel. Once the mandrel is full cut the spool end of the wire and remove from the chuck. Either use a fine cutoff wheel to cut rings on the mandrel or cut the held end and slide to coil off the mandrel for free handing with dikes (which sucks). Weave rings together, crimp them closed, and make maille.>that sounds incredibly boring and time consumingSure as fuck is! Made a 3x6" piece of super dense weave maille like 25 years ago, realized it took something fifteen hours, and said fuck it not doing this anymore.
>>2981491Depends what type of "chain mail" you want to make.I have experience handling extant pieces of both european (late german) and japanese armors.With japanese, you'll typically find ... :butted, no rivets~1/16" punched holes into plate where oval shaped rings are put intoA thicker diameter wire for the main ring, oval rings are thinner.European maille on the other hand is such a pain in the ass, most if not all rings are riveted. Sometimes armor only has a strip of riveted mail once every say, five links but it is rare and I believe possibly not original.You'll need to flatten and add your own rivets, there are plenty of examples of this online but you're probably more interested in in the actual method I use :>Get a 1/8" or 1/16" steel rod etc, I use a1' one. I found the longer it is the less chance of a fuck up happening with the winding process but it can also sag fucking up the cutting process>put it in a drill that is fashioned into a stupid jig that is entirely too big>as it gets wrapped up it'll eventually hit the end, where I have an angle grinder mounted that cuts the wire >this cuts the rings>as the rings hit the end of the rod, they'll get pushed off into a pile cut and ready to go>throw their asses into a tumbler to debur the edges because im not doing that shit by hand.>retrieve my beautiful rings>lightly flatten them, next overlap the rivet area by squashing with a cross peen and then punch all the holes ( i have not found a way to automate any of this yet )>take a bit thicker wire that is softer and make wedge rivets with them>rivet that shit, the most tedious process known to mankind>doneI use 1050 wire and heat treat sections after riveting. incredibly tedious to do everything above but you can probably churn out a full hauberk if you're insane enough after a couple of weeks. I personally make voiders since I value my time.
>>2983421But isn't butted mail much stronger? I've seen sloptubers test this and the butted mail splits easily.
>>2983433no, LOL! that shit is riveted SOLID. the links could shatter sure but repeated blows will eventually ruin butted maille.
>>2983576brainfart. Although at least I got the sentence after right.
>>2983604Basically, if you're gonna make maille you may as well do it right and get it riveted. That shit is no joke with how strong it gets once they're solid.You could cheese it by spot welding each link as well but where's the fun in that?
The only rings that makes sense to coil and cut yourself are overlapping mild steel for riveting. There is no reason not to simply buy premade rings for any other purpose. The cut quality and consistency as well as the time saved is very much worth the extra expense.>>2983606you can also use a punch to make solid rings from sheet metal and save some time riveting every ring that way. This was also done historically.
Don't try to make rivet mail first, it takes four times longer to make than butted. Decide if you enjoy the craft or not before committing to that.
I made chainmaille for a project in high school 18 years ago...just used galvanised steel wire from the hardware shop. Made a wooden frame to hold a mandrel at both ends. Mandrel was a metal rod with a hole in one end. Chucked the rod in a cordless drill to wind the wire on. Then I think slid the finished spring off the rod and cut it into rings with big side cutters. Used to do that on the lounge while watching TV kek.
