Making Chainmail

[Buster's Uncle]

If you haven't already, check out 20 Images of Women in Practical Armor, where I came up with the design I'll be making here.  Not all the armor is actual armor and some isn't practical, but some of the twenty women are babes, and much of the armor is legit, to my eye.

I intend to walk anyone interested through how to make chainmail w/ many pics (though I'll have to click the webcam with a toe for a lot of two-hand parts, something to which I'm not looking forward) while I make my idea for a somewhat more realistic design for the Red Sonya-eaque "chainmail bikini" a reality. 

-Still crap armor -exposing your belly for swordfights automatically is- but still much better coverage, more comfortable, designed to support the weight of the mail better, so armor-grade thickness is doable -actual chainmail bikinis I've seen were made of ridiculously light links- and leaves room for better anatomical support lining for your hot-looking warrior-woman on the go - also, she's less likely to fall out of it just walking around.

Sorry, boys.

I've finally lined up everything I need to begin "knitting" (it's tedious, repetitious, work that I call Knitting for Men [nerdz]) but first, some concept illustration of the design.  (Knitting begins next post, unless someone comments first [which I would forgive ]).


This shows you the basic structural idea.  It's a round camail/ventail - you've seen them lots of times in movies - once in a blue moon, actual chainmail, not a silver cloth or loose knit painted silver yoke/dickey.  Normally, you just make the top of a chainmail shirt not like this, but straight rows/rectangular, sorta like a t-shirt.  Falls over the shoulders and body just fine, and any sleeves follow your arms down just like a t-shirt.

A round camail is not a great way to start a standard full shirt - the curve of the rows can be a problem down on the torso, where it needs to be straight (and I've seen a shirt or two made that way before, that hung looking bad on the wearer for just that reason; not the work of ultra-skilled armorers).  But for this project, it's part of the essential look, and I'm going to put all the concentric-row expansion links in a line on the shoulders to cause the front and back to hang straighter. 

See also the attachments below for pics of a full-sized shirt I made out of the tiny 16 gauge wire links (I'm going to use for the doll mail I make first) with a camail top.  I must have not had fitting me in mind when I made it; too hard to get in/out of and someone my height and build 20 pounds lighter could wear it a lot better.  Still, I'm sucking my gut in only a little, and the fit flatters - which you don't get with bigger links in a suit that is loose enough to fit right.  Something comfortable you can breathe and move in hangs down straight from your widest point -under the armpit in a shirt- and does not flatter the form at all, though belting it in helps.  The second attachment of the whole shirt laying flat on the basement floor is not reduced to spare the bandwidth and only be as big as will default display (reduced 50% so the forum will take it - if you're seriously interested in learning how to do this, click on it and/or download; at full size, you can easily make out individual links, and get an idea of how they fit together and the pattern -of the camail top, especially.


The basic design.  The loin flaps will swing as the woman moves, which is several kinds of problem, but, part of the style and all - and armoring your privates is never a bad idea.  This at least is decent armor for the neck and shoulders, the chest window exposes the heart, sorta - but gotta leave something showing or not real sexy.  This is a COSTUME design; leave me alone.  It does make working a pushup bra into the lining a lot easier to conceal, but it shows a lot.  The lacing and bows are born of necessity, so the top can be gotten over the head and below the chest won't try to hang straight down, ruining the look.  I figure making the bows red and obvious adds to the sexy.


With a fiery red mane of hair, just for looks, gloves and high boots, like a lady might want with this.

The next two are to point out how much better the design would work for colder weather over some clothes.  Uno asked for the blue-shirt version.



A mail bikini top would just look stupid over a tunic, I reckon.



Mylochka has done a run at 3D modeling it:





Considering the limitations of Daz3D and her understanding of how mail hangs, not bad.


Next:  we begin work on a Barbie-scale prototype; at that size, it won't take that long to complete...

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm putting off how to make the coils you cut the links off of out of a reel of 16 gauge ('lectric fence) wire until later, but I will cover that.


To start out, I want to point out what common and cheap tools this takes to work in 16 gauge links this size (the larger 12-gauge bigger links for more serious human-scale mail is another matter):

90% of what's filling this zipper bag is a lot more coils of wire than I'll be using to make a Barbie-scale suit of my semi-bikini design.  The rest is a few tools.  The cloth it's sitting on was also in there - it is not just there for a photo background.  A piece of fabric about double the size of a big washcloth (but a nappy towel would snag on open links constantly - smooth-ish cloth) could be done without, but is really not optional.  Keeping everything on a cloth helps you keep it together, especially if you do a lot of knitting while you watch TV (recommended, lest you die of boredom) with it laying on your belly or in your lap.  When you need to get up, just pick up opposite edges and roll the whole shebang up and set aside.



Regular pliers, needle nose pliers, wire snips, a wire coil and the rod I turn coils on (nothing with that last right away).


Coil unstretched.


Stretching the wire out - you want about the wire's thickness spacing for ease of cutting - and ease, when the knitting of links commences, of threading onto the closed links in the row above.


Cutting.  Snip snip snip - these snips aren't ideal (unlike the snips Mylochka made off with last year, which had less-angled blades); you want to cut in a straight line, or you'll have a lot of unnecessary trouble closing the links and butting the ends neatly, and you'll get irregular sizes if you don't cut straight.  You want boring regularity of links for a pretty end product.


You start a piece of mail by making a plain straight chain.

...

