Chainmaille for the Beginner
Before you even pick up your pliers to start weaving chainmaille, you first need links. This tutorial demonstrates how to make rings for various purposes, and some of the other things you will need to know to start your chainmaille career.The first thing you need for chainmaille, as said, is rings (or links; "circles" works too, but that's the somewhat unconventional name). Of course, you can call up a chainmaille supplier if you want, but that can be expensive if you're not even sure that you want to keep going with chainmaille. Making your own links is fairly easy and quite cheap once you've got the basic equipment.
So, the first thing you need is wire. Galvanized steel is cheap, easy to acquire, and easy to work with, so it is recommended for a beginner. Rustle around your basement, go dumpster-diving, or if you're willing to put down a few bucks for a fresh 100 yd spool, go to your local hardware store. I find that I work mostly with 14 and 16 ga wire; these are good gauges to start with. I'm not going to get into the finesse of gauge-determination here. If you want to know all about that, I would recommend a search in the Articles section of mailleartisans.org.
Once you've got your wire, you need to set up a mandrel. This is easy. Find a long board (four feet maybe; use something cheap but sturdy, like plywood.) At each end, nail down a block of wood with a hole drilled through each in the same place. Here is a picture of mine:
In this picture, the second block on the right-hand side is totally unnecessary. It was the original block, but a second was added in front of it because one of my winding bars couldn't reach that far. In fact I really ought to take the old one off.
To complete the mandrel, you need a long bar. Maybe a foot and a half longer than the base board. I recommend 7/16" or 3/8" diameter to begin with; you can always add to your collection. Bend one end into a crank. To do this, start about a foot from the end and make a 90 degree angle. Make a second 90 degree angle about six inches from the end, in the opposite direction from the first. So, it should look something like this:
You can't see the crank in the first picture, because it runs off the left side. (Great picture, huh?)
Anyway, slip the bar through the two holes in the upright blocks of wood, all the way up to the first bend of the crank. Make a mark on the bar, right where it emerges from the block of wood on the crank end. In other words, here:
Take out the bar and find the mark. About an inch down from the mark, drill a small hole all the way through the bar. This is where you will insert the wire end for winding links, so make the hole big enough to accommodate the wire gauge you are using.
That's all there is to the mandrel. Once you have this part done, you are ready to wind links. Clamp the mandrel down onto a table or desk or something, because you won't want it moving around while you wind links.
It must first be understood that you do not wind links one at a time. Rather, you make a long coil of wire, which is then cut into links. The mandrel is for making the coil. To do this, take the end of the wire and insert it into the hole you drilled in the winding bar. You don't need to put much wire through; just so that the end is visible on the other side of the bar. Then, feeding the wire through your hand, start turning the crank. Take it slowly until you get comfortable feeding the wire; you want to keep the coil even. Avoid big gaps in the coil, and also avoid overlapping the wire. You may want to have a cloth in the hand you use to feed the wire, just to avoid injury from the wire rubbing directly against your skin.
Make the coil as long as you like, but if you fill the entire space between the wood blocks, it may be difficult to get the coil off. The longer the coil, of course, the more links you will get out of it. Once you have finished winding the coil, snip off the leftover wire. You can then either pry the wire end out of the hole drilled in the winding rod, or cut it off. Then draw the crank end of the winding bar away from the wood blocks, simultaneously pulling off the coil, et voila! Your first coil of links!
Next you must cut the coil into links. There are various tools you can use for this. I find that red-handle aviation snips have the best leverage and nicest cut in terms of hand tools. They produce a nice, clean flush cut, with the ends like so: //. You can also use cable cutters (//), although these tend to straighten out one end of the link, or diagonal cutters (><), which I find are hard to use and do not produce very nice cuts.
Aviation Snips Cable Cutters Diagonal Cutters
If you really feel that chainmaille is going to be a major, long-term hobby or even a career for you, you might invest in a slotting saw. I don't have a picture or diagram for this, and I am not exactly sure how it works, but basically you anchor down a drill with a saw bit. You then feed the coil through a tube that passes it across the saw blade, and get beautifully cut links, like so: ||. It's also easier on your hands, I imagine. Again, if you want more information on this, mailleartisans.org probably has an article specifically for this subject.
All right, you've got your mandrel, you've made a coil, you've cut it into links. All that remains is to start weaving. You'll want pliers for this, unless you made, like, 16 ga 3/4" ID links. There are a whole lot of plier kinds out there, and no one type is necessarily better than the other. However I can give you a general idea of what to use for what.
Regular pliers: I've never used these, but lots of people do, so I guess they must be pretty much all-purpose.
