We know that armor making is an art form. We know it. Still… it’s really easy to let yourself think that making a chain mail shirt is easy after seeing the skills [KdogCrusader] throws down in this build. His hauberk isn’t quite finished yet, though we don’t blame him from wanting to show off the work having put so much into it.
The process starts with fifty pounds of stainless steel wire. That’s the coil suspended on a rod in the upper left. It’s fed into his hacked together coiling jig where it is wound into coils that set the diameter of the rings (think long springs that aren’t springy). Coils are cut along one side resulting in that mountain of individual rings. From there it’s a matter of interlinking all of the rings. He cut apart an old T-shirt to use as a pattern during the assembly. So far the front and the back are only connected at the shoulders as he has yet to add sleeves and finish the sides.
[via Reddit]
Nothing really new here…I was doing this 15 years ago. Pretty much same exact method except I didn’t have a good source for the large of a spool of wire.
Other people were doing it a couple millennia earlier. ;)
Pics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gaul_warrior_Vacheres_2.jpg
Maybe a few hundred years ago, but not millennia. Back that far you might have leather with some rings sewn onto it, maybe – but not mail.
There’s a few extant examples of Roman maille and pre-Roman maille.
Romans started using it during the first century AD. That’s close enough to millennia by my count.
Don’t forget the Greeks and Persians had maile too. So did the Assyrians.. But theirs was bronze not iron. There has pretty much been chainmail since there has been processed metal.
How much would a Tshirt like this weight?
Well let’s see… 50lbs of stainless steel were used as a raw material. Using some back-of-the-napkin mathematics things – it must weigh around a one metric tonne, obviously.
lol – made me laugh. I was half expecting the circumstance of a circle, average weight of a ring, rings per square inch and approx number inches of cloth in an extra large t-shirt. you know back of an envelope ball park calculations.
I guess it would be more like an imperial one third of a shitload.
Well, he posted the purchase of 30 pounds, so no. Historically, a full on setup of mail with padding (very important) weighed in similarly. I suspect that is why he purchased that amount, though I doubt it will all be used unless he lengthens and makes a coif too.
“The process starts with fifty pounds of stainless steel wire.”
I’m pretty certain he won’t use all of the rings for this shirt, so my best answer is < 50lbs.
More than you’d want to wear, I have I made also out of stainless steel. It gets tiresome quick. Also it sucks to put on or remove if you have long hair. And if you dont do anything to weld or rivet the ends of the rings shut they’ll slowly bend apart and fall out. You’ll want to be sure to keep some of the excess rings around to replace the ones which will eventually fall out.
did it 15-years ago and didn’t bother to document it, other wise this could have been your work shown
I made one of these (more than 25 years ago now). The advice I was given was to ring around the local spring makers and find one who would make the rings for you by cutting the rings off each one turn. Then you simply spend your evenings in front of the telly “knitting” the rings together using two pairs of pliers.
What is it used for? EMF protection?
[Kdog-Crusader] is the answer
Getting fair damsels at the RenFaire, Cosplay, Zombie protection, Shark protection, Having your very own maille shirt. The uses are only limited by your imagination.
Great vs zombies. Only so so vs sharks and vampires. Basically any knawing monster is defeated, but piercing teeth monsters can still get through. Not nearly as deep and unable to tear flesh, but still hurts.
I have to do this… it shames me and I apologize beforehand… if you get the joke, you’re probably old like me.
“EMF protection?” – That’s… Unbelievable!!
I guess earplugs would be much better at it
I made one when I was a kid (17 years ago). All the great things you can do when you have virtually unlimited time. I found it fun to do but it’s a very slow process.
I used to see smaller stuff done with soda can pull tabs.
Pfft nothing new here my knight ancestors were making this back in the 1152. The wire was drawn from an old Grail they found and melted down (amid much peril) and wound around a shrub to make the coils.
Ni!
Assuming 20 years per generation, 1152 is long enough ago (2^42ish generations)that you are likely related to everyone not geographically isolated at that time.
Congrats! You, (probably)occidental sir, really are descended from knight ancestors.
That’s SO going on my resume.
There are quite a few books written on the subject. You can find them and people whom will teach this art at Ren Faires around the world. I did this a long time ago with a similar setup. But I used a power drill for the ring spool with a dowel-mounted “carrier/shuttle” to line up the wire on the spool(ProTip: wax up the carrier). To do the rings “properly” you need to solder, weld, or hammer-crimp each link.. or even do it the old-fashioned way by flat-hammering the joints on the rings, poking a hole through the flat part and hot-riveting them to close the link…
One point to those wishing to do this: DO NOT use heavy baling wire!!! You have to heat it up to get the diameter right for the torque you can apply easily(some are rated to 200k PSI) and it’s really hard on tools. I had two pairs of diagonal cutters go “poing” on me… then I was stuck with a 1000 feet of the stuff. I suggest starting with softer metals(I’ve seen copper and aluminum – which can be later anodized in cool colors – used with some skill to create beautiful patterned pieces… and once a piece that looked like the beryllium copper golf club heads.. with the oil-on-water sheen to it). “Invisible” or electric fence wire is a good choice. And “finer-grained” pieces such as the “Mithril Mail” seen in LoTR can be made with smaller gauges of wire.
