How to Make Chain Mail Armor
Chain mail has been the best-known and widely used material for armor for millennia. It's appearance is synonymous with the medieval knight and, more recently, with fantasy stories and films. Many use this material for reenactment and fair costumes due to its relatively easy construction and low expense.While there are many different ways to make chain mail, the easiest and most widely used method is the European 4-in-1 weave. We'll make just a flat sheet to start, of the type that might have been sewn into a leather undercoat. The pattern can be adapted to any design you'd like to make after you've had some practice.
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Things You'll Need
- 12- to 20-gauge Steel, brass or copper wire
- Wire cutters
- Pliers
- Needle-nosed pliers
- Short dowel the diameter of your rings
Instructions
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1
Make the rings. The dowel rod should be the diameter that you want to make the rings, probably between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch. Wind the wire in a fairly tight spiral around the dowel and cut it off from the spool. Using wire cutters, snip each coil of the wire at the same place the entire length of the spiral. You should be left with open rings--these will make up the chain mail.
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2
Close some of the rings by crimping the two cut edges together with pliers.
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3
Start the weave by looping two closed rings onto one opened ring. It is normally easier to hold the opened ring with pliers and use needle-nosed pliers or your fingers to loop on the closed rings.
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4
Loop two more closed rings onto the opened one. Close the open ring.
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5
Lay the five rings flat on a table. They should form a sort of box with the rings from Step 4 slightly overlapping the other two.
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6
Loop two more rings onto an open ring and slip the open ring through the two rings from Step 4. Close the ring. The latest pair should overlap the rings from Step 4 just like those rings overlapped those from Step 3. See the pattern? Each of the rings that were open have four other rings going through them.
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7
Repeat Step 6 until you have a strip of mail the width of your final sheet.
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8
Repeat Steps 3-7 until you have another strip of mail.
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9
Attach the two strips using the same pattern. Lay the two so their long edges touch. Slip an open ring through both of the overlapping rings from Step 5, then again through the matching rings from the second strip. The open ring should have four rings running through it, just like the others.
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10
Repeat Step 9 running across the strips until they are joined.
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11
Repeat Steps 3 through 10 until the desired length of chain mail is reached.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Don't get wire too thick to start. If you need armor-grade mail, practice with a small sheet of smaller wire before trying a large one.
Even though chain mail is a traditional armor, it should not be used with edged weapons. There is no guarantee that these rings will stop a knife or sword.
