chainmaille tips

[Borak Logan]

Evening guys and gals,
I just started making a chainmail shirt and was wondering anyone had and tips or advise, thanks! ;D

[Dieben]

What kind of wire are you using and what tools are at your disposal? These can make a huge difference.

[Flinglecask Digroot]

You are a bold man, Pat. Best of luck with it!!

[Borak Logan]

im fairly certain im using 14 gauge ive had the stuff for awhile all ready got it started but was lookin to see if any1 had any tricks of the trade.

[jay]

pick up a steel dowel with a diameter of what you want your ring ID to be. Near the end of the dowel, grind a flat surface and drill a small hole through just big enough for your wire to slide through. Next get yourself a good size block of hardwood. If your rod is 3/8" (hehe) and your wire is 1/16" then drill a 1/2" hole through the block. On top of the block you'll drill a 1/16" hole intersecting the 1/2" hole. You'll feed the wire down this hole and place the rod with drilled end into the block so the wire enters the hole in the rod. Secure the block to a table, take a drill motor and place the other end of the rod into the chuck. DO NOT SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER. you want to lightly depress the trigger to keep a slower steady speed. The dowel will slowly spin in the block drawing the wire in and wrapping around the dowel.
To be completely honest, I've never tried this. Always wanted to just never got around to it. I believe the idea is sound. Let me know how it works if you try it.

[Sebastian]

Way back when,... This is how I made chain links and it worked extremely well. After clipping the rings from the rod, I would store them. This was the easy part. After I had the links I would use 2 needle nose pliers to start attaching the rings together.
Matt actually tried to make the process easier by attaching rings to a jersey so that the shirt held the form instead of the rings and it worked (working) quite well.

[Borak Logan]

That's a good idea using a jersy for a pattern, mine is coming slowly so as it gets bigger might have to do that.

[Dieben]

Jay's method is identical to what my brother did and it works great. Seriously though, follow the directions in all caps if you value your real life hp.

My brother uses a table mounted vice to bend the rings together; works like a charm.

[nightwindkain]

I found the easiest way to make the rings is a dowel rod and a cordless drill, add the little hole to start the twisting, and keep it tight. Pulling it iff the rod requires back twisting the whole coil a bit to loosen it. Then you can pull them apart a bit and clip them off. I personally use 12 gauge since it has a stronger tensil strength. The shirt that i'm still working on is woven into an athletic shirt, which adds some more time, but helps to keep the whole thing together, and a nice side effect is that it quiets the chain shirt down. And if you don't weave it in from the start it's going to take a lot of effort to do so later.

[Eileen Gallagher]

Go to the craft store and get whatever size crochet needle you want your rings to be the size of. Put that directly into your drill like a bit, hold the wire with your thumb for a few turns and then just use your thumb like a guide. You can get cheap spools of wire at your local hardware store usually and can play with the material to make them lighter. My ex did this and I had helped on occasion, its really easy since you just make a coil and then snip down it with wire cutters. Didn't take all that long and could be done watching TV. Once you have a decent size bag of rings figure out what style of linking you want to do (four in one was the easiest) and simply start by making a large square. You can measure your chest and arms and stuff and then have the measurements for how wide to make it. He found that making it like a tabbard initially and then closing the sides and adding sleeves worked best. Takes awhile, but once you are used to the pattern of placing the rings it also can be done while watching movies or something.

[YarN]

I know first hand how much fun it can be to coil your own rings and say you did ALL the work yourself; but you could always goto: www.theringlord.com for parts, help, and advice. It is the website where I buy the scales for the scale armor I make.

Michael (YarN) Elliott sends.

[luthorhuss]

if ytour going to use this for just larping, I would suggest making PVC chainmail. Basicly you cut the links from a 1/2" pvc pipe. Cut them thin, throw them in a pillow case and toss in dryer for 20 mins (this get's them nice and smooth). Then weave the links like regualr chain, once done spray paint it as you wish. It's the method used to make the chainmail used in the LOTR movies.

[jinn]

if anyone would like chain mail made i have a connection... let me know

[jinn]

If anyone needs chainmail. I can get 4 to 1 or 6 to 1 chainmail.
Bill.