Oh no! The kingdom is out of steel rings to make chainmail! What are we going to do?! Recycle old soda tabs of course! In this incredibly EASY Instructable, we turn trash into treasure by turning old soda tabs into a cosplay-ready set of chainmail. Anyone can do it, so let's get to it!

Step 1: Asembling the Materials

Listed below are the materials you will need in order to make the chainmail.

-Tin Snips (Depending on the kinds of scissors you have you could also use scissors but these will cut those tabs like butter)

- Soda Tabs (If you are compulsive soda drinker you should have plenty! If not, you can buy some online here )

- Time (You will get fast at this though!)

- Cornucopia of patience (That's right I said cornucopia)

All in all, this is a super easy project! With that being said, let's hop to it!

Step 2: Bending / Cutting / Linking

What makes the chainmail really look nice is the little bend on the top (Picture 1). You can do this with pliers or you can do it by hand. I took a piece of cloth and held it in my hands as I bent them so I wouldn't get poked by any excess metal sticking out from the soda tab. *Tip* be sure to bend them BEFORE you cut them or the tab will not look as neat.

To be able to link them together, you are going to have to give a little snip right in the middle of the bent soda tab (Picture 2). If bending each and every soda tab wasn't tedious enough, I promise you will not want to cut each one either. I noticed that if you held three of the bent tabs together at once, you could cut 3 at a time without compromising the quality of the cut (Picture 3) if you cut more than that at one time, you might get some ugly-looking cuts.

After that, you link them together by sliding a soda tab into the right and left sides of the cut top soda tab. (Picture 4). Then rinse and repeat.

Step 3: Just Keep Linking, Just Keep Linking

The cool thing about this is you can link these into any shape you want! Gauntlets, Coifs, Capes, you name it and you can do it! This step will take the most patience though. However, if you watch the extended version of Lord of the Rings to help pass the time / inspire you, the time will fly by and before you know it, BAM! You have a beautiful sea of linked soda tabs ready to compliment any knight cosplay costume!

Step 4: The Finished Product

Now just incorporate it into your knight costume and you are ready for the movies! With the soda tab chainmail complete, you have a rather professional-looking product at a fraction of the time and cost of making real chainmail! I was rather impressed with the look of it even though it is such a simple process!

I have full confidence that ANYONE could do this project. Let me know if you end up giving it a try!

If you liked this, check out another one of my Instructables here: (The Legend of Zelda: The Gale Boomerang) and I will see you on the next Instructable!