I was wondering, about how long would it take to craft 2 sleeves+shoulder and 2 legs of mail, or pants or whatever would work best. Either chain or scale, both work; I plan on using it for a costume (hence not needing the full suit of it, pic related) and

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File: 1418631024558.jpg (57.71 KB, 377x593, 377:593, EHatred4f088968ae5da[1].jpg)

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:10:25 No.26

I was wondering, about how long would it take to craft 2 sleeves+shoulder and 2 legs of mail, or pants or whatever would work best. Either chain or scale, both work; I plan on using it for a costume (hence not needing the full suit of it, pic related) and haven't crafted mail before so I was curious just how much time I would need to commit to it. I think it would be rad to learn to do, so I'm more than willing to spend the time learning.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:18:33 No.27

File: 1418631513651.jpg (132.24 KB, 723x960, 241:320, brass chain.jpg)

It depends primarily on the ring size you choose. I made an entire shirt in 5 days once, using 14g 7/16" rings. I've also spent years on a 20g, 1/8" shirt. If you devote 2 hours per day on 14g 3/8" or something you'll have your sleeves and pants in a few weeks.

You may end up with an issue making only sleeves though because you need to attach them to something to wear them. I'd recommend making the full shirt for the experience and to make the costume easier to wear. For costume purposes also I'd recommend aluminum to keep the weight low since you won't need any real protection.

Scale is a totally different method and I'd recommend starting with chain first.

Pic is the shirt I made in five days, 8 work-hours per day.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:47:40 No.29

>>27
I see, so as long as I keep at it it shouldn't be too long. Any recommendations on what ring size to use? And I'm guessing you'd suggest I buy them from theringlord.com like the sticky implies

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:53:24 No.30

>>29
For your first shirt 14g, 3/8" is usually a good size, although depending on your tastes you could go bigger for a faster completion time. If you want to use aluminum then yes, use theringlord.com but if you want galvanized steel or something you can probably find the wire at your local hardware store but then you'd need to make your own rings. There are other sources for this sort of thing but TRL is a good starting point.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:58:05 No.31

>>30
Ah, awesome. Thanks so much for your help and input. I'll be sure to come back and post progress from start to finish, I'm sure having someones very first go through with chain mail crafting will be a good thread to start.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:59:10 No.32

>>30
Also, generally how many rings should I be looking to buy for something like this? Both for the shirt and pants, that is. But knowing how much for each individually would be nice to know too.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 08:59:58 No.33

>>31
You're very welcome. It'll be great having a first-timer get their start here.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 09:03:14 No.34

>>32
That's always the toughest question. There is a calculator for shirts at
http://theringlord.com/cart/shopcontent.asp?type=Euro4in1ShirtCalculator
But I guess you could manipulate your measurements to get just the sleeve numbers (L=0). For pants just calculate sleeve numbers for your leg length and quad circumference.

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 16:12:16 No.35

>>34
Oh man thats a super helpful little calculator

Anonymous 12/15/14 (Mon) 23:26:15 No.36

>>35
I added it and the scale shirt calculator to the sticky.

Post last edited at 2014-12-15 23:29:44

Anonymous 12/16/14 (Tue) 00:30:09 No.37

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I have an ongoing scale sleeve project (a spalder I guess) and it has been a bit more challenging than I expected. I'll take a pic and post in a few min.

Anonymous 12/16/14 (Tue) 00:46:52 No.38

File: 1418690812163-0.jpg (167.03 KB, 1259x709, 1259:709, IMG_20141215_183534990.jpg)

File: 1418690812163-1.jpg (54.42 KB, 375x666, 125:222, IMG_20141215_183428377.jpg)

Sorry for the crappy pictures but you get the idea. It's made from large bronze scales woven with 14g 5/16" stainless steel rings; small stainless scales woven with 16g 3/16" stainless; and a few large hardened steel scales for trim. I'm open to critiques as I'm not satisfied with the project yet. It needs a better attachment than just the belt to keep it from sliding around. Oh, and the vest underneath is 18g 3/16" galvy.

Anonymous 12/16/14 (Tue) 01:43:28 No.39

>>38
I think it looks fantastic. Maybe try a contraction where the bronze meets the strap on the shoulder so it doesn't have that bump.

Post last edited at 2014-12-16 02:21:44

Anonymous 12/16/14 (Tue) 03:05:33 No.40

Damn, I hope mine turns out half as good as your guys haha

Anonymous 12/16/14 (Tue) 06:08:30 No.42

A full scale sleeve is difficult to fit properly if you want to articulate the arm at all. That's why I just made it a half sleeve instead but you could probably do a 3/4 length sleeve without a bunch of contractions/seams. Get some big gloves like in your pic and it could work.

I agree that you should definitely get comfortable with regular chain mail first though. If only because scales are significantly more expensive. Worth it though.