European 4-in-1 maille (chainmail) speedweaving

European 4-in-1 maille (chainmail) speedweaving
First of all: maille, mail, chainmail... their all different words for the same thing. I like to use the word maille, but I'm sure some like the other words better.

Maille is a form of armour. It was invented by the Celts and it became very popular in the middle ages, where it was used as 'standard' armour for allmost all soldiers, because it's flexible and prevents cuts from swords, knives etc. Nowadays maille is made for other re-enactments, as 'alternative' clothing, or just for fun like I do.

Back in the days maille was made out of mild steel rings which were riveted. Which means: a lot of work. Today most of the maille is made out of steel wire. And it's not riveted anymore. It's called "butted".

The most common weave is without a doubt "European 4-in-1" (or E 4-1). This is the way the rings were linked in Europe in the middle ages. I'll come back later on the 4-in-1 thing.

I'm Belgian and I live in Brugge (Bruges). But when I was a child, I visited the "Gravensteen" (that's a castle castle) in Gent. There, someone was making maille at the time. I found it very fascinating and the thought of making some my own never leaved my mind really. Some time ago I started making my own maille. Currently I'm making a coif (have a look on Google Images if you don't know what a coif is).

The technique I use is called "speedweaving" because it's one of the fastest ways to make maille. What I will describe is not the only way to speedweave, but this is the one I use, and which works great for me. I did not invent this technique. I'm just sharing it with the world...
 
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Step 1Making the rings

Making the rings
Let's start making rings.

I used galvanised steel wire. For two reasons: it's easily obtainable and it's cheap. My wire is 1,5 mm thick.

Making rings starts with transforming your wire into coils. And than cutting the coils with a mini bolt-cutter. I won't describe the whole coil-making process but I'll include some pictures of the way I do it. Perhaps I will come back to writing this piece out one day.

My coils have an inner diameter (ID) of 6 mm, but because of a thing called "springback" the rings have a real inner diameter (RID) of 6,4 mm). My rings have an aspect ratio (AR) of 4,3. This is the ratio of RID and the wire size.
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392 comments
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Nov 12, 2011. 9:28 AMDehLeprechaun says:
Good Gravy!! If it took you 50 HOURS to do that coif then my plan for full body coverage of mail will NEVER happen, that's out the window...
Nov 27, 2011. 6:13 PMsokamiwohali says:
that aint nothing!!! i spent 50 hours making a 2" bracelet out of 24GA stearling silver rings. the bracelet was made for my son before he was born, and when he was born, it fit PERFECTLY.
Jan 15, 2012. 10:30 PMDehLeprechaun says:
yup, still not gonna happen!!!
Jan 16, 2012. 7:27 AMsokamiwohali says:
a coif is a bit more complicated than a full ody maille suit tho. i made half a hauberk vest that went to my waist in about 3 or so hours...not counting the prep time (i made my own rings for that).
Aug 3, 2007. 11:37 AMfunwithfire325 says:
is this a hobby are is it fun? yes im serios
Nov 27, 2011. 6:09 PMsokamiwohali says:
Chain mail is one of those limitless types of hobbies. i specialize in making jewelry out of chainmaille...i can make womens lingere, bathing suits (prolly not the best thing to wear when swimming but hey if your good enough at swimming than why the heck not?...lol)
Jul 16, 2011. 12:43 AMthe.rollie says:
if you like chainmail then yes ,i can be fun. any hobby is as fun as you let it be
Jun 23, 2007. 1:39 PMInspectorD says:
Man, You have too much time on your hands. It seems that it would take weeks to make anything of any size that would be useful.
Jul 12, 2009. 10:57 AMscalarcharge says:
try months. and where do you think (aside from shark attacks) that chain mail would be useful? it's just cool
Nov 11, 2011. 12:41 AMLord Jon Bigglesworth says:
Actually, maille is much better suited to fending off bladed sweeping attacks (although a form of it is used for crazy people wishing to dive with sharks).
Jun 25, 2007. 7:37 PMHOMEPIE64 says:
as I said to someone else you are on a fricken website that is only diy where you spend fricken time doing projects and learning how are you saying that being a member of instructables(im not looking for confrentation im looking at a point of the matter)
Jun 24, 2007. 12:03 AMAustringer says:
My trick during college was to keep a handful of rings and my pliers in my backpack. There are about 20 times a day when I found myself having just enough time to put a handful of rings together. When the piece got too big to haul around I thew it in my closet. When I had a pile of them, I put them together into a shirt.
Mar 29, 2008. 9:11 PMRFilyaw says:
Duh, that's what Nintendo DS is for. Just kidding! But seriously, Instructables.com is for wasting time when time ought be wasted.
Jul 13, 2009. 10:38 PMSFHandyman says:
Someone criticized my "How to Make Butter" video on YouTube as a waste of time. (I uploaded it to illustrate my How to Make Butter Instructable)

Commenter #1: "Ever heard of Land O lakes? Too much work for so little yield. Does it taste that much "fresher" than just getting butter from the store?"