Yeah, historically, rings were closed in some way, but in practice you can only tell if you’re up close, so butted closed is fine for most purposes that don’t involve actually getting stabbed.
Only unacceptable solution is the jagged, pointy ends left by a standard wire cutter. The butted-together points create dips that catch the other rings, so all the force ends up being applied to the weakest part and it’ll constantly come undone in spots. Also, the ends end up with sharp burs that catch clothing.
Nice job! I have been using titanium wire to make chain mail condoms for several years now.
What exactly are you fucking? Dragons?
The chain mail would leave an interesting branding pattern. That’s so hot!
pics?
Here’s one:
http://condomunity.com/wp-content/uploads/cruel-condom-design.jpg
And another”
http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/5f6/f78/5f6f78c4-4351-4d7c-87f7-cbde877eab58
Now THAT’S safe sex!
So far nothing but a nice looking replica. To withstand a spear attack or sharp shark tooth, each ring needs to be welded close. In the current state, any stabbing tool will simply open a ring by bending it open, the chainmail will only become strong if the rings are closed.
Welding, or more better riveting, never did much to stop piercing. Bodkin arrows being invented for the purpose and all…
Too bad he’s got the grain running the wrong way. (Chainmail “grain” should always run vertical, his seems to be running horizontal) See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RssIl2v0C1k this explanation on the matter.
It looks like the direction is correct to me, except at the shoulders/sleeves. He’ll want to change the direction as the arms ‘should’ have the same up/down grain to them as it goes down the arm.
Going the correct direction would help with absorbing energy from the incoming weapon as it’s moving all the weight it can instead of it hitting a semi-rigid sheet and bending the heck out of rings.
Rig some coiling jigs, specialized bolt cutters for many rings at a time (or a dremel with a cut off wheel, and a set of compression pliers, and a spot welder with custom tips for forming the molten metal into what LOOKS like riveted mail is a good investment in time and money if you are going to do a lot of this.
Will, maker of a couple shirts, a hauberk, and a good many coif. (And the mail for a kids suit of full plate armor that made it into a Sports Illustrated for Kids)
i never see someone pointwelding those chainmails, so the rings are actually closed, wouldnt that make them more durable?
Yes. Historically they were more likely to be riveted together than welded. But as you can imagine this is significantly more time consuming and as long as you aren’t actually trusting your life to it the difference isn’t worth the time.
Try assembling a shirt sometime, then once you’re done ask your self do you really want to spend even more time welding or riveting them all closed, or just replace the rings which are bound to fall out.
Should help against being tazered, and improve your physical shape with all the weight.
Drawback would be any kind of thunderstorm :)
Used to jog in a suit of this stuff with some plate legs to try to get conditioned for SCA combat. It makes a pretty jingle as you run. At night when it’s cool, people aren’t sure what to do with that sound coming at them in the dark at break-neck speeds.
As it was put to me, “I wasn’t sure what to do, run and hide? or freeze!”
As for thunder storms, a full suit of chainmail can be used to create a skinning effect for Tesla generators… Might attract lighting more, BUT you might be better protected from it. (Still, rather not chance it. Hah! )
Will
Lol, yeah that must have been quite the experience for those people surprised at night, talk about a WTF moment :)
Well… Making chainmail is always a lot of work, but we should not forget, that historical chainmails were almost always riveted… Riveting thousands of rings? That’s was really insane work… And still sometime is, look at this: http://rivetedchainmail.pl/rm_02.html
The site’s name is “Lord of the riveted rings”. Seriously?
http://www.mailleartisans.org/ should be a great resource for anyone interested in chain maille.
Chain maille is a lot of work. The time and dedication that goes into making one is really impressive, even more so when some effort on research has been made.
What a frightening amount of work. Could you also thread coils (perhaps alternating left-hand and right-hand coils) together? Yeah, it would no longer be chain mail, but would it work?
They do something like that to weave chain link fences and the gloves some butchers wear.
I used stainless steel welding wire to make mine. Sears wouldn’t let me replace my wire cutters after the fourth pair. Kept breaking the tips off them. Never finished the shirt, I don’t even know if I still have it, haven’t seen it since the move from AK.
You should try the mini bolt cutters knipex makes. I made an entire hauberk out of stainless welding rod and the blades aren’t even dented.
I do this all the time
This kind of chainmaille really is old-school. I have heard of machines which automatically make sheets of this stuff, where each ring is automatically welded closed. Now THAT’S an article I want to see on Hackaday.
If you’re cutting rings with wire cutters, the best I’ve found is to use the right-angle ones (blade is parallel to the rivet in the cutters) and to only nick the wire with the blades, and then grab the opposite side of the ring and rotate it around the nicked spot, shearing it off. The ends come out with beveled spots going into the flat end, but they do come out much flatter than if you were to bite clean through, and it’s much quieter to boot.
I don’t know all the intricacies that go into making something like this but it must’ve taken a fair amount of skill to work the chain like that! Great job and thanks for posting.