Linesman's pliers: These are what I use when I'm dealing with 14 and 16 ga. I generally have one pair of these in my right hand, and a small pair of needlenose pliers in my left. Pictured below.
Serrated needlenose pliers: I don't use these much, but they are handy when you need good traction in a dense weave, like Elfweave or Half Persian 3-1 Sheet 6-1. Or if my other needlenose pliers wear my hand out, I sometimes use these just to get the pressure in a different place. Pictured below.
Unserrated needlenose pliers: Next to linesman's pliers, I use these pliers the most often. I use them as left-hand pliers to supplement my linesman's pliers, for 16 and 14 ga. I also use them when I work with jewelry links, because they don't scar the metal. For links 20 ga and under, I just use these whatever the metal because it's overkill to have a huge pair of pliers for something so small. Pictured below.
Roundnose pliers: I don't actually use these to bend links, really, although I imagine they could be used for certain metals. But they're useful for making neat loops on clasps and things, so if you think you may get into chainmail jewelry it's nice to have a pair of these around. Pictured below.
A final note: Metals
There are probably fifteen or twenty metals out there that are good for chainmaille. That's a lot, when you think about it. So here's a quick guide on the most common metals.
Galvanized steel: Cheap, strong, easy to acquire. Good for pretty much anything aside from jewelry. Dull greyish look to it, but can be blackened through various processes. Lemon juice for about half an hour is one way.
Stainless steel: Cheap, strong, slightly harder to find in wire than galvanized. Good for anything, including jewelry. Bright grey, with almost a hint of brown. Like galvanized, can be blackened, but I haven't experimented.
Sterling silver: More expensive than steel, but most jewelry suppliers stock it in various gauges. Good for jewelry, but not armor or anything that will probably take some abuse. Bright white metal. Wire can be gotten with a copper core, which is cheaper than pure silver.
Aluminum: A very lightweight, somewhat weak metal. Several kinds: all are generally carried by a chainmaille supplier, for a little more than the cost of steel. Good for jewelry, costume armor, or combat armor in a heavy enough gauge. Plain aluminum is light grey, rubs off dark residue. Bright aluminum is bright whitish-grey, and clean. Etched aluminum is dull whitish-grey, and clean.
Anodized aluminum: Lightweight, somewhat weak, but more expensive than other forms of aluminum. Comes in several colors and is good for inlays and colorful jewelry.
Brass: A fairly cheap, moderatly weak, fairly easy-to-acquire metal. Good for jewelry, inlays, costume armor. Gold color that tarnishes to dark yellow, and rubs off greenish residue.
Bronze: A very strong, reasonably cheap metal that is stocked by most chainmaille suppliers. Good for inlays, trim, armor if you're really daring, maybe some jewelry too. Dark red color that tarnishes to dark brown.
Copper: A somewhat weak, fairly cheap metal, possibly to be found at a hardware store, I haven't checked. If not, any chainmaille supplier should stock it. Good for jewelry, inlays, trim, possibly costume armor. Reddish color, slightly lighter than bronze.
Enameled copper: Somewhat weak, reasonably cheap, to be found at a chainmaille supplier. Good for inlays, jewelery, trim, that kind of thing. Any color you can imagine.
Gold: Fairly weak, rather expensive, stocked by most jewelry suppliers. Good for jewelry. Bright yellow color.
Artistic wire: To my knowledge, this is no different from enameled copper, but I figured I'd list it nonetheless. Weak, easy to come by for a decent price at jewelry supply stores. Good for inlays, jewelry. Lots of colors.
Neoprene O-rings: Elasticy, but expensive, can be ordered from a chainmaille supplier. Can be woven into bracelets with regular metal rings to give an interesting stretch factor. Black, plus a few other basic colors are to be found.
Titanium, niobium, inconel, etc: Expensive exotic metals, hard to find except via a chainmaille supplier. Good for armor, inlays, jewelry, anything really I suppose. Can be anodized to various colors depending on the metal concerned.
I know I've mentioned the words "chainmaille supplier" several times now, so I'll list a couple that I know of here.
The Ring Lord -- when I have to order links, this is where I go. He's got everything you can imagine and more. theringlord.com
Para Wire -- I haven't extensively explored this site, but as far as I have seen they stock a lot of colored wire and several other metals as well. parawire.com
Armchair Armoury -- I've never ordered from them before, but it looks like they're basically along the lines of theringlord. armchair-armoury.co.uk/
And there are many others, of course, but I won't list them all here. For a more extensive list, I will once again suggest the Links page of mailleartisans.org
Well I think that's just about everything you need to know to get started, if not a little more. Have fun and good luck!