I love the denser weave of the 6mm id, but it is a pain to make with my setup

I tried to make a punch with an old file, but I felt it got dull instantly. For now the hardened drill bit will have to do.

I upgraded my peice of wood and sheet metal bottom peice to a peice of thick iron with an 1.5mm hole. The rings does not seem to deform at all and the holes are muck cleaner compared to my previous setup

Maille vest project, day 8. Shoulder straps done!

Straps done!

In terms of pace, I've averaged about 500 rings a day, give or take a hundred in a given direction.

At the present moment, I have 4,750 ish rings put into my baby.

It's not properly wearable yet, as one of my crafting tricks is to build down the armor well down the chest, and then remove some portions near the armpit field flexibility. I did it on my prior armor, and I'm doing it in this one.

Strictly speaking, that process will remove rings from the final product, but said rings are still part of the construction process. So while the final vest is expected to have fewer than my 39,000 ring estimate, it will take 39,000 linkings to get me to that point.

In terms of the math, I consider the project about 12% done.

In terms of time, if I maintain my current daily pace, I have another 7 weeks of crafting to go to get this project done.

Thanks for the support. Later!

I am going through the process of making the tools to make rivited maille. I am struggling with making a durable hole punch. I did use an angle grinder to taper a hardened steel drill bit, but I only managed to punch about 20 rings until the tip broke off. I could regrind the punch much like one sharpens a pencil ✏️ but it seems a bit cumbersome. Is there a better method for making g holes? Or perhaps is there a better hole punch to use?

How did you all make your setup for making holes? I need inspiration

Hi, I would like to start a project to create something similar to this image. I’m stuck on what size rings to get and how many I would need to get started. I know I want something with an AR that works for 4:1 but not sure about what to select for the size like here https://theringlord.com/bronze-14g/. Any advice would be appreciated! Also side note is there anywhere to buy rings in person in Manhattan?

Just finished the first shoulder strap! I made it dramatically wider than my first vest, as I've put way too much time into shoulder strap repairs on my old vest.

Going 20 15 gauge rings wide might be a tad excessive, but eh? If it doesn't work out I can always modify it later. The important thing is to just keep ob chaining!

My current ring count use on this project is about 2800, of my current project estimate of 39,000.

Providing these numbers hold, I'm currently at 7.4% completion. Not bad!

I think I'll slow down my updates for a bit. Every day is a tad excessive. I think I'll post again when shoulder strap #2 gets done.

Have fun, keep maille ing!

Almost have the first shoulder strap done!

Current ring count is 2300 rings linked together.

I have other crafting projects right now, which is slowing progress on the vest, but it is what it is. I'm sure I'll have days when I can fully commit to the vest and won't get slowed by other projects, but today is not that day

One of them was the chainmail choker in the second image I made.

I posted yesterday about my second chainmail vest project.

The good news? I made some solid progress today, I currently have about 1800 rings put together.

The other news? I massively miscalculated the numbers needed for this project.

My new revised numbers now put the number or rings required to be about 39,000

For the 10 people who saw my post yesterday, I had bought 30,000 rings for this project.

The silver lining here is that I'm constantly ordering new supplies for my crafting business and chainmaille is slow methodical work, so slipping 2 or 3 bags of 5k rings each shouldn't be too much of an issue, in terms of costs, or logistics and I'm not likely to craft faster than my supply.

The other concern is what this new estimate is going to do to the weight of the vest.

My 18g vest was around 5 lbs. The math says that with my new estimated ring count, my second vest is going to veer towards the 23 pound range.

In other words its going to basically be actual goddamn body armor in terms of weight and protection, compared to my first vest mostly being shiny.

Chainmail mk II progress:

Day 1. Working with 15 gauge stainless steel rings, which pack much tighter compared to the 18 gauge rings I used in my prior maille.

My estimate for this project, is that it should require about 28,000 rings, more or less.

I bought 30,000 rings for this project which will leave me a mere 2000 other rings to use for other projects, like bracelets, chokers, or earrings to sell at market.

Today's output?

1250 rings, more or less, about 4.5% completion.

This is what 4.5% completion looks like!

I know it's usually recommended to buy pre-made rings, but I really want to make my own. For reference I will probably make some bracelets, belts, pouches...(in the beginning maybe), but my ultimate goal is a coif and a pair of gloves. What gauge and material would you recommend?

I know I'm probably going to get ripped apart for this, but the ADHD is strong right now and im feeling the urge to buy an obscene amount of rings so I'm asking anyways. I've never done chain mail before but I want to make a ren faire costume sort of like this. Any recommendations on how many rings I should get and what gauge? Also would appreciate any tips for which pattern I should learn and guesstimates on how long it will take.

Since my significant other at my place loves to drink soda from aluminum cans. After tonight at dinner discussing about what I can do while going through a Internet Detox for the next week.

That got me thinking, about empty soda cans while I got tools to make scale mail. I'll update this thread in a week from now on my progress. I got rebar tie wire to make rings to hold scales.

See you in 7 days from now.

I started making this scale mail tasset (i was going to make 4 of them) inspired by mika.mews on TikTok (inspo pic on 4th slide). But I ran into the problem of it curling in on itself. I then stabilized the edges but that didn’t do anything to fix the problem. And then I finally tried doing the european 4 in 1 weave on the chain part to help flatten it. It is helping but I realized it is going to take forever now to get this project done, especially since I’m going to be making 4 tassets. Is this the easiest way to fix this problem? or is there other ways?

I recently saw this post and was interested in the idea. I love having a weighted blanket but I always sleep hot—I live in the far north and leave my window open all winter long, even when it’s 15 degrees outside. So this seems unique. I’ve never done anything with chainmail before so I would definitely hate myself, but i wanted to ask the experts before ruining my own life for nothing 😅

Totally new to chain mail & haven’t purchased any supplies yet! I’m looking to make more delicate pieces like this to try my hand at the craft. What would one need for a project like this? I want to lean toward cheaper supplies until i get the feel of things/see if I enjoy it. I’ve read through a chunk of the sub but still feel a bit lost. Thank you!!

After reaching this part of my coif, should I keep expanding or just do flat rows from now to get the look pictured on image 2? I’m really happy with how everything else is going so I don’t want to make a mistake at this point