Riveted Maille from Scratch.

Step 5 Riveting the Rings

To rivet your rings shut the first thing you'll need are rivets. fortunately 16ga. wire happens to be 1/16" in diameter so it fits in the holes we punched perfectly. To make rivets just grab a foot or so of wire and cut it down into bits about 1/8" long. Now you have your rivets. Pretty simple eh?

To rivet a ring shut start by slipping a rivet through the hole. try and get it more or less centered.

Next take your set tongs and grab the rivet so that one end is in the divot then with smooth even pressure squeeze the tongs shut. This should compress the rived lengthwise causing it to swell on either side of the hole,leaving a flat bump on the bottom and a domed one on the top.


When it comes time to actually weave maille I like to rivet 4 rings, feed them onto a fifth ring then rivet it. I usually make a few dozen of these at a time then connect them all together. I don't think it's actually any faster than going one ring at a time, but it looks like it goes together faster, and that helps keep me sane.

As well riveted maille has an inside and an outside. if you're making for example a shirt the inside should have the flat sides of the rivets and the domed side should be the outside. I'm not sure if it really makes much difference in the long run, but that's how it was done back then, so that's how I'm doing it now.

Comments

[Timfee]

Man, this is fantastic . I wonder how you don't get mad doing this, but the result is beautiful . I love it . Congrats !

[armourkris]

patience seasoned with insanity, lots and lots of insanity, you see, I do get mad, just not the angry kind of mad.

[Gelfling6]

I resemble that remark! :-D I've been making butted maille for close to 28 years, and I tried to make some rivited rings once.. after a few failed attempts to get the ends to stay parallel, I gave-up.. (not out of lack of patience, more lack of good fingers.. began suffering a BAD case of carpal-tunnel!) Right now, have been keeping a 4 year old aluminum hauberk & coif mended for local faires.. Just noted in someone else's instructable on pop-top tab maille, I've still got the same duck-bill pliers from 11 years ago, when I finished my 1st hauberk. (made from recycled coat hangers.. I kept running out of hangars?!?!?!) My method for softening the metal, was similar.. I modified a Coleman camp stove to burn hotter, and using Propane, to anneal the metal... I later stepped back in time, taking a cast-iron pot, filling it with rings, putting a few pieces of paraffin wax (about 1/4 a slab from a box of 4), and a little gasoline to get it started, sitting on the same stove to keep it going. (nothing says psycho, like a blazing cauldron full of metal rings!) Alas, age, time constraints with my job (school bus driver), and a weak back told me to stop using the steel rings (especially when the last one weighed 95Lbs!) and I started looking to the aluminum. (quite a few spools of Fy-Shock 14-guage)..

[bmelton1]

I do not care how long this has been here. It is absolutely fantastic.

[mshate]

Beautiful crafting sir. I am currently getting my feet wet with simple galvanized wire bent into rings. I think I will use your guide when I move onto my next mail project.
Awesome work!

[ninja of suburbia]

I very much like your 'ible. This is by far the most economical and concise set of instructions I have yet seen. As a blacksmith, allow me to offer some advice. Your last step before actually hooking the rings together should be to quench them, hardening the metal, but making more brittle. this is acomplished by heating the rings to a bright orange glow, then immersing them in cool water. Then, temper the metal, thus softening it to the proper consistency. this is achieved by polishing some part of the ring. (grinding, polishing, sanding, whatever, you just need a shiny surface.) then, lightly pass the blowtorch over it until you see colors in the polished metal. I would recommend doing this until you see the slightest tinge of yellow on the metal. then let it cool, and the rings will be about twice as strong. Props for the 'ible!

[Blacklance]

AWESOME! What material was the "rivet wire" made out of though? Steel or something softer?

[armourkris]

I use the same wire i made the rings from. it's the black tie wire available at most hardware stores. It's 16gauge, anealed, and kinda black and dirty, but it works great.

[webenmopher]

i use annealed tie wire. its easy to set.

[servion]

How much does the 1/16 punch costs?

[armourkris]

The canadian distributor had a $30 minimum order so I spent $33 and got 2 punches and 2 dies shipped to my door.
thats a sweet avatar. you do PK?

[servion]

Thats right ;-)

[Speedmite]

Uggg..... Do you think there is a cheaper way? I really dont want to spend 30 bucks to punch such a small hole...

Drill press?Get a diamond 1/16" bit...Idk...

How long does it take to make an accurate punch?

[armourkris]

If you;ve already got a whitney punch or knockoff and access to a metal lathe then making your own punch and die's should be a pretty simple matter, otherwise I've seen pictures of a number of different ways to make punch tongs, but i couldnt realy say how to do it since the ones i made dint work out too well.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rivetedmaille/ has a number of pictures of peoples tools on it, and I'm sure someone there could tell you how they made their punch.

[Speedmite]

I dont got a punch, and dont want to spend the $30 for it. Dont have a lathe either. I was wondering if you thought a drill press would work instead, and how fast can you punch per ring. Just wanted your oppinion before I tried it, and if it didnt work, I would just get the punch reluctantly, or just go back to my buted mail...

[armourkris]

I dont see any reason why a drill press wont work, just make sure to hold onto your rings with a pair of pliers or something while you drill them.
It takes me between 4 and 6 seconds to grab a ring, punch it, put it into the punched ring container and be ready to get the next ring.

[Speedmite]

Ok, I was just thinking take a block of like pine, Smack a ring into it with a hammer, then clamp the wood to the press to drill where you want it. Then you get the same thing each time.

[babasfarmlife]

Excellent tutorial!  Lots of hard work went into that.  Thanks!

[JermsG]

"I don't think it's actually any faster than going one ring at a time, but it looks like it goes together faster, and that helps keep me sane."
Yes, it is faster. Working with pre-closed rings is much faster than closing them in place. Even if it weren't faster, keeping sane would be worth it!

I used to be a professional chainmaillier (managed to avoid making riveted mail though!) so I know how important it is to do anything it takes to shave a fraction of a second off each ring.
To that end, I've seen a technique which punches a small triangular hole out of each ring, flatten, and then use the triangle as the rivet (after flattening, the base of the triangle is slightly wider than the hole, so you only need to peen the top of the rivet sideways once it's in place). I think this would be quicker than your method, but I think it would catch too much - your method looks like it would have a 'smoother' result.

Nice instructable, dude.

PS, in response to DerStu: I can't vouch for riveted, but butt-joined european 4-in-1 sleeves would usually take a couple of weeks, on and off. Sleeves are actually easier than a lot of other pieces, since they're just tubes, which are just sheets rolled up. The armpits are trickier, but nowhere near as bad as coifs! Curves are hard.

[EmmettO]

 Um, wow!

I like the cold press technique you're using. I don't usually use cold techniques and this instructable is making me rethink that. Cool beans!

[DerStu]

wow you really went all out this time, riveted maille from scratch you must just like hurting your self mentally. so how long did it take you to make your sleeves or have you even finished?