Shopping, promoting the Mailler's art, and another handmade jewellry project.

Discovered today that the Dremel wasn't really going to cut it... literally, when it comes to thicker stainless. So I'm buying a slitting saw arbor and building a cutting guide. It's not exactly the rig I really, really want, but I'll get to that eventually.

Meanwhile I have a wicked gift for a friend planned out. This will be my first attempt in shaping a pendant from a solid sheet of metal. I can't describe the plan, in case she reads this, but it'll be awesome, I promise. She digs steampunk stuff, especially keys, and while browsing Etsy the other night we ran across a piece she really loved. So I thought I'd change things up a bit, my way.

Promotion is wearing me thin right now. I'm out of motivation to weave for the time being, or maybe just inspiration. I tried a patterned version of the Doublemaille bracelet in a slightly higher AR than the last one, and just ran out of care juice.

Anyone out there have a good site or two for business cards? Some local, face to face style marketing might be just what I need. Maybe not just for the shop, but at least to make me feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Have fun
--Charon

Using a Jeweller's Saw

Cutting rings for maille jewellry, especially in precious metals can be a challenege. When you're crafting something to be worn close to the skin, good cuts and closures are invaluable for the pure feel of the finished weave. If you're selling a piece, bad closures and sloppy cuts in something like Argentium or Fine Silver aren't going to catch any eyes. So what's the answer?

Read the title already.... Put down the wire cutters and find a jeweller's saw. It resembles a small hacksaw frame with thumbscrews. Don't try and use hacksaw blades with it, if you can mount the blade at all, you'll just wreck your rings anyway.
Some hobby stores have them for... in my opinion, way too large a price tag, but if you're unwilling to wait that's an option. I ordered mine from TRL and it's perfectly suitable for cutting rings. Blades are less than a few dollars a dozen, get a lot, you're likely to break a few. I prefer size 4/0 or 2/0 depending on the wire gauge I'm cutting. You'll need some kind of lubricant, beeswax seems to be the standard. I use the parafin wax that most cheese wheels come coated in, it's free if you like cheese.

Second, get yourself a jeweller's vise. Not a small bench vise. Where a bench vise secures your work by applying pressure between the jaws, and you risk crushing a coil; the movable jaw on a jeweller's vise secures by applying pressure to the body of the vise itself. This means that your can clamp something hand tight and lock it in place. I took a few pieces of masking tape folded cardstock to pad the jaws and prevent scratching, and help secure my coils.

If you're all set up, time to string your blade. If you have an adjustable frame saw, crank down that top screw first. Then loosen both the mounting screws. Look closely at your blade, the teeth cut one way, and glide the other. You want the cutting action to be when you push the saw forward, so the friction doesn't cause you to pull open your coil. Lock the blade in it's mount closest to the handle.

This is the tricky part, you need a little tension on your blade. So place the handle against your abdomen blade up, and lean forward with the other end of the frame against your bench, so it very slightly compresses the "[" shape of your frame. Now lock the far end of your blade in place and relax.

If you've done it properly you can pluck the blade like a guitar string and it will ping without buzzing or sounding dull. If it does either of those things, re-string it or you're just going to break a blade. Run your chosen lubricant across the blade a time or two, and you're ready.

This is the most important thing to remember when cutting: let the saw do the work, you don't need to press the blade down into your coil, it will cut perfectly just gliding along on it's own. There's a sound associated with cutting sheet metal by saw, but when your coils are secured this way that sound is muted. Listen carefully for something that resembles a slide whistle, up and down, as you cut. If you hear too much scratching rather than ringing, it's time to re-lubricate the blade, and while you're at that check it's tension again.

When you're done, and have gotten over admiring your new cuts. Unstring your blade, I left one overnight once and the blade broke while I was asleep, the springback of the frame recoiling cracked a glass candle holder on my desk. Stupid, stupid way to wake up...

Have fun,
--Charon

A unique maille bracelet.

