I’ve been making armor and jewelry from chainmail since the mid 1980s
I’d like to offer a class in basic and advanced chainmail assembly if there’s interest.
I’m always available for questions and advice.
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You should definitely do this, chainmail has always been a good pass time for me. I’d be interested in some of the more intermediate patterns.
Ive also wanted to make a jig for making my own rings
Making and cutting the rings is a major problem. I have long wanted one of these
I cut my own rings in a number of different ways for years and finally stopped. I now only buy them off the shelf from a few different sources, or, if I need a lot of them, contract with a spring company locally to have them made to spec. I’ll only work in stainless as the anodized aluminum looks extremely bad when it starts to flake and the rings are literally too soft for me to work with.
I would be interested in this.
Sincerely,
Tim Nielsen
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I weave maille as well…would be interested in some intermediate level projects or big group project like maybe a DMS logo inlay showpiece or something.
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Yes I have two bags of links, about 35lbs
To the teacher for this class, have you checked to see if the pliers we have are sturdy enough for the stainless steel rings? I don’t tend to use them so I am sure how stiff they are.
I would be interested in some classes, basic to start. I have done some on my own, but I was not happy with my results
Size of ring and hardness of material as well as hand strength will guide an individual to the right choice of tools. For the tiny stuff I use 2 good pair of needlenose. For most all else - I use 2 pair of old loose channel lock pliers as the best choice ergonomically speaking.
The BEST advice I can give you is, to start - use whatever you’ve got and , if you stick with it, then make a more careful considered choice of tools.
The most difficult thing you have to learn in the beginning is how to correctly lay down a piece of work in progress so you can tell where the next rings in the pattern will go.
I’ve taught dozens of people in the last 30 years.
Never thought about using channel locks.
Can you check the tools we have available in jewelry first and let us know if they will work?
I’ll do that next time I’m in
You taught me 20 years ago. I don’t do much these days, but when I do, it’s always with channel lock plies…usually from harbor freight. I can’t work with anything other than stainless steel rings. Like you, everything else seems too soft.
I’ll watch the calendar for the class. Maybe we can have a (metal)knitting circle again at some point.
Glad to see you finally joined DMS.
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I’m interested as well as my girlfreind.
I am very interested in this class!
I would like to do the classes too been wanting to make a chain mail shirt
Would be very interested
I took a look at the jewelry tools. The needlenose there are good for small jewelry grade rings and jump rings, but for medium and heavy stainless I recommend channel locks.
I use snubnose modified Knipex linesman pliers for heavy rings, but don’t usually work with anything bigger than 12 ga stainless. They have good grip without marking up the rings and decent handle length to reduce hand strain. I don’t do much in heavy rings because I don’t have access to a pen welder or patience to rivet them for strength. Butted heavy stainless just doesn’t cut it for use as armor and if it’s costume armor, might as well get the benifit of reduced weight and cost and from aluminum imo.
This is, in part, why I prefer to work in hardened spring stainless steel. Something in the high 40 rockwell hardness range - you can’t leave tool marks.
When $$$ is no object - 306 non-magnetic stainless spring steel with a rockwell hardness of 48 to 50 - turned by a spring manufacturer in quantity.
What used to be Hemphill Spring company in southern California ( since sold twice ) would sell stainless butted rings closed flush and tumbled for burrs - Price in the late 1980s was $167/10000 plus shipping - Then stainless steel prices went through the roof and the same thing is now over $300 last time I checked. This was the gold standard for rings for many years.
Spring machine cut rings are not so much cut as " fractured " off. A cutting blade with a rockwell hardness in the 56 range comes down and breaks the hardened steel ring off what is essentially a 1 turn spring. As the ID is broken off flush at something like 1/10th of a MM more than perfect round, there is spring tension holding the butted ring closed. This gives you a smooth virtually / nominally perfect closure air tight in most cases and less than the width of a human hair in all cases which is under spring tension to remain closed.
Non magnetic stainless a.k.a. marine stainless a.k.a 300 series alloy stainless has so little iron in it as to make no difference and will never rust w/ red spots when it oxidizes. Magnetic stainless does " rust " and needs periodic wipe downs with WD40 to stay shiny.
Then “Lord Randolph” took it a step up and had punched stainless washers with the same inner diameter made to weave with the butted stainless rings. - That’s the platinum standard.
And diamond standard would be to weave the solid washer rings with riveted links - but no-one could afford such a thing.
The silver standard for links is hand sawn or hard sheered links. Hand sawn cut links have material removed so the rings will be out of true round no matter what. Sheered rings are most effectively made with cut down modified aviation snips and leave cut marks and often slightly deform the rings out of true unless you go with really soft stuff in which case the cut marks are deep & noticeable.
Then there’s the bronze standard - rings cut by bolt cutters ( Sears Craftsman has a tool return black list - I’m on it for 8 inch bolt cutters having had 5 pair replaced ) or wire cutters leave " peaks " so you have a ring that is essentially impossible to close flush. These can leave razor sharp edges that can slice the wearer to pieces and trap human hair more effectively than most things man has designed to actually do so. You’ll see a lot of this in amateur SCA armor made of galvanized fence wire rings.
I do know the process for making riveted mail links in the European fashion, but find no need for this far more labor intensive exercise given spring tempered stainless.
Anti-ballistic chainmail is possible but never something I’d recommend done. Light weaves are no match for bullets or arrows. Heavy 8 on 2 weaves will work but I don’t recommend it having fired bolts, arrows, and bullets myself.
As for blade protection, in most cases, the person in no armor trained with a foil or epee will kill the heavily armored viking with an axe in an open " fair " fight one on one. And the grounded knight will almost always fall to the peasant with the equivalent of an ice pick. I trained in Foil and Sabre in the past as a fencer.
Commercial butcher gloves and shark suits are made of welded links made, most often, by Whiting & Davis. I’ve used the butchers gloves myself and recommend them. As for shark suits - an intensely stupid idea imo - great whites have a measured biting force of 8000 LBs per square inch. They may not remove the limb, but you won’t want it and if it was a serious attack, a doctor will likely be removing the limb for you later if you make it out of the water at all.
And that’s the benefit of 30 years of experience on rings in a nutshell. 
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I’m interested in a class! I love chainmailling, and have a scalemail sleeve project right now that I need some advice on.
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