Alright so considering I have over 20 weaves I've decided to condense these into 4 separate categories, and just run through the steps in each variant. Note feel free to visit my site: http://thatsalotofgiraffes.com/tabmail-2/ for HQ instructions and more individualized tutorials. There's also a gallery page and an about page talking about how my Soda Can Chain Mail came about. For reference all my weaves are original and I've only seen 1-2 styles that are close to mine on the internet, and I felt it would be better to show off my work and inspire others to make their own soda can chain mail.
This category is the weird stuff, these combine use of larger rings to make very unique weaves, and this is much harder than the other 3 categories (think of this as the advanced section to TabMailling)
Things needed.
Tabs - A whole lot of them, see each step for Sq Ft. per weave, but note it varies from 300-800 per sq. ft.
Rings - The rings used here are (Machine Cut) Bright Aluminum Rings I purchase mine from TheRingLord most weaves you need just about as many rings as you have tabs. I'll tell you in each tutorial what each weave requires.
Pliers - Again I use the RingLord's plier set - it's cheap and for over 4 years of use they've been perfect in every way. You can use your own pliers though.
Cutters - For Captured ChainTab for reference on how to do ChainTab visit this tutorial.
Time - These are harder still than ChainTab or TabMail, and it's very easy to confuse things and have to redo work.
I'll cover a couple different styles here each in it's own "step"
This category is the weird stuff, these combine use of larger rings to make very unique weaves, and this is much harder than the other 3 categories (think of this as the advanced section to TabMailling)
Things needed.
Tabs - A whole lot of them, see each step for Sq Ft. per weave, but note it varies from 300-800 per sq. ft.
Rings - The rings used here are (Machine Cut) Bright Aluminum Rings I purchase mine from TheRingLord most weaves you need just about as many rings as you have tabs. I'll tell you in each tutorial what each weave requires.
Pliers - Again I use the RingLord's plier set - it's cheap and for over 4 years of use they've been perfect in every way. You can use your own pliers though.
Cutters - For Captured ChainTab for reference on how to do ChainTab visit this tutorial.
Time - These are harder still than ChainTab or TabMail, and it's very easy to confuse things and have to redo work.
I'll cover a couple different styles here each in it's own "step"
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Signing UpStep 1: Captured ChainTab
This is a very complex weave simply for the amount of steps, and the nature of combining TabMail with ChainTab elements. This uses 16 ga 1/4 AR 4.2 & 16 ga 5/16 AR 5.3 Bright Aluminum Rings
Difficulty: 5/5 – This has 20+ steps for a reason
Flexibility: 3/5 – Vertically it only flexes a bit, but it’s surprisingly moveable.
Tabs per sq. ft: ~850
1/4 Rings per sq. ft: ~475
5/16 Rings per sq. ft: ~75
1. Start off with some 2-ChainTab (just 3 long as shown) – although you’ll want a couple of these.
2. Add some more cut tabs to the top.
3. And connect to make a 2-4-2 chain.
4. Now thread a 5/16 through the middle and close (should only surround the 4 tabs middle bars.)
5. Lay out 2 sets of tabs back-to-back, and for the top add a tab with the bottom half sticking out (between the 2 back-to-back tabs) and do the same but with the top sticking out in the bottom set.
6. Now switch to 1/4 rings (You only use 5/16 in the middle of the 4 tabs), and connect the bottom group.
7. And the top.
8. Now thread a 1/4 ring through the 5/16 and the 2 overlapping tabs (make sure the top one is facing – actually you can do it the other way – just keep it consistent)
Now here’s where you can “customize” see below is actually a swatch where the TabMail section is only 1 – wide. (This tutorial follows a 2 – wide pattern) but essentially you can make it as wide as you like, and best of all it doesn’t need to match you can make one part 3 wide than 1 wide then 3 wide again.
