The Armour Archive

Please forgive me if this question has been asked, but when I tried to use the search function I got over 1600 hits and the topics were all over the place.

Anywho, I'm back in the game after taking three years off to finish my bachlor's degree and I decided I needed new armor.
I'm thinking rivited chain, but I understand there are special tools needed to make this. Does anyone happen to know what these tools are and where I can get them?

Thanks

Check out the following thread:

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... ille+tools

There are others, but this one seems to me to be quite comprehensive.

Also, check out the group "rivetedmaille" on Yahoogroups. I think that's the name of the group, at least. There's answers to virtually all of your questions there.

The person I know of who is of highest authority on riveted maille is Eric Schmid. That guy rocks.

If you have any specific questions, though there are better people to contact, feel free to contact me as I'm currently trying to make riveted maille myself, and could definitely help you out by telling you what NOT to do.

Also, as a final note, the best tool I've experienced for punching the hole in the overlap of links is the configuration CLANG and Doug Confere developed (http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... ille+tools) using an arbor press. Punching the overlap has been the most difficult part for me.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info.
I'll check them out.

Erik D. Schmid's site, Mail Research Society

A good many of are getting good results from grinding piercing drifts out of masonry nails, which are hard steel.

I flatten links in two steps, using very simple tools. I cut links and bash them with a heavy hammer (3-4 lb) held with the grip choked up right to the head to spare my wrist. Don't swing this heavy hammer for the thousands of blows required; your bones will tell you why not.

These preflattened cut links then get overlapped around a mandrel 1/16" smaller than the mandrel the links were first coiled around, to yield a 3/16" overlap of the ends which is about the right distance.

Back to the anvil or heavy steel plate to final flatten the overlaps, readying them for normalization and then piercing using the reground masonry nails.

Search function has been rather buggy and squirrellicated lately. Try running your searches one forum at a time.

here's how I do it.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Riveted ... m-Scratch/