[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Making chain mail (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 4/22/2008 7:11:06 PM EDT
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I have been working on a chain mail shirt in my free time from scratch. So I figured I might as well show the hive what I have been up to since I see it as a pretty cool project. It starts out as this galvanized steel coil of wire I picked up for pretty cheap at the local Home Depot.  Then I take it and wind it around this steel rod to make a coil of steel.  I close the loops by mashing the open ends together with these two handy tools.  I don't have any pictures of the coil of wire but once I have done that I take these wire cutters and cut the coil so that I end up with small circles of steel wire that are slightly offset from the angle of the coil and the wire cutters. Then I fasten them together in a set up that links 4 rings through one. Here is a picture of a section of the chain mail to give you an idea of what it looks like.  As I said in the beginning I am working on a shirt. It will start out sleeveless and then I will add sleeves later. The longest piece is going to be the piece that goes across the back of my neck and across my shoulders. And the square in the middle is where my head should be going. I have already started on filling in the right side that will go across the top of my shoulder. Then I will fill in the left side and go across the top to complete the square. Once I have that I will Narrow the square into a circle by filling in the sides and corners so that it is the perfect size for my head.  Here is some ms paint of what it should look like before I complete it.  |
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A guy I used to work with did this. To make slitting his rings easier, he built a little jig. I milled a slot in the rod for him and he set it up on slide, then used a cordless drill with a slitting saw in an arbor to slide down the rod and cut all the loops quite quickly. ETA he only closed his links with pliers. They weren't welded or soldered or peened in any way. I don't think it's quite as strong as the real deal, but still neat. |
Hire this guy: (not a rickroll) www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtIG7B_OKaU |
Not all the rings are closed. For euro 4-in-1, you'd take four closed rings and connect them with one open ring to start the pattern off, then add 2 closed rings and 1 open ring to connect the two closed rings to what you've already done. The open rings can either be butted like you're doing, or riveted (I've never done riveted though). |
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I am making a hauberk out of 14ga using 5/16" inside diameter rings. About halfway done at this point. In the past I have made some stuff out of 17ga 1/4", but I wanted something a little stronger this time around. It weighs a fucking metric ton though. I'll post some pics if wanted. A couple of tips. Bend a handle on the rod and make a "crank box", it makes winding go a lot faster, Also, estimate how many pounds of rings you will need, wind and cut them all then mix them up before starting to build. Otherwise you will probably have bright shiney strips and dull strips on your finished mail. |
Also not the first thing i have made out of chain mail. I first made a dice bag to hold all of the dice I use for table top games. Exactly what it sounds like a bag made for holding dice. The top closes with a smaller chain that I made that is run through all of the top rings.   Feel free to post your other pictures. |
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That’s a lot of work, I know. And it looks like you are doing a pretty good job too. Your weave isn’t too tight or too loose so you’ve got a good ratio of wire size to link size. 1) Your weave is going the wrong way… it’ll work like that but it’ll work better if you run the weave the other way. (It stretches better.) 2) Making your own links is fine, if you don’t mind tearing up your hands. You can buy premade links at www.theringlord.com/ It makes the work go a lot faster and it means you don’t have to cut links. (Cutting wire hurts my hands after a few hundred links.) Here’s something I made for my nephews. (Since I don’t have permission from the parents to post their faces I just grayed them out.)  With scales and premade links it really didn’t take that long. Maybe a month of my spare time for each vest. |
+1 Buy from here. |
Looks like a very cool project. I don't think I'd have the patience for it.
i seriously thought you were the first man to invent the chain mail scrotum 
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I dunno about you but I would NEVER stick my "dice" in a chain mail bag... end of discussion. [Edit] Didn't mean the end of the thread. |
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I made a chainmail shirt about 10 years ago. My wife (then GF) wore it for Halloween. It was a fun project. It takes a lot of time but you can do it while watching TV. So if you have time to TV you have time for chainmail. It is like knitting with steel. IIRC I could make about 1 square foot in an hour. However, as a protective garment it is 100% useless. Unless you rivet or weld the ends together it is really easy to stick a knife through it. I tried soldering the ends together. But they are not that much stronger. My wild ass guess is that flattening the ends then welding would at least double the time it takes to make one and riveting would at least triple the time. |
If anyone calls you a nerd, you can use it as a flail to beat the hell out of them. |
I used to make my own in College (strippers paid good money for bikinis) but this is how I do it now. Links are closed 2 ways. (1) Butt ends are pushed together. (2) Ends are flattened, overlapped and riveted. 1 is faster and recommended for show/LARP purposes. It is weak. 2 will actual repel arrows and sword strikes. Use method 2 when the apocalypse comes. The Ring Lord is a GREAT resource! A MUST is pliers WITHOUT TEETH to keep the wire from getting chewed up. |
| I went to AIT with a guy who made chainmail out of wire clothes hangers, drill sergeants asked him why the hell he did it when they found it during inspection, but one of them was an old Dungeons and Dragons nerd like the guy making it, thought it was cool, and told him to keep on doing it. |
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I wish I would have thought of Hog Ring pliers when I was making mail, I might have actually finished something. Another suggestion I would make for making your coils, is to actually make a mandrel. This is where you take a 2x4 that is shorter than the rod that you are winding your wire around and attach to pieces about 6 inches long on each end and drill and hole in each piece to put the rod through. If you haven't already drill a 1/16" inch hole through the rod to put your wire through so that it catches the wire so you can wind it. I then chucked the rod in my electric drill, I didn't have a cordless then, but it would work to it'd just put a strain on the battery I would think, and I then ran the drill on a moderate speed and coiled the wire on the rod. One word of caution, if you do this you will want to be wearing leather gloves because the wire will heat up and burn your fingers pretty quickly plus if there are any unseen burrs or shit on the wire, you could cut the crap out of you hand. Hope this helps. Jason |
Here is the hauberk I am currently working on, it is made of 14ga rings with an inside diameter of 5/16". Also pictured is the "crank box" I used for making the coils and the cobalt cutters I bought from Ring Lord for cutting. And, since this is AR15.com and not The Armour Archive I threw a couple of Stag lowers in the picture:   And here is my brother-in-law at the Texas Renaissance Festival wearing a 17ga 1/4" hauberk and coif that I made and gave him:  |
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I used a magic marker and 12 guage wire for my first shirt. I almost got carple tunnle like that. Later I got smart and used a jig made of 2x4s to hold a rod, and used a big hand drill to turn the rod. first you drilla hole through the rod, to put the wire through, then when you spin the rod using the drill, you feed the wire onto it, and you have to be real careful, especialy when "releasing" the wire, cause you just made a giant coil spring. later, you can get key rings in bulk and make them like that. chrome plated key rings, FTW. . |