Riveted Maille from Scratch.

Step 3 Flattening your Rings

Flattening the rings with a piston is as simple as putting a ring in the hole, placing the piston on the ring, and bashing it with a hammer. on my thigh it takes me 6 or 8 strokes. when i can put the anvil on something solid it takes me 4 strokes.
I find I get the most consistent results if i place the overlap facing away from me, parallel to the hammer handle.

Comments

[jimmyjames85]

did you make the piston you use to flatten the ring or did you purchase it?

[armourkris]

I made it. the piston itself is a big brake caliper from something and the anvil was a block of steel i found with a convenient sized hole in it.

[jimjamaroo]

I had an idea as far as possibly minimizing your amount of strokes to flatten your rings. if its possible you could first drill a hole in each corner of the anvil and part way in to the holed half and connect them more tightly. That may help reduce the amount of  "jump" you could get from each half. The second part is if its possible you could also find a place to ground or secure your anvil to like another metal surface or even substitute the metal surface for the anvil so that  the anvil will stop jumping off of your work space and from the top half. just a thought

[armourkris]

I actually ended up going the lazy rout and duct taping the 2 half's of the anvil together, that did make a big difference, I also usually place it on a cement retaining wall behind my apartment when I;m flattening rings. right now i can get a ring flattened in 2 or 3 strokes. practice also helped, i can hit them harder and faster now then when i first started.