I wanted to make it as far as actually having three rows of mail tonight, which is only a step away, but the webcam isn't a great setup, and working the mouse with my foot to take pics is even more problematic than I thought.  I need to draw a diagram of the basic link pattern for clarity I can't get holding it up close to the webcam.  Next time.

-It really is okay to comment and discuss between installments.  Comments/conversation are about the only payment I get for any project I post, and these things work out better for everyone when I'm not getting stiffed...

[Rusty Edge]

How much overlap on a ring?

[Buster's Uncle]

Spatially as it hangs or what?

[Buster's Uncle]

Oh; you mean butting the ends when you close the links, don't you?  No overlap.  Everyone I ever heard of today just butts ends touching.  I don't recall ever seening the key-ring approach I think you're talking about applied.

Now, medieval smiths making real mail that would get someone killed if it failed in battle ran the links through a sort of punch press that flattened the rings from their spiral as cut off the coil and pressed the ends into flat tabs with a tiny hole, which they'd overlap and rivet.  Makes sense, but strikes me as very labor-intensive on a job that already was.  I believe that tended to involve working in soft wrought iron and throwing the finished mail into a low buried charcoal fire for about a day to case-harden it to steel.

I need to look around for illustration of more stuff, clearly.

[Rusty Edge]

Yes, I was wondering about overlap, and how you got it consistent... other than practice, practice, practice.  There wasn't a close-up of a finished ring.

[Buster's Uncle]

Just a circle with ends touching, I'm afraid.

I will look around today for more pictures that show details I can't readily photograph.

[Dio]

I wanted to make it as far as actually having three rows of mail tonight, which is only a step away, but the webcam isn't a great setup, and working the mouse with my foot to take pics is even more problematic than I thought.

The reasons that BUncle must take pictures with his feet . The mental imagery makes me grin .

[Buster's Uncle]

Only got two hands, and need both for most anything in chainmail-making.  Complicates taking pictures of my process.  Now I wish I hadn't given away my wireless mouse, 'cause just moving the mouse to the floor is a pain unless I'm going to leave it there or not post in between taking photos.


Also, my eyesight has gone WAY downhill since the last time I chainmailed - I sorta need reading glasses to see what I'm doing well enough, which is also a pain when I need to look up at the screen to see what the webcam sees.

[Buster's Uncle]

I found the camera, so I struggled back into the small-link shirt to get a full-length picture:



The lettering-looking markings you probably notice is lettering; that's the t-shirt underneath.  I had to use the flash to get it in focus and couldn't get rid of the selfie glare.  At least this has the advantage of showing one arm raised so you san see how it hangs that way, and some detail at the armpit.  Zoom in pm the pic and have a close look at details and especially the ring pattern at what edges show clearly.  I'm cranking up the sharpen on a lot of these chainmail photos to bring out the highlights and make the link pattern clearer unzoomed.

You can tell by the improved shininess at the armpit that I filled it in some later, which I wish I hadn't done - you need freedom of movement in armor more than you need your armpit protected, and that's exactly where I'd let it out some if I was going to work on it to get a better fit.  If you look close, you can also see a fundamental problem with 16 gauge on a live person who moves - the links are a tiny bit too weak and occasionally one or two pop open enough to let go of the surrounding links.  Never happens with much larger 10-12 gauge links.  A pity, too; the tiny-link mail would make a mighty fine mithril shirt for that small person cosplaying a hobbit in the LARP, but then, it's less of a problem the smaller the shirt and looser the fit.

...The patterns I worked into this semi-on purpose have suggested an idea for a fantasy men's sexy armor.

I'm going to back up and re-crop to put together some detail shots of the pattern and edges, then I have to draw up this stupid new design...   I ain't right in th' haid.

[Rusty Edge]

So about how much does your shirt weigh?

[Buster's Uncle]

[shrugs] I'll have to go weigh myself on the lying devil bathroom scale -I avoid the thing for my own mental health, and it's not accurate at my size, so it's been quite a while- and then weigh holding it to give you a ballpark figure.  I'll do it with a big-link shirt while I'm at it.  Gimme a few minutes to wrap up something before I go do that, and I'll get right back to you.

[Buster's Uncle]

Approx. 21 pounds for the small-link shirt pictured, 26 for the12 gauge big-link shirt, pic coming.

-For a split second when I stepped on the lying devil scale, I forgot I'd worn the other shirt upstairs, and thought "I weigh WHAT?"  (Actually, I'm only 20-30 pounds over my ideal weight, which is less than it sounds like with my build.  I'm pretty pleased I've been guessing my weight so precisely - and that there was no unpleasant surprise when I weighed w/ 20+pounds of steel on my back.)

[Buster's Uncle]

This project is doing my ego/body image a world of good - not only are these tight mail shirts flattering, I figured out the fit problem isn't my weight going up; I made all this stuff back in my renfair days when I did weigh less -I worked hard, and it was thinning- and I worked out a lot between dropping off the road to be a caregiver and when the diabeetus was making my palms numb.  I'm too buff in the chest and shoulders for mail shirts that used to hang loose.  The shoulder muscles make everything ride higher -I noticed in my clothes shirts at the time- and look shorter; which also contributes to the tightness at the armpits.

[shrugs] I also need to groom my fur better if I'm going to keep posting pictures of my chin and neck in public, but I've always been chubby and am getting old; finding myself looking good at all is a treat.

[Rusty Edge]

That's a pleasant surprise.

As for the weight, so it's like carrying a KitchenAid mixer, or a pair of cats, except that it's comfortably distributed.