Make your own chainmail

Lamp

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LOL !

http://www.armchair-armoury.co.uk/instructions.htm

I used to do this when I went to Labarynth (Live RP) many many years ago

This is EXACTLY what I used to make (still got it in the garage somewhere)

ex_612ring.jpg


Used to get so many pinches and cuts and stiff hands but looks AMAZING when you get a big bit done. And its fecking heavy !!!
 

Lamp

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Someone make her a chainmail ski mask

LOL
 

Mey

Part of the furniture
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the let's make fun of larpers thread..

//sits for abuse.
 

Lamp

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How can one woman look both fat and anorexic ?

*Starts knitting the chainmail balaclava for her*
 

Pirkel

Fledgling Freddie
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Another class A thread in Off-Topic!

Nope... not going down the drain at aaaalllll
 

Cemeterygates

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Lamp said:
How can one woman look both fat and anorexic ?

*Starts knitting the chainmail balaclava for her*
comes across as harsh and shallow to me tbh....after all we cant pick our looks an what not :twak:
 

Cemeterygates

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in regards to the armor they make...i wonder if its reliable against a blade that is swung at you an intended to fukin kill you....looks like it must be damn heavy aswell wearin a full suit of it
 

tris-

Failed Geordie and Parmothief
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lamp is not the same person with this avatar :/

bring back piglet tbh
 

Svartmetall

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Cemeterygates said:
...i wonder if its reliable against a blade that is swung at you an intended to fukin kill you...
Yes. The impact still passes into you through the mail, which is why you wear padded cloth underneath to cushion the blow, but the mail will stop a blade.
...looks like it must be damn heavy aswell wearin a full suit of it
My own mail is made of square-section 8mm steel rings and weighs 5 1/2 stone. It's crucifyingly heavy. It has nearly 30,000 rings in it, and took me about 8 months to make. On very hot days I've had to drop out of a battle and just take it off because I'm in serious danger of passsing out; I'm reasonably tough for a 21st-century Westerner, but we're all complete pussy lightweights compared to the people of medieval times, who lived a much more physically strenuous life and were consequently much tougher and stronger overall as a rule.

BTW what Lamp showed a picture of is what is known as ringmail, where you have large rings with smaller rings linking them together. It's light, but using the smaller rings makes for weaker joins between the large rings and it's easier to pull apart.

SMOR4IN1.jpg


My armour is full chain mail, where all rings are the same size and each one intersects with 4 others. It's much stronger and gives far better protection, but has the disavantage of being much heavier due to the far greater density of metal per given area.

SM4IN1.jpg


Those, by the way, are round-section rings; the square-section ones I used in mine are thicker in cross-section, giving a more dense look (and of course, more weight per given area).

-----

Other types of mail pattern include:

Double 4-in-1 or 8-in-1, sometimes called King's Mail:

e8_1.jpg


6-in-1 ring mail:

SMOR6IN1.jpg
 

Svartmetall

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(continued)*

6-in-1 Persian mail:

SM6IN1PM.jpg


'Dragonscale' mail:

SMDRAGON.jpg


And, getting into the realms of the purely decorative...

'Bird's nest' mail:

SMBIRDWEB.jpg


Half Persian mail:

hpr3_1w.jpg


-----

Making mail takes a lot of time and a lot of patience (and it's murder on the hands until the callouses build up), but it's a nice feeling to know that you're making something that genuinely can last for centuries.
 

Svartmetall

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Samaroon|Terracotta said:
Wonder if i can make some out of old can ring pulls and some other smaller rings! :/
Yes, I've seen that done. It's crap armour but looks fun.
 

Lamp

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I've also got a large piece of Kings Mail in the garage

How the hell do you make Birds Nest Mail ?? LOL

And yes - its can be murder on your poor hands - but you get used to having pliers pinch chunks out of your fingers after a few months lol
 

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