Ye Olde Chain Maille Rings

Step 9 Weaving rings

Having produced a pile of freshly-cut rings, now is the time to weave them into a cool garment. The most difficult part of starting out is learning to recognize the pattern when you have very few rings woven together. There are other pages on the internet describing how to weave chainmaille, but I will put a brief description here as well.

I will be using a weave called "European 4-in-1". Check out http://www.mailleartisans.org or a great instructable about European 4-in-1 maille (chainmail) speedweaving.

The first thing to do is to open up one of the rings. I used a pair of linesman's pliers for this operation, as they have very nice and square jaws. Once you have opened the ring to have about a 1/4" gap, you're ready to continue on to the next step.

Comments

[MaggieTCat]

If you open the rings by turning one edge up and the other down, you'll preserve the shape of the ring and it will be easier to weave and close. This is a trick that all jewelry makers know, since it is difficult to maintain that lovely round shape if you just pull the edges apart. =^.=

[geodez]

lots of people know that, but nice of you to tell him.