Commenter #2 "that's what i was thinkin :). would be good if you're retired i guess and really bored "

My reply "I find it funny that you thought it was a waste of time when you just watched a ten minute video on how to make butter --- but you don't want to make butter. hahaha / jk"

Commenter 2: "you may have a point there :) ".
Nov 10, 2009. 10:59 AMemrose says:
This step 4, pic 2.... my brain simply won't register this step!  I think the pliers are hiding what I need to see.  If anyone could help I'd sure appreciate it!
Thanks!
Jun 8, 2010. 3:18 AMdwilkie says:
The middle ring of the three is joined to the two rings on the right hand side 2 pieces of the 5 you made already. So like this:
mail.jpg
Nov 10, 2011. 10:46 PMLord Jon Bigglesworth says:
I was with emrose. Thanks!
Aug 14, 2011. 5:43 PMtinker234 says:
wow how small can i make the chain mail also could i use titam andd other materials to absorb shock to make a retlvy bullet proof material
Nov 10, 2011. 10:42 PMLord Jon Bigglesworth says:
Allow me to elaborate upon why chain mail cannot deflect bullets. Chain mail is made out of tiny rings (which we already know). Therefore, it acts similarly to a suspended cloth, a curtain for example. If you were to hit that curtain with a baseball bat, it would simply move out of the way. The same would happen if you were to take a sweep at it with a somewhat unsharpened sword. However, were you to fire an arrow at the curtain, the arrow would puncture it entirely. This is due to the fact that the arrow cuts by putting an incredible amount of pressure on a very small point, whereas a sword sweep puts a lesser amount of pressure on a much larger area. Chain mail works by stopping a few points on that blade with the rings, because if one point on the edge is stopped, physics denies all other points on that blade passage. However, an arrow (or bullet, I suppose) is concentrated on so small a point that it is highly unlikely the small surface area of the rings would be able to catch it. Even if the arrow were to hit one of the rings, there is so much pressure that the ring would be forced inwards into the person wearing the armor. It is interesting to note that a bow and arrow can puncture Kevlar, because it relies on both speed and sharpness to kill, while bullets are considerably more blunt since they have overwhelming speeds. The Kevlar can stop them by spreading out the force, as long as it is not punctured. Why don't we all carry crossbows? I do not know. Long story short, there is a reason why bows were so popular and so deadly, and why rich people liked plate armor.
Oct 28, 2011. 9:33 AMacombs3 says:
1. Maille can be as small as you want, but to make smaller maille you will need smaller wire.

2. Yes, titanium can be used to make maille. Titanium wire, as well as other hard to find maille supplys can be purchased at theringlord.com.

3. Maille is not, and will not be bullet proof. Period. It was designed to deflect blades, and is not much good at anything else. If you are hit by a bullet while wearing maille, the bullet will most likely shatter the wire and drive it into your body; that would hurt.
Nov 4, 2011. 3:41 PMtinker234 says:
ahh okay thanks
Sep 17, 2011. 3:58 PMltailer says:
by titam i asume u mean titanium second this would be impossible titanium is one of the most rigid metals on earth second to tungsten you could never bend them into shape also there is only one place on earth you can cut it so sorry.
Nov 27, 2011. 6:06 PMsokamiwohali says:
I am throwing in the BS towel. you can make titanium rings, and you can maille with it. and theres not one place on earth that can cut titanium rings. The Ring Lord based in Canada makes and cuts their own rings and then sells them for use as chain maille. its just a little difficult to work with cause its pretty springy.
Sep 17, 2011. 5:21 PMtinker234 says:
yeah sorry about my spelling
Sep 6, 2011. 7:57 PMisaac9324 says:
Im sorry but no chain mail is going to be bullet proof no mater what material it's made of. If you want bullet proof armor that's not a BP vest get some 1/8 in. steel plates those were early BP vest. 1/8 in. is probably alittle overkill on it but ya kno.
Sep 9, 2011. 2:01 PMtinker234 says:
i mean on top of some other bllet proof things just so it its easer maybe in the futre
Sep 17, 2011. 4:10 PMltailer says:
adding the chain mail would just add dead weight you want it to be bullet proof you will need top of of the line mail made with using sumthing like silicone carbide and several layer's of it and i mean several as in like 7 3 or 4 i mean 7 or 8
Apr 28, 2010. 8:58 PMaddanephew says:
here is a easy way to do it. when you do two sets of the rings of three, put the connecting ring in the bottom two in the middle and put it through the top two rings nest to each other.
Jun 25, 2011. 10:06 AMtopside says:
I was just about to post this exact idea!
Dec 27, 2010. 10:38 PMcrystaldeth says:
I do that too, I find it to be quicker. That way you don't have to re-open the ring, just loop through the third one.
Apr 17, 2011. 6:06 PMSteampunkManiac says:
Just by looking at the pictures on the first page I can tell how to make this
Jan 17, 2009. 3:27 PMiknowirule3 says:
Where do you find the wire? I searched Wal-Mart, Google, ect, ect.....but I still can't find it. Can anyone tell me where to go?
Jan 15, 2011. 1:04 AMducttapeunicyclist says:
Try home depot.
Mar 11, 2010. 7:47 AMGANSTAMAN4 says:
i found some good quality 18 gauge wire at a local home depot or lowes
Feb 26, 2010. 8:35 AMyeti bear says:
 i get mine at tractor supply (14 ga galv) pretty cheep... does anybody have a good source for 16ga stainless??
Sep 4, 2009. 12:28 PMILIKEPIE333 says:
Go to Home Depot, thats the first place that comes to mind...
Aug 22, 2009. 7:06 AMmando_jtt says:
I have yet to see anyone suggest where I got my wire... the local recycling yard. 19 strand high voltage aluminum grounding wire. Sure, it is work to un-wrap the strands so they can be coiled, but its worth the $1.70 I paid for what equals 6500 rings. And for the nay-sayers, 14G aluminum are 3/8 dia. ring is quite sufficient for light combat grade, at 1/3 the weight of steel.
Apr 20, 2009. 11:51 AMWurdBendur says:
Rural King, Tractor Supply Co, or similar places, some hardware stores. They sell it as electric fence wire.
Jun 9, 2009. 10:53 AMSpeedmite says:
Or notebook spirals.
Sep 4, 2009. 12:29 PMILIKEPIE333 says:
They might be a little flimsy
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