Hey Everyone,

I wanted to share another chainmail pattern with you, this one is called the Half Persian 4-1 weave. It's part of the Persian family of weaves, and gets it's name because each ring is connected to 4 other rings. I like using this pattern for necklaces and bracelets, and it's great for men's or women's jewelry.

In this instructable I'm using 16 gauge 5/16" rings. You can make rings yourself by coiling wire around a dowel or metal rod and cutting the coil into individual rings with side cutters or tin snips. If you're just starting out with chainmail, you can use galvanized steel wire, commonly used for electric fencing, to create a large number of rings at a very low cost. Alternately, rings are available from a number of sources online in many different types of materials.

This is a difficult project to show using only photos, so please also check out the video if you're struggling with any of the steps here.

Here is a direct link to the video:

Step 1: Starting the Weave

Start off by closing 4 rings and putting them on one open ring.

Next, lay the unit as shown in the third image. Make sure the middle ring is oriented so it is sloped down towards you. Slide the top right ring under the bottom left ring, as depicted by the arrow in the fourth image.

If done correctly, this will yield a result similar to the orientation of the rings in the fifth image.

This is not easy to explain with photos and text, so please check out the video if you're struggling with it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2_FGpSNk5o

Step 2: Adding Rings

From the previous step, we manipulated the first 4-1 unit so the rings are forming the beginning of the pattern. Now, we need to add rings to it to continue the pattern and hold these rings in place.

For these instructions to make sense, your rings have to be orientated exactly like mine. If they are not laying the exact same way, go back to the last step and try again. Also watch the video to see how the rings need to 'slide' into place.

Start off by taking 1 open ring and put one closed ring on it. Coming from the bottom, put the open ring up first through the third ring from the left, then up through the second ring, then down through the 4th ring, and finally close it.

In this tutorial, all my open rings are black and all the closed rings are silver. Silver black rings will never go through another black ring and silver rings will never go through a silver ring.

Step 3: Adding More Rings

To continue the pattern, add more rings in the same manner described in the last step. Make sure you don't lose your orientation of the chain, keep it in place and continue adding on to the right of the chain.

Step 4: Making a Chain

Continue this until you've got a chain the length you want. You could use a clasp on the ends, or join them together for a nice continuous look.

Step 5: Joining the Ends

If you decide to join the ends together, first line them up and orient the rings so they are congruent with the pattern.

You'll need 3 open rings for this. Follow along with the photos to see how I did it, but basically you're just going to continue the pattern.

Step 6: Other Variations

You can play around with other variations of this pattern with different ring sizes and materials. One of my personal favourites is using 20 gauge 5/32" copper rings, as shown in the image here.