i am working on making some maille to go on my helmet to make it look more relevant to my persona and i would like some expert advice from some of the AA vets that know more about maille than i do.
i am wanting to make a drape similar to this:
http://static.fastcommerce.com/content/ ... 5B1%5D.jpg
What are the pros and cons of using 14g steel vs. 16g steel like this:
16g on left and 14g on right.
which will last longer? look better? Ect...
Thanks!
p.s. this is my first attempt at maille so any and all advice is much appreciated.
Well, as those rings are butted, the only thing holding them together is the thickness of the wire in relation to the inner diameter.
Thinner wire of the same material will bend open more easily than thicker wire. I'd say 14g. for butted links. You could go down to 18g. if you flattened and rivited it.
"There is a tremendous amount of information in a picture, but getting at it is not a purely passive process. You have to work at it, but the more you work at it the easier it becomes." - Mac
If you are looking for relevancy and authenticity, butted maille is right out.
I could be wrong, but I believe it's either small gauge (about 6 mm inner diameter) round ring, riveted maille for pre-800s or flat ring, riveted maille (about 9 mm inner diameter).
Butted, round ring maille looks like butted maille. Period.
Cloth or leather covers often look better than butted maille (in my opinion, take that with a grain of salt). And they are much cheaper and easier to make.
Animal Weretiger wrote:You fight like a big puddin.
If you are going with butted then for it to hold together there is a ratio of thickness to ring diameter.
SCA-standard 14 guage butted is 3/8 diameter
if you go with 16 guage, it will have to be smaller ...but I am not sure how much.
If you are welding then this is a non issue.
Then you should definitely go with 16 guage. 14 guage, while it exists in period, is very thick for period - it is what some understand to be refered to as "double mail".
To disagree with Cisco - butted mail looks like mail. It is not as good as riveted but it is definitely better than an uncovered SCA-frame or cloth (unless you are trying to recreate the look of one of the few situations where cloth drapes were used)
And, I do not believe that the uniformity described ever existed.
Slender wire needs to stay in the smaller link Aspect Ratios for best durability. For 16 gauge SWG, use the smaller SCA-standard habitual link of 1/4". These "standards" aren't official, they are simply what we've found works best for butted homemade mail when hit with rattan. It needs a balance between a bit of slack and not being so large it gets easily bent.
AR4 to AR6 is a good range of wire diameter/link inner diameter to fall into. 14ga 3/8" comes out to AR5.6 iirc; 16ga 1/4" lands right on AR4, which smaller ratio favors the thinner wire. It also produces a finer, smoother mail fabric, very pretty.
Verukh, since you're welding, I hope you're not using galvanized wire. Vaporized zinc is noxious to breathe and will give you blinding headaches and even a twitch. You also need the right equipment to manage these teensy little welds. If you're gas welding, you want a jewelers' tip -- very small. Low gas consumption, anyway.
Links fastened can go right down to 18 gauge wire and finer. In history, wire of around that thickness was what was used anyway, and they had less to concern themselves about link AR.
Black annealed rebar tie wire welds readily and is not zinc-coated. Its thickness would suit 1/4" links. The downside is it rusts easily too. Wiping with oil and stowing your helm in a lightly oiled cloth bag helps with that.
The ten-foot difference in appearance between round-wire mail and flattened wire mail is first off in the highlights. Round wire links give a softer and more centralized highlight; flat links give a more fish-scale effect and bounce more light at you overall, so the highlights come brighter.
well if i use 3/8 rings of 14g wire, how well will they hold together if i do not weld them shut? how well will they stand up to a hit without coming apart?
Pretty well, really. Its heavier wire means it is a little less likely to grow moth holes, which is the just about universal failure mode. The sooner you re-weave any links that have come loose, the less time you'll spend maintaining your shirt. The SCA has been doing it that way for forty years plus now. While it's not the ultimate answer, it is at least an okay one. It'll hold you for a while.
