How to make chainmail

What is chainmail?

chainmail is essentially hundreds to thousands of rings linked together to create either a peice of armour, chain, or whatever you can think of. Most peoples exposure to chainmail is a weave called the european 4 in 1.

When i was starting out I thought that this was the only type of chainmail to exist but theres actually alot more weaves that can be made. In this webpage/html file/whatever im gonna teach you how to make jump rings so you can make these weaves on your own! :D

Disclaimer: This type of chainmail isnt really historically accurate. The type of chainmail that they made in the middle ages is called rivited chainmail. Tell your friends this fun fact whenever wire type chainmail is seen in a movie or game to annoy the fuck outta them! :3 anyways I'm rambling

What is a jump ring?

A jump ring is a ring made out of wire that has a cut so you can open and close it

You can either make jump rings or buy them. if you want to buy jump rings then you need to find a shop that close to you. I dunno where you live so figure that out yourself.

Me personally i make my own jump rings becasue its much more convenient and the shops that are around me sell jump rings like they're made out of pure gold and they sell out of the good jump ring sizes regularly so fuck that.

Jump ring size, jump ring thickness

Jump ring thickness is the thickness of the wire that the jump rings are made out of. This is commonly known as the gauge of the wire. The bigger the gauge number the thinner the wire

The jump ring size is self explanatory. Its the jump ring size. Its the size of the jump rings.

the jump ring size and the thickness of your jump rings is very important to know when making chainmail. If your jump rings are too big then your weave will unravel or look like shit. Make the jump rings too small then you cant even make the weave at all becasue theres no room for the jump rings to be inserted into. So to avoid this you need to prepare and know what type of weave you want to make. the byzantine weave needs a smaller ring size compared with a gauge while the persian weave needs a bigger ring size. some weaves need multiple ring sizes like the eye of odin weave or the dragonscale weave. So know what weave you want to make and either make the jump ring sizes or buy the correct size and gauge.

How to make jump rings

So first you need a drill, some wire, a wirecutter (get a good one), and some mandrels

A mandrel is basically a cyliner that you can wrap your wire around to make a circle. Honestly anything that is cyliner shaped can be a mandrel although the cyliner has to be a even shape all the way down or else your jump ring coil will get stuck so I just suggest you get a mandrel pack from a jewelry supplier.

1. Now you need to secure that mandrel to a drill. Yannow how you change a drill bit? Its just like that

2. Now that the drill and mandrel is secured hook the wire to the base of the drill and bend it so it dosent break free when you turn on the drill.

3. Now you should place the drill somwhere youre comfy with. I put it on my lap.

4. Now hold the trigger on the drill at a speed you're comfortable with and hold the wire at the bottom of the mandrel. Make sure to gradually move your hand to where the end of the jump ring coil is so the wire dosent wrap around the wire coil that youre making. I rememebr fumbiling this part up alot when i was starting out so dont worry if you dont get it right on the first try

apologies for the shitty hand

5. continue this until theres no more mandrel left and turn off the drill and pull out the jump ring coil. It should look like a spring

6. Now you have to cut the wire. This stage isnt hard but it is tedious. If your hand starts to hurt take a break. I think theres a saw that you can buy that cuts the jump rings flush but that shit costs money like a thousand dollars so uh... i dunno i just use the wirecutters

Aaaaaaand done! you should have some jump rings!

Good beginner weaves

You can get some good how to guides on youtube and such

the box weave is pretty easy to make

the byzantine weave is just the box weave with 2 extra jump rings in the middle

The persian weave is also pretty easy to make

the classic european weave is pretty easy to make also. However its really easy to unravel at the start so take note of that

the helm weave is also pretty easy to make

Some good resources for making chainmail

The art of making things has some pretty good guides on how to make diffrent weaves and also making jump rings

Aussie mail is a pretty good channel that makes tutorials on how to make alot of chainmail weaves!

The M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League) is a pretty good resource on chainmail weaves and what they look like. Some of the weaves link to tutorials but not all of them