A couple of years ago, after watching the Narnia movie, my brother and I decided to make some chain maille.
Chain maille is a type of armor which is made of linked metal rings. We purchased about forty pounds of rings each from a maille ring manufacturing company. We first ordered samples so we could see the rings and decide what types we wanted. We each set out to make a maille shirt, which is called a hauberk. Observe: I also made a coif, which is a maille hood. I also had enough rings left over to make maille mittens called mitons.
I purchased three-eighths inch rings; however Jonathan's rings were somewhat smaller.
The only tools needed to assemble the rings are two pairs of small pliers.
We made a four-in-one style of maille, in which each ring is linked into four others. To start, four rings are closed with pliers, and one ring is closed around them.
The five rings are then laid out like this:
Next taking three rings, one ring open and two closed, the opened ring is threaded into two rings of the previously made maille piece, and then the two closed rings are put on it. This opened ring, having four rings in it, is then closed, like so:
Squares or strips of rings can be joined together with opened rings:
We found a sort of hauberk pattern online; however we did not follow it exactly.
My hauberk had long sleeves, which were attached by a complicated forty-five degree seam. However I found that I could not flex my arm very much with the long sleeves.
I therefore took the lower part of the sleeves off and manufactured some gauntlets to wear instead:
This is what my maille looked like sometime before it was finished. You can see I trimmed the coif in brass rings:
Manufacturing a hauberk is easy, however it took about ninety hours to make.
It cost about two hundred dollars to make my hauberk and coif, which weigh a lot because they are armor strength. Costume strength rings are lighter, and also cost less.
You could start by purchasing a common ring sampler, to decide what rings to get and see if you like working with the rings. You could also try a small project like a coif or mitons. The coif is an easy project which took about a week to complete. It weighs around six pounds, some of this weight being on the shoulders. I found a pattern for this online as well.
Making maille is kind of expensive and extremely time consuming. However it's also really cool.