Ran into this thing over at Schizoid Mouse's blog. A maille bracelet using lockwashers.

There will be more updates later today, I'm sure. Hang tight.

Have fun,
--Charon

Some awesome handmade chainmail jewelry.

It's a slow day for me. Getting used to the new dremel and cutting stainless rings, building an improvised coil cutting guide. Sounds impressive, but it's not much more than a block of wood with a hole drilled in it and a slot for the blade. Took a look around the blogroll and found this over at the Handmade Artists Forum which I thought was definitely worth showing off.

Photo belongs to MGChains.

Tomorrow, I think I'll make it a point to pick out some armour. I know everyone's been waiting.

Have fun

--Charon

Making Chainmail step two: Weaving maille.

We're back, and we're on to learning the basics of actually weaving maille. Note that I didn't use the term "chainmail". Either one is acceptable these days. "Maille" is taken from the original term "mail" meaning armour made from chain. The spelling has been prettied up a bit to make it distict from Postal Mail.

There's another tangent... I'm good at that.

Alright, you have some rings cut, begging to be used, so let's get them and your hands a short workout. Pick up your pliers, one in each hand, and grab a ring. No, not with your teeth... either the pliers themselves, or you can free a thumb and finger and use your hands. Keep holding the pliers though. You'll be surprised how much time you start to save when you can craft without setting them down.

Set the ring in the jaws of your pliers with the opening at the top. You should be gripping about half the ring in each set. Now twist each end of the opening away from one another so it makes a longer spiral. It should still look like a spring. If you're opening your rings like you're turning an O into a C, you won't be able to get them back into shape. Open them about far enough you can fit two wire widths in the gap between ends.

Practice this, open about 5 rings to get a feel for it. Then go for some more new rings and close them with the same kind of twisting motion. Each end should meet as flush and close as you can make them. It helps to push the ends in very slightly toward one another while you're twisting them closed, so they almost snap together. Close 12 for now and set them in their own pile.

An open and a closed ring.

Starting a weave is always vastly more difficult than continuing one, so we'll go with something both recognizable and reasonable to follow. European 4 in 1. European maille is characterized by each row leaning the opposite direction of it's adjacent rows. Grab 4 of your closed rings, put them on 1 open ring, then close it. You have what we call a fivelet. Doesn't do much on it's own, but it's the foundation. 4 rings on 1 ring. Each ring (excluding those at the edges) will pass through four others, two above, and two below.

Your fivelet.

So lay your fivelet down a moment to get a look at how it the weave will expand. Two rings on top, leaning to the right. One ring in the second row, leaning to the left. Two rings on the bottom, leaning right. Now to add to that, take two closed rings, put them on an open ring, this open ring will become a new addition to the middle row. Weave that ring in from underneath the rightmost ring the bottom row then down through the rightmost ring in the top row. Close your open ring.

With a little jostling, you should be able to lay out your work and see that everything leans properly, and falls into pattern. Now you repeat that last step again. Two closed rings on an open ring, weave it into the final two rings on the adjacent rows, and close. Repeat this until you reach the desired width.

Red rings are the original fivelet, Green are the three added afterward, and Blue the step after that.

All well and good that you can make it as wide as you want, now how about expanding the other axis. Even simpler. Put two closed rings on an open ring again. Weave your open ring through the two leftmost rings in the bottom row, and close. From there, you add one closed on one open. Weaving through the rightmost on the bottom row, and the next two rings on the row above. Repeat as desired.

In the photo below. Red rings are the first three added in the new row, followed by the Green, and Blue again. Untinted rings are the original strip of three rows you've just built.

So here's the best part. I know this is what you've been wating for. You can make a barrel like tube out of a large patch, then add straps to the top edge, and you have a very simple mail shirt. In detail, it will probably take some tweaking, and there are alot of things you can do to tailor and fit. More on that another time.

