A Basic Guide to Making Chain Mail Armor

 

The wearing of chain mail and body armor has been an effective means of protection in combat and war for centuries. Its use dates back to the Greeks and early Roman Empire where warriors and legionnaires donned metal plate and mail armor. The medieval era knights are most remembered for their elaborate Armor and battle shields in brilliant colors. But a knight's armor was more than protection. It reflected his status and lifestyle. The quality of the armor was as important and the overall look and the battle efficiency. Indeed it was a fashion statement also.

The guide (e-mail attachment in PDF FORMAT) NOW! 14,825 words(65 pages...110+ pictures... 3.68 Meg)!!! and gives enough detail and incite to allow you to start a new hobby of making your own chainmail armor and jewelry.(To save a little confusion(!!)it is a GUIDE, NOT a hardbound book)

This guide is about making chainmail armor. This was written in the hopes that you may have found a new and interesting hobby. Though the techniques for making chainmail is basically the same as it was over two thousand years ago, it should be stressed that this armor is not intended, nor should it be used for personal body protection.

Here is an actual page from the guide:

Making a simple coiler:

 As stated before, making rings is one of the longest steps in mail construction.  Anything that can cut the time down can and has been used.  Here is an example with a few variations added to it:

Hand Rolled

The simplest and the most labor intensive, you provide all the power to the rolling.    All the procedures use the same first thing, a dowel.  In what ever material you use for the dowel, you need to drill a hole though the center that is just larger the wire gauge you are going to make the rings out of.  This is the wire lock.  Since you are twisting metal by hand?USE SAFTEY GLOVES to protect your hands.  Place the wire in the wire lock till the end just protrudes and then slowly twist the wire into a tight coil.  The tighter you can keep your coils, the more symmetrical the rings will be.  When finished, put the end of the wire in the wire lock and clip the end to release the coil.  Slide the coil off.

It is suggested that you use this method only for the softer metals (aluminum) and only in short, 20  to 30 , coil lengths too keep your wrist from straining.

Cranking

After a few dozen hand coils you will see the great need to simplify the procedures to produce coils 100's long.  First you have to construct some sore of base to secure the crank into.

A simple 2x4 about 2 feet long can be used as a base.  Either 2 more blocks of 2x4 (about 6 inches long) can be secured to the ends (make sure to use several fasteners as there will be a lot of stress put on the holder) or you can secure 2 eye-bolts with an inside diameter just slightly larger then the dowel diameter you are going to use.

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Knitting Patches

Once you have formed various pieces of squares etc, you will need to join or Knit them together to form one piece of mail.  After you have formed new strips as to how you want them, lay it where you want it to be on the square.  When you lay it up to the square, the bottom row of the new piece has to lay in the same way as the top row of the square.  (Both go north or both south)  If it doesn't, simply turn it around and see if it matches.  If it doesn't match then, just add one more row.

After you have the two pieces in place, take a number of rings and open them.  These rings must be opened a little wider, as you need to tread them though the two pieces to join them.  Then you do this, you must remember to form of four thought one.

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