Chainmail!

[RayvenQ]

So, is anyone else into this wonderous art? Myself, I\'ve been practisng with low quality hand wound rings (wound myself) which are really terrible solidity wise, but still good for practising weaving and using the pliers to close the rings.

I am however, taking the next step, I recently ordered3,000 silver plated rings, to make chain jewelry out of, and will soon be ordering 10,000+ Spring Steel rings.

Tips for Beginners:

Buy premade rings, sure it\'s slightly more costly, but unless you have access to rotary power tools and saws, it is a real pain to hand wind and cut the rings you need.

A Good way to practise is to use cheap plastic curtain rings, they\'re a lot bigger, but using them for practise helps you get a beter understanding of the weave and how to put it together, that you may miss with smaller rings.

Patience, it is a slow, tedious process that if you don\'t have patience, will make it all that more difficult.

My stuff:

Not got much in the way of anything to show, except for practise pieces.

European 4-1 Ribbon

European 4-1 Sheet (made by weaing ribbons together, silver rings are the middle of each individual ribbon)

Full Persian Chain (this is a type of chain that isn\'t meant to be made into a sheet, but can be attached to the edges of them) Also known as Box or Birdcage weave.

Some random jewelry pattern i made one.

Resources:

Tutorials etc - www.mailleartisans.org/ Maille Artisans League, spectactular wealth of knowledge collected here, want to know how to make a weave? there will be tutorials

Premade Rings- http://www.theringlord.com/ A fantastic site for Canadians and Americans, has a wealth of rings, links, scales and other resources and tutorials, sadly for ordering rings internationally, the shipping is ridiculously expensive

Premade Rings - http://www.armchair-armoury.co.uk/ A good selection of rings, not as wide as TRL, but still a nice enough selection for us UK people, with rings from as little as £5 per thousand.

So anyone wanting to get into the art of making chainmail, feel free to ask questions!

[Ascensiam]

That\'s really awesome.

Do you intend to craft actual sets of armour?

[RayvenQ]

Maybe, but making a mail shirt alone would cost £105 for the base materials (approx 21,000 rings) and upwards of 40+ hours of work. Assuming everything goes right

I plan to at first make Dice bags and simple jewelry, just to get my eye in.

[Altair1371]

This armor was probably the hardest armor to put together, and the most expensive.

[gabyalufix]

I did some chainmailling in college.

I also made a set of plate armor, by heating and bending pieces cut from a HDPE barrel. I then covered the plastic with faux leather and riveted the heck out of it.

edit: Worth noting: when I larp, I wear ringmesh chainmail. It\'s insanely light, but strong enough to hold together even when normal unriveted steel chain would bend and tear.

[RayvenQ]

While the other rings I\'ll be ordering are simple butted rings, they would actually be battle ready, as in actually able to to take a full blow from a proper sword and, at worse, losing just a few links, if that.

Well, I got my rings, the silver plated ones, much earlier than I expected.

So here\'s what I\'ve been doing the last hour or so. rings 6mm across on the inside.

[RayvenQ]

Got some actual chainmail done this time!

Small patch laid the right way unstretched:

Same patch the right way, stretched out:

[Maggarg]

This armor was probably the hardest armor to put together, and the most expensive.

you say that, but if you ever look at a genuine suit of plate armour you\'ll see the kind of attention to detail and careful assembly required to create a battle-ready suit of plate armout. In no way do I disrespect the time and skill needed to craft chainmail, but there\'s a reason platemail was essentially consigned to the elite during the middle ages.

[RayvenQ]

This armor was probably the hardest armor to put together, and the most expensive.

Time consuming? Yes, Fiddly? Yes, inherently difficult? No, at least not for the basic european pattern, infact, usually it was blacksmith apprentices who were given the task of putting one together, and as for expense, hardly, theres probably less metal involved than in plate armour.

Once you become proficient at it, its relatively simple to make, and a shirt would take about 48-60 hours depending on the skill and speed of the smith involved.

[Phoxtane]

Time consuming? Yes, Fiddly? Yes, inherently difficult? No, at least not for the basic european pattern, infact, usually it was blacksmith apprentices who were given the task of putting one together, and as for expense, hardly, theres probably less metal involved than in plate armour.

Once you become proficient at it, its relatively simple to make, and a shirt would take about 48-60 hours depending on the skill and speed of the smith involved.

So the cost comes from the sheer amount of time it takes to make a decent-sized chunk?

[gabyalufix]

theres probably less metal involved than in plate armour.

Not always true. I\'ve worn both steel plate armor and riveted-steel chainmail.

The plate armor worn into battle around the 14th century or so was actually relatively lightweight (though tourney armor was much heavier). I\'ve seen people in plate armor outrun unarmoured folks (Now, the armored guy has to be a bit stronger and faster, and he has to REALLY want it).

The plate mail I wore weighed just under 30 lbs. The same coverage in heavy chainmail would have weighed a lot more. Just a sleeveless shirt can weigh up to 12 pounds. Add sleeves, leggings, and a coif . . .

It\'s a different sort of weight, too. Chainmail is more flexible, so it bends with your body, but with plate there\'s a weight-bearing harness inside that distributes the weight onto your hips. and shoulders. Spend a weekend running around in either and you will be sore as all hell, but in entirely different places . . .

[RayvenQ]

So the cost comes from the sheer amount of time it takes to make a decent-sized chunk?

For chainmail? in the past, yes, and the estimated time i mentioned, doesn\'t even factor in the hand forming of wire from metal stock, turning them into rings via a mandrel and then cutting the individual rings off from a coil (nowadays there\'s ways to do it via machinery so it can be a lot quicker making the rings.)

[Maggarg]

Some of the really showy platemail you can see in museums is basically on the level of high art. The Leeds Royal Armories here in the UK has a pretty amazing collection of different armours from around the world, but some of the real showpieces are some of King Henry VIII\'s sets of armour, which are amazingly decorated.

[gabyalufix]

@Maggarg: I actually visited there when I was 12. It was awesome.

[RayvenQ]

By the way, there\'s a video of me making chainmail.

http://www.twitch.tv/rayvenq/b/305683679

[gabyalufix]

Of course, the chainmail I wear nowadays comes from this:

Welded steel. The smaller rings make it as light as aluminum, but the welding makes it a lot more durable than butted steel.

Kinda makes me hum this:

[Johno]

*Ahem*

Isn\'t it 'mail' (or 'maille') rather than the 19th-Century-Nonsense 'chainmail'?

[gabyalufix]

Yes, yes. And platemail is actually called plate armor, scalemail is actually called scale armor, and so on and so forth.

Gary Gygax doomed period-accurate armor terminology for all time.

[Maggarg]

My birthday is the same as Gary Gygax\'s

Found this out after I\'d been a DM for about 2 1/2 years, haha

[Goddess Bhavani]

And I was thinking of wearing Roman-esque armour or chainmail to motorcycle events. lol.

[RayvenQ]

Well with Roman Armour, you have 3 choices, Lorica Segmentata (essentially early partial plate) Lorica Hamata (maille) and Lorica Squamata (Scales)

[gabyalufix]

I know a guy who wears Lorica Segmentata to larp. He says it\'s insanely comfortable, considering how heavy and how protective it is.

[RayvenQ]

Finished my first chainmail dice bag!