If you're not looking for a shirt, say you went with a light gauge copper for your first project, maybe you'd like a choker or a bracelet. Clasps can be purchased for an impressively low price. Also hook, or toggle type clasps can be made using wire wrapping techniques. These same skills can be put to use to make earring hooks, chainmail earrings are my best sellers. If you want a look, check out my Etsy link in the sidebar. /plug

If you've been following along so far, I'd love to see your work. If it's a bracelet, just a small patch, or you whip up a full shirt thanks to what I've posted here so far, please send images to me here and they'll be featured in upcoming posts.

Have fun--

Charon

(A Special thanks to Glendon of Glendon's Chainmaille and Handmade Crafts for taking time out of his day at the booth to allow me to photograph E 4-1 in progress. I couldn't figure out how to handle rings, operate pliers, a camera, and a soda can all at once; he was wonderful to supply me with the chance to take these images. )

Why Chainmail?

Well, that's a good question. Why not chainmail? Why not sewing, knitting, cooking or something more normal and mainstream? Well, I like to be different. If I'm doing the same thing everyone else is doing, I'm just one of the crowd. That's not the whole of it though, and I'll probably continue to come up with reasons as we continue to follow along on this little journey of mine.

Backing out of that tangent for now. I've always been interested in archaic weapons and armor. Without learning blacksmithing, yet, and tapping on an anvil for days on end, making chainmail at the time seemed like a place to start.

I was first introduced to the basic ideas surrounding modern chainmail construction some sixteen years ago by a friend in the SCA. Of course I wanted to dive right in but obtaining a drill press and tons of wire and a saw capable of chopping steel in any reasonable amout of time just wasn't going to happen on my allowance. Kids get it rough with hobbies, help em out if you have any.

Turned out many years later, the idea sprung back to mind. This time I had tools. Not a drill press or a rediculously overpowered steel slicing laser, but I had internet access. Next best thing. So I poured over Google links and eventually sifted through to locate TheRingLord.com, a shop selling rings specifically for chainmail and a forum at Mailleartisans.org full of the most helpful people. I ordered a few pounds of galvanized steel rings, and waited, almost patiently. I say almost, because I gave in and bought some small gague wire at a craft store while waiting on UPS. Then I went to practice the things I'd been studying for days.

I found making chainmail was incredibly relaxing, forgiving of early mistakes, and more versitile than I could have ever imagined. The first impression most people will get when they hear chainmail is a mesh shirt or body suit, either old-world technology and construction, or the modern shark suits like the Neptunic. Of course the former is still in use in the film industry, and by geeks like me who still drool over a nice sword. As an article of clothing rather than a protective device, the craft becomes even more interesting. I've seen neckties, bikinis, vests and common t-shirts all done in chainmail. It's also in contemporary use in sculpture, and has quite a following as a form of jewelry art both historically and in the current age.

So, why again? Well, it's an interesting study, has a near infinite amount of patterns (called weaves), classified somewhat by their origins: like European and Japense, or by their characteristics like the spiral weaves, and a couple oddities like Byzantine and the Persian family which has no record of ever appearing in Persia, but somone thought it sounded neat and different.

I've come to discover there's little it can't be used for. Chainmaille curtains, seen that too.

I think it's safe to assume, if you've stumbled into this little corner of the 'net you're looking for chainmail yourself. Maybe learning to make your own chainmail. Or just get ideas, weaves and patterns. I'll be getting along to those a piece at a time. So keep your bookmark handy, I'll be posting on a near daily basis recounting my journey through the craft, daily experiences, and what I think are several helpful topics such as:

• Chainmail terminoligy
• A Mailler's tools
• Metals
• Bying wire
• Making rings
• Using a jewelers' saw
• Jewelry suppliers, beading and stones
• Tons and tons of weaves introduced along the way as learning projects

So let me ask you this before I shut down for the night. Why are you into chainmail? I'll bet it's a good story.

Have fun,

--Charon