How to make Japanese 6-1 Maille Armor

Much like Japanese 4-1, 6-1 is a simple weave but provides greater strength and protection than Japanese 4-1. The method is slightly different because Japanese 6-1 does not form square-shaped patterns.

Step 1 Row 1

When making a Japanese weave, two different ring sizes are used; the larger rings are connected together by the smaller rings. To start Japanese 6-1, Take as many of the large rings as you want and connect them to each other in a long strip with the smaller rings. The pattern should be: one large ring, one small ring, one large ring, one small ring, etc. See picture below for clarity on this step.

Comments

[Shut Up Now]

hey guys, with a 6-1 oriental weave, if i use 18ga and 16ga wire, what ratio of each will i need. also, what diameter for each do you suggest.

[acoleman3]

use 16awg-1/4 for the horizontal links and 18awg-5/32 for the connectors for the gauges you specified. OR look up the worth company and order their #5 x2 oval rings. they're only $23.40/thousand and according to my calculations, you would be able to easily fit 6 of them in a 16awg-1/4 link.

[naruto the ninja13]

is 12-2 stronger? and would this also be possible with rivited rings?www.instructables.com/id/Riveted-Maille-from-Scratch/

[acoleman3]

first of all.....there is no such thing as j12-2. that is a misnomer because the count is taken from looking at the wrong links. you are really supposed to look at the horizontal links for the japanese family of weaves. j12-2 would mean 12 horizontal links going through 2 vertical which makes no sense to someone versed in maille terminology. so the proper name for this weave is j6-1 since each horizontal link passes through 6 vertical links.

native japanese gusari (maille) was never riveted. mainly because the flat or horizontal links were never larger then 16awg x 1/4in and the cross links were never never coiled from larger wire then 16awg. nanaban guasri or foreign maille was introduced from europe in the end of the momoyama period (c16th centrury) and this *was* sometimes riveted. then again, nanaban gusari is nothing but e4-1 hanging the wrong way.

to make so gusari (j4-1) stronger, they just used key ring style links which was named seiro gusari. of course *that* particular weave was woven in the style of so gusari. asa no ha gusari (j6-1) was more rare then that because it took so long to weave and was mostly used in the kote or amoured sleeves and would have hex plates built in to increase the impact resistance of the weave. the worth company sells some oval split rings that are *perfect* for seiro gusari or a seiro/asa no ha gusari hybrid and they're only $23.40/thousand for the size you'd need.

hope this helps! -bows-

[H3xx]

What size rings do you use? an aspect ratio would be nice, I have an awesome idea for a jacket and I'd like to make some Japanese 6-1 sleeves for it.

[H3xx]

By size, of course, I mean diameter. Assuming I'm using 12 gauge only.

[acoleman3]

12g?! O,..,O holy hell mate! if you go by historical conventions, teh max size for the horizontal links was 16g 1/4 in. typically the cros links were made of 18g and just large enough on the inside for the horizontal links to fit. if you were going to use 12 gauge youd be using 3/8in links for the id with this ar.

i made a pair of kote once using mild steel 14.5g 1/4 in for the horizontal links and mild steel 16g 3/16 for the connectors with 12 mild steel 18g square square plates woven into the upper arm and 3 mild steel 18g plates for the forearm. it in itself was pretty heavy but it was nice and durable. then again i had actual intentions of using it as armour in case of a knife attack. i was a bit paranoid back then. lol

[HeWantsRevenge]

this looks way fun to build...is there somewhere to find templates for shirts, heads, and whatnot?

[drahcus]

Historically, the japanese weaves were used to connect plates of armor so making a shirt or helm would be challenging with all of the contractions and expansions you would need. I would suggest using a European weave as there are already plenty of designs and tutorials for making shirts and helms. http://www.mailleartisans.org/weaves/ Dig around this site for a while.

[ineverfinishanyth]

Not that I know of, but i'm sure I could come up with a concept. A shirt wouldn't be too difficult but the design for a head piece would definitely take longer. When making a shirt, thing of making two upper-case "T" shaped pieces, one to cover the front of your body and the other to cover the back. However, covering under your armpits and along the sleeves is hard to understand. I'll try to post a drawing of my concept so that it is easier to understand.

[morganwolf]

This isn't 6-1 mail, it's 6-2 alternating, substantially different from 6-1. 6-1 means every ring is attached to 6 other rings, whereas 6-2 alternating (hopefully self-explanatory when you look at this) means the rings alternate between being attached to 6 rings or 2 rings.

[drahcus]

That is true, but as someone who works with chainmaille a lot, the japanese family of maille is categorized by the horizontal rings and not the vertical ones. Thus, this weave is called Japanese 6 in 1

[jester68]

cool. where do you get all the rings and whats the best tool to use in closing the rings?

[ineverfinishanyth]

Well you can make the rings or buy them from a company called "The Ring Lord". I just use two bent-nose pliers to close my rings.

[Grey_Wolfe]

I buy my rings from theringlord website. Great quality and they close very flush. Making the ring seem nearly solid.

[Morliane]

oops looks like you lost one of the small rings in the bottom row in the 12 in 2.
Sorry I have an almost scary sense of pattern recognition. I spot almost everything out of place.

[thepelton]

I am having problems downloading material from this site. Since Friday, it keeps freezing up and going offline every time I try. Before Friday, I was not having any problem at all. I want a copy of this. Please debug it.

[thepelton]

As of today, the eighth of June, it seems to be working fine again. Thank you.

[ineverfinishanyth]

i'm not entirely sure if i can/ how to debug it....however if you give me an email i can try emailing all the info+pics

[thepelton]

Gives me an idea for a belt.

[Abhorsen]

Hell yeeeessssss! This looks awesome, i'm tryin to do this!

[Applejacks]

Nicely done. Out of curiosity, is that coat hanger wire on the 12-2?

[ineverfinishanyth]

Yeah I had abunch of those rings lying around from a while ago so I decided to use them

[karossii]

very nice 'ible! One note, in the first picture on step 6, the 12-2 weave, one ring is missing; from the first link of row 2 to the second link of row 3, there is a single smaller loop, not two... :)

[ineverfinishanyth]

oops sorry about that, it was about 9:00 when i made that piece and believe me after school by brain is dead :)

[corey_caffeine]

myfavorite weave that i've seen