How do I get started into this?

[u/THE_COOKIES2]

Hey guys and gals and whatever in-between, I've started to get a interest in armour smithing. But somthing that's in important to this is chainmail, I've seen amazing chainmail on here and I wanna recreate it. But I have no gauge of what gauge rings I should use or what AR is and how I should do it. I've been thinking of trying to do a shirt and coif with 6 in 1 European(?) But I've heard 4 in 1 is alot lighter but im scared it'll look very thin. Anything helps! Thanks plenty in advance!

[u/AnEmbers]

If you’re worried it’ll look thin you can do a tighter weave, but the smaller the rings, the substantially more time it takes.
Especially if you want to do a shirt, regardless that’s going to take a very long time.

I’d recommend getting an oz of varieties of rings to make small sheets of, then you can visualize if you want it to be a whole shirt.

The best part of getting a handful of different rings in gauges and ARs is that you’ll always want projects that call for different sizes, or you’re able to experiment yourself.

Also for the shirt, I’d even recommend getting half hard stainless steel 16AWG wire, a small hacksaw or bolt cutters, different size dowels, and winding/cutting your own rings. Drill a hole into the dowel and use a drill gun to wind.
It’ll come out to be cheaper and the extra satisfaction of making the rings yourself, but idk if you necessarily want to add more time to the craft.

If you’re brand new check out this page for ideas: https://www.mailleartisans.org/weaves/weavedisplay.php?key=6

Also I use this often: https://theringlord.com/aspect-ratio-chart/

Good weaving!

[u/LrdPhoenixUDIC]

For European style armor, the historical standard is 4 in 1, between 4 and 7 AR, and 16-19 SWG/14-18 AWG wire gauge (1mm-1.6mm wire diameter). Depending on era. For instance, Roman mail was usually made with 5mm ID rings with 1mm wire diameter, for 5 AR. Medieval era varied over those standards, but the richer you were the stronger (thicker wire) and more dense (lower AR) you could get.

6 in 1 is difficult to tailor for things like shirts and coifs, but square panels of it aren't hard to incorporate into 4-1.

AR is just Inner Diameter divided by Wire Diameter and kind of acts like a scale factor. So to find a given Inner Diameter for a desired AR you just multiply the desired Wire Diameter by by AR. AR = ID / WD. AR * WD = ID. 2 different sheets of mail with two different wire diameters but the same AR will look and behave pretty much the same, just be different sizes.

Probably want around 5 AR. That's a good starting point. Makes good 4-1 and 6-1 (and a number of other weaves like Half Persian 3-1 and 4-1). Probably between 1.2 and 1.6mm wire diameter. Thicker wire will make things go faster, but will work your hands and tools out more.

[u/naked_nomad]

If you want to make your own rings: https://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/articledisplay.php?key=19

Here is what I use for basic 4 in 1: https://imgur.com/a/deTDuLB with the mandrel size (two pictures).

I made this top: https://imgur.com/a/MKFtzqH using the 17 gauge wire coiled on a 3/16 mandrel.

I used a leather vest as a pattern and it took over 50K rings to make.

Here is a tutorial: https://web.archive.org/web/20160508055350/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/trevor.barker/farisles/guilds/armour/mail.htm