9. Since I’m making mine 2 wide though I set myself out another 2 groups as from step 5.
10. And connect.
11. Here you make as many (sections) as you’d like depending on your width (I have just 2 for this tutorial).
12. I find it’s easiest to connect the middle tab, but you’ll connect everything in the next step anyway.
13. The 2 sections connected.
14. I finish it off by adding an end chain.
15. Now you add a middle tab to the top of the section connecting down the whole line, and make sure you leave an empty space for the sections where you’ll add more ChainTab, but that they are connected to the rings as well.
16. Add your other swatch (as wide as before), but add the tabs to the bottom section.
17. Now add 4 tabs in the 4-ChainTab manor to the bottom of the upper section.
18. And connect them to the bottom section.
19. Now add that 5/16 ring to the middle bar of the 4 tabs, and connect the 2 overlapping tabs with a 1/4 ring.
20. And connect the 5/16 ring to the TabMail section (note this will require a lot of “finicking.”
21. Here’s the completed section from above, as you see the larger the piece the more it looks like the 4-Chain is studded out and “captured” inbetween the TabMail, hence the name.
Difficulty: 5/5 – This has 20+ steps for a reason
Flexibility: 3/5 – Vertically it only flexes a bit, but it’s surprisingly moveable.
Tabs per sq. ft: ~850
1/4 Rings per sq. ft: ~475
5/16 Rings per sq. ft: ~75
1. Start off with some 2-ChainTab (just 3 long as shown) – although you’ll want a couple of these.
2. Add some more cut tabs to the top.
3. And connect to make a 2-4-2 chain.
4. Now thread a 5/16 through the middle and close (should only surround the 4 tabs middle bars.)
5. Lay out 2 sets of tabs back-to-back, and for the top add a tab with the bottom half sticking out (between the 2 back-to-back tabs) and do the same but with the top sticking out in the bottom set.
6. Now switch to 1/4 rings (You only use 5/16 in the middle of the 4 tabs), and connect the bottom group.
7. And the top.
8. Now thread a 1/4 ring through the 5/16 and the 2 overlapping tabs (make sure the top one is facing – actually you can do it the other way – just keep it consistent)
Now here’s where you can “customize” see below is actually a swatch where the TabMail section is only 1 – wide. (This tutorial follows a 2 – wide pattern) but essentially you can make it as wide as you like, and best of all it doesn’t need to match you can make one part 3 wide than 1 wide then 3 wide again.
9. Since I’m making mine 2 wide though I set myself out another 2 groups as from step 5.
10. And connect.
11. Here you make as many (sections) as you’d like depending on your width (I have just 2 for this tutorial).
12. I find it’s easiest to connect the middle tab, but you’ll connect everything in the next step anyway.
13. The 2 sections connected.
14. I finish it off by adding an end chain.
15. Now you add a middle tab to the top of the section connecting down the whole line, and make sure you leave an empty space for the sections where you’ll add more ChainTab, but that they are connected to the rings as well.
16. Add your other swatch (as wide as before), but add the tabs to the bottom section.
17. Now add 4 tabs in the 4-ChainTab manor to the bottom of the upper section.
18. And connect them to the bottom section.
19. Now add that 5/16 ring to the middle bar of the 4 tabs, and connect the 2 overlapping tabs with a 1/4 ring.
20. And connect the 5/16 ring to the TabMail section (note this will require a lot of “finicking.”
21. Here’s the completed section from above, as you see the larger the piece the more it looks like the 4-Chain is studded out and “captured” inbetween the TabMail, hence the name.
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How bendable is this?
Aren't your arm movements limited by the chainmail?
and the final question: why not using just one layer of chains?
Thanks
If you are looking to get your own, and don't have the 7+ years I did to tab all of the pieces, old pieces, mistakes, and repairs that I needed you can get them easily enough. When I had a store I ordered tabs from Ebay of all places - basically just calculated tab/money ratio and picked the best - I still have a small box of 'bought tabs' for work on commissions I sometimes do for people.
Saludos.